Greyson's Teddy Bear Picnic

We celebrated Grey's birthday on August 24th which was a bit after his birthday, but in order to have some of our family there that was the best weekend to do it. Since I had Greyson, he's developed the nickname "brother bear" or sometimes just "brother" and I wish I had some awesome reason why but I just don't. Do y'all have things you call your children too? We used to call Kennedy "doodlebug" and we've called her "sister" too. Again, I don't have some special origin for these terms of endearment, they've just happened so when trying to develop Grey's party "theme" Brother Bear was our first "go to". Like any other Mom, the first thing I did after deciding we were going to go with bears was I type it into Google and a large returning theme was "Teddy Bear Picnic". When I first started rolling around the idea of running with Teddy Bear Picnic I wasn't too sure because it's not the most masculine thing ever but I figured we'd make it our own and it would be cute. Here are some of our Teddy Bear Picnic Details: 

The invite: I purchased a PDF off of Etsy and printed my own invitations at home - it was so super cheap and easy and I love how they turned out.  

The party attendees were Nana and Pawpaw, Honey and Big Jim, Aunt Lissa, Uncle Steve, The D man and baby E, Aunt Catina and Catherine Page - so thankful we're close enough to have so many loved ones at our family celebrations! 

 I'm all about running with a good theme, so when I saw this sweet little downloadable t-shirt transfer design on Etsy I couldn't refuse for $5! 

 Completely utilizing the picnic theme, we laid out picnic blankets, set up our gazebo tent and lit the tiki torches for a fun filled evening in the yard. 

 One of my most favorite parts of party planning: deciding on, planning out and making the  desserts. 

 Go ahead and make fun of me and yes they were time consuming - but look how adorable they are! I loved these little guys so very much and they were delicious! I originally was planning to make little teddy bear race cars which are all over the internet but then my mind started running with different chocolates that could help me tie it in to our theme a bit better and this is what I came up with. Yes - this was all my imagination: I promise. Listen, with chocolate as my motivation I can accomplish great things. Ha!

 These are peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate butter cream frosting, garnished with chocolate and peanut butter chips. The cupcakes were amazing but the icing was just ok. I found these cupcake toppers and the other matching printables you'll see online for FREE! 

 S'mores pops - my mother in law took on this creative project and although they ended up being a bit of a headache they turned out darling. 

 This little guy was perched atop our picnic basket on top of the table where the food was to be served and sadly I failed to take a picture once our spread was out but we had burgers and dogs, dip with roasted corn, avocado and cherry tomatoes (amazing), grilled herb butter corn, Asian cole slaw and watermelon. 

 Always so much fun to see how much they grow and change over a year. 

 Little cubs coloring corner - notice Kennedy's party decor hanging on the closet door. 

 Another decorative item compliments of Kennedy: "Enter here. Play. Eat. Hooray, the birthday boy is here. My brother is turning one." Simply precious. 

 

 

 As my sister Melissa would say - Greyson took his cupcake "to the face". 

 Seriously

 Greyson got some fun boy books, an airplane toy, a truck that he was ABOUT, some 529 contributions, some clothes, a sweet little mini but big boy utensil set and of course super thoughtful cards. 

 Our attempts for a family photo were comical (as usual)...at this point Grey had stained his shirt and the girls had ditched their party attire choosing instead to don their ballet outfits...excuse Kennedy's removal of said ballet outfit from her rear in this picture. 

 Mommy and the birthday boy: 

 The party was so much fun and Grey seemed to eat up all the special attention. I'm still in disbelief that he's a year old, but the fact that he's now walking all over the place is making it sink in a bit more each day.