Lucia's Sweet Shoppe 1st Birthday Parties

For my daughter's birthday I thought it would be an adorable idea to have a Sweet Shoppe theme. Growing up planning birthday's with a theme was a must and so now that I have a daughter of my own, I am excited to do the same.

The idea came to me about 3 months ago.

I first started with the invitations and it just happened to be around the time that Seehere.com was offering 50 free photo cards and so I took the opportunity and that is where it all began. Well, actually that is not entirely true... Back in September I took a trip to the local CVS store to discover that they had two aisles full of party supplies on 90% off and it so happened that they had a lot of 1st birthday stuff which was awesome! The plates, napkins, goodie-bags, stickers and birthday hats had candy prints on them and that is when the idea clicked. I really wish I would have taken a picture of the plates...

During my CVS trip where I hit the jack-pot, I also found 1st birthday invitations... so, what I did was cut out the photo card and pasted it onto the invite to give it more color and Sweet Shoppe wording and attitude.

So, here is a picture showing the party hats that I purchased at CVS. The plates are the same print. I had also collected countless of lollipops and I used them as decoration both on the wall and on the centerpieces. These here on the wall were for Lucia's party at home. I later used the same lollipops for centerpieces for her big party which you will see a bit later. The lollipops wrapped in cellophane I made stapling two paper plates together, and then inserting a stick between the two paper plates, wrapping them in cellophane tying it off with curling ribbon. I was able to make around a dozen of these in different colors and it is waay cheaper using paper plates, then buying styro foam circles that cost up to five bucks a piece!

So... Lucia technically had 2 parties. One at our house, where her playmate friends came over and one back where family lives 3 hours away with family and friends. I was able to use much of what I had bought for both parties but on different scales. For this party, I made cupcakes instead of having cake, and as snacks, I had out small bags of pretzels, and Gerber Puffs, veggie-puffs, and dry snack food for the little ones. And for the bigger kids, I had popped bags of popcorn.

Now for the Piñata and the "Pin the Candle on the Cupcake" game! I instantly fell in love with these two items which I found on http://www.birthdayexpress.com/. Both were such great hits and adorable. What I love so much about the Piñata is that you pull on the string and one of them breaks the piñata open, which is awesome for little ones instead of handing them over a bat, and the pin the candle on the cupcake banner is great for future birthdays and for hanging up around the house as decoration for the birthday child!


Now, for the cute sign that I printed out and framed for the candy buffet. I wish I could take the credit for such a cute idea, but I borrowed it from http://hissyfitsphotography.com/blog/category/party-shoppe/ Be sure to check out her blog on her daughter's Sweet Shoppe party which was adorable! I also borrowed the wording for my daughter's invites. Along with the sign, I used my silver napkin holder and filled it with colorful paper bags for the guests to use at the candy buffet.

The peppermint candies that are attached to the frame were from a pack of Martha Steward place cards that I purchased at Michael's for 75% after Christmas sale!

Now, for my prize possession that I am so proud of! My Sweet Shoppe background. I put this together in a matter of two hours because I was so pumped! I bought a tri-fold science board, the heart foam hearts and the stickers all at Michaels. For the canopy top I purchased a big foam board and cut them out to form each panel and then I glued it to a piece of cardboard. The "OPEN" sign was made from real peppermint candies and I went online to print out coloring pages for the cupcake and candies that I glued to the background.

The bowls that I used to hold the candy were bought from Kohls. They had cupcakes and candy on them. Also, I had a framed picture of my daughter wearing her candy birthday outfit that reads, "My Little Cupcake" on the buffet table, also from Kohls.

I also made a birthday banner where I used peppermint candy wrapping paper that I had purchased from the Dollar Bin at Target during the holidays and then I covered paper plates with it. I then traced letters and numbers using pin and brown polka dot ribbon, glued them to the plates and connected them with ribbon.

Here is one more picture of decorations that I put up around our house for her at home party including the lollipops I made.

Now onto the favors for the kids. I had purchased the bags yet again thanks to the great Dollar Bin at Target and the goodies inside for the older kids was play dough, flavored lip balm, candy heart bracelet kits that you put together, pencils, and for the boys I had yo-yo's, stickers, bouncy balls and for the baby girl's I made lollipops out of baby leg warmers. I have seen examples of these made out of baby towels, but I thought I'd kick it up a notch. I was really happy with the way they turned out!

The candies that are attached to the favor bags were from the 99 cent store that I bought around the holiday's, they are Christmas ornaments. The place cards are the Martha Stewart peppermint place cards.

On the corner of the favor table you can sort of see one of the games that I made for the party. I used the peppermint wrapping paper to cover a Styrofoam square and I inserted three smaller sized lollipops and used cookie cutter shapes as the rings for the ring toss game.