1St B-day Theme/food Ideas

I also suggest renting out a hall (firehouse, VFW, etc) or even sometimes Restaurants have private rooms you can use too. I would suggest however some kind of entertainment for the children invited (clown, magician, face painting, balloons, etc). Kids get bored easily. Another suggestion would be to make sure you set up a special table for kids to do activities (cheap crafts, coloring, word seach books). I've done this in the past and both the kids and their parents have a good time since the kids are keeping busy. I'm sure any theme you go with is going to be great. Enjoy every minute.

If you decide on renting a hall or doing it at a restaurant, you can keep the adults entertained by showing a lovely montage of your baby's first year. I just got my DVD made from this lady who is amazing at this and very reasonable. My party is in October and I am thinking of getting her to do my party favors too. I think her 5minute clips would make excellent party favors.
Her website is: www.smilingsnaps.com
If you want to do something massive, I know you can have a cruise party from NYC. I love this idea and I wish I had the money to do it.

well i'm the same way when it comes to cleaning and organizing a party.....what i suggest you do is either have it at Chucky Cheese (if you have a decent one in your area) or MCdonalds...its cheap, fun, you dont have to set up or clean up and the kids will have a BLAST....also keep in mind this party is for the KIDS and NOT the adults...oh yeah most definitely there will be parking and the party will not be an all nighter...good luck

Why not rent a fire house? You can get alot of stuff from the dollar store and I know you may not want to but cook your own food it may be cheaper in the end.

For my son's first b-day party, I did a Seasme Street Theme and then made door hangers (with foam). I had a musician come and do a puppet show and sing songs with all the kids. If you look in the Family Magzine (for each county: Union,Essex) and go to the back of the booklet you will find ideas for entertainers that do first b-day parties. Also, for my son's first b-day party we did it at my Mom's house (we were living in an apartment at the time). To make easy clean-up we did all paper goods, silverware and platters that were pre-made. Hope this helps. Good luck.

F.