First Birthday Party Ideas?

Hi J., My daughter's first birthday is coming up in Jan. right after the holidays. I am having around 25 people over with around 6 kids of different ages ranging from 1-7 years old. SO I am having a taco bar, mexican food thing. Cake and ice cream. My idea was to hire someone to play Elmo in a costume. My daughter LOVES Elmo while I am not the biggest fan of character bdays I know she would love it. SO that is my idea. I am also looking for some other ideas too. We are wating to see how she does with Santa before we decide on the Elmo thing:) J. S.

We had my daughter's 1st birthday party at Gymboree, on Plainfield, in Grand Rapids. It cost $200 (we were members... not sure of cost for non-members), and they provided EVERYTHING, including invitations, decorations, cake, juice, and a special birthday-themed play program. Plus they did decorating and clean up. The kids all had a blast, the cake was good, it was very well ran, and I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone! It was AWESOME!

Hi J., we are having my son's in a few weeks and also struggled. As far as kids, there will be four under the age of 3, so we are not doing any structured games. I did get them all a $1 book from Target as a favor. We are doing pizza, salad, cake & ice cream, maybe an appetizer...Also, I ordered personalized invites, plates, and candles from www.birthdayinabox.com, and I can't say enough good things about them! There was not a minimum # of invites you had to order, the items arrived quickly and they have a great return policy! For example, if I don't use all the packages of plates, I can return for a refund. Another thing we are going to do is buy balloons to put behind our son's high chair. That way it's more than just a wall for pictures. I wouldn't stress too much about it.

Hey J....
I think every parent wants that 1st Bday to be just the greatest...and I found that no matter what you plan, its hard when you are dealing with a baby.
I just had an intimate gathering of family and friends...all the people that my son knew well and that we spend time most of our time with.
I made it as simple as possible but splurged on a few things like....the invitations. I had them made with an animal theme and they were so cute. I also had a 1st picture taken and included those with the invitations. I just had pizza, salad, bread...and of course splurged on the cake and had it specially made for the occasion with the animals.
This way you can concentrate on whats important and that is your child and being with the people you love. :)
Oh..and I also bought one of those small little Bday cakes for him so he could just dig in and I could get all those first cake eating shots....it was so much fun.
Enjoy and hope you have a great time!

One thing special that I did at my son's 1st bday was to take pictures of him with every guest/group that came to his party. I set up a bench with a Happy Birthday banner behind it and had people sit on it holding him. I made 2 copies of each picture, one to keep, and the other I wrote on the back and used as Thank You cards and mailed out. Great keepsake for everyone!!!

Hi J.,

Our daughter just celebrated her first birthday in August. (she's are only as well) We had the advantage of a summer birthday... so we did a cookout. Hamburgers, hot dogs, pasta salad and stuff like that.

I made a carrot cake for my daughter and then went to Meijer and got a sheet cake for the rest of us. I got a balloon bouquet with one GIANT balloon that said Happy Birthday or something. I think the balloons were the biggest hit for my daughter. I had them put the hiloft in... and the big one last a week! She played with it every day for that week.

Anyway, we just did a simple cookout, nothing too fancy. Everyone had a great time. There was little fuss, people were able to spend some good time with our daughter... it was great. We had about 25 people here.

Hope this helps!

Bug theme; rubber duckie theme; barnyard theme

J.,

We made the cake special for our son's first birthday. It was a two layer cake with devil's food cake on the bottom and an angel food cake on the top.

Our son's first birthday was hosted at my in-law's house because we lived over 4 hours away from any family and close friends so I was not able to decorate a whole lot.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

-C.

We had a playgroup 1st birthday and I made bibs for all the girls with their name and the number "1" on it (you could do the ages of all the younger kids)along with a small favor bag of bubbles and a finger puppet (from Ikea so very reasonable). It turned out really cute. I have a picture I can send if you want to see it. One of the moms also made cupcakes instead of cake with each child's name on it so they each got a personalized cupcake.
Have fun!

Hi, just wanted to let you know that I would not recommend a public venue for a 1st birthday(Chuck E Cheese, Castaway Cafe, Etc...) It is too loud and like someone else said, you will already have enough going on dealing with your baby! For my son's first, we had it at my mom's because our home was not big enough for everyone. We had it in the afternoon so we also would not have to feed a large crowd. I had many various ages(1-10) and did not do games, but I did goodie bags according to age, and helium ballons, all ages love those. They were thrilled to get to choose a balloon or two to take home. Also keep in mind that you or your spouse will basically be opening all the gifts, some kids just don't get that part yet. Give someone else your camera, so they can get the action. Also keep the gifts moving, becaue they will probably play with the first toy they see.

My son is now two and he had much fun with the gifts this time around! Good luck.

R. L.

My sons 1st birthday isnt til may. But i already have a theme for his. I want to do the little prince theme

We have a ton of family and we live in a condo, so we rented an American Legion hall for my son's 1st birthday.

We had the party on a Sunday afternoon from 2-5pm. That way we got away with just serving cake & ice cream and didn't have to provide a meal for 60 people!

Our theme was baseball...it was a couple of season's ago and the Tigers were #1 at the time! I did little bags of peanuts for favors and we had popcorn and personal size bags of potato chips out on the tables. We had fun flavors of pop like Root Beer & Vernors. We used all baseball decorations and put balloons at each table. I didn't make goodie bags but I gave each child a balloon to take home.

We served cake and did an ice cream sundae bar with ALL the fixings! I made my son a tiny cake in the shape of a baseball and got a Detroit Tigers candle for the top.

On an extra table I did a little "1st year shrine", kinda like they do at graduation parties. It had my son's birth picture, a frame with a pic of him from every month since he was born, his 1 year pics, his baby book, and a 1st bday frame that everyone could sign.

Have fun! We had a blast:)