When your little baby turns one, your heart drops for a few days. Where in the world did the last 365 days go so quickly? You literally feel like you just had this precious little bundle of joy and BAM! Now they are moving around on their own and it’s time for a celebration. All the while, you’re thinking to yourself, PLEASE, SLOWWWW DOWNNN.
We have a rule here that we only do parties for big milestones…1, 5, 10, etc. Since both of our girls are under 5, their first birthday has been the big one so far. With Skibbles, our toddler, we had her party at a party location, so there wasn’t much I needed in terms of decorating. However, we decided that Baby’s party would be at our house. I panicked a bit because I had no clue what theme to do. Luckily, Finding Dory became the rage right before I needed to make a final decision. Perfect! I thought to myself.
To us, Finding Dory is about never giving up and never being afraid to take risks. Sweetly summing up the goals we have for her life.What better party theme for a First Birthday party than a Finding Dory party. I knew that teaming up with Party City for this post would give us the Ultimate Finding Dory party for our amazing girl.
We were graciously sent everything that we would need and more to decorate for the party. I randomly picked up a few extra things I saw while shopping for food at Target too. Darn, dollar bins. When our package arrived I was insanely excited (Watch our party supply unboxing), but I put everything away until the night before the party. After the kids went to sleep, it was game on for Andrew and I to start staging the house for the big day.
PRO TIP: Sit out all your containers and label them with what goes in each container the night before.
We hung signs, made the lemonade, and the Dory cutouts for the lemonade pitcher, made the “message in a bottle” display (we asked guests to leave a piece of advice for Baby), and cut up as much food as we could.
Party day arrived and our day was a bit chaotic running around and Baby decided that she wasn’t having it. It was her birthday and she would cry if she wanted too. And she did. Cried. Gave the side eye. And clung to daddy. Luckily, we were still able to pull off an amazing birthday party with lots of great friends and family.
Since this was a first birthday party, instead of games, we went with
- Photo Backdrop Station
- We had fun bead necklaces, huge sunglasses, funny hair bands, goggles, swimmies, and more
- Bubble Wands
- Tattoos
Party City had all of these available, but also have additional Find Dory games for older children’s parties as well. Again, Baby wasn’t having it.
But my favorite part of creating the party was getting creative with the food!
Here was our food list and corresponding Finding Dory name for it:
- Stick Pretzels = Driftwood
- Block of Sharp White Cheddar Cut Into Triangles = Shark Teeth
- Slices of Cucumbers = Sea Cucumbers
- Carrots Sticks = Crab Legs
- Blueberries = Caviar
- Grapes = Turtle Eggs
- Skinny Cheese Puffs = Coral
- Spinach Artichoke Dip = Seaweed
- Gummy Worms = Fish Bait
- Circle Gummies = Life Preservers
- Chicken Nuggets & Chips = Chicken and Chips
- This was a play on Fish & Chips served in restaurants, but “Fish are friends, not food”
That was our main food table, but we can’t talk about the day without the desserts and Birthday Cake!
Oh the birthday cake! We made homemade round cakes in two different sizes plus large muffins and used frosting to keep everything together. Then layered to make look like a sandcastle, topped with crushed graham crackers, and added sugar cones upside down for the towers. We topped it off with a beautiful Finding Dory birthday candle and umbrella picks. The sandcastle cake turned out just like a kid’s sandcastle and everyone loved it.
The baby wasn’t exactly sure what to think when we gave her the top layer for her smash cake. She took maybe one bite and then decided she was done.
We also served Oyster Pearl Cookies and Andrew carved a watermelon in the shape of a clam. Lastly, we made a vanilla pudding mixture to look like sand. That sand pudding was amazing!
The entire set-up and party was perfect for a birthday princess who will grow and find herself over the next few decades. It was the ultimate Finding Dory party and we were thrilled with everything.
We're Parents is a unique mom and dad natural parenting blog focusing on topics such as breastfeeding, babywearing, and car seat safety. You'll also find Delicious recipes, inspired travel recommendations, and more as you journey with us through parenting. 
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