Reid's Cheerios Birthday

I had so much fun planning Reid's first birthday party recently. Even before he was born I was thinking about what fun it would be to have a pumpkin patch celebration for his first birthday since he'd be an October baby. The closer it got though, the more I thought that might not be the best idea after all for a one-year-old. So, instead of pumpkins, I went with something he absolutely adores - Cheerios!

The idea actually came from a cake that I spotted on Pinterest a couple years ago. (I think I might have even pinned it when planning Hadley's first birthday.) It was a little smash cake covered in Cheerios like this one:

The actual cake I made for Reid

When I stumbled upon it, I thought it was the cutest idea for a one-year-old's birthday cake and planned to use it for at least one of my kids' parties at some point down the line. But, recently when thinking about that adorable little cake, I asked myself, "Why not do a whole Cheerios themed party?" I knew these round shaped cereal bits were one of my boy's favorite foods, if not his very favorite, so we went with it. 

Some friends and family members commended me for this unique idea saying they'd never heard of a Cheerios themed party before, but as Ecclesiastes 1:9 says: "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." As I expected, Pinterest proved this to be true as I began a search for ideas. One of the first I found were these invitations linked to a page on Esty:

There weren't a ton of Cheerios party ideas compared to what there were when I was searching for Hadley's Hungry Caterpillar party or Caleb's construction one, but there were still some really cute finds. One blog I found in particular was full of wonderful homemade decorations that I could easily mimic. Boy did I ever borrow from that creative lady's post; as my sister-in-law commented: "The best ideas are stolen."

It took a lot of planning and work, but this was probably one of the funniest and cutest parties I've had the pleasure of doing for one of my kids. 

The Cheerios boxes stuffed with paper were a Pinterest idea while the black and white newborn shots were just a thought that popped into my head as I went.

From the Cheerios website, I found the design for this cake. I thought we might need it to supplement the mini cupcakes in the next pic.

Mini cupcakes with a Cheerio on top (another idea from Pinterest)

What good are Cheerios without any milk? These antique looking "milk bottles" are actually empty Starbucks Frappuccino containers -  Pinterest find!

This was one of my favorite borrowed ideas - a pennant banner made from cereal boxes. Several friends and family donated empty cardboard boxes to my cause to help with this project.

Just like the invitations, this poster image was an Etsy find. I had it printed by Vistaprints.

For the dinning room table, I also used a few black and white shots from Reid's newborn photo shoot.

Not all the decor centered on Cheerios though. A few things were just special first birthday touches.

Pinterest idea

I had so many pics leftover from the giant "1" shown above that I still wanted to put up somewhere. After a bit of brainstorming, I used some ribbon to hang several of them from the staircase. I loved looking at them so much that I left them up long after the party was over.

I used a combination of crafts I'd seen else where to come up with the idea for this "ONE" door hanger made with wooden letters and ribbon. Plus, I put some fall items on the porch because that's just part of the fun of an October party.

We didn't stick with the Cheerios theme for all the food items either, but I tried to have a few unique treats.

Doing a twist on traditional Rice Krispy treats, we used Cheerios instead. These were Amy and Lydia's department. 

Pinterest gave me the idea for Cheerios parfaits as well.

There was lots of other food too - hot dogs, pasta salad, fresh veggies, chips, etc.

Got milk? I threw this classic toy milk truck in the mix to liven up the table.

Also, note the cupcakes in the corner there. Since my nephew Luke is allergic to milk, eggs, and peanuts (among other things), I asked Amy if she'd whip up a few cupcakes with a special safe recipe she has for him and some other guests we'd invited with dairy limitations. They were a hit!

The kids played most of the morning while we got things ready that day before the guests arrived. At a few points though, we did resort to using the TV to keep them still and help us keep our sanity.

Then it was party time! NaNa arrived first followed by Granny shortly after. They got to play with the birthday boy and his siblings before everyone else showed up.

Dave made my sister a handkerchief for her wedding with some iron-ons my mom had purchased, so I asked if he could make Reid a shirt too with the Etsy image we had. I'm not great at formatting these kinds of things on the computer, but he is awesome and got it done for me.

Hadley already had a Cheerios shirt I found on a local yardsale Facebook page.

Reid was getting a little crazy before things got started.

He loves to climb.

The rest of the guests wandered in over the next half hour or so. I had baggies of dark chocolate Cheerios and plastic sewing needles threaded with yarn waiting for the little ones to do when they came in. It worked out threefold as a fun activity, a party favor, and a yummy treat to munch.

For only being two years old, I thought Hadley did a good job.

Even the bigger kids seemed to enjoy this activity. Thomas wasn't shy about trying it.

Taylor goes to the church we go to.

Reid was too small to make a necklace so we just got him a cup of O's to chomp.

Since the party was at lunch time, not long after it began, we let our guests dig in.

Reid cleaned his plate. I didn't realize the store bought pasta salad was spicy until after he'd already devoured it, but I guess he didn't mind. 

After they ate, a few of the girls played peekaboo with Reid while he was still in his chair. He thought it was hilarious.

Since Reid was already in his seat and messy, we opted to go straight for the cake after lunch. At first he wasn't quite sure what to think and slowly started picking the Cheerios out of the icing. I tried to show him how to dig in, but after a tiny bit of playing Reid just picked the whole thing up and flipped it on the floor for which he was rewarded with roars of laughter from the onlookers.

Showing him how it's done

There he goes!

And there IT goes! (The other kids' faces are priceless.)

It's alright, folks. I got a little left.

We cleaned up the floor and the boy before going outside for our games. On the deck, we had a swimming pool filled with Cheerios and sand toys waiting for the kids to play.

Dave almost suggested we forget about this idea I found on Pinterest because the wind was blowing and kept carrying the pool away, but between Keith, Dave and me, we finally figured out how to keep it grounded with some lounge chairs and a container of soup in the middle to weigh it down.

I'm so glad we didn't throw in the towel because Reid had so much fun.

Grandma Nora Ann jokingly commented about all those Cheerios being wasted, but I don't think they were poured out just in vain - not only was it entertaining for the kids, Reid was also double fisting them into his cute little mouth.

One "original" idea I had for the party was to make a pinata out of a Cheerios box. Dave thought I was nuts and again told me give up the idea because the box would be too strong, but I suggested we could weaken it maybe by making a perforated line with an X-ACTO knife. He humored me and gave it a shot, and thankfully it worked out perfectly. Every kid got a try, taking two swings each, and the final kid busted it all the way open!

Reid was up first.

Shortest to tallest the others lined up.

Hadley's turn

Nick's!

Caleb's! (What a face!)

Andy's

Anabella's

Hannah's

Lydia's

Luke's

Get it! I didn't put any candy in this pinata, but there were plenty of small favors to be had.

Truth be told, we didn't really have to have any games though. The kids entertained themselves pretty well with just the swingset and the train that passed by.

Finally it was time to open the gifts.

Reid loved the tool bench from NaNa and was distracted by it a good portion of the present opening time.

NaNa accessorizing with some Slinkies from the pinata.

From Granny

Reid also really liked playing with this xylophone from NaNa.

He was hard to shop for since we already have so many toys from his siblings, but I knew I wanted to get him this book. It is designed with small indented circular spaces to put Cheerios in order to complete the pictures throughout.

One of my mom's high school friends made this for Reid too.  A thoughtful and beautiful idea.

Most of the guests left shortly after the present opening was complete, but a few hung around a big longer.

Mr. Bobby did some dancing with the birthday boy.

This ball popper toy (along with a guitar my sister bought him and the toy bench) was a favorite by all the kids and continued to be that week. Our pastor's wife sure knows how to pick out gifts.

Poor Reid had to fight for a turn. Who's birthday is it anyway?

Though Reid's Illinois grandparents missed out on his party this year, they did send cards and some money for some yet to be decided gifts. He had fun opening Grandma Swan's card that night before bed.

The best part of this celebration was that I really felt like I got to enjoy my baby and our guests. Even having 37 of us in the house (plus a visit from Aunt Courtney later on when she got off from work), it wasn't chaotic as these things can some times be. Getting everything together was hectic at times, but when things got rolling, it was just a smooth, happy day centered on our precious little guy.