Chiso is ONE!

who's Chiso? our son! his full name is Munachiso which means 'God and I are accompanying each other'.

however he's not getting another party until he's 5. joking:) i really did have fun and tried to be as creative as possible. i had no idea how i was going to pull this off 'alone', and i was completely intimidated from the jump. all i knew was that i wanted it to look and be amazing... just had no clue how to do that and it literally haunted me. yes. a party for a 1 yr old sometimes kept me up at night.

first things first- a gigantic THANK YOU to my vendors: God, my mom and aunt Hazel, Parchment by Dami, jvincentphotography, Yongs Bakery, Etsy.com, Oriental Trading, Hobby Lobby, Walmart, Party City, Pinterest, and good ol' Google. a heartfelt thank you to all who joined us on Chiso's big day. read on!

*invitations*

let's give it up for Dami!! *whistles* all bias aside, these 3-D invitations are incredibly cool and original. after filling her in on my theme, i sat back and let her do her thing like i knew she would. i was uber pleased and got so much great, positive feedback on these puppies. look!

she used 3 different safari animals for the front cover.

inside the invite:

she then wrapped each one in giraffe printed ribbon paper and tied it with raffia.

she is simply excellent at what she does. Parchment by Dami - you NEED her.

*decor*

my etsy.com and oriental trading stuff (water labels, cupcake wrappers, cupcake toppers, banners, etc.) arrived two weeks before party time and guess what- i started setting up two weeks before party time. yes, i did. Sonny hit me with the 'are you really about to have the house lookin' crazy for the next two weeks' face when he got home from work that day.

*themed table*

here is a really, really rough draft shot of the table. ground zero. rock bottom. no direction whatsoever. i.e. 'now what?'

this was a true PROCESS! trial and error at it's finest. however, i was pretty satisfied with the end result.

proud moment: putting on the finishing touches about 30 min. before go time. Sonny told me i could do it myself and i gave him so much crap about purposely not helping me. darn you Sonny and your reverse psychology!!!! seriously though, thank you. we're still not friends.

the french fries were in the oven at this point- that's the only thing missing (see the empty shot glasses on the right). here are a few close-ups though:

jungle animal plates. apparently these have been at Walmart for forever. never knew! they were perfect though.

party agua.

mothers cookies. i happened to walk right by them in Walmart and the word safari caught my eye. or was it jungle? idk, but they were shaped like wild animals. delicious, sweet, crispy wild animals.

fast food fries. kids love fries.

i made sure to have something for everybody. the little bitty babies and the toddlers munched on Gerber Graduate snacks and goldfish.

skewered rainbow fruit.

cupcakes from Yong's Bakery. some were buttercream cake/icing and some were chocolate by special request;) my zebra cakes would NOT stay put...they kept sliding down the skewers cause they were too heavy. the show must go on!

i saw 50 bajillion cupcake toppers on etsy.com and went with these.

remember these from our super bowl party? buffalo chicken bites (or poppers) were in the house and back by popular demand. i only used Captain Crunch cereal this time though, no Corn Flakes. the sweetness just works better.

mini pizzas- kids love pizza.

veggie shots! i hope people had as much fun eating these as i did making them. i did half humus and half ranch for dipping and used a combo of sugar snap peas, carrots, and red/yellow bell pepper. ignore that 'happy easter' egg plate back there, hahahahaha

side shot.

there was more stuff in the kitchen- the adult food, (shrimp fried rice and grilled chicken wings courtesy of my dear mother-in-law:), drinks and snacks.

'diabetes in a cup', smh. also known as, Jungle Juice. no idea where my tent card went though, oh well.

kettle corn! i made the holders from zebra and giraffe printed scrap-book paper from hobby lobby. i then wrapped this big styrofoam box that our sprinklers came in with dressing paper and poked holes in it so they would stand on their own.

thanks for the idea, Dami- she is overflowing with them!!

who knows or cares where this recipe originated, but kudos to Pinterest for these cake batter rice krispy treats. too sweet for anybody's good but you just can't stop eating them, grrrrrrrrrr

'thanks for going wild with me!'

-Chiso

jungle sucker favors.almost cut up my debit card after visiting etsy.com. yes, everything MUST match!!! try not to get crazy though. promise me.

activities for the kids... blank jungle animal masks to color and wear, bubble sticks, and frisbees.

we also had a 'spiderman' *side-eye* moonwalk outside.

'what...is...this...place.....'

(i had to change Chiso's clothes cause things got a little crazy after the smash cake part)

speaking of smash cake- that's the moment i we were all waiting for!!!!

i'll say it again- this is the BEST buttercream cake/icing combo on this earth. waiting for someone to prove me wrong! unfortunately i accept all challenges.