Where the Wild Things Are! It's a party!

Hello Internet! I've had a wee bit of  blogging hiatus. The date of my last entry coincides with the beginning of my school year -- in my very busy world, I have to choose deliberately where my time is spent. Blogging disappeared for a bit; it was the easiest thing to abandon. I'm not sure if I'll be able to blog as much as I would like...but I do want to go back and retroactively put up some projects and parties. Since September, I have officiated a wedding (with my next officiant/day of wedding coordinator job in two weeks!), thrown some fun parties, traveled to Chicago with a baby, graded...oh, let's see: 400+ essays? (120 juniors, give or take a few, 4 formal essays assigned since September? And let's not get started on the journals.) Hosted a Halloween themed book club; a baby shower; finished the rough draft of some writing I've been working on for ages. It's been a busy, but productive, six months!

I'm enjoying my first year as Yearbook advisor. Our "End of the World" theme is, well, awesome. We asked the PE department: "Ability in what sport would prove the most valuable in the event of a zombie apocalypse?" Yes, we did.

So, that's what I've been up to!

However, it was Isaac's first birthday party that took up the last month or so of my life.

My baby is now entering toddlerhood. I love him so much.

Matt and I don't know if we are having any more kiddos -- a third is not out of the question, but at the moment we are liking the idea of just these two boys. And the older they get, we can see this hazy light at the end of a long and exhausting tunnel. Today, we think: No more. Next week? Who knows.

I went into Isaac's Where the Wild Things Are first birthday thinking  that this COULD be my last first birthday party! I know, I know. Really it was just an excuse to have fun without Matt on my case too much.

Now, in full disclosure -- there is no way I could have thrown this party without Pinterest. Really. When I think of all that the Internet has given me...I am forever indebted to this small addition to my life. A gathering place for all amazing ideas? Where was Pinterest when I threw Elliott's Hungry Caterpillar birthday??

Anyway, yes, it's true: I stole, borrowed, copied from greater party-throwers than I am. :-)

So, why this theme?

There is so much to work with with a Wild Things theme. Also, I love, love, love the Sendak book. I feel this urge to defend it against people who just think that Max is a pill. I'll save you the soap box, but I think this book represents the beauty of imagination and love in childhood.

Once I knew I wanted to start there, and after hitting up Pinterest for a long while, the party grew and grew.

Greeting our guests by the front door...

Entry with favors

Tissue poms are so versatile! 

I printed on the burlap with the font I downloaded...but after a few hours the ink had faded. So, I went over it in Sharpie -- which is fine, but I wasn't overjoyed about how it turned out.

A mural -- and a tissue pom forest for the dessert table. 

Isn't that artwork amazing??? 

Cake pops and suckers with Isaac is one stickers.

Our ebay score -- Max from McFarland toys as our cake topper. Bunting made from pages of the book. 

Lukas drew the picture of Max for Elliott's first birthday. Masks for the kiddos. 

Our food table -- chips in cool wooden bowls to fit with our theme. The boat!

Isaac's boat

Vertical "Watch me Grow" banner -- I ran out of wall space elsewhere...

Wild Water water bottle labels

Make your own Wild Thing craft table. Kids got to name them and provide all sorts of other fun information. 

Elliott was pretty excited about his Wild Thing

Pin the tail on Max

Tails with names on them

The birthday boy!!!!!!!!

I know, I know -- how cute is he?

Highchair bunting made from pages of the book.

A cake pop -- for his first foray in sugar, we thought this was better than a giant slab of cake. 

Well, that's most of it! I'll post some other projects from the party tomorrow and upload some PDFs for things too (the water bottle labels, the "Make Your Own Wild Thing" questionnaire for the back of the paper bags, blank tails, etc.) -- I'm a little sad that we didn't get a good picture of the canopy I made to go around the high chair; it was easy to make and a lot of fun. We didn't get a good picture of the food table either, but we put individual plastic cups with fruit in a cupcake stand and it was totally cute! 

And we had a basket filled with musical instruments, ribbon wands, and crowns for a "Wild Rumpus."

My mother-in-law made that adorable Max outfit for the birthday boy -- complete with tail and crown! (And did you get a good look at those clawed feet too??) I got the boys' matching Wild Rumpus shirts off of etsy from Lady Green Designs . The cake pops weren't a disaster, so I am happy with that. (I couldn't even bring myself to blog about the atrocity that was my Mother's Day cake pops.) The boat was repurposed from a student project on the book "Life of Pi." The tree stump cake-stand was funny -- of all the party things, that was the one feature that threatened to start a massive fight. 

Thanks to the following blogs for all your great ideas:

http://www.armelleblog.com/2010/04/where-wild-things-are-party.html

http://blog.hwtm.com/2011/03/bright-modern-wild-rumpus-birthday-party/

http://nikkiikkin.com/2012/02/15/my-party-featured-on-amy-atlas/

http://myrumpus.blogspot.com/

Shelbi