1St Birthday Party - Joliet,IL

A first birthday party is generally for close relatives and REALLY close friends. While I understand your wish to have a memorable day, please understand that to any other than those I have just mentioned it is just another day. You will have many more birthday's (God willing) in the future to give out favors and play games. I don't intend to be mean spirited. I've done this 1st bday thing twice. The first time I went all out. It was stressful and a huge waste of money. The second time we had a nice dinner with family and took some wonderful pictures of the baby with relatives. If I ever have another child I will do the same thing.
So. Save it for when your child gets older and prefers the company of her friends. Right now this is your time!

Yes to the goody bags - for my daughters 2nd Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themed party, I gave out plastic MM Clubhouse cups, coloring books and crayons to each kid aged 1-8 then for those 9-12, I gave them each a MM invisible ink notepad (they loved them). Because we have two sets of kids between our friends/family (toddlers and tweens), I like to do two gift bags!

I wouldn't worry about games even if there are older kids. But I'd have bubbles and chalk outside and lots of balloons for the kids to play with inside. You can also have some coloring pages and maybe some pudding and paint brushes for the kids to do pudding paint.

You can have pre-made sugar cookies for the older kids and let them decorate their own.

My kids birthdays are in August but I'm already planning theirs!

For my son's, I'm going to have the older kids bob for apples! For my daughter's we're doing face painting, a pinata and eating a marshmallow off a string without using their hands.

Keep it small and remember that she will not remember it. This party is for you. Invite only close friends or family. Take pictures.

WOW! A first birthday. That is exciting. When both my girls turned one, we had a simple family birthday for them. We asked each family member to make a birthday card for them, but not for this year. They were to pick a special year in their life and write a birthday card for that year. For example, my mom made a card for them for their 26th birthday, the year she had me. She told them of how she felt having me etc. It was great. My Baba made cards for their 60th birthday with a list of what she was doing when she was 60. It will be a nice comparison for them.
The first birthday is more about you than the child, they are truly too young to grasp it. Most sleep right through it! Make it special so that when you baby is older they can really appreciate what you did...not the games you played with other kids.

B.
Family Success Coach

The 1st b-day party, I think, should be a immediate family party. Mom, Dad, Grandmothers, Grandfathers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and close family friends. As far as games, whose going to play at that age, the grown-ups? Be sure to have a small personalized cake (top teir of a wedding cake size) for the b-day girl for her to dive in to. Then have a larger cake for the rest of the party.

If I could do it over again, I'd have made our kids' 1st birthday parties much smaller and much more intimate. You spend so much time playing hostess, that you get lost in the shuffle and really don't get much time to celebrate your child's birthday.

1 year-olds really don't know how to play games - so, I wouldn't worry about planning those kinds of things. They still play along side their friends rather than interacting with them.

At our son's 3rd birthday last year, all the kids (including his 1 year old sister) loved the balloon tank we got.

We only did goody bags for the older kids that attended (2 years +)

Good luck. It's going to be a fun year ahead. I hope you get to enjoy the party.