It’s hard to believe my baby is already 1 year old, as it seems like he was born just the other day! We wanted to have a special celebration for Jack’s 1st birthday, so I spent the weeks leading up to it planning and preparing for the big day. I think this particular birthday seemed like such a big deal to me because it was not only a celebration of Jack’s life so far, but also the fact that James and I have somehow survived being parents for a year now. :-) We have enjoyed every bit of it so far (even the lack of sleep and pure exhaustion at the end of every day), and can’t wait to see how much more fun this next year will be!

I decided to go with a nautical theme, which helped me narrow down my ideas and pinpoint a few key things to make or buy. I of course put together a board on Pinterest to store all of my ideas (SO handy). I made the turquoise and white pom poms out of tissue paper, following a tutorial I found here. The pennant banner was a combination of a few free printables I found on Pinterest, colored paper, and twine. I originally wanted to get a blue and white striped fabric to use as the backdrop for the food table, but had no luck finding exactly what I was looking for, so James put together one out of streamers, which I think turned out super cute.

Perhaps the thing that I am most proud of making is THE CAKE!! When I saw this blue ombre cake tutorial on Pinterest, I just knew that was what I was going to attempt to make. I say “attempt” because I am by NO means a baker. I cook on a nightly basis, but baking, not so much (not that I don’t love baked goods, I just try not to eat them so regularly). I think this actually may be the second cake I’ve ever even made! I used this cake recipe for the four layers and a variation of the cream cheese frosting recipe that I found here (basically I made the recipe, then added more cream cheese to my taste). I then placed some brown sugar around the edges of the cake for the sand (don’t you see the ocean waves crashing into the sand???).

We decided to go with custom cookies from Two Smart Cookies as favors for our party guests. DELICIOUS!

Jack’s mini cake was just a smaller version of the big one. It worked out perfectly when I messed up the first cake layer of the main one (didn’t grease and flour the pan enough) to cut out a smaller cake and piece it together with the frosting. During the whole cake making process my motto became, YOU CAN FIX EVERYTHING WITH FROSTING!

I found these super cute printables on Amazon that fit perfectly with our theme. The set came with decor for straw toppers, drink labels, a party banner, cupcake toppers, gift tags, and cutlery wraps. I simply printed them out on cardstock and then cut them out (I also glued the cupcake toppers on construction paper and then cut around with fancy scissors). JUST CALL ME MARTHA STEWART.

I could not wait to cut in the cake to see if all of my hard work had paid off or not. Fortunately for my competitive self, it did. High five for the home team!

We put some food coloring in the lemonade to make it “seawater.” ;-)

I may or may not have gone slightly overboard with the nautical theme when it came to the food. I mean, I was really trying to coordinate here. We had fish bait (sour gummy worms), goldfish, Swedish fish, lifesaver rings (lifesaver mints), and shell salad (pasta salad). Couldn’t think of a cool name for the finger sandwiches, but I had a craving for them, so that was that.

We displayed Jack’s monthly photos from his first year– so cool to see his growth from being a newborn until now! I found the blue lighthouse at Goodwill and the wooden Jack sign at our local consignment store (already had his name on it and everything!). The other decor we already owned.

And what nautical party would be complete without a sailor?? SO PRECIOUS.

I found the sailor outfit on ebay and the nautical bib from a super cute shop on etsy. The owners of the etsy shop have been kind enough to share a discount code with my readers to take 20% off any order until March 31 (just use the code JENNA20)! They makes adorable custom bibs, bow ties, car seat covers, etc. Go here to check them out!

We had so much fun celebrating Jack’s birthday with a few of our family and friends!

Nautical bib  |  Kimmalee on etsy (use code JENNA20 to take 20% your order until March 31)

Sailor outfit  |  gigiclassykids on ebay

Nautical cookie favors  |  Two Smart Cookies

Nautical party printables  |  Amazon