Make Your Own Restaurant at Home First Birthday Party

Apr 28th, 2020

My little Marjorie turned one yesterday. This year has truly gone by in a blink, even though the last month was certainly the longest. We have nicknamed her "chubbies," (I know, it's silly, but it's one of those family things that happens and it will go away before it matters), and Chip was making his family famous pancakes one morning and gave Chubbies a tiny stack of her own. I said "ahhhh, it's a Chubby Stack of pancakes!!"

We have been really missing some of our favorite restaurants, so it just seemed perfect to create our own little restaurant called "Chubby Stacks," and themed in Marjorie's honor. We went with a retro diner feel, and it was SO MUCH FUN.

To start, I created a little logo (I uploaded the PDF here, so you can use it if you like - the font is called "Aphrodite"). I made a felt banner by printing out the letters and Marjorie's silhouette, and tracing them and cutting them out of felt and hot gluing it all together! I've put the highlights on my instagram stories under "Chubby Stacks," if you want to check it out! I also used these fans in pink and orange, which are my favorites for parties. They are inexpensive, but make a statement, and they fold down easily for future party use!

I designed and printed out menus on cardstock, and placed them at each place setting. The girls LOVED this. Here is the PDF if you'd like to download it and edit it yourself! It's not even a fancy menu - just simple things that I could easily make or had on hand.

(**Note: Here is an editable form of the menu. You should be able to download it and edit it in Adobe Reader. If you don't have the correct fonts (Aphrodite and Mrs. Eaves Italics) then it may replace those for you, unless you buy/download and install them. Let me know if it doesn't work for you!)

(**Also, here is the file for the soda jerk hats. I pretty much followed this tutorial for them, but I had to add a little extra paper to the back for Vivi and Brigie's hats, because just the cardstock pieces were too small. I used hot glue to attach it all together, and one staple in the front where it needed a little extra.)

We also made some custom aprons for the girls, and that was also a super big hit. I bought these aprons, and these iron on transfer sheets. They were super simple to use - just upload your design onto Avery's website, and they will flip it and turn it into a PDF, and then you print it, cut it out, and iron it on and peel off the backer! The girls thought it was magic. They needed new aprons, so it was a fun little party favor for them.

To really make it feel like a restaurant, I used this super cute tablecloth (I folded it in half, because it was too big for the table, but it worked great!), wrapped the silverware in napkins with a little ribbon, set out salt and pepper shakers, and little vases of fresh flowers. Also, music is key. We played some Beach Boys, and it gave off the perfect happy diner vibe. I made Chip and I matching tshirts and we made those diner hats to wear, too.

Restaurant Themed Rainbow First Birthday Party

The girls thought it was THE MOST FUN when I came out to take down their order, and Chip had such a great time playing chef.

Even if you don't have a birthday coming up in your family, it was a really fun way to make a day feel special and different in the middle of this wild season.