Moose Camp

Leading up to Kade’s first birthday I knew a few things….

1) First Birthdays are for the parents… I say I knew it but I had to keep telling myself this so I didn’t get carried away!

2) I wanted to incorporate buffalo plaid and

3) I was going to keep his party small due to the time of year and the fact that our schedules were a bit crazy to throw a massive party.

~ theme ~

Luckily buffalo plaid is still very trendy so there was no shortage of items to find. However I wanted Kade’s party to be a little more unique than a few of the popular themes: Woodland, Lumberjack and Wild One. Along with the plaid, I wanted his party to lean more toward hunting than lumberjack and was planning on serving some wild game.

that’s when ” M O O S E C A M P” was born

~ the invite ~

In true Kristi fashion, I tried to tackle as much as I could for Kade’s party, starting with the invite! His party was quickly approaching and I was nowhere near where I planned to be in the process, so I decided to take a day off work in order to get caught up. Well… of my long list of things to do that day {and night} all I accomplished was the invite. The dang thing took me all day! Like NINE hours!!!! I am self admittedly a perfectionist, which was a major part of the problem. I think I created about 17 different options for his invite before finally deciding to be done.

For the Moose Camp themed invite I purchased/downloaded woodland animals and alphabet letters from Etsy. {I have done this multiple times before, including my baby shower, so I was able to use some clip art from then too.} My favorite detail of the invite is along the edges you can see I notched out the month and date of Kade’s party like you would on a hunting tag when you harvest an animal. I also ghosted the date in the trees too for those who may not have noticed the hunting tag detail. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to print and mail his invitations so I saved it as a PDF and emailed it to our friends and family.

~ guest list ~

We kept our guest list very small, basically immediate family and a few friends. All in about twenty guests. In my mind I think a twenty person first birthday party is small but my hubby might disagree. I had grandiose plans of converting our house into a lodge and making it a unique experience for each guest. I had to settle on what my husband deemed “over the top” plans. However, I was still able to convert our family room into the main eating area and create custom seating cards for our guests.

~ menu ~

We kept the menu pretty simple and even though is was simple there was no way I was going to get it all done by myself!! {especially since I don’t cook!} Beyond my husband, I enlisted the help of my amazing Momma and she made the delicious chili, acorns, birch logs and s’mores on a stick!

Moose Meatballs

Moose Meat Bread Puffs

Veggies, Chips & Dip

Chili and all the Fixins

Corn Bread

S’mores on a Stick

Acorns

Birch Logs

and CAKE!

~ decor ~

Here is where I really needed the help and brought in some amazing craft artists to assist!

First, I knew I wanted farm style seating in our family room where we have the stone wall to replicate a hunting lodge. We used two outdoor plastic tables that I covered with flannel buffalo plaid fabric I turned into a table cloth. With the additional flannel fabric my Mother-In-Law cut out flannel napkins. I used napkin rings I already owned and ordered wood log place holders. Additionally, I used wood utensils left over from my baby shower and bought twenty ivory plates from the Dollar Tree. Yup, that’s right… I could have easily spent over $20 on paper plates and napkins so I chose to buy the plates and make the napkins so I can use them over and over again. However, there are plenty of affordable options for ordering buffalo plaid party items which I have linked for you!

My husband made Kade a wood sign with nails that said Moose Camp that he brought to life with red and black yarn. I had black K A D E letters from Kade’s Newborn pictures that I used, as well as the wooden O N E letters from his birthday pictures.

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Additionally, I worked with Rustic Rosebud Designs to create a custom First Birthday Poster for Kade. Lindsey has so many wonderful templates, I chose the buffalo plaid one of course and Lindsey was able to add the Moose antlers and tracks for us! Lindsay created a downloadable file and then friends of mine at Acer Exhibits printed them for me.

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Itty Bits Designs had made custom K A D E letters for his ONE year old pictures and they worked perfectly for his party too! We set them up at the photo prop table!

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Hannah B Handmade helped us with the perfect party decor! We had

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y K A D E and W E L C O M E T O M O O S E C AM P

banners, numbers for the year of Kade photos on the pallet, and party confetti!! I love that we can save these and use them again in the future!

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When you first walk into our home you are greeted by a two story foyer where we hung the “Welcome to Moose Camp” banner and a foyer table which served as the dessert and favor table.

We worked with Cynthia from Cakes by Cynthia to create Kade’s birthday cakes… a smash cake and one for the guests. We displayed them front and center with the pallet photo art and other yummy desserts around.

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We turned our living room into the play room and the bar room into the gift area. Where we had the “Kade” banner the wood O N E, some extra decor, and Kade’s big surprise; his Veer Cruiser filled with some other gifts.

I also ordered a #1 balloon and two buffalo plaid balloons for the birthday boy’s chair. Extra decor was mostly what we had around the house, moose books, pine cones, moose stuffed animals, wood, buffalo plaid sleigh, and lots of pictures of Kade!

~ favors ~

I had been saving Kade’s Beechnut food jars to use as favors for his party. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do with them but ultimately decided on s’mores shooters. I stuffed each jar with cinnamon toast crunch, mini marshmallow, and mini chocolate chips. Cut small squares of the flannel buffalo plaid fabric, laid one square on top of each jar, tied off with twine, a thank you and the favors were complete!

~ photos ~

Of course, Kade’s Aunties {Sandi and Meg} were there to celebrate with him! Unfortunately, Jes wasn’t able to make it since she is living in AZ now, but we did FaceTime her in for Kade’s birthday cake and singing! Meg, with the help of her hubby, was there capturing all the little details and fun moments of the day! It started to snow in the early evening and she suggested we pop out quick for a couple cute pics and I’m sure glad we did! Love these so much and it will certainly be one first birthday to remember!

Even though this part was for us {my husband and I}, I hope Kade looks back on these beautiful photos one day and thinks good thoughts of how much he is loved!

If you are planning a party or a first birthday party and need some help let me know! I would love to help! If you are looking for some DIY ideas I hope you found some inspiration from Kade’s party and here are links to all the wonderful folks and items that helped me pull it all together!