The Dragon Turned One!

We celebrated our little dragon's first birthday last week. I absolutely cannot believe that it has already been a year. While at times I'm sure I felt like the days (or nights) would never end, the year really did fly by. Maybe it feels like that because of all the incredible changes that take place in a baby's first year, but I have a feeling I'm always going to think that the days are long while the years are short.

On to the DIY birthday party! I'm not sure when I began pinning ideas for the party on Pinterest, but it feels like I started at least 6 months ago. Of course that doesn't mean I started making things super early, so there was definitely a lot of mad dashing right up until (and after) people started arriving. That's just how it goes with our parties though. The Dragon theme was pretty set in stone in my eyes. Hopefully people won't think I'll always force dragon stuff on our little boy, but since that is the meaning of his name I figure I should milk it while I can (since he could hardly express his choice for a party theme yet).

The first thing I started working on was the faces banner. I'd seen ideas on making a banner with rectangular pictures (including at one of my BFF's son's first birthday), but then saw the idea to blow up the faces and cut them out. I used thick birthday scrapbook cardstock to make the hats and hot glued pom poms to the top.

The next item on the agenda was definitely the most time-consuming, but also my proudest accomplishment...Dragon Tails! I made 12 in all (to have some choice and a few extra just in case). I followed the tutorial from this site: http://tatertotsandjello.com/2011/03/guest-project-dragon-tails-sewing.html I decided to take her advice to use felt instead of sewing the spikes. Pinking shears are quite an essential tool for sewing. 

straps for the waist

cutting the tail pieces

 cutting the circle

 spikes

 leaving a hole to stuff

 pinning the circle

Time to stuff!

 sewing it closed

finished products!

In action

Next project was the balloon wreath. This was something I pinned several examples of Pinterest and saw several bad attempts as well where the balloons looked rather...limp. I used this tutorial: http://www.abstractgrace.blogspot.com/2012/05/birthday-balloon-wreath-tutorial.html. In the end, I needed 3 bags of balloons (although I didn't use all of the third bag). I didn't use that round wreath though...mine had a flat back and was perhaps a little bigger. I also chose to add some colorful pipe cleaners and some party blowers. I painted the L and glued it on with fabric glue. I tried hot glue at first, but it wouldn't stay glued that way. 

For the kids' goody bags I made molded chocolates (in dragon molds of course) and put them inside jumbo plastic eggs. I wanted the eggs to be more dragon-y than Easter, so I spray painted them. I was going to put chocolates for all the guests in these eggs, but I didn't actually love how the spray painting turned out so I only used them in the kids' bags. All guests got chocolate dragons though :) The kids also got a homemade coloring book, crayons, and some dragon stickers. 

Lindsay, an awesome friend who also was the talent behind creating the Dragon's nursery, created the dragon art for the party. Of course, I used it to make a onesie. I'm glad I have this picture because there aren't any great ones of him wearing it that show the whole thing. 

I used the Dragon picture to create a high chair banner. I love my Cricut and Xyron machines! (It says "I Am  1")

And for the finale...the cake! The cake is the main thing I started pinning way back when. I have several examples pinned, but ultimately went with the directions from this site: http://www.instructables.com/id/Fire-Breathing-Dragon-Cake!!/#step1 I made a red velvet cake (think bleeding armadillo!), but the frosting took some searching. Everyone loves my whipped cream cheese frosting, but I was worried about how that would stand up needing to sit out over night (because there was no way this cake was fitting in the fridge). I didn't want to make a standard butter cream because most people, including Bama, think it's "too sweet." After much internet browsing and some taste-testing, I settled on this recipe: http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/thate28099s-the-best-frosting-ie28099ve-ever-had/. If I continue to use this recipe, I need to think of a better name though...

Finding fruit roll ups proved to be the hardest part. I could only find solid red pieces, which isn't want I wanted for the wings. I decided to use the tie-dyed ones. Also, apparently they only make them with stupid tongue tattoos now, so...yeah, the dragon has tattooed fire.

I struggled with the smash cake ideas. I didn't want to make a dragon head or anything creepy like that, so I just made a small cake with my mini pans. I saw someone use the idea of sprinkles in one of my March Mommy groups and loved it. The execution wasn't great...but I don't think my 1-year old minded too much. 

I'll finish this post with pics of the food from the party.

 Dragon Tail Pies (crawfish etouffee in puffed pastry)

 Dragon Chow (mac n cheese)

 Deviled Dragon Eggs (yes, I dyed the yolks blue...)

Dragon Scales with Hummus (the pita chips are the scales)

I didn't take a close-up picture of the Dragon Claws (Chocolate Dipped Bugles), but I found that idea online too. They were a huge hit! I also intended to make dragon egg truffles to go in the adults goody bags, but the recipes weren't making nearly enough, so I just put them on the dessert table. They were Dark Chocolate Cabernet Truffles.