1St Birthday Party Ideas - Rego Park,NY

Hi E.:
How exciting! First Birthdays are a remarkable event..moreso for the parents. We did a Crayola theme for my son (who is now 3). The colors were great. Centerpieces were a big box of sidewalk chalk with balloons tied to them and we gave them as "door prizes" to one lucky person at each table (taped a picture of a red crayon to the chair). The gift bags were so easy..crayons, markers, etc and it keeps the sweets to a minimum!. ...for during the party, you could create a "coloring table" for the little ones with a paper tablecloth and markers for them to draw away during the festivities. Cupcakes with the bright colors are a great way to avoid spending so much time cutting and serving cake. HOpe this helps...it was great for us. Best of luck

Hi!
My son was also born on the 8th and we are figuring out his 1-year old party.
I am having a kids party on Saturday with about the same amount of people. There will also be kids from 1-6 so my friends who are the parents of the 4,5 and 6 yr olds who will be there told me to set up a table with paper and crayons and they will be fine. Also, my friend was talking about these foamy, sticky things you can get at a crafts store and the kids can stick them on paper. I am having pizza and cake that day.
The next day, it will be for the family, a much smaller group. I am getting heroes and making a cake. Whatever people can do to self-serve themselves helps me out a ton (after Christmas, I am not cooking for a large group for a while!) You can also try chicken nuggets- older kids seem to love those.
Good luck and happy first birthday to your little King (Elvis was also born on Jan. 8th)
Best,
Tahara

I see you have a lot of advice about food - as regards individual pizzas, you can always make them with either english muffins (regular or whole wheat) or tortillas as a base.
I agree about the party being perhaps too long, but we have a large family and sometimes that just happens. If you can, try and get your son to take a morning nap, or at least try to see if you can get him some extra sleep the night before.
As for party games, what about some old classics - musical chairs, pin the tail on the donkey, hot potato, etc. They may be old hat to us grownups but they are brand new to some kids. You can also try some homemade games - bean bag toss games or games using ping pong balls - these work indoors and are safe - no big balls being tossed in the house.
Good luck and have a wonderful birthday party!

Hi E.-
What I do is put a few full size cups out with toddler friendly snacks- cheerios, puffs, etc, and let the kids help themselves. This is always a big hit! You might make a separate tray for the bigger kids. For the adults make a couple of appetizers and that should be good.
I would do an easy dinner that everybody would like- order pizza or make a pasta, something like that.
I hope your little guy has a great first bday!

How about Ziti. It can be made ahead and is easy heat and serve the day of the party. It also is almost always a big hit with kids and adults alike. If baked in the metal pans clean up is put leftovers away, crumple and toss!!! Then a fruit or veggie platter with dip and your good to go! As for activities get some water colors and paper and the kids can paint. It too is easy clean up! Or coloring books and crayons!!! Don't go crazy!!! The 1st birthday is for the guests more than the birthday kid! Give them their own mini cake or even a cup cake for some messy fun and priceless pictures and have a big bib and lots of paper towels. I over did both my kids 1st birthday and they don't even remember. The cake on the head pictures of themselves is more fun than the memories and I worked my butt off!!! Even now we have lots of people (About 40 people!!! 5 families all with 4, 5 ,6 or 7 children each. My friends all believe in BIG families. My theory is the more the merrier!) but we make a pot of spaghetti sauce, veggies and dip and cake and thats it!!! It is the cheaperest way and lots of fun. Paper products save a ton of clean up and I can enjoy myself!! Have fun and remember this is your 1st birth day as a Mom too!!! A.

Coming from experience, I'd cut down on the party time. Although there will be a lot of adults there, you will also have a number of younger ones who may end up melting down or wired for sound! My daughter's birthday was the whole family thing w/maybe 3 children under 2 and it became a screamfest. As much as I love children and all, even the older they get it is recommended to stick to maybe a 2 hour limit. My daughter was so overtired because she couldn't sleep with everything going on and likewise with the other chidren. I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but coming from one mom to another, I just wanted to offer you a bit of sanity. Enjoy! Oh, and one activity the children I've ever babysat or had at at one of my daughter's parties loved fingerpainting w/chocolate pudding - put them all in their highchairs and just let them go to town on the clean tray. Clean up is really easy!

When my kids turned 1, i made some homemade mac-n-cheese for the kids and ordered some sandwiches and sides for the adults. If you have any older kids or a mothers helper in the neighborhood, maybe hire them to come over for a couple of hours to play with the older kids. I've done that several times and the kids LOVE playing with an older kid. If you are looking for party favors, I recently started my own personalized party favor business. www.littleshopoffavors.com. I give a 10% discount to MamaSource moms. Most of all, enjoy this milestone b'day!!

Hi E.,

For my son's first birthday, I put out little bowls with the gerber puffs and gerber curls in the zety tomato and cheese flavor. For the big kids I put out the gummy fruit snacks. For food, I had pizza, cake and juice(for the kids), soda (for adults) and water. They played a few games like hot potatoe, mucical chairs, pin the tail on the inflatable donkey and we had a pinata. My party however lasted only 1 1/2 hours, so some of this may work, but you may require a few more activities.

Good luck. I hope this helps and that you enjoy the party. Don't stress out too much. Remember it should be more for your son than for the rest of your guest, so make sure he has fun.

D.

I understand your joy at having reached the first year...celebrations are fun, but all of the experts will tell you that a one year old shouldn't have so many guests. 25 people would be too many even for a five year old. If you just admit the party is for the important adults in your childs life, everything will go smoother. You don't need to have an extravagant theme. Knowing it is a first year celebration is theme enough. You could order some bowtie pasta salad with chicken and a tray of mini meatballs and a small tray of wrapper sandwiches, keep it simple with a mixed green salad and bread,Soda, ice tea, and bottles of water. Have a birthday cake and sing the song...that would be plenty for the adults. The kids can have small cut up finger foods. One year olds don't eat much so don't go crazy worrying about them...it is more important to have a nice time...play a Raffi video,let the kids crawl on a big quilt with a few toys,the adults will be delighted to watch them with ooohs and ahhhs, make sure there is a quiet place for little ones who might feel overwhelmed by such a big crowd.Don't feel pressured, relax and be sure to spend a few minutes one on one with each one of your guests and it will be a lovely party.

E.,
Children love to decorate their own cupcakes and it keeps the buys for a few minutes - it is messy tho! Or make their own sundaes.
My children are older now 25, 10, 8, and 7 so I have had a lot of parties over the years. This past summer I organized a block party and the activiity that the younger kids LOVED was painting! I picked up some figurines with paint from Michaels and they sat for an hour just painting and talking!
My children love flat bread pizza-like individual pan pizza. Again, you can get the kids to help - set out the flat bread (we use round pocketless pita from Costco) and put toppings with spoons on the table (Coscto also has meatballs that can be cut up and used for this)-Bake for 15 minutes and done!
The main thing is to take lots of pictures and enjoy!
D. E.