My Sons 1St Birthday

If you have a little plastic pool, or can get one, you can use it in the house, if you have the room. I've seen in Parent's magazine where people use rice instead of sand, that way it's safe for kids to play in. Or you could get those shallow totes, the kind that go under the bed, and use them instead of the pool. Then, after the party, you could use it for storage. That way, you can still have a dump truck party, only keep the little ones inside & warm!

Have fun!!

No need to get so messy if you don't want to! Go to this link:

http://www.celebrateexpress.com/celebration/pages/product...

http://www.celebrateexpress.com/celebration/pages/product...

That first link is the Bob the Builder Construction Theme from Celebrate Express. The second is the First Birthday Party Consturction Pals Set. OR just go to celebrate express.com and look around and find a truck theme of your own. You can order SO MUCH from this site. I have used it for all my kid's and god son's birthday parties since I found it. Even my mom's!

At age one, you don't want too much going on for too long at the party any way, because one year olds *will* get over stimulated with a lot of people around. Really, you just want something for them all to have to open while he opens his presents if you're going to have others his age, something to do for a little bit while you have a few minutes of socialization and hand out cake, and then the cake and something to take home. Really, little kids parties shouldn't last for more than an hour or two at the most in my experience.

So, this site has a lot of things to keep the kids entertained. There are GREAT favors. They have Dump truck mylar balloons, candy tool sets, a party favor pack that has a little dump truck in it, stickers, play dough and play dough cutters (these all come separate so you put the box together yourself, which means kids too young can have play dough left out and you can add your own little things to go in). It has all kinds of decorations and fun things, too. You can get all the kids their own construction hats from here, they even have these adorable cups with straws that look like construction cones! They have construction traffic signs, toy flashing safety lights, a construction candle holder set for the cake, you can get construction t-shirts for the kids, a bulldozer pinata, etc.

Any set you get from there gives you the option of a thick vinyl personalized banner (They look GREAT), and come with a themed plastic table cloth, themed party ware, themed invitations and thank-you cards, and great keep sakes (like personalized framed mats and memory scrolls) for you.

I love planning parties and activities and I use this site all the time for it. My last one was my oldest son's third birthday party, which was a pool party Diego themed. We had an "animal rescue" adventure, which was just a scavenger hunt for little bean bag animals, swim time with themed pool toys, pull string pinata, favor boxes, and cake. He was worn out pretty fast, but a lot of the kids there were older, so that's why I had so many activities. My youngest son's first party was Land Before Time themed and since he was just turning one, I them all open their favor boxes while he opened presents (their favor boxes were actually buckets which had dino stickers, a couple of large plastic dinos, some smaller dinos, a dino-cup with straw, etc.), then we did his own personal cake and then everyone else got cake from the bigger one. After that, we were done. We did have some swimming with a kiddie pool and a bigger pool, but the party didn't last long enough for anyone to do much swimming.

Anywho, the point of that was... you want to give the other kids something that will make them happy and enjoy it, but don't do too much because the focus is on your one year old and he wont last long. I would try not to invite too many people over unless he is used to it, as well. My first son's first birthday party my uncle invited a TON of people that I didn't and it was just way too over stimulating. He was fussy and just wanted to nap.

I hope this helps and enjoy your sons party!

Congratulations on the birthday. You should celebrate for yourself because your son won't remember it. We took a picture of my son eating his first cake, I opened his gifts and then put him to bed. After he fell asleep we broke out the wine and cheesecake for all the adults we invited to the party.

If you do decide to do a kid party for him, maybe on account of the older boy, themes are still kind of beyond their reach. You might want them to only play with dumptrucks but the little kids might have something else in mind. I would just set them free for an hour of playtime and then have cake and ice cream. You might sing but skip the candle. Open gifts after the other kids have left but send thank you cards. Send the guests home with a lollipop and some stickers. Keep it short too avoid tantrums and fighting.

We have one of those sand/water tables for the kids. During the winter we bring it in and fill it with dry pasta or rice. It works just as good as sand.

I would get a large inflatable pool, put it in the garage and fill it with sand! You can put space heater in there if needed. Also make sure you tell the parents the kids will be playing in the sand and to bring a change of clothes.

I wouldn't worry to much about a lot of structured activities or inviting to many friends. At that age they don't play to much with other kids. At my sons b-day he lasted through eating, cake, and unwrapping gifts-that's it. He wanted his nap after that. Just keep it real simple.

build a sensory table... basically a box... (you can buy them too but its cheaper to make them) put a tarp under it and put dried corn in it. the kids will have a blast using diff trucks and things in the corn and they will still be able to scoop it and make piles.. and the plus for you.... you just sweep it up and keep putting it in the box! hope this helps

Just about *anything* can be played with in dump trucks -- it doesn't have to be sand. If you have a enclosed place like a garage, you can fill a small plastic pool with sand and let them play with it, or get the plastic balls like at McDonald's Play Land, or even some of the little "whiffle balls" (golf ball sized). My kids enjoy just racing their trucks and other bigger toys without even dumping.

Hi,
I saw a cute "cake" recipe that used a dump truck, this is the link for it http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50120 and another cake in the shape of a dump truck http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/construction-cake.html
I don't really have any ideas about play activities though, sorry.
Good luck,
Nikki

We had that problem too and used the styrofoam-like packing beads...except they now make them with starch so they just melt in water when you're done with them. My son calls it "snow" and loves to play with them in his dump truck. Best of all, super easy cleanup!

Do yourself a big favor and skip the big organized parties until at least the 3rd birthday. We have 4 children, and for each of them we just invited a couple friends who had children their age and another couple who were kind of their "adopted" grandparents since we live 600 miles from extended family. If you live near family, invite them, of course. Big, organized events usually end up exausting the kids and you may find yourself with a bunch of tired, cranky little ones that just need a nap before it's all over. My youngest just turned 3 and this is the first year she will have a "big" party...at McDonalds. Still not a real organized event, but kids this age love the playpace and the kidsmeals! And we aren't inviting more than 5 children...that is still more than the 3 that we should be inviting but what's 2 more compared to possibly hurt feelings of friends who don't get invited (the adult friends, not the kids...they don't care about party invitations at this age, either, lol)

O., What if you purchased a rug, you know the kind that has roads on it OR maybe make one out of cardboard or whatnot. Dump Trucks come in various sizes... if you can, you could get one for every child that is there... so they can play with one of course a smaller version. I am racking my brain to see what else you could make a road like pathway for the boys....

Kinda like making it portable.
Here is something to get you started.

http://www.shopzilla.com/toy-vehicles-planes/toy-roads/14...

O.,
If you have an underbed box or two you could fill them with legos,wooden blocks or any other smaller toys or something like those beads that you can pop apart and together. The underbed boxes should be a good height to keep the toys contained yet low enough to allow the kids ease of using the dump trucks in the boxes. Hope this helps.

Oatmeal!!! it works just like sand, but if they eat it no one cares. I would put out a tarp or shower curtain and maybe put it in a storage tote - the ones made for under the bed are a great size. that way most of the clean up is in the box. your 3 year old will probably have more fun than the birthday boy though since his attention span is probably a bit longer. I wouldn't do more than this and maybe some music on or an elmo video or something of that sort. the kids will probably all run around and want to help with the presents anyway. Good luck.

You could spread out a huge shower curatin and bring in a small sand box and let them dig! Best thing to remember about doing something like this is to let them have fun. You KNOW you have to vacumm later, so what will alittle more sand be?
Have fun!