Trying to Plan Activities for My Son's 1St Birthday

Just celebrated my daughter's first birthday and we too had only a few little one and more kids of mixed ages. I didn't want to have to manage a lot so that I could focus on my little one. This is what I set up outside in the shade.
-My daughter's excersaucer that we opened and put together in the snake position.
-small baby pool filled with balloons (the one year olds LOVED this).
-sand/water table and sand toys which I only filled with sand (this was my daughter's big gift from us).
-a bubble machine and individual bubble containers with wands.
-a small table covered with a disposable table cloth set up with a tray of soil, individual snack bags of zinnia seeds and small clay pots, a couple of water bottles for watering, and baby wipes (and a sharpie to label the pots). The 3 year olds on up had fun with this and the parents liked helping their kids with this. This was one party favor.
-a blanket on a concrete area set up with trays of foam animals and letters and foam visors. The kids and parents had fun with this also. This was my other favor.
Everything was bought at Wal-mart and only cost a few dollars per child. It was so easy and low maintenance and the parents loved playing and helping their kids.
Good luck.

One game that we played at my son's first birthday was fun for all ages. I had ribbon (like balloon ribbon) cut much longer than the length of my son. I handed out one to each child and told them to guess how tall Max is and then went around and cut the ribbon at the length of their guess. We had a stick that had his actual length on it and they would come by with their ribbon, but it next to the stick and see how close they were. Closest one a prize!

The pinata was also fun for all ages. Just had to start with the smallest since the bigger ones always break it. Have fun!

Hi, for all 3 of my sons 1st birthdays it was mostly social, for one we had a magician, bubble machine... I always have food and fun favors! My youngest sone is turning two this saturday and we are having a blues clues party with a bbq and a candy bufet. I have gotten chinese take out boxes to have the guests fill their box with the candy from the buffet they like.. (these are the favors) I also have blow outs and party hats... We will have swimming and the kids usually have a blast playing with the toys in the playroom...

I find that home parties are best to have free play we will also have a small bounce house set up.

if you need custom party favors or other gifts give me a call.
A. J
www.celebritypartyfavors.com

Hello C.,

a while back I found these on the internet:

Hum that tune - hum a favourite nursery rhyme or song and ask your child to guess what it is. Then ask her to hum a tune for you.

What's the Time, Mr Wolf? - this party favourite can be adapted for two people. You are Mr Wolf and your child has to walk around asking: "What's the time, Mr Wolf?" You answer with various times, but when you shout "One o'clock - dinner time!" your child has to run to safety (touching a particular tree or going behind a line, perhaps). If you catch him, he becomes Mr Wolf.

Hit the target - put a large bowl on the ground and ask your child to throw a ball in it. If he gets the ball in, ask him to take a step back and try again. See how far away he can be and still hit the target.

Quick challenges - in the park, count how many times your child can hop on one leg, catch a ball without dropping it and jump in the space of 30 seconds.

Activities and Games:
- Ring Toss: Decorate empty two-liter soda bottles and fill them with water. Place them on a table approximately five inches apart. Use a rope to make a ring, or use plastic rings. Let the children take turns tossing the rings at the bottles and trying to catch them on the bottle spouts.
- Bean Bag Toss: Enlarge a picture of a clown and mount it on heavy poster board. Put the board on an easel so that it stands up. Cut out the clown's mouth to make a hole. Put colorful rope on the floor to show the children the position they must throw from
- Go Fish: Fill a turkey roast pan or large plastic container with water, Use toy magnetic fishing rods and different colored toy magnetic fish. Give out prizes corresponding to the different colors of the fish.
- Makeup and Costume Station: Allow the children to make themselves up as clowns or dress up as circus performers like the strong man, lion tamer or ring master.
- Make your own Sundae Station choosing from a variety of toppings
- You can hire a face painter or have an adult friend use non toxic hypoallergenic paints

Give out clown noses for everyone to wear.

Have as many adults as you can help supervise each booth

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BUG PARTY
The best birthday party I've thrown was for my three (turning four) year old. It was a bug theme! I made marshmallow caterpillars, ladybug and turtle cupcakes, a lizard cake, bugs in dirt dessert, beetle sandwiches, bug jello. The decorations took 2 months to make!! It was a great success!!

RED LIGHT/GREEN LIGHT: Ages 5 and up
In this game, one person plays the "stop light" and the rest try to touch him. At the start, all the children form a line about 15 feet away from the stop light. The stop light faces away from the line of kids and says "green light". At this point the kids are allowed to move towards the stoplight. At any point, the stop light may say "red light" and turn around. If any of the kids are caught moving after this has occurred, they are out. Play resumes when the stop light turns back around and says "green light". The stop light wins if all the kids are out before anyone is able to touch him. Otherwise, the first player to touch the stop light wins the game and earns the right to be "stop light" for the next game.

WOLF! WOLF!: Ages 4 - 8
This game is a tag game. Everyone forms a large circle around the person who is IT. If there are a lot of children they may hold hands. This person who is IT is the WOLF. The children then chant, "Wolf, Wolf, what are you doing?" and then wait for the WOLF to say a response. The WOLF responds by saying only once an action sentence such as "Brushing my teeth" or "Washing my hands" or "Combing my hair" and so forth. However, if the WOLF replies with "Chasing you" the kids scatter so that they cannot be tagged by the WOLF. The first person tagged becomes the new WOLF.

STEAL THE BACON: Ages 5 - 12
The object of Steal the Bacon is take the "bacon" back to your own side without being caught. In this game, two teams are chosen, and one umpire is selected. One object is required to be the bacon (a glove is a common choice). The members of each team are numbered. They form two opposing lines and place the bacon in the exact center between them. The umpire then calls out a number. The players on each side who are assigned that number are the players for that round. No other team members leave their side of the field. Neither player may touch the other until someone touches the bacon. Once a player touches the bacon however, the other player may tag him. If a player is able to grab the bacon and carry it back over to his own side, that team scores a point. If a player is tagged after touching the bacon and before he returns their own side, the team that tagged him scores a point. Note that the sequence of play usually involves the two kids running out and hovering over the bacon, waiting for a slight advantage to grab it and run back before the other player can react. The game is over when a predetermined number of points are scored, or when all numbers have been called. The umpire can call more than one number, in which case several players from each side participate. In some games, players may tag any player on the opposing team, in others, a player may only tag the player on the other team that they share a number with.

CATCHING THE DRAGON'S TAIL: Ages 5 - 12
A dragon if formed by grouping the players into a long line each with their hands on the shoulders of the one in front of him. The first in the row is the dragon's head. The last in the row is the dragon's tail, eager to lash to the right and left in order to escape the head. Until the signal GO is given, the dragon must be in a straight line. Someone in the group counts "One, two, three, go!" On the signal GO the head runs around toward the tail and tries to catch it. The whole body must move with the head and remain unbroken. If the head succeeds in touching the tail, they may continue to be the head. If the body breaks before he catches the tail the head becomes the tail and the next in line is the head and so on until each has a chance to be the head and the tail.

MISSING CHILD: Ages 3 - 8
One player stands blindfolded in the center of the room. Have the other children stand in a circle or a line. Have the children switch places in the circle and take one person out of the room. Then unblindfold the child in the center, and give him one minute to name the missing player. Let the person who was removed now be blindfolded.

DUCKS FLY: Ages 3 - 6
This game is similar to the game, "Simon Says". It is based on animals or things that fly. One person is the Caller. Everyone else either stands in a line or forms a half circle with their hands at their sides. The Caller then shouts out, "All ducks fly" and everyone begins to flap their arms twice like a duck since the statement is true. The caller continues by calling out animals or things that fly such as robins, bats, airplanes, etc. However, if the caller shouts out an animal that doesn't fly such as "cats fly" or "rabbits fly" then no one should move since this is not true. If anyone moves, he or she is out of the game and must then stand next to the caller. The game ends when only one person is left after everyone else is eliminated.

MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO: Ages 3 - 6
Gather all the kids in a large room or wide open space. Tell the kids that they can start dancing any way they want to, and you will pick different kids to be the leader. The leader will stand facing the group and do any movement they want. The other kids have to follow. After a minute or so, pick a new leader. Make sure everyone gets a turn to lead.

GROUNDHOG GAMES
SHADOW GAME Children take turns hiding in a cardboard box or under a table.
Adult controls the lights, so that sometimes the child will see his/her shadow and sometimes he/she will not.
Everyone repeats the following rhyme.
Ground Hog, Ground Hog - living under ground.
Up you come - without a sound.

Will you stay -or will you go
Back to your house -down below?

When you climb out -if your shadow you see,
Back you must go -as quick as can be.

If you have no shadow, then you can stay
Out in the garden and play all day.
Jean Warren

COUNTING GROUNDHOGS Choose four to six children to hide behind a screen or low room divider and pretend to be groundhogs living underground.
Each time the adult recites the following rhyme, some but not all of the groundhogs pop up.
Groundhogs, Groundhogs come out and play.
How many groundhogs came out today?


With some children still hiding below the barrier, have the rest of the children count how many groundhogs have popped up to play.
Repeat the game with different children.
If all of the children hiding behind the barrier all want to pop up each time, you may need to go behind the barrier and point to those who will pop up each time.


GROUNDHOG POSITIONS
You will need a groundhog stuffed animal (or any stuffed animal to represent a groundhog) for this game.
Place the animal on or near an object in your room.
Have your children take turns indicating the exact location of the groundhog after you recite the following rhyme.
Groundhog, Groundhog came out to play.
Where did he stop on his way?


Example: Groundhog is under the chair. Chosen child says, “The groundhog is under the chair”.
Place the Groundhog in as many different positions so your children will have practice describing various locations and positions, such as; under, over, in, next to, beside, between, etc.

http://www.preschoolexpress.com/game_station06/game_stati...


EGG RELAY

Children line up in two lines, forming two teams.
Give each child an egg. Eggs can be raw or hardboiled, depending on the children.
Give the first two children a soupspoon.
They place their egg in the spoon and run or walk quickly to the finish line, where two baskets have been placed.
Each child gently places his egg in the basket, without using his hands.
They then run back to their line and give the next child their spoon.
The game continues until one team has all their eggs in their basket.

~C.~

You are really gearing it toward the 1 year olds since it is your son's birthday and not a 3-7 year, so you should not add stress by planning activities. Just let them play with some toys or whatever together, but don't plan anything. The older kids know it's a 1-year-old birthday, so they shouldn't expect to be catered to. I hope that's not harsh. . .you just have to start that now or you're going to have a lot to live up to as those kids get older. :o)

If the party is going to be outside try bubbles. The bigger kids love blowing them the little ones chase after them. It's cheap and you can find (or make) all kinds of wands for different size bubbles.

My son just celebrated his first birthday last week and I wanted to be sure that I did not miss anything. I found that I did not have a lot of time to talk to everyone and it went by sooooo fast! We also had a few older kids but they entertained themselves with his toys. We opened gifts right after everyone got there and then did the cake. I was afraid if we did cake first then my baby would be all messy from the cake and i would have to wash him before the gifts were opened. Just something to think about. Birthdays are fun in general so don't feel that you have to find entertainment for everyone they are there to see the Birthday Boy!

shaved ice! its so much fun :) www.candisno.com

I hired a Balloon Guy to come to my child's birthday party. Like yours, there was a variety of ages. I'm telling you that ALL EYES were glued on this man for one solid hour. Afterwards they ran around and played with their shaped balloons. Boys got sword shaped balloons, pirate shaped hats. Girls got flower hats and dog shaped balloons. A balloon guy makes any shape you want basically. It cost me $75 and was WELL worth it. I spend way more than that taking them all to Chuck E. Cheese or some place similar. I would make sure that all of the balloons got thrown away after party is over to avoid your baby putting one in his mouth. Good luck!

How about balloon twisting/sculpturing. The best balloons are qualatex. They are more pricey but worth it. I got them from US Toys - near the cashiers. They don't even know they had them. I just did 2 patterns - sword and a poodle. If you are really interested. I can give you further instructions.

E.

We recently had our daughters 1yr party. WE were outside, so we a bouncy ball (the ones from the grocery store that are $1.50 ea) for each child and wrote their name on it. We also got a huge thing of sidewalk chalk and let them decorate our patio. They LOVED that. Just a couple of ideas. Hope it helps.

Have you thought about chuck e Cheese? We always go there!

Pick up a Dallas Child magazine. They always have great ideas, and the September issue is specifically all about birthday parties. They also have some good info and resources on their website.

For my daughter's first birthday we had the same wide age groups. We had a bean bag toss and all the kids loved it, a little hard for the young ones to take turns but it was fun. We also had a coloring contest, each child colored (some with adult help) a picture of a teddy bear holding the #1 which I have kept and will give to my daughter one day. All kids love balloons, we bought the disposable tank, this was great for decoration and then everyone could take them home (helping with the clean up). For the party favors we had home made butterfly cookies, a small water gun which even some adults enjoyed getting in that fun. We also had stickers and bubbles which the younger kids just loved!

My sister in law did a circus theme for her son's first birthday and it was a really big hit also. She had cotten candy, bobbing for apples, a popcorm machine and a snow cone machine. The favors were little circus boxes with animal crackers, animal stickers and little plastic animals.

Hope this has helped & have a great time on the big day !

Rent a bounce house and put it in the backyard. Have plenty of hot dogs, chips, and kool-aid. 1st birthdays are usually for the adults anyway, but that will keep the other kids occupied. They can jump for hours!

A bounce house is a GREAT solution! :o)

Check out my mom-owned business. You can go to our website and find your LOCAL branch of Space Walk (they are in the Dallas area too). May not honor my coupon.

www.herecomesfun.com

Hope it helps.

Blessings,

P. <><

A bounce house always goes over well. The only thing is you would have to keep the bigger kids out while the little ones jump. My little sister had one last year for her 2 year old. My one year old LOVED it. He thought it was more fun to fall then to jump. Also for goodie bags bubbles, big bouncy balls that the little ones can't get into their mouth, noise makers, stickers and of course lolli pops all go over well for all of the kids that age. They have ton's of stuff for goodie bag at Party City. Good Luck and have fun.

Ouside water sprnkler games are fun- balloon toss- bounce house is great if its not too hot- water slide you can rent-
Also - let them decorate their own cupcakes for dessert-
If you would love to enjoy the party and reduce your stress, condier Party Angels- We are a hsot assistant service that will do whatever it takes to minimize your work and let you enjoy your own party- clean up- put food out- get cake ready- make sure guests are tended to! Pls Check out my website- www.partyangelsus.com
Party Favors are an easy one- Head to the dollar store and pop a few things in a bag with a few lollipops and viola!
You can even have them decorate their own T-shirts with shaped sponges and that can be their favor. Thats a great age to just pop out the arts and crafts and let them go for it. My kids are 17 and 13 and I so miss those times!
Actually- I have a friend that has a great party idea
THEY COME TO YOU!
Its like build a bear but better
Regina
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____@____.com
www.makeyourownstuffedanimal.com
There is your activity and favor all in one!

Good luck and let me know how it goes- If you need us for this party or any in the future- please dont hesitate to give us a buzz!
D. Sansone
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