Oh the places Caleb will go! For her son’s Dol celebration, Cindy created a beautiful & whimsical Modern Dr. Seuss First Birthday inspired by the Seuss classic “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!“. This party is filled with sweet, sentimental touches… how cute is the idea of a “Book Buffet?! I read this book to my own daughter a few times a week, and have always thought it would make for the sweetest baby shower or birthday party inspiration, so it’s especially fun to see how Cindy brought it to life here!

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Cute and whimsical Seuss inspired program & stationery elements
• White manzanita branch “yarn ball trees”
• An amazing book buffet for guests to browse and take home their favorites as favors!
• Painted jars for pops of color
• An adorable yellow custom doll & lots more…

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Cindy…

Caleb’s first birthday party was inspired by the book, Oh the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss. The book has such an inspiring, meaningful message that I knew I wanted to relay those messages to Caleb. Color palette was prompted by the the book’s illustrations and consisted of purple, yellow (Lakers also happens to be this family’s team), turquoise and accents of hot pink. Balloons and stripes were also used throughout the decor and stationery.

Venue was at the Pretend City Children’s Museum in Irvine, CA, which is a fabulous non-profit educational institution. The museum’s mission is to reach out to the community and promote a fun, learning experience for children. As a psychotherapist who worked in a non-profit organization for infant mental health/development, I knew this was the perfect venue! The staff at the museum was AMAZING and I could not have asked for a more organized, enthusiastic and dedicated team.

Head Table

Yarn, which symbolizes prosperity and long life, was used all throughout the head table. White manzanita trees were blossomed with yellow buds made out of mini styrofoam balls and yarn. In lieu of fruits that are traditionally laid out in vases, I used styrofoam covered yarn balls for a more modern look. Stands were made out of candlesticks (The Dollar Tree) and wooden plaques (Michaels), which were painted with white acrylic. I had some yellow vintage books, which were used to display yarn wrapped kraft letters (Joann’s). I always have some white linens on hand (Wal-Mart), which perfectly created a blank canvas to showcase the bright colors. Cake topper was a custom paperweight doll from lilsprinkles (cutest shop specializing in custom dolls made with sisterly love). Our coordinator on the day of brought the PVC pipes to hang the silk dupioni panels for the backdrop.

Centerpieces

There were two types of centerpieces. I had some round vases, so I filled them with yarn balls and had black/white striped straws from Shop Sweet Lulu with a “reserved for family” sign to resemble the flags in the book. For the second type, I painted bottles I had at home with turquoise acrylic tied with pink yarn. I used wool roving (Joann’s) and floral wire (Michael’s) to make flowers that resembled billy buttons.

Book Buffet

What better favors for Caleb’s friends than books for his book inspired birthday party? We had a book buffet set up with tote bags (Target). Each book had a label that read “from Caleb” on one side with a quote from Dr. Seuss, “The more you read, the more you know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.” “Caleb is 1” was on the spine of each book.

Doljabi

• For Korean first birthdays, the birthday boy/girl is encouraged to choose one item, which symbolizes what he/she will be in the future.
• We had 5 items: yarn (long, prosperous life), toothbrush (dentist like daddy/grandpas), money (wealth), book (scholar), and ball (athlete).
• I used baby food jars painted in lavender acrylic for guests to place a raffle ticket based on what they believed Caleb will choose.
• Caleb chose a book, so 4 random guests’ raffle tickets were selected from the scholar jar and gifted with a Target gift card.

Photo Table

This was the first table guests saw as they walked into the museum, so we wanted to display pictures of Caleb along with a framed invitation, as well as the book. Shutters were painted with turquoise acrylic and hair clips were used to hang the pictures. A custom doll to resemble Caleb in a yellow jumpsuit was made by lilsprinkles. The doll was inspired by the invitation with a rabbit ear hat since Caleb was born in the year of the rabbit. A welcome sign greeted guests as they walked into the museum.

Snack Table

We wanted to make sure Caleb’s friends had food to eat, so we had Plum Organics in mini suitcases (Land of Nod) with spoons and a sign.

Coffee Station

We had a coffee/dessert station with two Keurig machines with assortment of tea, coffee and hot chocolate. Mini cupcakes and cookies were also displayed.