twins’ party animals first birthday!

My two party animals partied HARD at their first birthday party earlier this month, and I am so excited to finally share some of the details with you!

As always, I have specific details linked for you throughout the post and at the end.

After scrolling Pinterest back in the winter, it was super clear the only true theme that matched their personalities would be “party animals”…and after I read the line “Toucan Party better than One” in regards to a twin birthday party, I was hooked! I knew that had to be their theme. It was difficult to find invitations and printouts to match that theme and the aesthetic I was looking for, so I ended up making their initiations, milestone boards, and other signage in Canva myself. You’d be surprised how difficult it is to find non-feminine toucan graphics, ha!

One of the most fun purchases I’ve made on Amazon lately has been these giant inflatable animals! I bought some party hats and added one to each. I placed them around the house and on the porch, and on some, I tied a few balloons around their tummies. The younger kids LOVED them, especially my boys, so just seeing them interact with the animals was enough for me!

They were super easy to inflate using a balloon pump-I tried blowing one up myself and it took longer than I had time for…the pump? Boom. 3 seconds and done!

For my daughter’s first birthday I made a hanging garland to showcase all of her monthly pictures, and I made it on my Cricut. For the boys, I wanted to do something different! I would use IKEA frames in my classroom during events such as Meet the Teacher or an Author showcase when I needed to have “stations”, and I always loved how the signage looked in those. IKEA has since updated their 4×6 white frames, and after adding some vinyl, these were perfect! Instead of their monthly pictures with their letterboard sign, I tried to pull pictures of daily life with them from that month. Seeing their whole first year of life displayed on our console really got me… babies don’t keep, especially with twins. This really was the fastest year of my life, and I tried so hard to absorb it all with all three of my angels! There’s something about seeing it all laid out that really captures the journey with all of the highs and lows of that first year.

For the food table, I actually kept it simple (and inexpensive) and focused on layers. I took a printed paper tablecloth and used a kraft paper roll as a runner. I sprinkled confetti on it (like a true party would have!) and then added these fantastic gold metallic animals. (I actually used these throughout the party: in the monthly pictures display, on the food table, in flower pots outside on the deck, etc.)

For food, I HAD to make the hummus lion since hummus is a staple in our household! We also had pizza and turkey/cheese rolls, a fruit alligator *credit goes to my hubby on that one*, chips, dip, cheese board, applesauce pouches for the littlest ones, zebra cakes, and of course, fudge covered animal cookies.

These lion plates by Rifle Paper Co were actually my whole inspiration for the party! I just fell in love with the aesthetic and the colors…and really, in my eyes, if you add metallic gold to something, it pretty much just makes everything better!

I purchased the boys’ smash cakes through Publix and added these adorable cake toppers I found on Etsy. Yes, they’re both already packaged nicely in the boys’ memory boxes.

The boys’ highchair banners were one of my favorite things at the party. I made the banner on my Cricut and added all different ribbons and trimmings to the sides. I love how they turned out!

My friend Megan from Hip Hip Hooray Creative Events waved her magic balloon wand and created the perfect backdrop for the boys’ highchairs!

We were blessed with gorgeous weather the day of the party. We had actually planned to have the party on Saturday, but moved it to Sunday for a few different reasons. Well, thank the good Lord above we did, because the day before was grey and cold-very unlike typical April weather where we live. The endless sunshine that Sunday though meant the party pretty much was outside the whole time except for when we did cake!

One of the best things I have spent money on in a long time was booking this soft play set-up through a local company Playful Adventures. Wow! We had children ages 1-8 at the party, and ALL of them played the entire time! I knew my active boys needed something fun “to do”, and renting this for their party was the best gift we could have given them I think!

Even after everyone was long gone, we got to have some good family time out on the mats before the company came to clean it up. Two enthusiastic thumbs up!

Lastly, we had to send our fellow party animals home with some treats! I filled these cute bags with their own party animal figurines that I found at Target back in February (a rare occurrence for me to actually go IN to Target!), some animal crackers, animal bubbles, and a jumping frog.

And there you have it. We ate, we played, and we are still finding orange sprinkles in random places! It truly is a JOY to celebrate the gifts of these children with family and friends. We are grateful for those who could carve out the time on a Sunday afternoon to celebrate our boys. A special shoutout goes to my husband- wow, what a year it has been, right? Three children, under four is no simple feat, and he helped me every step of the way!