Need 1St Birthday Suggestions

If you are going to make it yourself, keep it simple. Cut up fruit and cut up veggies are enough of an appetizer, and you can leave it out for the meal. I like to make my food ahead of time. Sloppy joes freeze well and I just pop into a crock pot. Last party I bought a pork shoulder (big one) and put it in my slow roaster all day. All I did was shred it and added BBQ sauce. It wound up being cheaper than ground beef and very tasty! BBQ pork sandwiches. I froze and heated up on the day. Serve with chips, your fruit & veggies and either a potato or pasta salad and maybe deviled eggs, jello for the kids and your done. For the little kids I always have some hot dogs in a pot of water for those picky eaters. For simple goodie bags, Making a big frosted cookie on a stick that you make ahead of time and freeze is nice. Wrap in celophane and its a nice parting gift. I also like to give each child one thing that is nicer, instead of a bag of little stuff they lose right away. Maybe a small sports ball or small stuffed animal. You could also give gift books to Wendys or an ice cream store. Bigger kids like those better anyway. Since its June you will probably be outside. Renting a big inflatable is a great idea, but if you can't, getting a bunch of big cardboard boxes and having the kids decorate them. They could try to make them look like rocket ship or big jet. They play instruments on the show, so household items that the kids can make into musical instruments. That could work for a variety of ages. Then have them put on a little show for the birthday child. It's always good to keep them busy with a craft. Even having them frost their own cookie or cupcake with all the sprinkles is a lot of fun. Family Fun on line has a ton of ideas for backyard games that you can make yourself. Good luck!

Hi Lisa,

We just had my daughter's first birthday party. She turned a year on April 4th and we had her party on April 6th. I actually had it at the Schaumburg Park District. They have a room there that has a huge area for the kids to play. It's only $30 an hour and I had the room from 11:00-2:00. I had subs and pizza there. I also asked family to bring things, veggies, fruit, pasta salad. So that helped to keep my cost down. I didn't need any games because the play area kept all the kids occupied. I really didn't have much of a theme. I had some flower/girly stuff, but then I also had some primary color mixed in. I would check out the park district by you to see if they offer anything like that and just keep it simple if you can. If you keep it simple then you keep the cost down. Also when I bought decorations and all that good stuff, I spread it out so it wasn't so much money at one time. We did end up having a ton of people becuase we both have such big families, but everything turned out great! I didn't have favors. I didn't really think we needed them. I guess because it wasn't just a kids party there were more adults there than kids.

Good luck!

I just threw my sonds first birthday party, so i completely understand where you are coming from! First of all if your going to decorate with a special theme, try ebay!! they have so much cute stuff for cheap! we did a backyardigans bbq for evans birthday. I served bbq, salads, chips. shop at like a save a lot or aldi's. somewhere where you can get your groceries for cheap! if anyone asks if you'd like help, dont be afraid to say yes!! or maybe ask everyone to bring a dish?
let me know if you need any more help!! good luck mama!

Hi Lisa,

I have some really great 1st birthday party invitations and photo invitations if you are interested in seeing samples. I can email them to you. I have a mom-owned business located in Oak Lawn. Thanks
D.
Good Times Invitations
____@____.com

I just had a quick note. On a budget in June, I would very much suggest a picinc/cookout style party at the park for a big family. Reserving a pavillion is cheap, there is plenty of room for everyone, the children will not tear up your house, and you don't have to worry about cleaning before or after. My hubby is 1 of 10 kids, and b/c my son's first b-day was in Jan., We just had our immidiate families for his party. Also this helped cut downon cost. If you think his family would be open to it, you might even ask thse who live nearby to bring a side or dessert?

If you have a large immediate family, that can be tough. You can check birthday express for baby einstein dinnerware. Maybe just buy it for the small children and the adults can just use regular old cheaper paper plates/etc to save on costs. Also, some people sell the items on ebay but I haven't found it to be much cheaper (and sometimes more expensive). As far as invites, you can save on costs by just doing it yourself or buying those you write in instead of print. However, there are some stationers on Ebay that have great prices and can create your own package although Baby Einstein may fringe upon copyrights. We asked everyone to contribute to a time capsule for our kids. This was great and a few other of my friends have done the same. Just an idea. Once you know how many people/kids you can then figure out games. You could always rent one of those inflatables but if that is out of budget, just open up your yard with sprinklers/what you have around the house or ask family to bring some games. As far as treat bags, sounds like you'll have a large kid range, so just check out dollar store, stores $1 bins or oriental trading. Sidewalk chalk might be a great one as they can use it AT the party too. As far as food... you could do something like Portillos or even Brown's chicken. I am not sure where you live, but Fox's has excellent food for catering - that's where we get all of our catered food. Good luck. And just try and enjoy yourself.

My son turned one at the end of last June and we did a backyard bar-b-que. I bought bubbles and chalk for the little ones to play with while there and water balloons for the older kids - which turned into beam Uncle Mike (my husband.) We have a swing set in our yard (came with the house) so there was plenty for the kids to do. We borrowed tents (for shade), chairs and tables and I put inexpensive plastic cloths on them form the $1 store to look nicer. Family brought stuff to eat and drink as well which helped us out a lot. I didn't do a theme, made my own invites and bought the food from GFS (you don't need a membership.) The party was so much fun we're doing the same thing this year for his second birthday. I didn't do a give away bag - in my mind, food and celebration was enough, plus it was family and it's not something we typically do in our family. Have fun and good luck --borrow as much as you can, simplify and if you want special things - like baby einstein, maybe pick up a balloon for decoration along with some other plain balloons in a bouquet(to keep costs at bay) or baby einstein cake napkins to tie it together. Keep the plates simple - they're covered in food anyway.