The Little Monster’s First Birthday

I can hardly believe it. One year has already disappeared and our little boy, affectionately called our little monster, is already one. We celebrated the his first birthday with a Little Monster Birthday Party, twice, because around here birthdays are a big deal.

But before we get to those details I want to share a bit about our little monster, Ezra Terry. 

Ezra is our easier child, although with each passing day I do see a bit more of his wild big brother in him. Ezra can crawl and walk around tables, but cannot yet walk on his own. He loves to walk around while holding onto our hands, but isn’t so sure when we try to let go and get him to balance on his own. {Edit: One short month later and Ezra is much braver when it comes to walking. Still not completely doing it on his own, but within a week or two I am sure he will be running circles around us.}

He waves goodbye and loves to blow kisses. He will also kiss his own reflection in mirrors and other shiny objects (tonight it was the garbage can, yuck), but refuses to kiss anyone else. I guess the adorable blown kisses will have to suffice.

He says Mommy, Mom, Daddy and, if you listen really closely, he will repeat the phrase “Love you.” If Ezra is in a bad mood, the easiest way to change that is to throw him in the tub. 

At his one-year immunization, Ezra tipped the scales at 27 lbs, charting in the 95th percentile. In comparison to his brother at the same age, Ezra is five pounds heavier. At 31 inches tall, he is also two inches taller than his brother was at the same age. I knew he was bigger than Elijah, but seeing the numbers helps me wrap my head around exactly how much of a difference there really is between my two boys. Either way, Ezra is still my baby and we still enjoy cuddles every night before bed.

Now, on to the party details. 

Little Monster Birthday Party Invitations

I love layout and design work, which means I love to make my own digital invitations for  our birthday parties. For the Little Monster Birthday Party, I grabbed some free clipart from Google and put together my invitation using Canva. It was super simple and I loved the cute results.

Balloon Monsters

For the first Little Monster Birthday Party I created super cute balloon monsters. Now, before you go thinking I am especially creative, please know I am a Pinterest junky (check out my profile here, and follow me if you like what you see!). I found nearly all of these ideas on Pinterest. If you want to check out the original inspiration, check out (and follow) my “Little Boy Birthday Parties” board.

Anyways, these balloon monsters were super simple. I used 24 balloons per monster, eight balloons in three different colours. After blowing up the balloons, I tied the balloons in groups of four and then stacked each ground on top of each other, tying each new group to the one below it. Then, I added faces using some construction paper for the mouths and small white balloons for the eyes.

They were a little finicky to set up, but for the most part stood on their own all day. The only time the balloon monsters seemed to struggle was when Ezra and his 1.5 year old cousin got at them.

Birthday Stats Sign

The next thing I made to decorate for the Little Monster Birthday Party was a birthday stats sign. You can see it in the glass of the cabinet in the picture above. To make this sign I used a black project board and metallic permanent markers. To be honest, I made a similar sign for Elijah’s first birthday, which made me feel obligated to do Ezra’s. In the end I am glad I did it though. It was a cute way to highlight some of Ezra’s important milestones.

Now you may have noticed there are a few errors on the board. That’s because Ezra’s one-year checkup didn’t happen until after his birthday, so his weight and height were my best guesses. He also popped an eighth tooth the week after his birthday. Everything else is correct though. The kid can eat a whole pint of blueberries in under three minutes if you let him, and he really does love splashing in the tub – even if he’s just screamed a tired miserable scream all the way through suppertime.

Box Monsters

These little monsters turned out super cute and the boys also loved playing with them. To make them, I grabbed some solid-coloured wrapping paper and a couple of boxes from our recycling bin. A bit of construction paper, a black permanent marker and a party hat added the finishing touches.

Little Monster Birthday Cake

What is a Little Monster Birthday Party with out a Little Monster Birthday Cake?

The cake I chose to make was my go-to chocolate cake recipe, which I promise to share one day. It really is delicious, super easy to make, requires no strange ingredients, and stays moist for days. Ah-mazing.

I used a dairy-free buttercream frosting recipe, which I will also have to post one day soon. The secret? Coconut oil. The flavour is detectable in the frosting, but I have only ever had compliments on it. It is also the perfect consistency for using several different decorating tips.

I chose to use orange Wilton gel food colouring and made two different shades. I then grabbed an icing tip that would make a “hairy” monster look and got started. The cake was done in no time at all, and I think it may have been one of my cutest cakes to date. 

I added some candy eyes to the cake to make it look like a monster with a hundred crazy eyes. To top it off I painted two styrofoam balls yellow, added a candy eye to each ball using icing as glue, and stuck them each on a skewer. Then, I placed the skewers on top of the cake to look like two antenna eyes. 

Isn’t he cute? (Both the cake the the birthday boy :))

Now, if you remember at the beginning of this post I told you we had two Little Monster Birthday Parties. For the second party I re-used a lot of the same decor, so there aren’t any new pictures. I did make a different cake. At the second party we had strawberry cupcakes (delicious!) and chocolate cupcakes with the same dairy-free frosting, in my attempt at a rose. There aren’t any pictures of the cupcakes…my rose work needs…work.

With that, I will leave you with one last photo of my little monster. Let me know in the comments below if you tried any of these ideas for your own Little Monster Birthday Party.