Nolan's Mustache Bash!

I looked around at a bunch of different themes for Nolan's first birthday party, and finally settled on the "Mustache Bash" theme.  I know it has been around for a while, but I thought it was so cute and couldn't resist all of the cute mustache "puns."  Hello - I am a dork.

Besides, we all know that it's inevitable with the Maldonado genes that Nolan will have a mustache by the age of three, so we found it fitting :)

I initially decided that I wanted to order everything off of Etsy and call it done.  But, after looking at the price and wanting to put my blood, sweat and tears into everything for him - I decided to make it all on my own ;)  It actually wasn't that hard to do, and I love the craft punchers I bought - I have already used them since, so they were a great investment!

Saturday was the most gorgeous day, and we couldn't have asked for better weather.  It was a bit windy, but all of the balloons stayed in place, so we were good.

Even though most people came in through the backyard, I made a welcome sign for the front door anyway (just in case people forgot why they were coming over)!

 

We also had a sign over the favor table - I bought the font online, and I really think it made the whole look!

 

We pretty much focused the decorations in the dining room and kitchen.  It was pretty easy to decorate the dining room since it was empty aside from the buffet and the table!  I am really happy with how it turned out - I got the fabric just to make it look a little more pulled together, and loved decorating the columns - I see lots of ideas for these guys in the future!

 

The food was yummy, and came together really quickly thanks to help from "G."  We had a mustache-inspired "Man"-U of course, complete with manwiches, bowtie pasta salad, spinach and "goat-tee" salad, and studmuffins (the cupcakes of course).

 

 

 

I died when I saw these mustache toothpicks, and the cheese cubes fit perfectly on them.  I also made the cupcake toppers (thanks to my craft punches), and even though they were made from a box mix, they were yummy!

We decided to just do a small cake this time around, since it seems like no one ever eats cake and we had cupcakes.  We got the cake from a bakery in Clayton, but I made the topper since they didn't do fondant work.  We just subbed out his "1" candle for the "smashing."  I will never forget the panic attack I had when the blue icing stained our skin and we had a bright blue handprint on the bottom of the bathtub - thankfully, it came out, but not without a LOT of scrubbing!

Nolan wasn't really feeling his cake, which didn't surprise me at all.  Besides having 30 people staring at him, he is kinda weird about stuff on his hands, and doesn't really like finger foods anyway, so I didn't expect too much here!  Poor baby just wimpered and/or cried for the few short minutes we kept him in his highchair to take pictures.  I bet next year will be a whole different story!

 

 

Once we got him all cleaned up and fed, he was in a much better mood so we have a great rest of the afternoon.  Daddy even put up a pinata in the back yard (complete with mustache).

 

 

Ollie and G got him an awesome wagon, and Nolan took lots of trips up and down the driveway.  He even did some "off-roading," which gave me a heart attack, but he loved.  Seems like all the men in the family are still kids and wanted to try out the "ATW" part of the wagon!

 

 

Nani and Papa got him a backpack for hiking, and when Paige put him in it, he loved it!  I can't wait to get outside and travel with him and let him [hopefully] learn to love the outdoors.

 



 

It was just the most special day celebrating our little guy, and we have some wonderful memories with family and friends to cherish forever.  We love you, Nolan and Happy Birthday!