Kahea's First Birthday Party!

I really do adore this birthday party for Kahea. His mother, Lei, from Every Mom Has Her Day shares a beautiful story about the importance of your baby's first birthday! She writes on her blog, "A baby’s first birthday is a big deal. In Hawaii, where I was born and raised, a baby’s first birthday is an even bigger deal. A big party or lu’au is planned for the little one, where everyone, both family and friends, are invited to party, to eat, to drink, to laugh, to ‘talk story’, it’s a time for everyone to celebrate the baby’s life."

With tradition like that, it is touching that she chose Yo Gabba Gabba for Kahea's birthday theme!

Lei's husband created these amazing invitations. Lei says, "DJ Lance Rock’s style is reminiscent of a 1980 hip-hop style, my husband designed the 4×6 postcard birthday invitation to mimic an old school 1980s hip-hop flyer."

Front of invitation:

Back of invitation:

Kahea's Brobee cake was made by an Atlanta-based baker named Lisa!

Kahea got his very own smash cake, and Lei tells us this truly amusing story, "The birthday boy also had his very own ‘smash cake,’ and this was his very first time having cake, so he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it as he touched the ‘smash cake’ ever so gently."

Lei says she was inspired by others on Gabbafriends to create the centerpieces. She says, "...it was pretty easy to do. I painted the ceramic pot, then filled it with lollipop flowers. At the end of the party, I gave the lollipops and balloons to the little kids."

For the party favors, Lei used some of the Yo Gabba Gabba party favors available on Birthday Express to fill colorful sand pails for Kahea's guests.

Lei wrote about her banner, "The birthday banner, centerpieces, and homemade decor were fun but very time consuming, because I was also busy getting the house ready and gathering supplies. I found a very helpful birthday banner tutorial by mom blogger, Kathleen. The easy-to-follow directions with pictures to illustrate each step was extremely helpful and now I’ll have a banner to use every birthday."

For the decorations in the kitchen, Lei used the balloons from the Yo Gabba Gabba Basic Party Pack, also available at Birthday Express. She took them to the party store and paid to have them filled with helium. She then made sure the strings were long enough so that even Kahea's youngest guests could pull them down, if desired.

A ball pool for the children is such a great idea! For Kahea's guests, Lei set up the pool filled with balls off to the side with some toys to keep the young guests entertained!

If you notice Kahea's darling little Brobee onesie, Lei tells us all about it, "The onesie my son is wearing is custom-made by my husband. Brobee, the green monster, is holding a birthday cake, which is actually the birthday boy’s cake with a number one candle in it and on the back of the onesie has the number one with his name. My husband designed it in Adobe illustrator, printed it on transfer paper, then ironed it onto a white onesie."

Kahea's grandmother made for his party a cookie buffet! She decorated cookie jars with the Yo Gabba Gabba faces, then filled each jar with a different type of cookie. Yellow baggies were placed next to the jars for guests to fill them with the cookies of their choice!

Lei wrote on her blog about how much she really liked the party supplies from Birthday Express! She writes about them, "I loved all the colors of the decorations, especially the aqua utensils and tablecloth. The small-size utensils were perfect for little hands and the two-sided place mat allowed for coloring on the back side, which gave the kids something to do while waiting for the cake and ice cream."

Kahea's dad converted the Yo Gabba Gabba boombox pinata into a pull-string pinata--using just scotch tape and ribbons--to make it safe for even the littlest guests. The pinata was then filled with candy and baby spoons for big and little kids!

Thank you for sharing your wonderful party with us, Lei!

If you would like to learn more about this party, check out Lei's blog, Every Mom Has Her Day!