birthday party help

kaos16

I am planning my son's first birthday party.  I want to do an "ABCs and 123s" theme since his birthday is 1-23.  Ideas for décor?  I'm doing a cake shaped like a 1 and letter sugar cookies for the dessert.

sparklepants41

Ooooh this sounds cute!! How about alphabet blocks? You could use them for table decorations scattered here and there, and their design is simple enough that if you wanted to DIY something, you could make some larger ones...

Maybe stick to primary colors (and possibly green) for a color scheme?

LondonLisa

That's really cute! Maybe do those big inflatable letter balloons in bright colours. If you're doing flowers on tables, you can cut out ABC and 123 out of colour paper and put them on a kebab skewer in the arrangement. Also, alphabet bunting might work well. 

You could use cookie cutters to make letter and number shapes in different snacks in addition to cookies: fruit, tea sandwiches etc 

ei34

You may be eeking into a Sesame Street birthday party theme (which you may do in the future), but the official sessy address is 123 Sesame Street...I think they sell blank street signs that have the "123" logo on top, then you fill in your son's name, then street on the bottom, so it'll look like the party's address is "his street", while incorporating 123. 
Agreed that the Melissa & Doug letter and number blocks would make nice decor.  Food can double as decor too...when my twins turned one instead of a traditional crudité platter I put out separate platters of veggies, with the veggies arranged into the number one.  You could shape the carrots to look like 1, the cherry tomatoes into 2, the broccoli florets into 3, etc.  Happy 1st "mom" birthday to you!  

ETA: said twins don't always let me finish my thoughts here lol.  If you're doing the 12 months of birthday photos, they're usually strung across horizontally.  Maybe buy alphabet cutouts and loop them along with the photos, so you get a bit more of your letter theme in their with all of the number ideas we've given.

Jen4948

Do you have any other toys or books with letters on them, like Dr. Seuss items? 

MobKaz

Whenever possible, I try to incorporate actual items into my decor to justify my expenses and allow me to recycle.  I put together a shower that incorporated a similar theme. 

I purchased a lot of the wooden alphabet blocks, as well as magnet letters and numbers.  Some of the more inexpensive, "Dollar Store" variations were used as vase fillers.  I purchased several ABC books, from Dr. Seuss's ABC's to basic baby cardboard books.  I made simple appetizer/food signs such as "A is for Apples" and simply taped signs to skewers that identified the food item.  You can buy inexpensive wooden or other craft letters and numbers to add to decor.  The Dollar Store also sells a variety of "first" cards that would include alphabet and number themed cards.  You could laminate them for placemats.  You could line clear jars with them to use as decor.  You could make a trail mix using Alpha Bit cereal.  I can't think of the company, but similar to animal crackers, I know there is an alphabet cookie product on the market.  My Dollar Store also sells bulletin board trim with an alphabet theme.  You could use this to make faux frames to incorporate into decor.

If you know a teacher and her school has an Elison stencil cutter, see if you can use it to cut out letters and numbers to your hearts desire. 

kaos16

What great ideas!  So much stuff I simply didn't think of.

My mom is working on the cake, his name will be in letter blocks on the 1. 

@eileenrob I LOVE the idea of separate crudité shaped like numbers or letters, I will definitely do that.  I had no idea about the Sesame Street signs, I'll google them now.  My son's middle name is Lane, so he's kinda already a street. . . . that could be a cute pun.

@MobKaz I might check out the dollar store at lunch today to see what they have.  I'll make a list from your recommendations to take with me.  Our local dollar store isn't great, but if I go now, I'll have time to check elsewhere if I need to.  Alphabet cereal trail mix is such a fun idea.  I love it!  I'll look up recipes.

Has anyone made crayons before?  I wanted to make big chunky letter and number crayons for the favors for the kids.  It seems easy enough, especially if I start sooner rather than later.  Any other ideas to put into the favors?  I'm not interested in candy or sweets.  there should be maybe 4 or 5 kids aged 1-2, a 3.5 year old, an 8 year old and a 10 year old.

Thanks everyone!!!!

MobKaz

kaos16 said:

What great ideas!  So much stuff I simply didn't think of.

My mom is working on the cake, his name will be in letter blocks on the 1. 

@eileenrob I LOVE the idea of separate crudité shaped like numbers or letters, I will definitely do that.  I had no idea about the Sesame Street signs, I'll google them now.  My son's middle name is Lane, so he's kinda already a street. . . . that could be a cute pun.

@MobKaz I might check out the dollar store at lunch today to see what they have.  I'll make a list from your recommendations to take with me.  Our local dollar store isn't great, but if I go now, I'll have time to check elsewhere if I need to.  Alphabet cereal trail mix is such a fun idea.  I love it!  I'll look up recipes.

Has anyone made crayons before?  I wanted to make big chunky letter and number crayons for the favors for the kids.  It seems easy enough, especially if I start sooner rather than later.  Any other ideas to put into the favors?  I'm not interested in candy or sweets.  there should be maybe 4 or 5 kids aged 1-2, a 3.5 year old, an 8 year old and a 10 year old.

Thanks everyone!!!!

Don't forget to check out "the dollar spot" in your local Target store.  This catalogue is also great for ideas and inexpensive purchases in bulk....
http://www.orientaltrading.com/web/search/searchMain?Ntt=abc