Lottie’s First Birthday: Lemonade Stand Party Ideas

When life gives you lemons, Have a party!

This is exactly what we did. We celebrated Lottie’s first birthday this past weekend with a fun lemonade theme. We decided to put burgers on the grill and lemonade in your cup!

My favorite part of the party? The adorable lemonade stand that Josh built for her. This was a great party prop that will also be used every summer when we sell lemonade and sweets together in the neighborhood. He built this with two crates and some wood, I will put together a tutorial soon on the blog if you are interested in making your own.

Balloons are the best decorations at a kid’s birthday, and instead of getting the normal size balloons, I went big! I ordered 36 inch balloons from Amazon and had my local Party City blow them up. Warning these balloons are HUGE so be prepared with a big car when you send someone to pick them up.

So big her and I both easily could hide behind one!

 Let’s get to the party pics and details already!

I ordered clear cups with lids from Amazon and found these happy paper straws at Hobby Lobby. I left out a sharpie for everyone to write their name on their cups, you know how easy it is to put your cup down and forget which one is yours at a party. I wanted to customize the cups so I created a sticker at Vistaprint for Lottie’s Lemonade using one of their basic templates and uploading a lemon graphic.

I prepared two flavored lemonades: Sparkling Ginger Lemonade and Strawberry Mint Lemonade. I also added regular lemonade and cucumber water with lots of fresh fruits cut up to infuse extra flavor (and make them so much cuter) into the lemonade.

 Our Food Menu:

• Hamburgers
• Brats
• Baked Beans in the crock pot
• Mac n Cheese in the crock pot
• Chinese Cabbage Salad
• Pasta Salad
• Fresh Fruit
• Artichoke Dip made from Greek Yogurt
• Peanut Butter and Jelly Bites
• 

We went a little overboard on the desserts. My sweet tooth took over and before we knew it we had an entire table of sugary goodness (Sorry parents of the children who attended!).

Dessert Table:

• Lemonade Cupcakes – I used this recipe
• Pretzels, Goldfish and White Cheddar Skinny Pop
• White Chocolate Covered Pretzels
• Lemon Bars
• Funfetti Dip (this makes a lot of dip, don’t feel the urge to double or triple it!)
• Powdered Donuts (because who doesn’t love a powdered donut)
  

 

I kept all of the adult drinks completely separate from the lemonade so there was no mix up. We did offer wine, beer and sweet tea lemonade mojitos for the adults.

You’ll notice there are signs everywhere. I like to label the food and help direct where you can find things around the house. For example in the photo below I typed out instructions for how to use our coffee maker. It’s simple, but adding in specific directions helps take out any error or confusion for your guests. 

Above our fireplace we displayed her monthly photos and photo books I have made for her over the year. We had a video playing on repeat on the TV of a compilation of videos we have taken over the year which I have already watched 100 million times. It amazes me how quickly these little ones grow up and how quickly they learn things.

I designated a place for gifts so when your guests come in they will have a clear place to go. I added a short thank you note to everyone and placed it on the table, because I am forever greatful to the friends and family I am surrounded with and think you can’t say thank you enough!

With 16+ babies in one house I knew we would need a diaper changing station. Most parents will come prepared with their own diaper bags, but it’s always a good idea to provide an area the parents can go to and comfortably change their babies. I had size 3 diapers, sanitizer, lotion, diaper cream and wipes and brought down my changing mat and diaper pail from her nursery. This table was one of the most used tables during the day. I want to keep the kids busy so I set up numerous stations around the house.

In our morning room I had an artist station set up with crayons and paper for the older kids to draw on.  In the family room we had toys for the babies to roll around on the floor with. Outside we had a water table and slide set up and our backyard for the older kids to run off some energy.

And then there was cake!

I made her smash cake with funfetti cake mix and pink icing. I considered making one of the healthy no-sugar cakes, but she didn’t eat enough of the cake or icing for it to matter and a little sugar never hurt anyone. This is not her normal snack and on her birthday why not spoil her a little bit 🙂

 

When a baby has 40 people staring at her she is going to be overwhelmed so I never expect much for the cake smash during a first birthday party. Some babies bury their heads in the cake and some barely touch it. I made her another smash cake a few weeks earlier and we did our own photo session where she got more into the cake because she was less distracted.

If your baby does dive face first into the cake I would suggest having a change of clothes and bath ready to dunk them in. Pre designate a grandma or aunt to help with this, you will want someone to be responsible because as the host you will want to stay with your guests downstairs.

I  made this very easy high chair tutu (tutorial on the blog soon!) with pink and gold tulle. I cut out the pink banner and used gold glitter stickers for the One sign.

And in the end the babies played!

Our family room was the main play area, and boy did these babies play! Most of the parents and babies hung out in here and it was fun! These babies were all over the place. Plan for a mess. You don’t invite this many babies into your house and expect it to be clean by the end.

Shoes.

So, this is a small detail but something you will want to think about. It might seem ridiculous to ask 40+ people to take off their shoes at the door, but for her first birthday we did. Why you ask?

At an adult-only party no one is crawling on the floor or eating everything they find laying around. If you have 40 people dragging in dirt, mulch and who knows what on their shoes and walking all over the carpet those 16 babies are going to find and eat it all. To keep the floors clean so the babies can roll around we opted to keep the shoes at the door.

 Thanks for joining us at Lottie’s lemonade stand party – until next year!