If you gotta party...

For Evan's first birthday party we tried to keep things as minimal as possible, using dishes that weren't disposable and buying as much of the food locally as we could. Thank goodness for the farm stand!

We spend a month gathering up party supplies, because I'd rather spend $10 here and there for a month or two than buy everything at once and have a heart attack. Our party theme was Chicago Bears, so there was a lot of navy blue and orange floating around.

Jesse had originally wanted to buy this party set at Target, but each set was $25 and we needed two (they were $1 a place setting).



I said no, and was going to purchase the standard paper plates because I couldn't justify that kind of expense for one time use plates. They went on clearance about a week later and Jesse bought them at half price. I was upset until I saw that every piece of that set (except the napkins) is recycleable.

We put a sign on our garbage can to tell our guests this, and every single one of them put their plate, cup, and fork in the recycling bin! It was a huge success, and I didn't have to feel bad about serving a buffet to 25 people and then throwing away their garbage because I was too lazy to do that many dishes.