Brady's Cookies & Milk Birthday Party {Part 1}

Disclaimer:  Overload of photos and I'm breaking this up into 2 posts because there is just so much to cover!  Enjoy!!

Saturday, December 8th we celebrated Brady turning one.  We decided to do it at the park here in our small town.  And since it was so close to Christmas, I knew I wanted Santa to be there.  So I had to find a balance between birthday and not too Christmasy.

So I decided on a cookies & milk theme!  Because what else goes with Santa and birthday fun?!

It was so much fun to put together and while the actual day seemed like a whirlwind, I think the birthday boy really enjoyed himself.

Which is all that matters!

We had chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, red velvet, peppermint swirl, iced shortbread and holiday circus animal cookies.  All were home made except the circus animal and iced shortbread cookies.

All cookies were placed in glass jars embellished with red/white ribbon and twine.  The iced cookies were displayed in an old plastic Coca-Cola crate, that I found in a junk pile on our street.

Instead of plates, guest used blue and white striped candy bags labeled "COOKIES" on them.  Perfect for the kids to fill up and run around without spilling them.

We also had chocolate and vanilla cupcakes for "birthday cake!"  I ordered the cupcakes from Sam's Club with red and white icing.  I added cupcakes toppers in shapes of cookies and old milk bottles with straws.  Those came from Party Parade on Etsy.  The cupcake toppers were one of my favorite things!  Great quality and oh so cute!!  I also added old fashioned peppermint sticks in a few since we had an insane amount of cakes.  60 to be exact.  Yes, we were eating cupcakes.for.days.  Ha!

 

It was such a WINDY day!  So everything was blowing around, everywhere!  On the back of the table were big Mason jars filled with cookie crisp that anchored balloons.  We had to tape them down to table so they wouldn't blow off, ha!

We set up a kind of sign in table as you came into the pavilion area.  On that table was a cookies for Santa plate, that was for our special guest, an old milk bottle filled with animal crackers, the party invitation framed, a dog you could sign, the basket of take home goodie (an iced shortbread cookie), and then a "B" and "1" covered in cookie crisp.

The invitation was also ordered off Etsy and printed at Office Max.  The cookies for Santa plate was given as Santa left, filled with cookies for a BIG thank you!

The smash cake was something I'd seen on another cookies and milk party on Pinterest.  My mom got the cake from the H-E-B bakery.  It was vanilla with buttercream and we added the cookies along the bottom.  We had plans of making him his smash cake but just ran out of time, but either way it turned out perfect and turns out he LOVED the cake!  As you can see for yourself in the pictures.



Shortly after the party started our special guest arrived...

 Ho, ho, ho!!!!

Greeting the kids (above) and then greeting the birthday boy.  Which I was worried it could go one or the other...but he loved Santa!  Actually reached for him so he could hold him.  My sweet boy!

 

Once Santa arrived, he took his seat by the Christmas tree and all the kids lined up to have their picture taken with him.  All the pictures will be mailed with the thank you cards as part of their thank you for coming to celebrate with us!

 Sweet cousins and friends.

 And the birthday boy!

The Christmas tree was already there as part of the city's Christmas display.  But I added party hats to one side and the other side was where Santa sat.  I decorated the side where he sat to look like the tree was fully decorated.  I also had all of his monthly pictures and his "first" pictures (like first bath, first smile, first food, etc) to go hang on a frame that had chicken wire behind it.  Well the wind was too bad so instead we just put all the pictures in the Christmas tree, on the same side as the hats.  I guess the picture below was taken before I put the photos on the tree.

 

We had the all the gifts put under the tree and I also wrapped some "faux" presents for under the tree.  Just big empty boxes I had collected so the tree wouldn't look so out of place.

Here's another picture of the main table.  And a few pictures of Brady and his friends.

As you can tell from everyone attire...it was 83* that day!  Hot & windy!  I guess better than cold & rainy??  Gotta love Texas weather.  I decided a hot chocolate bar would be a flop so I decided against it.

Birthday celebration part 2 coming up...