1St Birthday Bash Ideas!

For my son's first bday I printed small photos (2 inches by 2 inches) from each month of his first year. I printed two of each and glued them, back to back onto toothpicks. I then placed them into cupcakes. Everyone enjoyed trying to guess which month they had on thier cupcake. We even played a game of trying to place them all in chronological order. It was a fun way to refelct about the past year.

I love planning birthday parties, too and I often have kids of all ages at the parites. I use this web site to get ideas http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/ Also, for my youngest 2nd birthday, I did a Fall party theme - he's October, too. We did pumpkin painting, donuts on the string, apple bobbing, pie eating contest (for kids and adults). Oh, one more idea, I had folks bring a time capsule item for the first or fifth (in case I forgot for their first birthday party!) birthdays - some people got really into it - and I have a special box for each of my children to be opened when they turn 20. Hope it goes well!

Truthfully, a 1 year old doesn't need, and won't understand, a bash! It will be stressful and way more stimulation than she can handle! She won't understand the big party, and she will get all whacked out if you have lots of entertainment likes clowns or ponies or whatever. Same with the other kids. They are too young to understand that the birthday child gets gifts and they don't.

We followed the "rule" of family only for a few years, then at 4 we started with a party of 4 kids. 5 kids at 5, 6 kids at 6, etc. I wasn't interested in having 30 kids, and I didn't want my son to get 30 gifts, and I wasn't interested in having him go to 30 parties all year for the other guests. It turns kids into "gimme monsters" always wanting presents and goody bags, and it is stressful and expensive for parents. Then you get into the competition thing - who spent the most money and had the most outrageous moonwalks, magicians or whatever. That ultimately spills over to Christmas, Sweet 16 parties, bar mitzvah blow-outs, and so on.

You can have wonderful parties with family and a few friends - it's nice to separate the family from the school friends too. We got books from the library and played a lot of old fashioned games the kids had never seen - treasure hunts (as they get older, use clues), potato races, etc. We did themes - one year was dinosaurs (we used all his toy dinos as decorations, made a dinosaur shaped cake, etc.) and another year was insects (my son was really into bugs - so we played "Pin the Stinger on the Bee" and I made cupcakes which I arranged like a giant caterpillar and decorated with licorice strings and candies to make legs and spots and antennae. The kids had a ball every year. My son is extremely social, not greedy, and we didn't go broke over the years. We celebrated relationships and quality time, and did some education while we were at it -- rather than policing huge groups of kids overstimulated on sugar. I wouldn't do a thing differently!

Good luck whatever you decide on!

My son also will be turning 1 in November. When my 6 year old had her first birthday I did a momento party for her and I plan on doing the same for my son for his 1st only a little different. For my daughter I had made a scrapbook of her first year. On the invitations I had pictures of her throughout the year and I wrote about her inside when she was born and stats and stuff and all the stuff she had started doing and that now it was time for her to turn 1. I asked everyone to write a poem, a song, a letter, or anything they wanted to share with her. Then I gave all the info of when and where the party was. When everyone arrived I had everyone write to her in a page in her scrapbook. She got lots of nice poems and a song written for her too. Her cake had an edible image on it of pictures of her that I had put on the invitation.

Now this year for my son I am going to do the same thing and ask people to write something for him, but I'm going to put it in a time capsule to be opened on maybe his 16th birthday.

Good luck planning your party.

My son is turning 1 in November, so I'm also interested in hearing what people have to say.

I'd love to be outside for some of it - maybe a fall leaves theme. I think the key is going to be timing. I'd hate for my little one to be cranky/overtired.

My friend had a cute birthday party for her daughter when she turned 1 in October too. It was a halloween theme and everyone came in costumes. She did little awards for silly costume, who stayed the longest in costume, ect. something for everyone. They also had a hay ride with a little wagon. She did halloween decorations which works out good if you decorate your house anyways for the holiday. My daughter was a month old and wore her costume and the older kids loved it too. It also goves more use out of the costumes rather than just one day a year. Have fun planing

To each his own, but we are celebrating our first child's birthday tomorrow, and we are simply hosting a BBQ for family and friends. We figure that this first one is as much about all of US making it through the first year successfully, as much as about celebrating that she is a year old. (In fact she will probably be napping through a couple hours of it!) I am baking a cake- she loves strawberries so it's going to be made with fresh strawberries from the farm down the street. I think she'll enjoy the company, tasting things, and being outside.

I like to have the parties reflect where the kids are at in life, or what their interests are. Not only does it make the theme more meaningful, it also kind of documents what they were like that year. For example, my first daughter seemed attracted to star shapes (on her mobile, in the tub, etc.), so the whole theme for her 1st birthday was about stars. Now we will always have that little memory about how she loved stars (and has since grown into quite the little diva "star" as she approaches her 4th birthday)! We got star ice cubes, star candles in the starry cake, and in the invitation, a picture of her as the STAR of the event. It seemed very appropriate for a 1st birthday.

My second daughter's bedroom, clothing, etc. was always centered around butterflies, so that's the theme we did then. We actually made her into a butterfly on the invitation. iParty had 1st birthday themed stuff with butterflies on it, so that was so perfect. For the older kids, I got necklaces for them to make that had beads with butterflies (and got a few with bees for the the boys).

My best friend wanted to do a picnic theme at Harkness Park, so I made her invitations with her whole family as ants, with the birthday boy carrying a cake toward the picnic blanket. She then had all the food in kids buckets, and made cupcakes with plastic insects on the green frosting. She also got out books from the library on insects for the kids to read during the picnic.

Obviously, I LOVE planning party themes, so let me know if you'd like help designing the perfect party!

I love this stuff! THe party planner in me is coming out.. what does the child like?? There's so much you can do.. theme or no theme. You can do a "star" theme and put the child's picture on everything like she is a movie star..There's a cool website that you can personalize movie tickets or buttons.. or the good old reliable Princess theme.. that's a ton of fun! Ask everyone to dress us, have goody bags full of fake jewelry.. doll cake or castle cake.. remember, 1 is young,they won't participate in anything so it's hard to plan it for them.. so anything you plan will be for the guests. you can rent a bounce house, face painters, pony rides, clowns, Princesses ( I know a great one who does Belle). If you want more ideas email me, ____@____.com

For my son's first birthday I did a Sesame Street Theme. I wanted to do a Pirate theme, but because he was only 1 I wanted to save that theme for an older birthday where they could dress up and do a treasure hunt and all that good stuff. For the one year birthday I wanted to be more age appropriate for him. I decorated with a ton of colors everywhere, I had huge colorful balloons everywhere, Oscar the Grouch Cups, Cookie Monster Cake Plates,Elmo dinner plates, Zoe Napkins, the works. My sister made a Big Bird cake for everyone and a personal Elmo cake just for the birthday boy. I thought this theme worked well because he loved the colors and what 1 year old doesn't love Elmo. This year for his second birthday we are doing a Barn Theme with Pony Rides and all the farm fixings! I would just try to keep it age appropriate and save a princess theme party for your daughter for a year that she can really appreciate it. My friend did a butterfly theme for her 1 year old daughter with pastel colors and butterfly cut outs hanging from the ceiling everywhere with butterfly toy gift bags. It was really cute!

Guys, In no way am I a party pooper or trying to bring anyone down. Just trying for a little reality. I rememver how crazy I was at Christamas for my sons very ist. A BIG MISTAKE. He couldn't have cared less about all the fancy gifts. He played with the empty boxes, got overstimulated.The older kids had too much sugar, it was a disaster now that I think about it. What is the 1st birthday anyone of us can really remember of our own, 4 or 5?
I felt sorry afterwards because the people that came where probably trying to pay bills, Christmas etc and this was only extra preasure to out do each other. Or to try and impress me. It wasn't about him, it never is. At a year old they have no concept of what a birthday is. It's us, the parents wanting to do the right thing. It's us, the adults that overspend, drive ourselves nuts and forget what Holidays are really about.
BEING FORCED TO SPEND TIME AND MONEY WITH PEOPLE WE'D RATHER NOT BOTHER WITH TH REST OF THE YEAR! I'm guilty go ahead SHOOT ME!