Children are a heritage from the Lord,
offspring a reward from him.
Psalm 127:3
What a blessing it has been to celebrate Joshua’s first birthday. Now that he is taking his first steps I realize, once again, that time flies by and that every step he takes is another step towards his independence. For now, I just want to embrace his babyness and hold him as long as I can even if my back hurts and he decides biting my shoulder is the coolest hobby.
I know everybody says that first birthdays are more for the parents than for the kids but I can tell you that both Evan and Joshua have enjoyed their parties to the fullest and that we just love throwing parties. Evan’s first birthday was a big bash with a construction theme. His second birhtday was much smaller and we opted to celebrate Ka-Chow style with a Cars 2 party theme.
For Joshua’s first birthday we opted for a nautical theme. As soon as I started ‘pinteresting‘ ideas I got overwhelmed with the thought of not being able to get everything we needed here in Jakarta. I even considered getting a party planner, but it was too pricey and to be honest I love making things myself. So we endeavored in the planning and making of my baby’s birthday.
Disclaimer: Since I’m terrible at taking pictures of parties, some of the photos are really bad quality because they are from my phone. My very good friend Kaho from Chuzai Living was very kind to take some excellent pictures of the party and you will see her name credited under those really good pictures.
The Decor
Since the function room at our apartment building is overly ornate we didn’t want to overwhelm it with decor (besides I didn’t have the time or energy to do it). We had a few streamers, some banners, lots of balloons and some nautical toys to decorate. Part of the decor were an antique steering wheel set on a base and a cardboard boat which doubled as entertainment.
The Food Table (Image by Kaho)
Party Room
The Spread (Photo by Kaho)
The highlight of the decoration, and workload, was the paper party package I got from Totful memories. The colors and the theme were spot-on and the details looked very cute. My personal favorites were the water-bottle and chocolate labels and the personalized signs we used all over the party room.
Water bottle labels, chocolate labels and party hats
Water Bottles (Image by Kaho)
Gift and Favor Table
Banner (Image by Kaho)
Thanks to Oriental Trading we were able to pick up some cute sailor themed party plates, a banner, sailor hats, life-saver wall decorations, popcorn holders and colored streamers and balloons. We also bought some party favors and candy from them. For the party favors we chose miniature Chinese take-out boxes and we added a few candies (mostly for the parents of the babies), rubber duckies with pirate costumes and some silly bandz.
Favors (Image by Kaho)
To be honest I didn’t realize I had to make decorations for the tables so last minute I grabbed a couple of toy boats, some pipe-cleaner and just put them on the tables. We also had the party hats and the sailor hats so they didn’t look too empty.
Last minute table centerpieces (Image by Kaho)
Sailor Hats for the guests
The Food
Nothing too fancy but everything kid-friendly and fun. The main dishes were a shepherd’s pie and a vegetarian lasagna. We had a fruits and veggies as well as pretzels and popcorn to snack on. For dessert of course we had cupcakes, jello, a chocolate fountain with fruits and marshmallows and a candy bar that included blue-wrapped kisses, blue licorice, blueberry gummy sharks and red candy covered chocolates.
The very simple and often attacked by little fingers Cake (Image by Kaho)
Candy Bar
A couple of fun details were the blue jello with “sailboats” made out of oranges and popcorn cups that actually where the first to cease to exist.
The Entertainment
We usually like having (and making) pinatas at our parties but since we didn’t know if the apartment building would allow it we opted for a cardboard boat instead. Boy are we glad we did. It was the hit of the party and it was a lot of fun for the boys to “help” daddy make the boat out of cardboard boxes. I bought an old steering wheel at an antique shop and daddy set it on wood.
We made the boat and bought the steering wheel at an antique shop. Daddy set it on wood.
Fun playing with the boat
Family Pic
Since most of the kids were quite young we opted to put a playmat on the floor and my good friend Nazira let me borrow her son’s ball pit. For the older kids we set up coloring pages on a table and we had some of Evan’s toys available to them.
The play area (Photo by Kaho)
Ball Pit Fun
Coloring Table
Joaquin in the Tunnel
We also set up a sort of photobooth that both parents and kids enjoyed. It was a very simple plastic board frame that my friend Priscilla helped me decorate while she visited. We added a few fish in a net, rosettes and some party signs from the totful memories party package. We also set up the steering wheel for kids to take pictures with and it was quite popular. (In fact it still is)
With my good friend Maria.
Josh loved playing with the wheel.
Hey boy
Photobooth Props (Photo by Kaho)
A few pics….
We had a blast celebrating our Joshua and are very blessed to share his first birthday in Jakarta with all of you!
Captain Evan
After singing happy birthday
Josh was very grateful for all the cool presents.
Hey!
Picking the confetti up
The leftover disaster zone
The best helper
Stumble Abroad 
Great post! Great job on the party planning! You’re truly talented!! Thanks for using my photos.
Thank YOU Kaho for letting me use them!!! =)
Looks like you had a great party there! Did you plan the party by yourself or did you hire an event organizer?
Hi Nonadita! THanks! I did it all myself with the help of my amazing husband and friends! 😉
What an amazing party! I love the cardboard boat for the kids and the steering wheel, looks like so much fun! SO glad that you have so many wonderful pictures to capture all of your hard work and Joshua’s special day!
Thanks Dani! We had tons of fun getting everything ready. Time is just flying by!
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Oh wow! Looks like such a fun party — for both the niños y adultos! You are so DIY. Did you make the desserts also? Regardless, I am impressed with your skills. I love the photo booth idea also, how fun.
Thanks Natasha! We all had a great time! I made the desserts, too. The cake had a dulce de leche filling. It was yummy!
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Hi Ana, that was very inspiring 🙂
My name is Ay, live here in Jakarta.
I’m about to make a 1st birthday party for my son, next month.. Just wondering, if we buy those online design, what kind of paper did you used to print all the materials? or simply just bought all customer party supplies?
thank you..
oh, and happy birthday to Joshua! Cheers..
Hi Ay! Thanks for visiting! Happy birthday to your boy! I printed everything in Snappy. For the banners I used 230gram glossy cardboard. For the bottle and chocolate labels I used glossy 120 art paper. They also have sticker paper which could work for some of the things. Let me know if you have any more questions! Happy planning!
Whoaa, many thanks for the answers, Ana 🙂
*im about to wrote “customed”, it came out to customer* :s
Anyway, how come you can bought many stuff from “Oriental Trading”?
They dont have shipping service to Jakarta.
My husband got the stuff from oriental from the US. However, you are able find lots of cool things in glodok! I didn’t know about it until after I had gotten everything. I will go there next time.
Ana, that looks like a FUN party. Well done, Mama you threw a wonderful party too bad I missed it 🙂
Thanks Maureen! You’ll have to come to Evan’s party in February! I will send you the invite soon!
What a wonderful party with good food and amaze-balls decor!! You are my party hosting idol sweety!!!
Thanks for coming! You are an amazing hostess, too! When are we doing tea?
Thanks again for inviting us to such a wonderfully planned party. I forgot to ask you, when you had stuff printed out, did they die cut it for you or did you have to cut everything yourself?
Thank you! I cut everything myself! Well, couple of girlfriends helped me but we did it at home. I have some punches and a guillotine cutter but we spent a few hours on them over tea and fun conversation.
Hi Ana,
It was an eye candy to see your family effort to host such a cute party and your children will be very proud of you .
Hi Padmajas, Thank you so much for your sweet comments. We really enjoyed organizing the party for Joshua and later on for Evan.
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Great photos! I’m looking to build a boat for my son’s birthday- do you have any hints or plans?
Hi Meg, thanks for your nice comments! To be honest, we just played it by ear and started building it with whatever boxes we had available. First, decide whether you want to kids to be able to go in or not and then go from there. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just start putting the boxes together and have fun!
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Hello. Congratulations on an amazing party. Question. How did you make the letters for the photobooth? I am impressed. Also I only have a month to plan this party to you think that is enough time?
Hi Eunice! Thanks for your comments! For the letters I found a font I liked online, put the name in the size I liked, printed it on construction paper and cut it. Have fun planning your kiddo’s party!!! 🙂
Ohh and I definitely think it’s enough time. I planned Evan’s party in about two (very busy) weeks! Don’t worry! It will be awesome!
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Hi, I just stumbled upon your blog. I am planning a party myself and am desperate to find sailor hats (for adults) in Jakarta. Could you please email me and let me know where you found yours? They look great!
Dear Sarah, unfortunately I got my hats in the US and don’t know where to find them in Jakarta. I would give pasar majestic a try. They seem to have lots of party supplies. Otherwise, China Town also has tons of good party stuff. Enjoy your party!
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