Our Airplane Birthday Party Theme - for our 1yr old

We celebrated my sons first birthday today and Airplanes were our theme. See a previous post with more ideas for an airplane theme, these are the ideas we used but there are more you could do!

Decorations:

I painted several little posters to hang throughout the house using old maps. I freehanded the airplane & letters as they are simple shapes to copy.

I bought some cheap foam glider airplanes and hung them in a grouping from the ceiling. I also hung some clouds my daughter had made (cloud shapes cut from cereal boxes and cotton balls glued on) (the Happy Birthday banner is one I made a few years ago from felt.)

I cut out airplane shapes and taped string on to create the Airplane Garland.

There were also other various airplane items out like a large floor puzzle that is a map of the world and a fabric basket made with airplane fabric that held some airplane themed books.

Loot Bags:
Aiplane Cookies, Airplane Soap, Airplane Stickers, Luggage Tage, Thank You card, and some candies.



The loot bags were put into a carryon bag beneath a sign (painted on an old map) labelled BAGGAGE CLAIM - Thank you for flying with us!

Soap - purchased airplane mold from etsy.com and bulk soap from Michaels Craft Store.

Luggage Tags - made them with scrapbooking supplies

Thank You Cards - the Birthday boy's handprints with the thank you message written over top.

*Any or all of these items could be purchased or handmade if you are the crafty sort.

I used old maps as tablecloths which made for easy clean up (GARBAGE!) and looked festive.

ACTIVITIES:

I put out a suitcase filled with airplane toys (many I owned and some I had borrowed). I had emptied the livingroom of the majority of toys usually kept there to keep the chaos to a minimum. Kids had free play for an hour. During that time there were also colouring pages if they wanted.

CAKE:

I couldnt find an airplane cake mold in our area so used 2 8" circle pans. One pan I freehand cut the airplane body and cut wings from the other cake. In retrospect should maybe have just used a 9x13 pan as much cake was not used. Its in the freezer and will be yummy to eat later.

My intent was to have the airplane cake sitting atop the 9x13 cake that was iced with Cool Whip & vanilla pudding mix that looked like fluffy clouds. I then had made a small banner to 'fly' behind the plane. Well my sizes were WAY off and it didnt work out. Oh well!