Not sure how a full YEAR has already flown by. It feels like yesterday I was newly pregnant, craving tiramisu and spaghetti every day, and taking fake “beer breaks” on my IG and TikTok videos. Now I’m making spaghetti for this guy and loving every minute of being a mom. Safe to say it’s been the coolest (and hardest) year yet.

When I was trying to think of a theme for his birthday party, a friend of mine asked me, “well…what’s he really into?” I paused and realized that by far his favourite thing on the planet is, without a doubt, bread. Soft, fluffy white bread toasted with peanut butter, a french baguette, a chewy ciabatta, pillowy soft naan, some bouncy focaccia, whole wheat, sourdough, french toast, grilled cheese – YOU NAME IT. This guy love his bread and honestly, I know exactly where he gets it from. 

So we had a bread theme one year old party. Or bakery theme I guess. It was an awesome day, with some awesome people, some exceptional bread, other tasty treats, a keg, and much much more. I’ll break down the planning and everything that went into it here!

The BREAD:

I knew we needed some high quality bread for the occasion and so I reached out to Wolf & Wheat – the absolutely best bakery in Austin. Margarita Kallas-Lee recently opened this dessert shop and her famous sourdough is pretty much a work of art. The lengths I would go to just to get my hands on more of this bread. She uses a 58-year old starter and the exterior is so perfectly crispy. The inside is fluffy and flavourful and with some of the salted cultured butter on top….sheeeeesh. 

I quartered some up, sliced some up, and then just left some whole for people to cut up as they wish. I had the bread at the forefront for sure and then surrounded it with some veggie crudité, charcuterie, and fruit. Literally every single person at the party came up to me and was like, “um…where did you get this bread?” It’s a hit, it’s a 10/10, and you need to try it if you’re ever in Austin. And bring me with you when you do.

The Sweets Station:

I also set up a “sweets station” in another area of the party. Margarita and the Wolf & Wheat team make these insane brown butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies and then these showstopper strawberry cakes that feed four. I don’t know what she puts in all of these creations but these desserts are unlike any I’ve ever tried.

To go along with the theme I ordered these black and white striped awnings for above the sweets table. I also just grabbed some wicker baskets, tiered serving trays and dishes from Goodwill to display all of the treats! One of my favourite things to do is go to Goodwill and browse the home section. You never know what you’re going to find and that is beyond thrilling for me.

The Balloons:

For the garland I went with these earth tone coloured balloons from Etsy. They were great quality and I’d definitely use these again! I have to be honest, I had never ever made a balloon garland before and I was 100% intimidated. I must’ve watched 50 TikTok video tutorials and still was not sure I’d be able to do it. Luckily my mom was in town (and we got the keg earlier that day) so we just sat in the living room and made a fun night out of it. I would recommend getting a proper pump vs the handheld one if you can, but once you get into the rhythm of it, it actually goes by pretty fast. We did one big garland in the living room above the fireplace and then a smaller one above the playroom. Then I just got some additional balloons from Target and had them spread all over the house. Oh! And the gold “one” balloon over the fireplace as well.

The Goodie Bags:

These were so much fun to make for all the kids that came. I’ve linked everything on my Amazon Storefront in case you want to take a look! I also designed these Vanilla Cupcakes recipe cards so that the kids could bake them at home later. 

The Cookie Decorating Station:

Massive shoutout to my neighbour, Marge, for taking my “hey do you know anything about cookie decorating” request to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL. 

I was originally planning on buying some sugar cookies (baking is not my forté) and then throwing together some icing the night beforehand for an activity the kids could do! Enter Marge. She agreed to take this on and blew it out of the park. I found out later that in the days leading up to the party, she had baked three different batches of sugar cookies and did taste tests with other neighbours to determine the best ones. An hour before the party she arrived with hundreds of sugar cookies, the fluffiest icing, and more sprinkles than I’ve ever seen in my life. 

We did squeeze bottles for the icing and it was such a game changer! It made clean up very easy and it was great for the little ones while decorating. My other neighbour, Pam, let us borrow some kids picnic tables, which were absolutely perfect for the smaller kids stations! 

The Drinks:

We ended up getting a keg of one of my favourite local beers from St. Elmo Brewing Company. This was the Carl Kolsch (your perfect every day kinda beer). Keg station turned out to be a very popular gathering area for the adults. 

My next door neighbour, Pam, makes the world’s best iced tea so I asked her to help with an Arnold Palmer station! We also had some Rosé from Trader Joe’s and some water/juice boxes for the kids.

All in all it was such a great day and was relatively easy to throw together with help from the best!

Next year’s theme will probably be pasta so stay tuned…