1St Birthday!

Hi C., I am a mother of 2 and I have learned with both of them that when it comes to the first couple of birthdays and Christmas', we tend to go overboard. I would suggest that the most memorable thing you can do is to get family members and friends over and video tape your little angel tearing into his own, first birthday cake. Then have everyone leave him a little message that he can look at later when he is old enough to understand what went on. Save your money for things that you can get him or yourself that you need. You are a single mother, so being thrifty is probably a good idea. Besides, what more can you give your child than precious memories. Good luck in whatever you decide, J.

1 mom found this helpful

My sister did an Elmo themed party for her son. I made an Elmo cake and cupcakes. She had one party for family and another party for friends. I think if that's his interest, go with it, have a themed party! They may be so young they don't remember, so take a bunch of pics! :)

We did a Blues Clues cake and balloons at our local gymboree. They did a great job with all the kids! He was really into blues clues and had so much fun at his Gymboree class.

I'm an AP mom too and my son was cloth diapered. Have you checked out diaperpin.com yet?

My son just turned 1 in September. I had the blues clues theme for that. I baked the cake and can send you pictures of it if you would like. Whatever theme that you decide to go with let me know and I can do your cake if you want. I had family and some friends that had little ones of their own and he had a ball. Let me know if you would like to see the cake that I did and I could do yours as well if you would like. Depending on the detail is depending on how much I charge.

Good luck

How much fun! When I was little, my grandmother always made us crowns to wear. When my son turned one, I wanted to carry on the tradition, so I went and got one from Burger King, painted it gold, and glued "jewels" on it (got a bag of gem stone looking things from walmart). He wore it proudly and I made a cake in the shape of the number one, decorated it on top with colored vanilla wafer cookies and I put lady fingers on the sides of the cake. I really didn't have a theme like I do now that he is getting older. I would explore some different cakes and enjoy this birthday, it only happens once, so make your own cake for him and let him tear into it and give a bite to every one at the party (our family would stand in line and when they got to the birthday kid, the kid would grab a handful of cake and put it in your mouth). Those are the best memories, I remember that more than any theme party I ever had.

Hi C.!
My daughter will be 2 in Feb - they grow up fast, don't they?

Anyway, I think themes are great, I just have one tip for you! When choosing a cake, if you plan to let your son eat some, make sure you get a cake with light coloring icing! My sister got one with dark blue & it stained her daughters hands! Just thought I would pass this on!

Enjoy the first birthday - we tried not to sing too loud because my daughter was a bit nervous when we put her in her highchair & all the guests were staring at her! But you will have a great time!

The 1st b'day is very special and one u will always remember. For our sons first b'day we ordered from birthday express and got a 1st bday theme.. it worked out great cuz we had his nursery done in teddy bears as well and these decorations not only had a big 1 on them but also a teddy bear and a rocket.

We took one of the napkins we ordered and had a local bakery decorate a big cake just like that and tied some balloons to each table ... It will just depend on what u feel most comfortable doin.. Either way it will be a very memorable day for u .. just have fun with it!

For my daughter we had a wiggles themed party and she had a blast with it, we played a wiggles CD and had a wiggles cake and we just had family over.

For my daughter's first birthday we went crazy. The only thing I could think of that would be more for her entertainment than the guests was a pool party. She LOVES to swim. Her birthday is also in February, so most people thought that was crazy. We had the party at the YMCA where the pool is inside. It turned out to be pretty nice.

For my son's first birthday, we just had people come over to our house. His birthday is in July, so all the kids could play outside.

We didn't really do a theme for either. I had a Sesame Street cake for my daughter. For my son, I had taken a cake decorating class and made a cake to look like him. His smash cake had the Very Hungry Caterpillar on it. It seems the more casual we let things be the more fun the kids have.

My son is eleven years old now,so it has been awhile since his 1st birthday.But I will tell u this we had a ice cream cake from Dairy Queen and we had them put a Dalmation on it....so if u wanted 2 u could go with the Dalmations Theme.They are very cute and sweet.Hope this helps.Best wishes 2 your son on his 1st birthday as well.Your friend:S.

For my daughter's first birthday we did a Dora theme. Betweent the two families we have a lot of people. So it was just family members and close family friends. We had it at my then boyfriend's parents house. We didn't have any games planned, just some toys and a baby pool. It was really relaxed and low key. Some parents go all out, but the child is so young that they really can't appreciate it. My daughter was the first grandchild on both side so it was a big deal. There's nothing wrong with just cake and presents, it's all about how you want to remeber it and how much you want to do; because lets face it your child won't be doing either.

I don't know whether it will be helpful, but I had a girl and we did a mini-theme (since the child is mostly oblivious).
It was a doll-theme, so the cake was a doll and she got several dolls as gifts, and we had a pool party (was a warm climate) to entertain the adults. I find it's a greater party if you think of something the parents can do too. =)

For all four of my kids and my two grandchildren we really didn't have a theme for their first birthday. What we did was... if it was a girl, it was pink decorations and blue for a boy. But the one standard we did have for the babies..... their own chocolate cake, a small round cake, all chocolate, home made, just for them. You know so they could dig in and make a mess! Makes for great first birthday pictures.

I think you are correct, your son don't guite know just yet what is happening on this special day, but look out for the second birthday! He will be ready for you!

Good luck.

I had ballons for the kids. They are really inexpensive. You can get a dozen for $5. I got 2 dozen for the kids, had some signs and thats about it. For the second birthday is when I did themed partys. Oh, I did buy a 1st b-day hat for both of my children. It was cute. Good luck.

For my son's b-day we did a John Deere theme and had a cake with the tractor. He had his own little round 6" cake to play in. His Grandma stuck his hands in it and he screamed, he doesn't like to get his hands dirty... Mostly family and friends at the house, but he enjoyed all the attention and playing with the gifts. I hung up a few streamers and ballons and had a decorative table cloth. For their 1st. you have to get him a his own cake and take pictures of him eating & playing with it for the scrapbook.

we did our sons first bday with spongebob. he did not feel good that day cause he got his 1st year shots that wednesday and we had his party that saturday. good luck with the bday party

Well for my daughter's first birthday we did mainly family and close friends. The theme of that party was Winnie the Pooh. I got her a small cake for her to play in, also. But be careful if u do decide to get him own lil cake because you'll need to clean him up shortly after he has his fun with it. My daughter and her cousin both played in they're cake and they both broke out afterwards. The doctor said it was from the food coloring and oil in the icing. But everyone else that let they're kids do that said they didn't have a problem.

For my son's first birthday we did Care Bears. I didn't find a Care Bear cake that I thought wasn't too girly so I ordered a cloud cake & added some Care Bears to it & decorated it myself. Since his birthday was in August we had a pool party. I didnt have any games (but I did buy a lot of silly string for everyone to shoot at each other) because he was so young & I knew he wouldn't care either way.

His second birthday we did Elmo. I had gotten a cute Elmo poster & decorated it with Happy 2nd Birthday Jayden. I had him an outfit specially made with Elmo on it but it was only worn for a short time. Had another pool party but this time we had some games. We had pin the nose on Elmo & a Rubber Ducky game (thats more Sesame Street like Ernie's lil Rubber Ducky) anyway, we had a baby pool filled with water & had ducks in it & we had 2 with the letter "J" on it (for Jayden) & whoever picked out that one got a prize. I had a cake done by a friends mom. She does GREAT!!!! I had pinata's as decoration.

His third birthday was a pizza party at Pizza Hut but it was Buzz Lightyear themed. I had another cake specially made for him & I found the cutest inflatable that siad Happy Birthday on it. It was huge!!!

I know that they have Baby Einstein decorations on BirthdayExpress.com (I just noticed u were from Dunbar WV & I know the party place in Kanawha City did have some baby einstein decorations) I found this on a 1st Birthday Baby Einstein theme party

I have boy/girl twins and had a difficult time deciding what theme to have for their first birthday. My twins loved watching baby Einstein, so I decided to create a baby Einstein theme party. The party was going to include children from the ages of 1 to 8 with parents as well. At the time there wasn't anything available with the baby Einstein characters on them so I used primary colors for all the paper products and table clothes and used Einstein hand puppets for center pieces for each table. I attached primary colored balloons to each puppet. Upon arriving each child had their picture taken with the twins in front of a large drawing of all the baby Einstein characters and received a white paper goodie bag that was decorated with the baby Einstein face and their name. I created a poster for each of the baby Einstein characters and hung them around our backyard. I prepared a station for each of the characters and as the children moved to each station (with their parent) they received a goodie for their goodie bag. The stations and goodies were: Baby Van Gogh~ painting (a premade picture frame made out of popcicle sticks), Baby Mozart/Bach ~ musical instruments (a kazoo), Baby Shakespeare ~ a puppet theater with a variety of puppets (each child made a paper bag puppet), Baby DoLittle ~ pin the tail on the lion (an animal sippy cup), Baby Neptune (sea animal bubbles) ~ toss the ring on the dolphin. The cake was a sheet cake with round cake on top of it. It was decorated with primary colors and streamers. I used the baby Einstein frog and turtle off the baby Einstein travel flip cards as toppings(one of each side of the round cake) for the cake. Before the children left I glued the picture that was taken upon their arrival, to the picture frame they had painted at the Baby Van Gogh station. We created our own thank you notes by drawing the baby Einstein face on each of the thank you notes and had the twins place a finger print by their name. All the children participated in each of the stations. Baby Van Gogh and Baby Shakekspeare being the biggest hit. All the parents said they had a great time doing the activities with their children and it was one of the best birthday parties they had been to.

And heres another
Baby Einstein Birthday Party We had a Baby Einstein Birthday Party for my son's 1st birthday. This was before Baby Einstein released their party supplies, so we weren't able to use any of those. We made an invitation on Photoshop by scanning in the covers of videos and pages from books & "cutting & pasting" the characters all onto an invitation. We used a font and colors that resembled the Baby Einstein logo. It came out very professional looking. For party supplies, I got all plates, napkins, cups and balloons in primary colors. We rented a helium tank and blew up 100 balloons (20 each of red, yellow, green, blue and purple). So, the balloons served as our primary decoration. For the cakes, I made my son his own little caterpillar cake. I got the "mini sports ball" cake pan, which makes 6 half-balls. I frosted each ball a different primary color, drew a face on one & placed them very close together to resemble the Baby Einstein caterpillar. It came out perfect!! We got tons of compliments!! My son LOVED it!! We made a second cake out of the "sports ball" cake pans (not the mini ones) for the adults. The cakes were the hit of the party and the perfect way to bring in the theme. For favors, I got small solid, primary colored gift bags from the party store. In each one I put 1 small Baby Einstein chunky book, and 1 Baby Einstein tub toy (the tub toys were sold in sets of 3. I bought several sets & divided them up so that each child received one toy). For thank you notes, I took a picture of him at the party with the caterpillar cake on his high chair & had it made into notecards on a digital picture developing website. They looked awesome!

personally...i would not bother with a theme at all this young. he's not going to know any better...wait for a theme party till he's old enuf to really know what is going on.

Four my 4 year old's first B.day I had the theme of Elmo becouse that is what he liked. I had bought a small cake for just him to stick his hands and face in. If you have a theme or not is not a big deal. All it matters is if family is there. If you choose a theme make sure it is some one or thing he likes.

The first birthday is kind of special because it's the first. We went with the Little People Farm cake so he could play with the toys after he dug in the cake. We had just a few close family friends and our family over for dinner, cake and ice-cream. Make sure the camera is full of film...or if you use a digital make sure it's empty so you don't miss any of those special first birthday pictures....like baby with his hands and face covered in cake. Might I also suggest that before you put him in the high chair...you might want to strip him down to just a pamper. It makes it easier to grab him with 2 fingers under each arm pit and rush him to the tub...lol.