One of my favorite times of day with my daughter is story time before bed. We both love to snuggle on her chair and read some great books. There are so many books in her collection that are new to me (Pinkalicious!!) and yet so many classics like Brown Bear Brown Bear. This is one of my favorite books and we were thrilled at the idea of designing a party around this wonderful theme. Color is very important to the Brown Bear story. Each animal is a bright, bold color that children can relate to and remember. We started our design process with a fabulous dessert table. I found this amazing Brown Bear fabric on Etsy and it was the perfect base for the dessert table. Two bright yellow 36" balloons were anchored on each side of our table. Custom colored tassels from One Stylish Party were made to attach to each balloon, corresponding to all of the colors in the book. We love how these small blue OLIVER balloons looked hung up behind the table. White modern trays from Poppin were the perfect size and depth to be filled with different color jelly beans - This created the base for some delicious treats like cupcakes, cookies and candies.  To add height on the table, we also filled glass cubes with colored jelly beans to put underneath the trays in the back row. Each animal was from the story was represented on the table.  Our amazing sweets girl Angela from Making that Cake carved all of these gorgeous animals out of sugar. Can you even believe how amazing they are? We were blown away! For the cake, I loved the way Angela incorporated each animal while still keeping it relatively simple and classic. With all of these sweets, we also included some colorful fruit kabobs for guests to nibble on once they had their sugar intake for the day! Kraft take-home containers were displayed so guests could take a gorgeous cupcake or treat home with them after the party. We recently launched Little Miss Party in a Box and our Birthday Box was the perfect addition to this party! The colorful paper goods work so well with any themed party, especially a colorful one like this. In addition to tableware and cutlery, we set up the kids table complete with party hat, personalized water bottle and felt animal masks for each child. Brown Bear themed blocks were scattered around the table for the little ones to play with and a lucite tray was filled with small containers of goldfish in case anyone needed a snack before lunch. We styled additional 36" confetti balloons with matching tassels around the room, anchored in glass cubes we filled with white jelly beans. Along the bar we set up white wooden frames with pictures of Oliver throughout his first year. Pictures are always an important part of a 1st birthday celebration as kids grow and change so dramatically in that first year! The favors for this party were some of the best we've ever done. The older kids got a Brown Bear puzzle and the younger kids received a Lollacup in the shape of a red bird. Each favor was wrapped up with a clear box of animal crackers with a personalized sticker, ribbon and yellow mini honeycomb.  A Thank you tag was attached to each that read "That you BEARY much for coming to my party!" I had extra Brown Bear fabric so I laid it on the table beneath the favors and it was the perfect way to tie it all together.To keep the kids entertained we brought in Penny and the Puppettes who always do an amazing job with the little ones! Their 45 min show keeps them engaged and loving every second! We set out foam mats on the floor along with a bunch of Duplo blocks for the kids to play with.  It looks like the adults had just as much fun as the kids! Happy First Birthday Oliver, thank you for letting us share your special day !!!

All gorgeous photos courtesy of Cindy Johnson