The wild one! A safari-themed first birthday

Setting the scene
Our birthday boy Zac loves the zoo, so we thought “Why not bring a little bit of the zoo to Zac?”. A simple savanna theme easily came together with metres of hessian, some greenery from our hedge clippings and as many plastic animals as our local discount stores could provide. Wild animal decorations and props are easy to come across, in a wide array of bright colours, but we chose to keep the tones muted. The neutral colour scheme was great to work with and provided good backgrounds for photography – photos being essential, as Zac won’t actually remember the occasion!

Finger food
Thinking about what one-year-olds like to eat (anything they can grip with their chubby fingers and shove in their mouth!), we kept the menu simple: sandwiches, plain cookies and fruit kebabs. We filled sippy cups with milk and we were done.

Nibbles were available for adult guests to help themselves to, and a spectacular cake made by local cake-maker Meg Rabbidge from MegR Cakes provided more than just a feast for the eyes.

Let them eat cake
What is a birthday without cake? And seeing as this might be your baby’s first taste of the good stuff, why not make it an event? We served Zac the top of his two-tier birthday cake – for fun and photo opportunities, to be honest. Our advice for a cake smash – do it outside. And perhaps offer just a cupcake!

Takeaways
One-year-olds do not need a goodie bag but some sort of party favour is nice as a memento. We made these sweet little animal jars and filled them with animal pasta. Multi-functional, nutritious and not a lollipop or plastic trumpet in sight!