a cutie pie 1st birthday

After the success of our cupcake-themed 30th birthday party, and given that I naturally think my kid is the cutest ever and also that his sometimes-nickname is Henkie Pie (also occasionally Henkie Poo, but I'd better cut that out before he's old enough to remember), I decided months ago that we were going to celebrate his first birthday with a cutie pie theme.

We decided to hold it at the picnic shelter at our local park, which was perfect for having enough space and avoiding having to clean my house, but it also was great for the theme - because with the pie table, a picnic/BBQ vibe seemed the way to go with decor and food.

Blue gingham just says "picnic" of course, so that was the starting point for the color scheme by way of the table cloths, and for October orange is a great accent color, so I also decorated with pumpkins and mums. I came across the idea of using pie tins as plates on Pinterest, which was obviously perfect for my theme, so I brought in some galvanized/tin accents by serving the food in similar foil trays, using galvanized buckets to hold beverages and utensil packets, and making a foil cupcake liner garland.

For food, BBQ sandwiches fit the vibe and also worked out great because I could cook and shred the meat a day in advance (using this crock pot BBQ chicken recipe) to take some party-day pressure off. The rest was pretty low key BBQ fare: coleslaw (from Whole Foods), chips, a veggie tray, mac&cheese brought by one of our friends (thankfully - I didn't quite include enough little-kid fare - live and learn). For drinks we had some favorite local beer and hard cider, along with regular cider for the kiddos. And for favors, candy corn in little treat bags because (a) it fit the color scheme, (b) the shape fits the theme (like pie slices!), and (c) nobody can get enough of this stuff.

And the pies! I've never actually baked one and thought now was probably not the time to start, so I enlisted help from my dad, grandma, and the local bakery. They were all excellent. Last minute I decided to whip up a chocolate chip cookie "pie" for fear of running out of desserts, or little kids not really being into pie, and it turned out to be really yummy - so I didn't mind at all when we turned out to have plenty of leftovers. For display I made some little labels and then used fairly flat-topped pumpkins as impromptu cake stands (my mom's brilliant idea).

I owe many thanks to my mom for helping with food/supplies, my dad and grandma for baking, and all three of them plus my sister, her husband, and my brother for helping with day of setup and cleanup. And to all of the above along with our Cincinnati friends for coming to celebrate our cutie pie! We all had a great time.

And yes, a pie-themed party is just as popular with guests as a cupcake-themed one. FYI.

Sources/materials/recipes (though I didn't manage to get photos of everything set up, nor many photos of the party in action either!):
Invitations: designed by me and ordered as custom postcards from Zazzle
Pie tins as plates: Webstaurant Store
Wood utensils: Webstaurant Store
Napkins: Party City
Mini galvanized buckets: Target dollar section
Cutie pie stickers: graphic from Obaby photo app, printed onto sticker sheets and punched into circles
Dessert plates: Target
Favor bags: Target (with DIY stickers, filled with candy corn)
Garlands: triangle: DIY from this template, flag: Target, foil: DIY from this Pinspiration
Gingham table cloths: vinyl fabric from Joann Fabrics
Navy table cloths: Amazon.com
Pie labels: big clips from Target's dollar bins + labels printed by me
Crock pot BBQ chicken: made in advance from this recipe
Pies: chocolate raspberry (vegan): made by my dad from this book, blueberry: Frieda's Desserts in Madeira, coconut cream: Frieda's Bakery in Madeira, apple: made by my grandma, chocolate chip cookie: made by me from this recipe

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