Little Man Milk and Cookies Party

I love this theme for a baby party!  I had so much fun taking this milk and cookies inspiration board to reality.  This party was surprisingly easy to pull together and host.  The party guests were mostly close family, so we only had a few kids…babies still drinking milk bottles.  I did not feel the need to plan any activities for the party.  Everyone simply mingled and munched on milk and cookies.

The handmade invitations set the tone for the party and boasted the party color scheme.  The leftover scrap paper from the invitations, along with a few others from my stash, were used to create a simple paper party garland to extend the design of the invite into the party decor.

I opted for a mid morning party time for a few reasons:

1. Less conflict for guests with other afternoon parties
2. Babies are happy in the morning, just after a morning nap
3. No need to serve a full meal…and it is never to early for milk and cookies!

One of the most important things at any birthday party is the cake.  I created on larger cake and a small smash cake for the one-year old birthday boy.  I wanted a small round, but tall cake with ribboned frosting like my inspiration cake.  It looks amazing and was easy to make.  I used a six inch cake round for the “larger cake”.  I used a round cookie cutter to cut the smaller cake layers from an eight inch cake.  I had never used frosting tips before.  I bought an inexpensive set at the grocery store.  I used the ribbon tip.  I used store bought creamy frosting (no time to make my own and I have learned over the years that I can’t do it all).  Starting at the base of the cake with the wide end of the tip up against the cake, I piped out the frosting zigzagging back and forth up the side of the cake, allowing the frosting ribbon to stack upon it self.  I did this around the entire cake.  I replicated the look on the mini smash cake (lots of frosting = really good smashing).

I really wanted the vintage glass milk bottle look with striped paper straws.  The paper straws were the easy part.  I found them in grey and yellow.  The milk bottles were not as easy.  They were expensive to buy and ship.  Although I knew I would use them for future parties I still could not justify the expense.  Instead I turned to Starbucks frappuccino bottles and a little elbow grease.  A pack of 4 frappuccinos was $5.99…making each individual bottle about $1.50 and no shipping.  Not wanting to waste the frapacinno, I poured it out and saved it to serve at the party from a beverage dispenser.  I think the adults were happy to have a little mid morning caffeine.

The color scheme for this party was a modern blue, yellow, and grey mix.  I have seen so many milk and cookies parties in brown and white.  I wanted something different.  I fell in love with the Prakesh Tablecloth by DwellStudio for Target (so much so it has been turned into slipcovers for the dining room chairs).  The blue and grey pattern on white ground set the stage for the food table.  I brought in the yellow with the striped paper straws and an in expensive yellow plastic tub from Walmart.  I used grey striped washi tape to dress up the tub.  The tub was the perfect place to keep the milk on ice.  A grouping of three $1 paper lanterns added another shot of yellow over the table.

I used leftover scrapbook paper from the invitations to make a garland (see the party garland tutorial).  I punched circles from all the papers with a 1″ craft punch.  Then I lined them up and ran them through my sewing machine to “string” them together.  I used an empty ribbon spool to wrap the completed garland around for storage before the party.  I used a bit of tape on the back of the circles to hang it from the board and batten walls in the dining room.  It was a subtle bit of color for that wall.

My mom found this really unique vintage milk carrier designed to hold three glass milk bottles.  I used one of the vintage milk bottles to hold a few tulip stems (in yellow of course).  I placed a clear glass in one of the other slots to hold the grey striped straws.  The last opening was for square napkins folded in half.  Gotta love a napkin holder perfectly fit for the party theme.

The cookies were a breeze to display.  I purchased three large candy jars for $5.99 each from Target and filled them with some classic kids cookies…oreos, nilla wafers, and animal crackers.  I now use these jars everyday in my kitchen for kids snacks.  For the fancier cookies, like carrot cake whoopee pies, meringues, and double chocolate fudge, I used white platters to lay them out.

I served three types of milk, whole milk, chocolate milk, and banana milk.  Instead of strawberry milk, which did not go with my color scheme, I was super excited to see the Kemp’s Banana Milk at Target.  If you have not tired banana milk, you must!  It was a huge success at the party. Everyone wanted to try it, loved it, and it served as a wonderful conversation starter.  I displayed the milk in large carafes with a blue top, found at Target for $5.99 each.   I attached a quick impromptu chalkboard vinyl tags labeled with the type of milk.  I arranged the individual milk bottles in front of the milk tub with the yellow stripes straws.

On the other end of the table, I used a beverage dispenser from Target ($19.99) to serve the saved Starbucks frappuccino.  I love the casual look.  They had these beverage tubs in yellow and aqua too and I was so tempted, but I decided to go with classic white that I could use again for other parties.  I dressed it up with some diagonal striped aqua washi tape.  I also inserted a piece of chalkboard vinyl for the label.  After the party, we took the dispenser off the stand and put it on the top shelf of the fridge.  We had frappuccino on tap for a week :)

I had one failed decor item that actually turned into the biggest hit of the party.  I ordered two giant round balloons that I had hoped to use on the food table.  I bought a helium tank to fill the balloons, but they were just to heavy to really float.  I am not sure if I did not fill them enough or if the concentration in those party helium tanks is not strong enough to float the weight of the balloon.  However, the balloons turned out to be amazingly fun for the kids.  When thrown in the air they slowly floated back to the ground.  Everyone got in on the action helping the kids keep the balloons from landing.

For party favors, I found these Got Milk? Straws at my local grocery store.  They come in many flavors, but they only had vanilla left.  It worked with my color scheme.  I threw them casually in a bin near the door for guests to grab on their way out.  The straws are filled with little flavor beads that dissolve and flavor plain milk as you drink through the straw.  It was something fun the guests were excited to take home and try.

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