Ideas for First Birthday Party-Girl

I just don't understand why big parties for very small children have become some sort of rite of passage. Why not have a small party with a videocam and just family? Balloons, fun... a one-year-old won't necessarily need a lot of entertainment. But seeing herself in a movie later will be priceless!

My Daughters fav book(Brown Bear,Brown Bear) gave me the idea for her fist b-day party. I made bear shaped cookies on a stick, with a "Thank you BEARY much" tag,Iced them with primary colors and put them in flower pots,set them in the center of the tables for decor then everyone took one as a party favor.I made a big cake shaped like a bear...found lots of great ideas for this on line. I made her a small cake of her own useing the same bear cookie cutter I used for the favors. I served fresh fruit and veggies with teddy grahams. I decorated with primary colored ballons and used blue and red plates and cups from the dollar store. I was simple but fun. I tried to time it around her nap..I think we decided on 3pm-4pm.
Good Luck.

Good Morning Chastity. How lovely that you have these 2 beautiful children. The only idea I have, which is what I did for all my children, is invite family over (or a very few close friends), have a luncheon or dinner party, and give your baby girl her own small cake - do all this out of doors, she can be plunked on the lawn w/ a blanket and her cake and have at it. They are so cute and it makes for great photos. They haven't a clue in the world what is going on, so parties as we do for older children are sort of not worth the time and effort. Hope y'all have a grand time and a big Happy Birthday to your little one.

Our daughters first b-day was a step stone for us that we had made it one year as parents. We had a cover dish get together and the theme was what her nursery was for the first year of her life. We also made it a book party where everyone brought her their favorite book and wrote her a mess. in it for her to read later. Our friends with children played and entertainment was like a largefamily get together.

We did a pastels/butterfly theme for my daughter's first birthday last year. Pink & purple plates/cups with butterflies on the plates & napkins. I made her cake and put some realistic looking butterflies on it that I got from the florist, along with some fake flowers I got at Wal-Mart. My mom made Emily's small cake that she dove into herself. It was in the shape of a butterfly.

If you have older kids coming, you may want to think about games for them to do. Pin the tail on the donkey, a running race in the backyard, throwing clothespins into a container at different distances (I used 2 empty formula cans, and some bag clips). Don't forget to make some goody bags for the older kids, and prizes for the winners of the games.

My daughter turned one last July. The theme was, Big Steps. I made the invitations by putting her footprint on front (that was fun!) with the saying, "It's a BIG step...." and on the inside was a picture of her standing/walking and it said "XX XX (insert child's name) is turning ONE!" I won't go into details about the party, but it did include some cute footprints and lots of pink. We had it outside so the kids didn't need a whole lot of entertaining. Everyone loved the invites b/c they were so personal. Just an idea. Have fun!

Most mom's wish they could go back in time and do this after they find the truth in these words.
For the first several years, perhaps until they actually go to school (not day care) the best way to celebrate a childs birthday is with mom and dad and of course if there are siblings as well. Especially at one year old, they don't even have the concept of what in the world is going on so it's really something you do for yourself. What they DO understand at that age is the extra time mon and dad spend with them. That they are cognizant of. That is what will stick in their memory, that is what sets a precedence for family values, that is what lays the foundation for them to be connected emotionaly to you as they grow.
Once they become aware enough to ask about their own birthday party, you may consider asking the two or three closet friends of theirs to go on an outing to a park and have a birthday picnic or something special. There will be years to come for the big stuff, the theme parties, the things only you will remember and believe they will cherish. What children cherish most is your time, with them, one on one.
My adult daughters still say the best birthdays they ever remember were the ones we took the RV, loaded up a couple of their friends and went camping. I of course, had a surprise birthday cake and some small gifts, but the gifts were things to do while camping and they had a ball! Use your imagination, think back to your own childhood. But remember, you are the best gift of all to them, so give freely and watch the light in their eyes burn brightly. JF

You could have a princess tea party. Have all the girls dress up as princess or in pretty clothes and the boys could dress up as princes. A friend of mine did this and they had a blast.

My daugther just turned one in March so this is all fresh on my mind. We just did a family deal at our house (immediate family only for us was around 40 people). I wanted to keep it simple for 2 reasons, 1) budget, I didn't want to spend a fortune and 2) just wanted it to be low-key so that I didn't overwhelm my daugther too much. The theme for our party was cupcakes and ice cream sundaes. Everything was pink and brown. We had chocolate and strawberry cupcakes. We had ice cream with all pink and brown toppings. I made a "Happy 1st Birthday" Banner to hang over the cake table and we got lots of pink and brown balloons to decorate with. My daugthers smash cake was an over sized cupcake and she loved it. I also planned the party from 2-4 so that my daugther could get in her 1 o'clock nap.

I had a friend that did her daugthers 1st birthday at Gymboree and that was fun but she spent a lot of money on it.

Whatever you do will be great and memorable. Have fun and good luck.

Merritt's Bakery at 71st & Mingo can do almost any theme you need. I wish I had known about this website to get help for my daughter's first birthday party. We ordered from birthdayexpress.com. Everything was Birthday Princess 1 from the personalized banner to the crown. We did a cookout because it was easier to house that many people outside. But whatever you do, get disposable cameras to lay around for the guests to take pictures. You will be so busy that you don't want to be without those moments in pictures later. And you won't have time to do it.

I agree with the people who say that there does not need to be a "party" for the first four or five years. None of my kids had a party until they were in school and actually had friends to invite over. We always made those first birthdays (I have three children) family parties. We still had cake and ice cream, presents and such, but it was at home with just family and no big deal. The ideas to have themes such as what your child enjoys are right on target. My oldest was into Thomas the Tank Engine at four and his whole birthday was centered around that theme. Another son had a Cookie Monster theme. Just do it low key. I always made the first birthday cake a chocolate cake with chocolate icing so that those first birthday cake pics were especially messy. And I love the idea of books for presents. My kids always get at least one book for birthday and Christmas. They are avid readers and my oldest actually prefers books to any other gift. He is upset if he doesn't get at least three books for his birthday (and he's 18 now). Just have fun, keep it simple and take lots of pictures. D.

For a first birthday, just think about what she loves . . is pudding her favorite food? serve that. If she loves bubbles, blow bubbles. Put on music she likes to "dance" too. If it is warm enough, a wading pool with a couple inches of water to splash in. Organized games don't work at this age, so just surround her with the people she loves and treat her to the activities and foods that she loves.

I have two sons that are 18 months apart. Their birthdays fall n March and October. That puts one in the spring and one in early fall. I always found it wonderful to have their parties outside. Plus the pictures always turned out great with the changing of the seasons. I would set up a table in our back yard and tape balloons all around it, with the cake and presents in the middle and for the 1st birthday, I,d bring their highchair out and sit them in it and give them a BIG piece of the cake because they have a tendancy to dive in, head first. And that always makes really good pictures. Because really they don't understand the concept of "theme" partys, so I just made it all about them. Hope you have a wonderful birthday for your baby. Oh yeah I almost forgot, being that my boys were so close in age, to keep down any jealousy, I would always buy the other one a litte present and wrap it so they wouldn't feel left out. My boys are now 22 and 20 years old and I still buy for both of them on each others birthday. Silly huh, but that just always worked out for them. Good luck and let me know how it goes,

I had originally thought a 1-year-old would be too young to enjoy a party or understand what was going on and it was crazy to have a party for a one year old, but I was wrong! My niece just had her 1st birthday party and it was so cute and everyone had so much fun, especially her! It was a barnyard theme. Luckily it was a nice day and they did most of the stuff outside. The invitations were printed on the computer with cute farm animal cartoon clip art and a picture of the birthday girl and a cute rhyme telling about the barnyard and cooking out theme, then it had the date, time, place, etc). They set up tables in the backyard with vinyl tablecloths with a blue and red bandana look, set up several picnic blankets in the yard, had the cookout, had little buckets of things to do set out for the older babies (some were up to 3 years old) like play doh and little vinyl mats to play with the playdoh that were actually those flexible cutting boards but they were bright colors with animals on them), they had bubbles (in spill-proof containers!), food, a homemade cake made to look like a barn (so cute), barnyard animal themed cups, plates, napkins, barnyard bib for the birthday girl's cake-eating, and the party favors to take home were a little bandana-looking bag filled with pieces of craft foam and instructions to make a 3-D foam barn with animals, including the glue, and also a magnet to make with a different farm animal. Of course the parents had to make them for the kids being that young, but that was fun!! A balloon was tied to each favor bag. The most fun was opening the presents...the birthday girl had a great time and her little friends helped. Many of her gifts were farm-animal related and that was cute too. I thought the party would be crazy and full of crying babies, but not one guest got cranky during the two hour party. All the kids enjoyed themselves and the younger babies like my 3 month old just got carried around by their parents and were obviously too young to participate in anything, but it was fun for the older babies and toddlers to look at the little babies too. And of course fun for the parents to admire eachother's babies!!! I liked the cute farm animal theme because some people don't like to encourage too much gender stereotyping, and animals in general are a gender-neutral theme and the extra party stuff is reusable if they have a boy!

My daughter's nickname is Ladybug...and that was the theme for her first birthday party. There is a real cool website called birthdaypartyideas.com that has some really neat ideas. My favorite thing that we did at the party was go on a "ladybug" hunt...just like hunting for Easter eggs. I had painted river rocks that were about the size of eggs to look like ladybugs, hid them, and the kids got to find them. They had a blast... With little ones, it is difficult to plan "activities" because things never go as planned.....This was one thing they could do.... We decorated with ladybugs made out of red and black plates from the dollar store (cut red one in half, use a brad to connect them to the black one so that the wings open, and draw spots, cut out a "head" from other black paper, glue it on, and use pipe cleaners for "antennae), flowers made of paperplates of various colors (with cupcake wrappers for the center of the flower, and green napkins for leaves). We just hung them around on the fence (always have my parties outside)... looked like a fantasy garden. One other thing we did was I had painted small flowerpots white with black trim around the top. As the kids got there, we put their fingerprints on the pot in red paint. Before they left, we used paint pens to make the fingerprints into ladybugs... BUT, the real hit of the party was the live ladybugs...We orderred them off the internet...fairly inexpensive (ladybuglady.com). Th kids LOVED watching them and having the bugs crawl on them...especially older brothers and sisters.

I read the other comments too... some great idea. We also had a "barnyard" for my sons first birthday...barbeque and all. Along with the picnic blankets, etc. we had lots of bails of hay for people to sit on. We had all friends bring riding tractors for the kids.. and we set up a "hay mountain" with a real saddle on top. The kids loved "riding"...We also had a couple wagons around...the kids loved both riding and pushing... We decorated with the traditional farm stuff... I had old time longjohns, overalls, and aprons on the clothesline. We had the children put their gifts in a wheelbarrow.... used blue and white enamel "speckleware" to serve food in..and the punch was in an old enamel milk pail and served with a tin ladle. The kids got cheap cowboy hats too....Oh yea, in addition to borrowing a bunch of tractors, we borrowed a bunch of rocking horses too... There was plenty for the kids to do...Also had a small pool (and extra towels and diapers) for the kids to play in...We put rubber duckies in to make it seem like part of the farm...I agree that the kiddos won't remember it.... But we ALL had a blast...all 65 of us.... but what betyer reason to celebrate with family and friends than a child's first birthday...My children LOVE looking at the pictures now....and it makes them feel really special to know we did all that for them
L.

Good morning C.,

Your daughter is probably too young for a children party; however, I remember making my son's favorite foods, balloons (which by the way, we used to practice catching balls with since he simply couldn't do it until the balls came to him "slowly" -- we moved up to real balls over the years), maybe a crown she can help make.

As my son grew older, and we did have parties, I didn't give out gift bags (it was Tony's birthday, not everyone's), we had treasure hunts, sprinkler parties (no pool parties since I worry about drowings), pin the tail (only I used a homemade poster for the cartoon character of the moment -- ie. put the pants on Sponge Bob), make your own sundaes, .... and as he grew older, we'd take a few friends to a movie and pizza, sleep overs .....

One party I went to for a friend's daugther was a "tea birthday party) where the girls all did flowers for their hair....

I don't think it matters what you do ANYTHING to make the day feel special.

As for your 3 1/2 year old feeling jealous -- which she will .... just remind her her birthday is coming up.

My daughters first 3 birthdays we celebrated at Gymboree, it's an awsome party place for the first birthday. Im thinking about going back for her 5th.