I've been curious to know how his "green" party went???

[starrsgirl]

Sorry, I have been so crazy busy over here!

Quick update in between running around:

Party was awesome! I seriously would do this theme again and again and again.

For those who don't know, Emmett's theme was "Going Green". We sent out e-invitations to all the guests in favor of paper ones. The invites said something to the effect of "Emmett is turning 1....lets help keep the planet beautiful for years to come."

Party setup: real plates, silverware, cups, real tableclothes, cloth napkins. We had a bin for dirty dishes, a recycling bin and a small trashcane. We didn't really do any decorations. I did have a photo poster made for E with the pictures I took each month of him for his first year and hung that up in the garage.

Eats: steak and burgers (from local butcher shop, meat was local), corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, watermelon, cantalope (all the produce was local...grown within an hour radius and purchased from local farm stands). My MIL made various salads and such with some of the veggies. We bought buns and bread products from a local bakery. We a couple of mule kegs of beer from the local brewery to drink and then also had ice water and lemonade. Organic chips with local salsa were also served.

My MIL made homemade cupcakes for E. We used environmentally friendly (biodegradable) cupcake wrappers.

We asked everyone to skip the card and we had a giant homemade card for everyone to sign instead.

On the e-invite, we told people not to bring gifts, but if they insisted, to consider environmentally friendly/hand me down stuff.

I can't describe the emotions I felt over some of the gifts Emmett got. One little girl (who was 4) picked out a wooden puzzle and a pull toy from her own toy box to bring to the party and give to Emmett. I almost cried when she told me proudly that she picked the gifts out herself to give to "baby Emmett". My college friend gave me a baby sweatshirt from our college that her daughter had worn! Talk about perfect. Another couple went to the goodwill and found 3 really fun battery operated toys that were a blast. Another friend found a firetruck that was made from recycled milk jugs. My parents gave Emmett a savings bond and one of my sisters donated to a wildlife foundation in his name. A lot of people used newspaper or recycled bags to wrap the gifts.

All in all, I think we generated less than 1 bag of trash for the whole party (of about 30 people). It made me feel really good that no one spent any money (or very very little money) to buy Emmett a gift.

I think as Emmett gets older, I would consider having him donate gifts or choose a foundation/charity and have guests who want to contribute to that charity in his name. I like the non-material focused celebration KWIM? It changes the whole dynamic.

For Thank you cards, I found recycled hand made ones on Etsy. They were super cute.

On a side note, since the party, Eric and I have continued to use cloth napkins and been more conscious of our footprint everyday. We try to look for ways to cut, reduce or recycle. We continue to buy Emmett used things whenever possible (clothes and such). Eric and I have both started commuting as much as possible by bike and on foot. So I feel like the party kinda pushed us along as well if that makes sense.

This party was a ton of fun to do and I got so many positive comments from the guests as well. I definitely recommend doing it to anyone else who is throwing the idea around.

Thank you stopping in and replying.

You actually are the one that got me thinking about it more, and I think we're going to kind of do that for christmas. I mean, to some it sounds tacky, but I over spent last year, and bought tons and tons of things that dont even get played with for more then 10 minutes. This year I'm setting aside money for "new" items, and money for "used" items, and then will be buy a few items they can share (One being a new kitchen set to play with). I know it's to early for Christmas but I've already been buying on clearance, and bought a used toy the other day to set back.

We also have recently went to cloth napkins and cloth paper towels and I'm looking at using cloth training pants for potty training.

[starrsgirl]

That idea for Christmas sounds awesome!!!

Yeah, I completely agree that many people go overboard on Christmas and the kids don't even touch the toys. We will get Emmett 1 gift and that's about it. Last year, we really didn't get him anything.

Also, another thing we do for Christmas is sponsor a local family in the area. Then we spend what we would have spent on our gifts on the family. That way, you still get the shopping experience but the stuff really makes a difference to the family who gets it. It can be fun for kids too to pick out toys for another child their own age

[mommytokem]

Liz that sounds really cool. I think that is an awesome idea I'll have to run that idea past dh for Christmas too and even Miah's b-day is coming up and we will be having a party back home for her. I've been wanting to go to cloth napkins and paper towels we just ran out of paper towels so I think I'll buy some extra towels to use. I'll keep an eye out for napkins too because I figure we probably go through 50 if not more a week depending on how messy our meals are. Not sure what dh will think but he's not the one who will have to wash them.

[Wifenmomalwys]

Good for yall, Liz! That sounds really nice