Teddy Bear Party

This week I'm featuring my nephew's 1st birthday party we had for him 5 years ago. Keep in mind I had an original digital camera, so the pictures are not the greatest quality! We chose teddy bears using chocolate brown and teal because who doesn't love that color combination?! Again, we used many budget-friendly ideas in keeping with our theme.

Many of the decorations were inspired by Martha Stewart. I used many of Martha's ideas from her monkey party and translated them into a teddy bear theme. Instead of having all plain helium balloons, I made some into bears by gluing ears and a face onto the balloons using very thin paper. I remember thinking I should have used something more sturdy like cardstock for the ears since they kept flopping over. However, you don't want to use paper too heavy or it might weigh down the balloon. I made paper chain bears decorating the welcome gate. For each table, I placed large candle in a glass vase surrounded by coffee beans-great scent, coordinating colors, and inexpensive! You may remember my love for Chinese lanterns, which all started with this party. For the cups, I made them into bears as well by gluing ears and a face onto each plain cup.

Many of the food items also kept with the teddy bear theme. I used the blue muffin liners (from the grocery store) and filled them with Teddy Grahams-great for little hands. I made a blue punch which sat next to my teddy bear cups. I had silver galvanized tubs filled with ice for the drinks. I used a teddy bear cookie cutter for peanut butter sandwiches and for the iced cookies. I wrapped the silverware in teal napkins tied with brown polka bows for dinner and placed the cake forks and napkins in a glass vase next to the bear cake. I labeled the food using teddy bear clips which I made with cut-out teddy bears glued onto clothes pins. I decorated these bears with teal ears, paws, and a bow.

You could also make this into a baby shower party. This was definitely a fun party to plan and host for my special nephew. I love parties, especially when you can find ways to save money and still make it just as you envision!

I'll be linking up with these parties this week, so check out their great ideas! Thanks for visiting us!

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Radio Flyer Birthday Party

Hi, all. I'm Amy and the newest guest on Lemon Tree Creations. Like these other amazing ladies, I wear many hats: wife, mother, speech therapist, organizer, planner, sometimes creating-but always dreaming of what to create. I am a novice when it comes to blogging, so bare with me while I ease into this world. I love to plan parties and see how many of my ideas I can create on a budget. My sweet husband always laughs as I'm typically planning the next birthday party at least a year in advance!

On that note, my first post is my son Will's 1st birthday a few years back. I chose Radio Flyer wagons because, to me, they represent all that little boys are about: fun, fast, and classic. Plus, I found a wagon sweater at Gymboree that would fit him at his first birthday, so I knew I had to use it!


Being on a budget, I was on a mission to find inexpensive items that I could transform into party decorations. I borrowed several wagons to prop around our backyard. I used one larger wagon with a sign saying "Thank You" to hold Will's gifts. This made it easy to pull the gift wagon out into the yard for him to open his presents. Before the gift opening, we took a picture of Will inside the wagon filled with presents to print out later as part of his thank you note. I found various sizes of red and white Chinese lanterns online for about $1.00-$4.00 each. I hung them at varying lengths from white canopy tents that I borrowed from our church. For the silverware, I wrapped the knife, fork, and spoon in a red napkin and tied with a gingham ribbon, so each person could just grab a set along with his/her plate. The centerpiece was a small Radio Flyer wagon that held 2 potted pansies. Each table had a glass cylinder with red apples (since his birthday was in September), but you could very easily use other seasonal red items (cherries, holly berries, Christmas ball ornaments, pomegranates, small red toy cars/trucks, red blocks, red toy balls). As for the goodie bags, I filled them with the following: a drink coaster with a picture of Will and his party guest sitting in a wooden wagon that I ordered from a photo printing company, a "W" shaped cookie with red royal icing that I made and placed in clear cellophane bags tied with gingham ribbon, a Radio Flyer coloring page, and a box of crayons.


For the sign, I was inspired by Tiffany's happy birthday sign for her daughter's 1st birthday. I chose 4 designs of scrapbook paper that were versatile enough to coordinate with the wagon party as well as could be used for other future parties. I used my friend's Cricut machine (love that machine!) to cut out 4 inch letters in red and the bold-faced version in white as a background. I laminated each rectangle so little fingers wouldn't tear the sign! Then I strung the rectangles together using twine and hung it on the gate of our fence. You could also use fishing wire, ribbon, Christmas lights, or pretty much anything you having lying around.


Since I knew there would be lots of little ones running around, I wanted to make sure we had age-appropriate activities. As I mentioned, we had several wagons around. Many thanks to the dads who took the kids on rides around our yard. Will received a Radio Flyer tricycle which was a hit with the older kids since his feet couldn't quite touch the ground at that point. We also put out mini tunnels which I had found at a garage sale (don't you love the treasures you can find!) along with the standard hula hoops and balls. I'm pretty sure most of the kids slept well that night!


This party was truly one of my favorites. You could easily use Radio Flyer wagons for a baby shower as well. I'm linking to these fun parties this week so you can check out other amazing ideas. Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back in 2 weeks with another fun project.

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