Daughter's 1St Birtday...

Please don't make the first birthday party a big deal! she won't remember it and it's more for you than her. she just wants a small crowd of her favorite people (maybe 20 at most), not all asking for her attention at the same time which will make for a cranky birthday girl. add a light meal, a cake, some drinks, balloons, and you are done. save the big event for when she will appreciate it!

We have a lot of family too so I know how you feel ;-) For my daughter's 2nd b-day we had a "PJs and Pancakes" party. We invited everyone to come in their PJs and we made pancakes, eggs, etc. Everyone seem to love it. I made little mini cupcakes. The party was fairly cheap and easy (we had about 40 people). We had it from 10-12. our invite said:

Mix a pancake,
Stir a pancake,
Pop it in the pan;
Fry the pancake;
Toss the pancake,
Catch it if you can.

Please join us for PJs and Pancakes
To celebrate
Kayci’s 2nd Birthday!

PJs encouraged.

We just celebrated our granddaughter's first. We had alot of pink stuff around the house and bought a few pink decorations - it didn't matter whether they were all "themed" or not - just the crepe paper and plates and balloons were pink. Not alot of money there. Cake - get it at Kroger and they'll give you the one year old's little cake for free. Have all the people who are coming to bring a dish for a potluck kind of lunch. Or just have the party where cake and tea or something is served. I would try to remember that the baby doesn't care and the party is generally for parent's to celebrate that they and their baby survived the first year! :) Don't break your bank - relax have fun, borrow what you can from friends, family and neighbors and the party will be great!
One more piece of advice - babies can get overloaded, stressed out, and tired from all the whoopla and people there. Don't expect too much from him or her. The party's alot for them to handle.
Have a wonderful time!!

If you have a family member with a larger house, you might consider asking if they wouldn't mind hosting the party (with you providing all the food and goodies of course). That's only if both sides of the family get along and no one would get their feelings hurt if you chose one over the other, etc. We had our oldest son's first b-day party at our church (had to pay a reservation fee) and had 40+ adults and kids. We chose a time when he was alert (not during a traditional nap time) and had lots of activities for him to do as well as the other kids. We have a large family and most of our kids cousins are much older than they are, but both of our boys LOVE a large audience and the attention they get from their family. Our second son's 1st b-day is coming up in 4 months or so and I think we'll do two separate family get togethers to celebrate using his grandparents' homes as the location.

some cupcakes, balloons and cute napkins is all you need! Part City has the decorations for cheap!

We have a large family and we always have the first birthday at home, We go the traditional route, cake ice cream. (we usually have lunch too, because alot of them come from about an hour away but you don't have to do that). Simple directions. Good luck and hope she has a great birthday.

Just a thought if your daughter's big day is close to Valentines... instead of cake for everyone you could make heart shaped cookies and if there are any kids there, instead of favors, they could decorate the cookies for everyone. I tried not to spend too much money for my son's 1st in October, but I did! Mainly because we did food for about 55 people!!!! Good luck!!!

Hi C.,
Lee Ann wrote this really cute piece about a homemade first birthday party for Burb Mom: http://www.burbmom.net/handmade-1st-birthday/

and then if you are planning on having older kids (slightly older) you might want to check this out by Shannah: http://www.burbmom.net/preschool-birthday-party-on-the-ch...

So much fun! Good Luck.

We got just a few decorations and had over about 10 people total with only one other child there. I had heard that since they are too young to really understand what's going on a big party can freak them out. Our daughter did freak out when we started to blow up ballons, so bad my husband had to go to another room to finish and then we put them up while she was napping. But she was fine for the party in fact I think she loved all the attention. Plus I put an end time for the party on the invitation because I knew she wouldn't last more than a couple of hours. Hope this helps and good luck.