Kids love birthdays! They love having birthdays and they love attending birthday parties. Who doesn’t love gifts, cake, and ice cream?

We recently celebrated our youngest’s first birthday with a Twinkle Twinkle Little Star themed birthday party. For now I get to pick the birthday party themes, but I know one day my girls will be a part of the planning.

Twinkle twinkle little star is a favorite song to sing before bedtime, for both my girls. We read a few books, I turn out the lights, tuck them into bed, and then sing 2-3 songs as they drift off to sleep (or at least that is my goal, there is often debate about not being tired or negotiation attempts for “just one” more story).

It was fun selecting a birthday party theme that is part of our daily life … twinkle twinkle little star.

I then enjoyed scouring Pinterest for ideas to incorporate stars into the party. Check out my board for some of my inspiration.

We purchased star cupcake toppers, and a set of plates, napkins, and cups (thank you Amazon Prime). At the last minute, I even found star decorations at the dollar store.

Then I got crafty.

I printed a picture from each month of Clara’s first year and hung them on the cabinets in the kitchen for everyone to see just how much she had grown (truth be told, the pictures are still hanging two weeks later because it is fun to look at baby pictures, and I plan to move them to her room, but it just hasn’t happened yet). All this required was some white ribbon, scotch tape, and the printed pictures.

To incorporate stars in our food, my mom used a cookie cutter to make watermelon stars. (I decided that star shaped hamburgers were overkill, so we kept with the standard circles.)

I then made goodie bags to thank everyone for “celebrating our little star.” I’m a fan of non-food goodie bags (having a dad who is a dentist has a way of making you keenly aware of all the candy at every celebration, although I will say I have a wicked sweet tooth). I got clear party bags and filled them with star pencils and notepads, star bouncy balls, and even little bubble wands with stars on top. I also included some silly straws (that I already had) in the goodie bags too. For the finishing touch, I designed a fun tag for the goodie bags with the phrase "thank you for celebrating our little star." (Scroll down to download the tags.)

It may be a few years before the birthday girl is ready for the treats in the goodie bags at her party, but it was awesome seeing the little faces of our neighbor’s kids light up when they got their bags at the end of the party. They are a few years older and appreciated the goodie bags.

Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate our little star’s first birthday. We had a blast celebrating and Clara LOVED her first introduction to cake.

P.S. If you are having a “twinkle twinkle little star” birthday party and want to thank your guests for “celebrating your star” you can download and print my goodie bag tags.