Wild One First Birthday Party

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We recently hosted a jungle-themed, “Wild One” first birthday party for our son. I picked this theme because he’s definitely a little wild, and the jungle/animal theme was perfect for him. It’s funny how much of a production I wanted our daughter’s first birthday to be, but we also still lived in Florida where all of our friends and family were. Moving across the country kind of limits your friend circle, so I figured a small, low-key birthday would be best. And yes, that was hard for the party planner in me to do, but it really was so easy and stress-free to put together, and the kids had a great time. I got most of the decor off Amazon (linked throughout and at the end of the post), and we had family in town, so they helped us get all the food ready. Here are some pics and details!

It’s not a party without cake

He LOVED his cake! As I expected… he has his mom’s sweet tooth. Ha! I made him a little funfetti smash cake, and did an ombre green/mint icing on it and stuck a golden “1” candle on top. And then I also made funfetti cupcakes for everyone else to enjoy. They were topped with a buttercream icing that I bought at the bakery at our grocery store. It’s pretty inexpensive to buy, easier than making it, and pipes much better than the canned icing. I stuck these little wild animal cupcake toothpicks in the cupcakes to fit the theme.

I originally was just going to make a little banner for his highchair, but I found this one on Amazon, and thought it was perfect. It wouldn’t have cost much less if I had to buy the materials to make it myself anyways. And for our dining table, I threw this leafy tablecloth on it and called it a day for the decorations.

Wild jungle decor

I kept the decor very simple because it wasn’t a big party and I didn’t want to stress over it since we had family in town that week and we’re out exploring each day they were here. The balloon garland was the main focal point, and it was perfect over our buffet that had a taco bar setup on it. The set I’ve linked from Amazon came with the balloons for the garland, the gold foil WILD ONE balloons, as well as some green streamer rolls, string to hang the balloons, and a balloon hand pump. Don’t forget to buy some balloon tape to put the garland together easily.

I would highly recommend investing in an electric balloon pump, like this one, if you have young children or know that you’ll be using balloons for parties in the future. My balloon pump is my best friend for party planning, and it makes making balloon garlands SO easy! I can put together a 10ft balloon garland in less than 20min using my balloon pump to inflate them. If you wanted to do a little bit more decor than I did, these animal balloons would be perfect to have filled with helium and put around the party. These hanging swirl decorations would also be a nice addition. And these animal masks would be fun to have for all the kids (and adults) to wear around during the party.

My first “boy” party

It was so fun celebrating our little man’s first birthday! Especially since we didn’t do any kind of shower or sprinkle when I was pregnant with him because we moved right after finding out I was pregnant. So this was my first “boy” party I got to throw. You can see some more “girly” parties we’ve had, like my daughter’s baby shower here and my bridal tea party here.

Here’s an easy breakdown of all the supplies I purchased for our jungle-themed, “Wild One” first birthday party: