What Did You Do for 1St Birthday Party?

Happy Birthday to your twins!!
How exciting! I have no idea if you are at all interested, but my family owns a Mexican restaurant in Merrillville, Indiana and we do catering to any type of parties all over the Chicagoland/NW IN area. I don't know if you will end up having a Mexican themed party. My phone number is: ###-###-#### and my name is J.. Call if you have any questions.

A little about me:
SAHM. Happily Married. Mother of a 7 mo. old beautiful baby girl.

Hi Nicole,
I LOVE the website, www.birthdaypartyideas.com. They have fantastic ideas for every birthday party imaginable. I used them for my daughter's first (Princess & Knights), my son's 10th (LEGOS) and my other son's 1st (Cowboys and Indians). I recently went there for my daughter's 5th as well (Tea Party) which I am currently in the process of planning. My sister-in-law used it for her son's 1st, which was a rubber ducky theme, and got great ideas there.

I usually just copy and paste the ideas I like into a word doc and then I have it all in one place to refer to...

Have fun!

My oldest daughter turned one on Labor Day weekend last year, so we rented out a forest preserve area called the Pulaski Woods with a pavilion on it. It was $100 to rent the area all day long. For decorating and theme ideas, I went to www.birthdayexpress.com and I was able to find a lot of good ideas. The settings were a little expensive, so I only ordered a pinata and banners from there, but they do give great ideas. Also, for any personalized gifts, go to www.giftsforyounow.com. They have all kinds of gifts that you can get personalized so your child can have memorabilia from her first birthday- even if she doesn't remember it.

Hi Nicole, for my son's 1st birthday I spent way too much money. That's what I did. We had to do it in house cause he's born in Jan.. So we did save $ there, but after you added everything together: the food, supplies, decorations, goody bags, cake and gifts = too much money.

And I remember at the end of the party I was tired, bummed my son would never remember this day, plus his father and I had to try to make him enjoy every part when he really could've cared less. I also realized wow I just spent a bunch of money to feed a bunch of adults who some didn't even bring a gift.

I think there should be a rule: You can't come in and eat my money unless you brought a gift for the birthday boy or girl! My advice invite grandparents and or people who have helped you in their 1st year and that's it! Some balloons, decorations and a cake. Save your money. Go all out for the party nxt year. I know that's easier said than done cause every birthday is special. You do what you want for your baby's, I just wanted you to know my point of view.

I agree with what the others said: your kids won't remember this birthday and the celebration is more for the *adults* than anyone else.

Because of this, we had a small get-together at our house with just close friends. We had catered and had a small cake. Shortly after that she went to bed.

We'll save the elaborate party themes and such when my daughter is older and can appreciate all of it.

However, I have to disagree with a post: I think it's a bit materialistic to expect gifts from guests. Their presence and their blessing is what's important, not whether they brought a gift or not.

Just remember not to go crazy. They are not even going to remember it. Save your money for when they are older and remember the experience.

I have boy twins whose 1st birthday was just last August. I did a simple party based on their naptimes. Since my boys usually took a nap in the morning I did a lunch. I had the party from 11-3 and my husband and I did a barbeque, easy and filling and did a big cake for everyone but we made two individual bear cakes for the boys. We brought their high chairs outside to have cake so that everyone could watch. We moved things along pretty quickly from eating to presents to cake so that the boys did not get tired or crabby in front of family. They usually took a nap at 3 and I put them down at 2:45 because they were tired and just them to say bye to the guests. It worked out very simple and was stress free for the most part.

I have a little girl and we did baby pooh for her first. At babies r us they have really cute first birthday shirts for both boys and girls. We grilled out some hotdogs and hamburgers and had some fruit salads, macaroni salad, potato salad, chips and dip, and veggies and dip. In my backyard I set up a little pool for the kids as well as a sprinkler and slip and slide. If you are having the party later in the day even fried chicken and mostacoli is a good bet. The kids had a blast since it was so hot and we had all the water toys going. Even the adults got in on the sprinkler action. A good website for party themes is party express. I just got our girls Dora themed party. This is number 3 for us and we are still doing it in the backyard. It is soooo much fun.

For my daughter's first we did a garden party theme - which could work well for a boy/girl party too - flowers and bugs!! Look at the invites at practicallydarlingdesigns.com for ideas and/or wording. For an activity, I bought some small clay pots and had the kiddies paint them with the party themed colors. Then I cut out some flower head shapes out of construction paper - 1 flower per 8 1/2 x 11 so pretty big, then cut an X through the middle and then push a regular size flashlight through the whole so it makes the "stem" of the flower, and secure it in the pot with some moss from the craft store. I bought the flashlights at Target and they were like 2 for $3 and came with batteries. All children LOVE flashlights and that way you don't have to get treat bags with a bunch of junkie toys that will break in 2 minutes, or candy that is no good for them. You could also have them make bugs with like styrofoam shapes or cut egg cartons, paint, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes. (Just make sure you have some spare t-shirts for the kids to wear while doing crafts, so the parents don't get mad at you for ruining their clothes.)
As for food, I think you can go with simple like hot dogs and hamburgers, as long as you have some special side dishes - like Jello jigglers cut into flower/bug shapes with cookie cutters, or fruit shishkabobs (although a huge pain to make - pineapple, red grape, orange slice, green grape, pineapple - the kids and grown ups LOVE them.) I'd also suggest making the twins their own little cakes to eat, and then make cupcakes for the everyone else. You should be able to find some plastic bug/flower decorations at a craft store, Walmart, or even the dollar store. I know that Bettycrocker.com also has some ways to decorate cupcakes to look like bugs, but who has that kind of time? I guess you could do an example cupcake and let the kids make their own bugs on top though?

Okay - can you tell I love to plan parties? To get more ideas, just do a yahoo search on party ideas and you'll get a ton of sites to peruse. Good luck and have fun with this - they only turn one once!

Nicole,

I got our cake idea from this sight http://familyfun.go.com/parties/birthday/tool/partyplanne... They have a lot of theme ideas. My son's birthday was in January and we have no family nearby so we invited a few friends and had pizza, salad and cake. Very low key. My suggestion is to make so that you won't be too stressed out and then they will have a good time. Enjoy!

J.

Hi Nicole,

We just had our baby's first birthday party last month. We just invited some of our friends over, ordered pizza and had a birthday cake (from SuperTarget--it was awesome!). After dinner, the baby went to sleep and that's when the real party started!

Have fun!
L.