As most parents can attest, time sure does fly, especially during those precious first years. So to slow things down for just a day, Tania, owner of Tania’s Design Studio, styled & DIYed this adorable “Time Flies” Airplane Themed 1st Birthday for her son.

I am especially loving all of the retro details, like the LIFE Magazine save the date & mini, old-school bomber jacket & pilot’s hat for the birthday boy. :) And if you’re as enamored by those propeller pops as we are, keep reading for instructions on how Tania put them together!

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• In-flight beverage cart with baggies of trail mix, vintage bottles of Coke & ‘Air Mail’ cookies
• Plane ticket invitation & retro striped pinwheels + photo banners & sewn cloud backdrops
• Cloud topped cupcakes, cloud frosted cake with plane topper & a glitter ‘1’ candle on the smash cake
• DIY piñata, airplane toss game & Baggage Claim party favors

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Tania…

Wow, this year flew by! When I started thinking about the theme for my youngest son’s birthday, all that came to mind was “My oh my, how time flies!” It has been nothing but pleasure watching this little man grow and I really wanted to make his first birthday special as I am pretty sure it will be my last first birthday celebration. Bittersweet, but mostly sweet :)

The ‘propeller pops’ are marshmallows dipped in melted red chocolate wafers. I then rolled some fondant and stamped out some tear shaped ‘propellers.’ Finishing them with some red M&M’s brought the treat to life! 

The LIFE magazine cover was the first thing I designed in this party package and it was sent as a ‘save the date’ to the guests. 

I had so much fun customizing every detail of this part and many of the “in service” food items were also sent home as party favors! 

I used an IKEA rolling tray as the “in service cart” which was filled with the party favors: snack mix, sugar cookies by a sweet friend Shereen of The Sugar Tree, water bottles, chocolate bars and of course the napkin and utensils! The suitcase sugar cookie design was inspired by the original art by Hello Baked.

At the end of the day all the little pint sized guests were sent to the “luggage claim” to pick up their favor bags!