Micah Ryan Designs

Never Grow Up

“Little boys should never be sent to bed, they always wake up one day older” – Peter Pan

I’m not sure about other littles, but the 10 month sleep regression hit hard in this house. We went from a solid 7PM-5AM night, to multiple wake ups, short naps, and contact-sleeps a couple days after our son turned 10 months.

It was during one of these late-night wake ups that I decided I needed to finally buckle down and make plans for his first birthday party. I thought I wanted an Alien theme; his nursery is space themed and my brother’s Alien birthday party is a fond memory from my own childhood; but as I started putting it together in my head I just wasn’t sold.

Next step, of course, was to browse “first birthday theme” in Pinterest. I quickly found some photos showing a grass wall and the words “Onederland” and some Peter Pan decor. I was excited until my husband pointed out that Peter Pan is in Neverland, not Wonderland, but by then I had gone down a Peter Pan “rabbit hole” and had fallen in love with some of the quotes. “Little boys should never be put to bed, they always wake up one day older” had me sobbing into my phone. I was already in love with the theme.

Thus was born- “Never Grow Up” as my son’s first birthday theme. I wanted to make sure I incorporated all my favorite quotes, including “To live would be an awfully big adventure” and “You mean more to me than anything in this whole wide world”. These and “Never Grow Up” seemed to fit perfectly with this first big milestone.

I already owned a grass wall, but I didn’t have enough panels, so I ordered a 12 piece panel (the cheapest I could find for good reviews) off of Amazon and it worked perfectly! When it first arrived I thought I’d messed up because it came in such a tiny package, but it was just vacuum sealed and it turned out perfect.

“Ingredients” for a “Never Grow Up” Party | Food Table

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The rest of the food table setup came from Amazon and Etsy:

After setting the grass wall up on the frame using zip ties, we blew up all the balloons and created a balloon arch onto the frame. There were alot of “holes” between the balloons and the grass wall, which is where I used glue dots and Jungle leaves to fill in the holes and add some pizazz to the other side (the raw edge of the grass wall). I added a faux plant as well to really tie in the jungle vibes and fill the remaining gaps near the bottom.

Fedex Printing is who I used for my character cutouts, quote prints, and drink label prints. I cut the character prints by hand, used a hole punch and twine to string them up below the flag string and above the main “Never Grow Up” sign.

I wanted to make the cake a focal point so I added that to the middle back of the table and added a net to break up the table cloth below. On the left I put an crocodile pinata (just for decor) and a globe on which I commissioned my best friend to handwrite the quote “To live would be an awfully big adventure” and added some character silhouette decals around the back of the globe. Finished the look of that corner with a wooden “ONE” decoration. I also added the “My First Year” picture timeline here (I jumbled out my son’s photos for the purpose of this blog).


The cake stand, cookie display, and cupcake displays are all wood to tie in the natural jungle vibes and to pull away from the literal theme and give the feel of the theme more primarily. My best friend, Caseyjo Cookies, happens to be an AMAZING cookie artist and used her amazing creativity to make the most beautiful and delicious cookies for our theme.

I got all the photos for this party printed at Walmart (one hour photo for the win!) We also got the cake from Walmart. We wanted to be cost efficient and stress-free on all things food. So we ordered a “custom” dinosaur cake from Walmart’s cake catalog because it had all the elements we wanted (blue top tier and jungle leaves). We used Peter Pan character cupcake toppers to create the flying scene on the blue portion, a palm tree toy from a dinosaur set my son already had, and added the only Peter Pan item I could find online that made a suitable topper. This made the PERFECT cake for less than $100 including toppers. We used the top tier as the smash cake and served the bottom tier to our guests!

All the rest of the food cake from Sam’s Club bakery (pinwheels and cupcakes) and HEB Catering (sandwiches, fruit, and donut holes). We had just shy of 20 adults and 11 kids which turned out to be the perfect amount of food with just a few leftovers for an 11AM-1PM party.

The nucleus of the decorations were indoor where the food could stay cool in the Texas summer, but the nucleus of the fun and the remainder of the party was outside. I wanted to make sure all the kids would have a memorable time, so naturally that meant water toys to make the 90 degree weather bearable!

“Ingredients” for a “Never Grow Up” Party | Fun Center

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My best friend already owned the bounce house on the top right and I already owned the bounce house on the bottom left (Facebook Marketplace for the win!). So we already had a head start on some great outdoor fun, but I wanted to stay on-theme and some water fun for the kids to cool off.

I found the crocodile water slide and moved it in and out of my cart a few times before asking some attendees to persuade me into the purchase. It was well worth it! Only 2 kids at the party were less than 18months old, every child above that age used that water slide primarily the entire party!

For the little bitties, I bought an inflatable pirate ship pool, which also got a ton of use from babies and older kids both.

But of course I can’t forget the final touches to keep the outdoor on-theme and comfortable. I kept the drinks outside so that everyone could stay hydrated while remaining outside majority of the time to enjoy watching their kiddos play. I purchased some printable drink labels on Etsy and served a punch (1 container green Hawaiian Punch, 1 large can of pineapple juice, and 1 bottle of ginger ale), Water, and Sweet/Unsweet tea.

I also used glue dots to secure red feathers to glass Sprite bottles, used the same style table cloth as inside on the food table (purchased a pack of 3) and decorated behind the serving area with paper leaves and a banner of my favorite quote.

“Ingredients” for a “Never Grow Up” Party | Drink Table

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Next on the list outside was the gift table. I thought it would be exceptionally cute to have a map with “x marks the spot” right where the “treasure” would be. I also had a leftover quote printout and a leftover second string of flags so I used those to decorate the gift area.

“Ingredients” for a “Never Grow Up” Party | Gift Table

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The backyard already had a “awning” so we added 2 more canopies that we borrowed from a friend for extra shade and put the tables for eating beneath them. We put the canopies on either side of the awning all touching so it was one long shade-rectangle, and put 3 tables in one long row right under. We added chairs and then for the fun part- decor!

I kept the tables fairly simple (we are eating on them outside in the wind and heat). A solid green plastic table cloth on each which a string of paper leaves. I used glue dots to secure the tablecloths to the tables and the string of leaves to the tablecloths #wind. The final touch was a set of Peter Pan themed paper table toppers, of which I discarded 2 of (because I didn’t like them much) and used the rest along the length of the middle of the table. It turned out really cute for being so simple and was EXACTLY what I had in mind.

“Ingredients” for a “Never Grow Up” Party | Seating Table(s)

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Finishing touches! I tend to plan down to the tiniest detail- including- a precious outfit (including a Peter Pan hat for the birthday boy himself), party favors people will actually keep, and an on-theme surface for the traditional smash cake. For the smash cake, we took the top off of the two-tier Walmart cake (which is, heads up, harder to do than you might think). We did our smash cake on the ground on top of a Neverland blanket. I know you’re curious, we were backed up on laundry and didn’t wash it until over 48 hours later- and everything washed out just fine!

Pro-Tip, it also all washed out of the white shirt just fine (but that one we threw into the washing machine pretty immediately after the smash cake event).

As folks left the party the kids each received a copy of “Peter Pan” wrapped in twine with a sticker sheet and a thank you tag. The parents were all SO excited for their children to receive a classic book as a party favor. I went ahead and gave one copy per child (even siblings) to avoid any potential jealousy, but it would also make sense to provide one favor per household if that is your preference.

“Ingredients” for a “Never Grow Up” Party | Finishing Touches

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I hope this helped inspire you for your little one’s party and that you make this blueprint your own!

Thanks for Flying By!!

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