Circus Animal Cookie First Birthday Party

Ever since I was 9 months pregnant and had an intense craving for Circus Animal Cookies, I’ve had this fascination with those cute little cookies and even dressed my daughter up as one for her first Halloween! So what better theme than pink and white and sprinkles for her first birthday?!

I didn’t focus too much on the circus aspect of the party because, let’s face it, that’s been done before! But I did include a few circus/carnival elements like tickets on the tables and on these adorable confetti filled balloon wands! The invite was ticket shaped and there were tons of carnival games with prizes for the kids to play.

One of my favorite parts about the party was the time capsule we had where guests could guess what Stella would be like when she grows up! That will be such a fun activity when the time comes for her to read them. You can read more about that project and how to set up your own here.

Another favorite element was the garlands I made of her monthly photos. I made an effort to get a photo of her every month with the same blanket under her and blocks spelling out her age. I got them printed and strung them up for guests to see how much she had grown and changed in the first year of her life.

I had so much fun planning for this party and even more fun throwing it and experiencing it with friends and family! I love that this theme works so well for a girl but throw out most the pink and just focus on the white cookies for any gender! Or base it off the chocolate animal cookies or even the jungle ones for a party more fit for a boy!

You can find the DIYs for that rhino punch game, my animal cookie piñata, the fun animal cookie marquee light, the animal cookie plastic toys (seen on the table and on her cake), the animal cookie clay necklaces that we gave away as prizes, grab the free printable art seen behind the food table, free animal cookie clip art (perfect for making cupcake picks), and the DIY and free pattern for the sprinkle-y hats at our blog www.ajoyfulriot.com! Whew! I told you I had a little animal cookie obsession right!?

• What People Ate

  I made all the food animal or Stella-themed with a lion face of veggies, “elephant ear” fried bread and “peanut butter and Stelly” sandwiches.

• Desserts

  A cookie buffet table! A dozen different cookies so everyone could choose their favorite and little take away bags to bring them with you. I also made a polka dot surprise inside cake and covered it in sprinkles!

• Party Favors

  Baggies full of animal cookie cake batter popcorn with cute stickers from Tiny Prints

• Activities / Games

  Carnival games with tons of prizes including a punch game, a balloon pop, a bucket throw, sack racing, a pinata, a sucker pick game and the time capsule activity. We also had a cookie decorating table with tons of frosting and sprinkles for the kids to choose from!

• Lisa from Handcrafted Parties

  Decorations

  Lisa makes the cutest balloon wands, candy wands, mini pinatas and anything else party you can think of!

• Tiny Prints

  Printables

  Tiny Prints made the cutest invites and stickers that made the whole party cohesive and beautiful.