1St Birthday - Costa Mesa, CA

Hi S.,

My little girl will be turning one in Feb. also. We are thinking of having the party at Gymboree. They provide activities for kids 9 months to 5 years, a play area with slides and mats, and a couple of adults to entertain and help supervise. There are a couple in Orange County that you might want to look into. Also we were thinking of looking into the local YMCA to see what they offer. Usually Feb is a wet and cold month. We have a small home and pets that would be overwhelmed with a group of babies running around. Hope this helps!

Hi S.! My baby is turning 1 in early March so we're in the same boat, my husband and I talked about the EXACT same things! We're doing the party at my parents house because it's bigger, and when talking to my parents we said we wanted to host it, and of course they offered to pay for a lot of stuff that my husband and I would choose, like cake and invitations and such. We are going to do nice invitations just cause it's her first birthday, but future birthdays will probably be fill-in the blank type of cards, but I don't think it's important... whatever your budget can afford. Also holding it at my parents house, we can plan to do it outside in the backyard, but if it turns out to be raining or cold, we can easily move it indoors... as opposed to planning a party at the beach or park. Also I think, although I don't have experience with a one year old birthday party, simpler is better. Hope this helps a bit. Have fun!

My twins are February babies, the day they were born was an el niño year with something like 14" of rain... crazy. Since then (they are 10 now) it has rained on about half of their birthdays, so an indoor party is safest. The first birthday isn't for the child really, it's for the family that loves her. She'll have NO memory of it most likely, and will be too little to care much about opening presents. Keep it small and simple for your own sake! My twins were so overwhelmed at their first birthday with the crowd of people, it was their first time having cake, which they didn't like and it made them cry. They ended up eating cheerios! Take lots of pictures, she'll enjoy them when she's big enough to appreciate it. I liked the suggestion of having a game for the grown ups!
Somewhere along the line I heard that for toddlers, the length of the party shoud be determined by the age, for all kids, the number of guests should be the same as the age. I'm not sure I totally buy that philosophy, but it does make life simpler! After having 24 five year olds at my house for a 5th birthday, I wish I had considered that approach! Most of all, just enjoy it, don't do anything that's too much work. As for an invitiation... what about a free E-vite?
Good Luck!

I can see why your husband would tend to feel that way. I would set some ground rules with your mom and let your husband know what they are. Remind him that having it at someone elses home means no clean up at your house! If you are not inviting many guests you could do it at your home to appease the hubby. :) I bought inexpensive inviations for my son's first b-day and put all the details on a sheet of white paper folded up inside the invite. Will it rain? Who knows. You can always do most of it inside and just have outside as an option. Bubbles are a great way to get kids outside to have fun and they are inexpensive. I did a cupcake cake. Bake the cupcakes and then ice it as one cake. It was fun for the kids and then when it came time for my son to eat his cake it was only a little cupcake. We had a backyard BBQ, with mini burgers on Hawaiian rolls & hot dogs. Both the parents & kids loved the food. I gave myself a limit on what I would spend on the party - decorations and food. We ended up spending about $100 on it all.

Hi S.,
First birthdays can usually be smaller because it's mostly for the parents'/family's enjoyment. For my son's first birthday I did a game for the adults called "Baby Can..." It was a list of things like walk, high five, blow a kiss, etc. and they had to guess whether or not he could do them yet. I have the spreadsheet in excel if you want it to adapt to your DD. I gave away a $5-10 DVD for a prize.

If you have a color printer and some kind of greeting card software (like Publisher) you can print up your own cards with your DD's picture, etc. If not, preprinted ones work great too, whatever is less stressful for you.

As far as where, you know your mother best, but my MIL has helped tremendously with events and has been able to let me stay in charge and just ask her for the things I needed. Good luck!

Email me at ____@____.com if you want the game. Hugs,
J.

this must be your first child! how sweet!
i know its supposed to rain soon, but you know how california is! it stays fairly warm! keep your eye on the weather channel and im sure things will work out fine!

our third baby is our only winter baby and he will be one year old on february 3rd. im going to have our families come over the saturday before his birthday and i wanted to take them over and ride the fairy to balboa island and walk around town and then come back and have some cake and ice cream or maybe even go to the dollar theater in irvine. if a good movie is playing! all of these are very inexpensive. if we do end up paying for everything it would only be about 50 bucks for everyone. but my family likes outdoorsy things, we will probably end up going to the beach to play as well.

for our first we had a little party at our own little home and it was great even though the living room was filled with my and my hubbys friends!

with our second childs first b-day my mother had it at her house and it did pretty much become her party, but i didnt mind because i had my teeth worked on the day before so i wasnt really in a hostess mood. i did make the cake (a princess castle) it was fun.

best thing to do is to weigh the pros and cons and if you want to have it at your mothers then definitely voice your need to make it the way you feel your baby will enjoy it the best.

is there mostly going to be adults there? i liked the idea with the game about the baby for the adults, that was cute!

also if there are going to be lots of toddlers or small kids there, i know homemade playdough is sooo much fun for them. at my daughters second b-day party we had three tables set up for kids, one had homemade playdough in four colors with wooden rollers and kid safe knives. the second had a huge thing of crayons and lots of construction paper and things like stickers and glitter paint, etc. and the third had healthy snacks like veggies fruit and goldfish crackers and cheese sticks, etc.

at my sons fourth b-day we had a bubble party, we set up two bubble machines and handed out little containers of bubbles and threw a bunch of balls and balloons around the yard for them to play with. it was great!

just some ideas!! i hope you find something awesome to do!!

You have a lot of great ideas shared with you about your daughter's party. I wanted to chime in with a couple of ideas I used for my daughter's party.

I did not spend a lot of money on invitations, but I did make them special. I made her handprint on a piece of paper and photocopied it onto cardstock. On a complimentary color I printed the invitation, "Guess Who's Turning 1" and the party details. I mounted the handprint and the birthday details back to back. I actually cut them into cirles and mailed them in a CD envelope with the handprint showing through the window. But, you can use whatever creativity you can muster up. It didn't take much time, was easy, and inexpensive. And, I've captured her handprint in time!

I also played a game with the adults having them guess milestones. For example, how old was she when she said her first word? What was her first word? When did she get her first tooth? etc. etc. etc. It made the event more focused on the guest of honor rather than on just a family get-together.

Finally, take LOTS of pictures! I actually designated my brother to be the photographer. I got so many more pictures that way than if I did it randomly myself. I was so focused on the party and being hostess that there was no way I could take many photos. Now the special moments have been captured forever.

Enjoy and have fun!!!