I Need Suggestions for Two Separate Bday Parties...1 Year Old & 40 Year Old

Hi,
I have 3 kids A 5 year old girl, and 2 year old twins. For my daughter's first birthday, we traveled back home to California. We rented out a party room at a nice park. The family cooked and we had an awsome performer. But, you can skip the performer and just have a nice family gathering. Just have games, food, and cake. I am sure it will be fun. For the boys, we stayed home and invited our closest friends. They kids had a ball. We didn't even do the games. My husband made Chili and we had a great time. Sometimes getting a performer will be less than speding money on little toys and games. For your husbands' party, I would have a luau. Sorry, not sure if spelled right. You can make it fun without spending a ton of money! Good Luck!

Hi! I also am on a limited budget for my son's first birthday but want it to be a big deal. I know some people think it's dumb to go all out on a baby's birthday but I'll be more "normal" later on. This 1st birthday is a big deal that we want to really celebrate: kind of a coming out party. He's moving from "baby" to a little boy! We're also celebrating because hey---we survived!!! I think it's definately something to mark and have a lot of laughs with. Later on we'll do the more casual things at home, but this is a different kind of celebration. You only get a "first" birthday once!
We're going home to Louisiana so I can invite my family and old friends (and their kids, ages 2-10). We're having the party at a nice, clean, local park instead of paying tons of money to rent something out that would be more interesting when the child is older. Cooking jambalaya and white beans (regional staple, but also feeds 40 people for about $100, lol). A friend will provide veggies & dip, another is bringing chips w/rotel dip. I'm doing a cowboy/western theme because the next day we're going to a rodeo, so we're baking a horse cake (got a template and clear directions for cutting/decorating it from familyfun.com) and my son's "smash cake" will either be a carrot or horseshoe (to look cute together).
Aside from good food and visiting friends/famiy, we'll have a few games planned out: horseshoes and target shooting (with toy gun that shoots soft "darts") for the older kids, and for the younger kids they can play pin the moustache on the cowboy (cut-outs I'm making), we bought a pull-string pinata @ Party City for about $8 that we'll fill with candy (got coupons for candy in the Sunday paper), and a roping area where we're borrowing a few bales of hay from a neighbor and putting a borrowed saddle on one so that the little kids can take turn roping a "bad guy". (Bad guy is still to be determined). The games will have a couple prizes just from the dollar store or Walmart.
Instead of blowing a lot of money on stuff for the goody bags, I'm going to make a small batch of chocolate cookies and put a couple in each bag ("cow patties"), a personalized deputy badge (plain, sold at Michaels or Joann's for cheap, that I wrote each kid's name on their pin), and I'm going to make silly Wanted posters (11x14) that I'll print off before the party with silly names and a "crime" they're known for. (You can age them with tea and carefully singe the edges with a lighter). In the roping area, I'm going to take a picture of each kid in the saddle with an old polaroid camera I have and during the party mom will attach the picture to the posters and put them in the goody bags, which will be given out when time to leave. Some people have those portable printers where you can print stuff from a digital camera on-site. I don't have one, but polaroids work fine. Giving the kids those things and some of the balloons used to decorate as they leave, I think they'll be happy and it will help clean up the area as the party ends. At the end, we'll do the presents and cake (the finale): don't forget to bring an extra simple outfit that your son can get in after the cake mess. (Simple so it's easy to put on and if he's getting tired, it won't make him as fussy as a "whole" outfit).
I'm going to have a bunch of precut slips of paper for messages from the guests that they can write on and I'll put them in Joseph's scrapbook later. Things like "Birthday Party Memories" where they can write their favorite thing from that day, or "You make me laugh when you" or "You're special to me because" or "Meeting you today was" (because most people haven't met him yet).
I think if you get creative, you can have some things that make the party funny or memorable without spending a fortune. I'm just excited to see everyone and "show off" my sweet boy, but it'll make me happy to see him playing with other little kids and seeing everyone have fun.
One more thing: since we live out of state, noone really gets to see my son often and they change so much in the first year, that one of the things I'm going to have on display is a frame I bought from a local lady (message me if you'd like and I'll hunt up the business card): it was only $10 but it's the first year: there's room for 12 smaller pictures, and then one bigger picture on top (1 pic for each month, and then the birthday party pic). I'm going to have that on display on the gift table.
Hope this wasn't too long. Hope that even if you have a different theme, this might get your creativity stirred up so you can come up with some fun ideas that will work for your family.

When my son was turning a year I invited family and friends over to my house and cooked dinner and a cake. That was it. No need to go buy silly matching cups, plates, napkins and decorations for someone who is barely feeding themselves. Take pictures and remember the great company you had.

As for the husband's party, why not try out Dave & Buster's? They have games and alcohol and a great family environment. Not too expensive either.

You mentioned you live in an apt. Most apt complexes have a community room (or whatever they call it) that can be leased out by their tenants fairly inexpensively (sometimes free). They of course come with stipulations, sometimes they have to be cleaned afterwards, sometimes that is included. Sometimes you can have alcohol, sometimes you can't...etc.

Now as far as the adult birthday party. My 30th was a couple of years ago, and my mother got a sheet of butcher paper that rolled out to about 20 feet long. She had copies of pictures made from the time I was born until present, including lots of the people who were at the party with me. People also brought their own pictures and put them on in addition to my mom's photos. It was a lot of fun for people I know now to see photos of my funky teen years...and they all signed it. I still have it, and it will be alot of fun to look at for years to come.

I did a video for my husband for our 10th anniversary in a similar way, with photos/music of my husband and I from birth through present. I included monumental events (graduations, wedding, childrens births, etc.) It was INCREDIBLY time consuming (partially because it was a suprise so I coudln't just work on it any time I had time). But, my husband actually CRIED. He has really enjoyed it alot...so it was very well worth it.

At another 50th birthday I attended, a huge timeline (created again on the butcher paper) was created with monumental events/photos of the birthday person. Attendees were directed in the invitation to bring any photos they had with the birthday person during their "years together". You know you see some old friends (high school, college, distant family, first job co-workers, etc.) friends during these things that you dont see every day. It was alot of fun too and didnt require so much work on the person planning it, other than prior to the event putting all the major dates on it. It could be really creative/artsy, or not so much, with the photos being the focal point. It was really cute at the end...and there were messages/signatures from all the attendees with their respective photos. It was fun.

As far as the 1 year old's birthday party...the real reason for that is photos (as far as I am concerned). Have it at a park, or somewhere REALLLLLLLY cheap, cause you will have LOTS of opportunity for more demanding parties later! :) Good luck!

K.,

I am not sure how much money you would want to spend on the party but in the past we have gone to the Embassy Suites or some hotel that has a kitchenette. I have purchased all of the food, refreshments and entertainment for the guests I have invited. At the end of the night, we got to stay in the hotel room. In the morning, the cleaning crew cleans and will toss the trash and we go home. I would urge relatives to stay at the same hotel. When you call the hotel, ask for a block of rooms at a discount rate. Find out if friends or relatives want to stay the night. The rooms are usually next to each other. You can put a different appetizer in each room. It makes it fun and interesting to have several rooms in a row with food and drink. You are not confined to just one room. Good luck!

M.