Yellow Submarine

My little baby, Jude, turned one.

And of course I had to throw him a big birthday bash.

I thought for so long about the theme.  I was even thinking about the theme for his first birthday party when he was just born.

I like to have lots of different elements of the same theme at a party.

It gets challenging, but I love a challenge.

And so after lots of brainstorming and changing my mind a million different times, I finally decided on a theme for his party.

And I think it was perfectly fitting for my little Jude.

Here is the invitation I made.

I started with a blank canvas and turned it into a bright and fun invite.

Here is the back of the invitation.

A little personalization goes a long way, I think.

The Beatles are obviously something that most strangers (love to) refer to when they hear his name.

"Jude? Oh, like HEY JUDE?!"

yes sir. like that.

pshhhhh.

They obviously have some pretty great music which I grew up listening to because my mom loves the Beatles as well.

So I thought I'd combine those two elements and make a unique party for him.

Here is what it looked like:

This was the mamma jamma cake that was for the enitre party.

Yellow Submarine, of course.

My mom free handed the cutting of two large sheet cakes we made the night before.

Then I decorated it.

We put blue Jell-O all around it to give the illusion that it was in water.

Pretty cool.

And here is his very own chocolate cake.

Complete with an edible picture of the Beatles.

Tres chic, no?

My amazing BFF and dietician, Crissi, set up this adorable strawberry craft for the kids.

Turn your strawberry into a lady bug with a few mini chocolate chips and some deliciously ripe strawberries.

There's C.

Hud's bug was finger lickin' good.

The kids LOVED it and it kept them busy for quite some time.

Here are the party favors we did.

My amazing cousin, Tony is a computer wizard.

No, seriously.

It's crazy and I am lucky to have him.

I told him what I wanted and he made it happen.

The kids each got a goody bag filled with Beatles inspired knick knacks.

Girls got strawberry lip gloss.

There were peace sign necklaces.

My mom really filled these and she did an incredible job.

She's pretty amazeballs.

 Each adult couple got the Beatles CD.

I had taken a picture of Jude at each month marker of his entire first year of life.

I had Tony print them onto a template that resembled the birthday invitation of all the Beatles heads in little squares.

So the first one was a picture of him on the day he was born, and the last picture was him at 11 months.

It turned out so perfectly.  I loved it.

And I feel like that is one party favor people will actually USE!

I got the inspiration from that from here.

We all wore Beatles tee shirts.

Every one year old need his own cake to destroy, don't you think?

It's definitely one of our traditions

He's obviously succeeded and is so proud of his mess.

The spread.  All homemade goodies courtesy of my mom and myself.

Chicken shawarma, falafel, hummous bar (roasted red pepper, kalamata olive, and regular),

my mom's famous (and magically delicious) spinach pies, fatoush salad, zataar and of course, pigs in a blanket.  No kid party is complete without them.

Here are the yellow submarine twinkies we made.

They were so cute and really added to the theme.

They were simply twinkies with a straw put on the top and a few skittles or gum drops on the side.

They were such a hit and everyone was talking a walk down memory lane talking about how they used to love twinkies when they were little.

Definitely a conversation starter.

And they couldn't be easier.

Here's the king for the day.

And his heart melting smile.

Happy Birthday, Jude!

I hope you enjoyed taking a peek into our  party!

Until the next one.

Which, incidentally is only a couple of days away.

My 4 year old is turning 5.

Just 12 days after Jude turned one.

Okay... here we go again...

: /