Occupational Therapy

Monster Theme 1st Birthday Party

Colleen Beck OTR/L

Colleen Beck, OTR/L is a pediatric occupational therapist and the owner and author of The OT Toolbox website. She manages all of The OT Toolbox social media accounts and runs the popular newsletter. Colleen created The OT Toolbox in 2011 and since then has written thousands of blog posts designed to support therapy providers, educators, parents, counselors, admin, and caregivers in promoting the healthy development of kids. Check out Colleen's blog posts below:

by Colleen Beck OTR/L
September 3, 2012

The Birthday Boy! I can’t believe my baby is already one. I wanted to share what I did for his first birthday party.

Outfit– I ordered the iron-on decal from Etsy and got the white tee-shirt from Walmart.

Birthday Banner– I created these Monster/Alien heads by cutting out circles from poster board from the dollar store and gluing antennas on the back. I then taped on black and white pictures in chronological order by month. I cut out circles from label stickers and wrote the month number below the picture.. My sister and I strung them with ribbon from the dollar store.

Cupcakes and Smash Cake– I got the cupcake idea . I used Funfeti white cake mix from a box (would love to have time to make it from scratch, but I just don’t), and chocolate cake mix. I used my little mini cupcake maker for the cupcake on top. Found the cute liners at Big Lots (one of my favorite stores!) and picked up the icing from Aldi in the clearance section- it was originally pink and yellow, I added a little food coloring to make the perfect monstery green. The candy eyes were from Michael’s and the DumDums and peach rings from the dollar store.
The cake was just made in a round glass mixing bowl I had and I put dollops of icing all around and made a silly looking mouth. I didn’t take much time doing this because we all know what is happening to this cake.

The Birthday Hat– This I made out of stuff I already had laying around in my craft bin. I cut out poster board and made it into a hat shape and glued it on the seam. I then lined it with frayed tissue garland. I glued this all around until it covered the poster board. I then glued on buttons and cut out the same ribbon from the dollar store that I used to make the birthday banner. Finally, I glued on a pompom on the top and some elastic on the bottom.

Snacks and treat bags– For the favors I made monster bags that the kids could fill with candy from a candy bar. I got the bags at Michael’s in a pack of like 20 or something. They were super cheap. Then I glued on googly eyes that I already had and some fun pompoms to make them look silly. I used a black sharpie to make a mouth.

My favorite thing I did was make little monsters for all of the kids (thanks to the help of my sister Colleen). We cut circles, squares and oblong shapes out of felt and fill them with crinkly papers (packaging from different things I bought that made crinkly noise when balled up). We sewed them together with ribbon tag arms and legs and yarn hair. I then used different color thread to make a mouth and sewed on button eyes. They turned out so cute and I am so mad at myself that I didn’t take more pictures of them. Each one was different and the kids had fun picking out their monster to take home. I put them in a basket with a sign that read “Adopt a Monster”.

Overall, I thought the party was a huge success. I had so much fun making everything and trying to spend as little money as possible without making it look like it!