Cooper's Yacht Club

It’s hard to believe that our baby is one!  We celebrated Cooper’s birthday with our families here in Texas.  It was the first time for our families to come to visit so we were so excited.  The theme for the party was “Cooper’s Yacht Club.”  It was such a fun theme to work with.  We love nautical here at the Braden house. 

I made the door wreath using twine and a wreath form I got at Hobby Lobby.  I purchased the metal form, which made it a lot more time consuming.  I will definitely purchase the foam wreaths in the future.

All of the paper décor from the party came from this wonderful Etsy shop called GiggleBees.

This is a shot of our formal dining room where we opened presents and ate cupcakes. Table linens make such a big impact and really help to carry your theme throughout your home.  I like to purchase fabric instead of using plain table cloths.  For this party, I layered light blue gingham, solid navy, and a red and white stripe fabric throughout.  I opted for pin wheels over the table versus the ever popular lanterns.  I thought they were a little more masculine. I wrapped the canvas painting over the buffet in a coordinating striped wrapping paper.  I've been "borrowing" this idea from a friend of mine during Christmas for a few years now.  I decided to wrap this painting last minute and am so glad I did.  It really helps to complete the decor.

 

We scattered pictures of some of our favorite moments of Cooper’s first year throughout the house.  I absolutely loved our invitations we purchased from Megan Adair Designs.

  

I opted to do homemade cupcakes.  Thanks to the help of my beautiful mother and dad (yes he helped ice a batch) the cupcakes turned out awesome!  They were the BEST cupcakes I have ever eaten!  Here are the recipes for the cupcakes and the icing.  Do yourself a favor and make them :)

Pendant banners are all over Pinterest and Etsy.  I decided to take on the task of making it myself.  It was pretty simple.  The hardest part was hand sewing the pendants to the twine.  I have taken a picture every month since Cooper was born of him sitting in the same chair in his room.  We fastened the pictures to the banner with a clothes pin and used the banner to display the photos.  Everyone loved seeing Cooper change and grow through the pictures.

Of course Gaga, Grandpa, Nana, and Pops came to celebrate Cooper!  He loved showing everyone he was 1!

We were so excited BAM and Walter (yes, Walter is her new nickname thanks to Chuck) came to the party!  Cooper loved them especially because they snuck him some cupcake icing early.

This is right before Cooper ate his cupcake. At first he would just dip his finger in the icing, but after a few bites he started shoveling it in.

“Let’s Rock Elmo” was the MVP of the party.  He literally lit up when he opened it.  We love Elmo! Thanks Aunt Mado!

When we finished opening presents he put them all inside his new wagon and daddy took him for a ride around the house.

And for the grand finale Cooper finally got to go for a swim in his new pirate pool from Gaga, Grandpa, and Aunt Moo.  He had been staring at it all day in the backyard so he was definitely ready for a swim.

You can see more pictures of the party on my Facebook Album Cooper’s Yacht Club.  It was such a great day spent with the people we love the most to us.  We love you Cooper Ty Braden!