First Birthday - North Las Vegas,NV

Hi J.,
I'm from Hawaii(just moved 8 months ago), where 1st birthdays are done in a big way. My daughter's 1st birthday was in planning stages from when she was born.
One thing you want to do is enlist friend snd family to help out with the set up, clean up,or macaroni and cooking. Keep yourself free to enjoy the party and your's sons 1st birthday. Also, have some help with photo taking. You can also buy a few disposable cameras and pass them around. I gave one to my 7 yeard old newphew, who actually got some interesting shots.
We also rented chafing pans for all the food to keep it warm or cold depending on what it was.
Foods that I found easy to do were beef stew; chili (crockpot power); BBQ chicken, marinated meat, and hot dogs (enlist a friend's help here to do the BBQing); potato salad; rolls; dishes from a Chinese restaurant (Panda's here would be good): fried rice, chow mein; orange chicken, etc..; vegi platter; sheet cake or cupcakes (frosted together as to look like one big cake); cookies; coolers filled with juice (Kool Aid), and water. Also, make sure to have kids friendly food and easy to eat for babies and toddlers.
Being from Hawaii, we also did Hawaiian food.
BTW: I got a lot of the pre-made foods (potatoe salad; dinner rolls) from Costco as well as finger foods such a olives, cheese, crackers. They also sell pre-made platters of food that you must order in advance of a few days. Remember make it easy on yourself and remember to have FUN!
I also made magnet favors out of the fun foam sheets with photos (used my computer printer for this) of my daughter for each adult guest to take home. It also had the date of her birthday and her name. For the kids, I had little toys to give to each toddler, and for the school aged kids, cool pens or pencils and folders.
Have fun with your party and good luck. If you want any other ideas just email me. Aloha A.

My son just turned one 2 weeks ago. We celebrated his birthday by having a "cowboy breakfast", we did pancakes and eggs, I rented a pony for an hour(pretty inexpensive), and handed out cowboy hat cookie cutters with a pancake recipe attatched for the party favor. It was a huge success and everyone loved the idea of a morning party!

Hello. I have a son who just turned 2 and i was in the same dilema as you. I found a website called www.amazingmoms.com This website is great. It gives you themed party ideas, as well as games to play, decorating tips, food ideas and ideas pertaining to an age group. I did find one for my son's birthday and have found a couple more ideas for his next birthday. Hope this helps.

We throw big bashes all the time. Some really quick and easy (kid friendly items) are frozen meatballs in the crockpot - you can do them with bbq sauce or spaghetti sauce (meatballs, pasta and some garlic bread and you've got dinner for an army). Adults and kids love them. Little cocktail weenies are also popular (crock pot with bbq sauce). Fruit trays are easy, not too expensive if you do them yourself, popular, and not too BAD for you. You can do a few fruits or many (apples, pears, watermelon, other melons, strawberries, bananas, whatever) and some sort of dip (fruit flavored yogurt in a fancy bowl works well. Or fruit dip (a jar of marshmellow cream mixed with a block of cream cheese - mix until creamy and it is GOOD), peanut butter, melted chocolate chips, caramel dip. I've even done it with just a few different colors of apples. Or fruit salad (cut, mix, add a little lemon, lime or orange juice so everything stays looking fresh and a pinch of cinnamon.) I can think of a ton of potential party/kid friendly things. If you want more ideas, let me know.

I have found some great recipes on www.allrecipes.com. Good luck!