Baby’s First Birthday :: A Peter Rabbit Birthday Party

I’ve always wanted to throw a “literary” birthday party. But our oldest is so into cars and trucks and trains… Along came our second boy and by the time I started party planning a few months ago, he hadn’t yet seemed to show a strong interest in any one thing.

So I decided to use a book theme, and chose Peter Rabbit, chiefly because we love gardening, and our youngest son has a summer birthday, so it’s easy to be outdoors! There’s a lot of ideas for Peter Rabbit parties on Pinterest (especially since the movie came out, which it had not at this time).

Of course, I love to DIY on some party stuff, so I added in more of my own take on a Peter Rabbit birthday party.

Take a peak into our “McGregor’s garden” during the big birthday bash!

Peter Rabbit Birthday Party Decor

I love garlands for birthday parties decided to go with a store-bought garland for this party (maybe throwing my 4th party has tired me out?). With delightful Beatrix Potter characters and my child’s name and age spelled out, I can reuse this garland in the baby’s room later on!

Balloons are a must for me, and I found these balloon sticks so we didn’t need helium. Light blue, green, and white were the colors of the day! I had plenty of blue gingham fabric for a tablecloth and two runners for the food and dessert tables. Add streamers criss-crossing the ceiling and the mood was complete! (I’d wanted to have the party outdoors, but the high heat made keeping food safe difficult so I decorated indoors and guests could choose to eat in or out).

Peter Rabbit Birthday Party Food Ideas

What better to have at a garden party than a Salad Bar? Moe’s Southwest Grill catered our party and I’ll tell you much more about that later!

A beverage station with cups, ice, paper straws, iced down sodas and homemade Iced Blackberry Vanilla Tea kept us all cool!

For appetizers, we started with chips and salsa (since salsa can be made straight out of your garden), and cool bites of cucumber and hummus surrounded by carrot chips. Perfect for a little bunny turning one, right?

The main meal was our salad bar! For a refreshingly zingy topping, Wholly Guacamole sent us mini guacamole cups (in regular and ranch) just in time for the party. The mini cups are just perfect for parties. They ensured everyone got fresh guac on their salad, in two great flavors! And there’s no leftovers because each cup is a single serving, keeping every bite of guacamole fresh! (Psst you can keep these minis in your freezer for up to 3 months!).

Peter Rabbit Birthday Party Dessert Table

This year I chose a simple cake. A double layer of vanilla bundt cakes stacked with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. Topped with a fresh yellow mum and blue birthday candle, it made for a simple and sweet birthday cake.

Yes, I made homemade “Pop Tarts” but I prefer to call them handpies. Filled with blackberry jam, they were buttery and flaky. We also had mini cups of blackberry sorbet with fresh mint leaves on top. You have to get a little fancy for a garden party!

Perhaps the sweetest part of the entire dessert table was the Peter Rabbit cupcake liners with adorable Beatrix Potter character cupcake picks on top. Accented with Blackberry Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (homemade) and a fresh blackberry, the cupcake tower took the day!

Peter Rabbit Birthday Boy

I used a cupcake as my baby’s “smash cake”! He got a real kick out of delicately tasting dabs of frosting until… he went for the cake and stuffed it in his face! That cake disappeared faster than Peter Rabbit under Mr. McGregor’s fence!

Both our boys had delightful garden outfits from Janie and Jack although the day was just too hot for the dress up clothes, so I let the baby run around in his custom Peter Rabbit cloth diaper (more on that later!). The next morning I snagged a photo of the boys in their birthday clothes before church. Oh I could just squish them!

I can’t believe our baby is one. Makes me want to have more toast and blackberry jam!

So that’s our Peter Rabbit Birthday Party experience! I hope it gives you lots of ideas if you plan to throw your own Peter Rabbit party! Using a party kit took a lot of the burden off me as I planned. For one, I had a unifying theme and color scheme. Also making party hats yourself can be a challenge, but putting together personalized party hats from a kit was a breeze! 

Even with some store-bought party items, I could still personalize this party by adding some of my own DIY party elements, like the cake, dessert table, and putting together a coordinating outfit!

What themed parties have you thrown? How do you go about planning? 

Thanks to Make it Mine Parties (no longer in business) and Wholly Guacamole for sending items to facilitate this post! All opinions are 100% my own!