We celebrated Lincoln’s 1st birthday party on Saturday with a Twinkle Twinkle Little Star themed party. I fell in love with the star idea while rocking Linc to sleep in his room – there have been glow in the dark stars on his ceiling since we bought the house. Plus I don’t think it’s a stretch to say he is a sparkly, twinkly baby personality-wise. He’s my little star.

You can check out my Lincoln’s First Birthday Pinterest board for a lot of the recipes and inspiration for all my ideas. I’m putting the post after a jump so all 2 bazillion photos aren’t on the front page for the next month…

My mom cut a star out of a cardboard box and then sprinkled flour in the stencil to make stars on the front lawn. She said the trick was to have Caroline stand on the stencil to make the edges clear.

The sign is inspired by his invitations (ordered from OhHappinessCards, I just had her change the colors to blue).

Instagram prints from the PostalPix app.

I set up a mini photo shoot for Linc last week with his birthday shirt and a sparkly background, then had the photos printed as decoration. His cute onesie is from Sky Lynn Clips on Etsy, who was GREAT to work with, even though I changed my mind several times.

Banner from the $1 spot at Target

Glow bracelets, star glasses, noisemakers, and star tattoos as favors

Glitter wands from Oriental Trading

A summer party meant no one even saw my indoor decorations because they were all in the back yard, but I was pretty proud of them.

I made the banner with craft paper and a gold Sharpie. The star was on clearance at Michael’s Crafts (85% off!)

Even the tape holding up the banner is glittery.

I didn’t go TOO crazy with my themed food this time – usually I make up place cards with funny names for everything to match the party. This time I just made everything star-shaped and called it good.

We had the buffet on our NEW dining room table that E made. He’s very (understandably) proud of it.

I’m not even allowed to have a party without cucumber sandwiches.

Apple and Cheddar Tea Sandwiches

I made the cake from a box (but used 3 full eggs, milk instead of water, and melted butter instead of oil) and it was delicious.

The frosting is cream cheese and I spray painted it to look like “outer space” with some edible cake spray paint. Plus tiny sugar sparkle gold stars.

Ordered from Amazon, because ain’t nobody got time for homemade moon pies.

More store-bought baked goods. But they’re on theme, so we’re good.

I made the cheddar star crackers and the cheese ball, which was a hit.

Tiny star blueberries pies that I made with blueberries the kids picked.

Banana-Nutella dip with pie crust stars. I had a TON left over, but it was seriously addictive.

We had “sparkling” blue lemonade and a SUNdae bar with our cake and ice cream.

We also had watermelon star fruit kabobs, but apparently I didn’t take a real picture. Evan loved the punch.

The ice cream was popular.

I’m REALLY proud of how well the cake worked out. If you’ve seen my party posts before, cake is not my strong suit.

I had this laying around to make the perfect monthly photo display.

More PostalPix prints on the back door.

Sparkling sodas, water and little barrels of sugar water for the kids to drink.

Champagne and beer for the grown ups.

Please note that Caroline has a star dress (from eBay) and that thing on the chair behind her is my star ring sling (from Tula).

The big kids had a super good time. These are Evan’s besties since he was 4 months old.

I bought this bounce house from BlastZone. It has proven to be a really good purchase (but I can’t find it on the site anymore to link it directly).

Linc got a bubble machine for his birthday.

Pinata time! I realize a pinata at a 1 year old birthday is sort of silly, but all his friends are of pinata-appreciation age.

The pinata was stuffed with Milky Ways, Starlight Mints, and Starbursts. I LOVE A THEME.

We had a brief but torrential downpour in the middle of the afternoon, which forced us inside to do cake and ice cream.

Linc LOVED his smash cake, but he tried to grab the lit candle and then cried when E took it away. That is why he has such sad eyes in these photos.

He really liked the singing.

I made the smash cake in an empty can so it would be baby-sized. He ate the whole thing. And then stole chips from one of his guests.

It was a super fun party for the birthday boy and for his very lucky sister and brother who got to hang out with all their friends…plus eat a LOT of leftover Moon Pies.

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I REALLY loved the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star theme and it was nice to pick something that was easy to find and execute. I didn’t end up with a TON of party stuff left over either, besides maybe a dozen pairs of star glasses.

Thank you SO MUCH to all our friends who helped us celebrate. And extra big thanks to my friend Amanda for bringing guacamole, my parents and my in-laws for doing 90% of the party day prep. Without them we wouldn’t have had star-shaped tortilla chips OR star-shaped fruit and the party would have been ruined. Thank you thank you!

Tags: 1st birthday, first birthday, lincoln turns 1, parties, party, party decorations, party food, party planning, star 1st birthday, star birthday, twinkle twinkle little star, twinkle twinkle star party