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A Picnic fit for a Baby Bear

Heather Johnston

Shortly after our second son Oliver was born, my mother-in-law, Jennifer, started calling him
“Ollie Bear”. Suffice to say, this cute new nickname stuck, and so when I was deciding on a theme for his upcoming first birthday - naturally, a bear themed party felt just right!

Now with two kids in tow, and not having as much time on my hands as I used to with just one child, I decided to use certain items from previous parties to help speed up the design process.

The sweet gray linen children’s tent we made for my National Parks themed baby shower seemed like a fitting choice to house the gifts again with our woodsy - Ollie Bear theme, and I just loved, loved, loved, the fabric wrapped lunch boxes that we also made for that same party, so I decided to do that again as well.
It would be a darling picnic fit for a baby bear.

If you follow along on any of my styled events, you may have noticed I always like to use a neutral color palette for my base. This time I decided on tan, gray, green, and dusty blue, and then added in a fun black and white buffalo check to tie in with the picnic inspiration for the party.

With the theme, color palette, and a few design elements set, I reached out to my favorite photographer, Nicole Conner to have her capture the day! Her work is phenomenal, and a must for any
party of mine!

I found sweet woodsy invitations from Tiny Prints that I was able to personalize with a darling photo of our Ollie Bear. Does anyone else love envelope liners as much as I do?! Once I saw the correlating tree lined envelope liners it sealed the deal for me on these invitations!

Side note - how cute is that hand painted bear on the small wood round that my mother-in-law Jennifer painted?! I just adore incorporating handmade elements, and they’re that much more special
when someone from the family creates them!

Wanting to add in a few handmade elements, I made a “One” bunting to hang on Oliver’s high chair, and sewed an oatmeal colored canvas banner that Chalk Chic Mama would personalize with Oliver’s name.

If you’ve followed me for any amount of time on social media, you’ve probably noticed I use Chalk Chic Mama at just about every event I design. Her work is spectacular, and her creative designs just get better and better each time! The sweet birthday chalkboard she designed matched the invitations and theme perfectly & was such a special element - one that can really elevate any party!

I laid simple wood slabs underneath wrapped lunch boxes for the adult guests. The black and white buffalo check fabric played double duty - as guest’s napkins and decor - as they were the perfect size to wrap up each lunch box. Pretty darn cute wouldn’t you say?!

Inside the lunch boxes I used the same menu from my National Parks Baby Shower: chicken salad sandwiches on rustic ciabatta bread, a delicious quinoa salad, and sweet potato chips. A quick and easy meal that’s sure
to delight any guest.

To make the kids feel like they were having a picnic in the woods, I placed tree wall decals from
Kenna Sato Designs on the wall behind their table. These simple and beautiful decals were so easy to use and added such a fun touch to the party!

Inside each child’s picnic basket were peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - cut into a shape of a bear using a cookie cutter - trail mix made out of pretzels, marshmallows, and chocolate and vanilla teddy grahams. I also included applesauce, a juice box, and then tucked in the favors - chocolate covered gummy bears stashed inside an oh-so-adorable muslin bear favor bag made by With Love and Ink.

The bear on the darling favor bags was my inspiration for the mini cake bear toppers. I feel like any animal wearing a party hat is instantly 10x cuter, am I right?! So I made teeny-tiny little party hats to go on top of the bear figurines, which was also a favor the kids could take home!

Ahh the dessert table - one of my favorites for sure! I tend to take a simplistic approach when designing the different stations at any celebration. Add in a few different dessert options, some cake stands, a wood box for height variation, a couple of main focal points, and you’re all set!

Two of the main focal points at the dessert table were the sweet mama and baby bear watercolor by Gray House Studio, and the “Year of” photo board of Oliver. That precious watercolor had me swooning, and then smiling, because at times, I felt like I was just like that mama bear in the picture during Oliver’s first year of life! He was ALWAYS on me (which I loved) - whether feeding, sleeping, or in the baby wrap so I could just get stuff done! We pack our little babies around, and are strong like mama bears, and just keep going.

The other main focal point was the fun “Year of” photo board of our sweet Ollie Bear. You may have guessed it, but none other than Chalk Chic Mama brought this board to life by adding in the script and numbers to display our little guy’s growth throughout the year. We printed off our favorite photos of Oliver from each month using Parabo Press. I just love their quality & quick service, as well as their gold foil boarder option!
It always amazes me to see how much our tiny little babies grow in one year!

My good friend Olivia from Flour + Sugar made the scrumptious chocolate chip cake with sweet buttercream frosting. She also made the three inch semi-naked vanilla mini cakes at the kids table, and the sweetest three inch bear head cake - just for Oliver!

Stefanie, of Prep and Bake made the most adorable cookies for the day! I use her quite often and am never disappointed! I love how she used the black and white buffalo check to tie in with the theme on the number one cookies, and those sweet bear heads, and tree lined cookies with Oliver’s name on them that matched the invites - oh my, I think I’m in love! Also, the tree cookies on sticks - swoon! I had this vision for a woodsy dessert table, and to have the cake nestled in trees somehow, & since I’ve already used the little bottle brush trees for events in the past, I wanted to try something different. Well it turned out better than I imagined! We cut some tree branches and drilled some holes in them to house the cookies and help them stand upright around the cake. Stefanie’s sweet little tree cookies really completed the dessert table, don’t you think?!
I just love how it turned out!

For the beverage station, adult guests were offered water infused with lemon, mint, and blueberries, or a mountain pine whiskey cooler.

The bear head wall decor made out of felt by Heartfelt Creations was a sweet focal point at the beverage station. It’s beautiful craftsmanship and neutral colors just drew your eyes right to it when walking up to get a drink, and it fit in perfectly with the theme.

For the tree slab drink board, I painted it a soft blue color to stand out a little bit and then had Chalk Chic Mama embellish it with the fun drink option. The Mountain Pine Whiskey Coolers were made by combining whiskey, ginger beer, and pine simple syrup, and then topped off with pine tree ice cubes for a fun surprise!

It was such a special first birthday celebration for our sweet little Ollie Bear! Now if the next year of his life could just slow down a bit! :)

All of the incredible vendors involved: