My sons first birthday is this May and I have no idea what kinds of activities to plan for the kids. I am brand new to planning kids parties.I really did not want to do the jumping house. Any other ideas that are reasonable in cost? I do have a pinata.
Your baby boy is going to be 1-year old and won't care if you have a party or not. For the first birthday party for my children, we had a homemade cake and invited immediate family and any close friends the baby is familiar with. My children loved plowing into the cake with their hands; provided great pictures. They also loved to rip into their presents and were mostly interested in the wrapping paper. Don't let your feelings get hurt if he doesn't show a lot of interest in his gifts; he has a short attention span right now and will concentrate most on the bright and colorful. Hope you have fun...
It might be fun to make snow cones. I don't know the ages of the guests, but this is pretty good for all ages. I would say cotton candy too--but that might be alot of sugar for little ones. I also had an electirc bubble machine at my daughter's first bday. It was a swimming party but the little kids LOVED the bubbles flying around. :) Cara
My daughter's birthday is in May also and for her 1st party I went low key. I invited family and friends who also had little ones. I didn't want to overwhelm her so I just put out kid friendly toys in the living room to occupy time until everyone arrived. We did presents and cake (in that order-disasterous otherwise, unless you want cake all over the presents!!). Then we went outside where I had a small blow-up pool. The kids loved it! That way guest with no kids got to see the main party and could leave if wanted. It was very relaxing just sitting around the pool watching the kids have a blast!
Hello! Theres very little you can do for one yearolds. I had a big elaborate party planned for my little girl and a few other one yearolds and it was so overwhleming that they were all cranky. Simplicity is key with these little guys! I will say that balloons were a big hit!
Hope this helps a little!
For my son's 1st birthday we just had some of his friends (all around the same age) over and it was like a big play date with cake and ice cream. The kids just played with all his toys and had a good time. At this age most of them are just starting to walk, so you're pretty limited in what you can do. Maybe give it another year....
My youngest turns 1 also here in just a matter of weeks....I am just planning a BBQ - of course complete with cake and ice cream, because it's true - they don't know at this point what is going on, so choose something that will work best for you so you can enjoy your time as well.
I'm doing my daughter's birthday party next week. I plan on making mini-cupcakes for the kids to eat, easier for them to hold the cake. Also, I'm providing them bubbles and playdough (making it myself). Also, provide those new crayon ball to the kids to play. Most of these items they get to take home-a party favor but it for them to play with during the party.
I've limit the time due to not wanting to overwhelm my daughter on her party. :) 2 hours is enough.
Good Morning Priscilla,
I have 3 children...all of their first birthday parties consisted of family and friends. A child's first birthday is very special but there is not really bunches of games for the very small kids to play.
I went to Albertsons for the cake. At Albertsons when you buy the birthday cake, they give you the baby's cake for free along with a throw away camera and balloon. I would suggest you go there for the cake.
Activities? Well the biggest feature of the party will be your little one digging into his cake and making all kinds of a mess. haha...
Cook up some hot dogs, have some chips and sodas for all to enjoy and let everyone focus on the baby.
Have a good one
leighan b
mesquite tx
I have to say all my boys had their first birthday party with family only and close family friends. Nothing fancy, casual, bbq, went to Michaels and got crafts for the older ones etc. Their second birthday parties though (the best really) was at a park. Crazy time but we picked a Sat at 9am. I brought bananas, donuts, yogurt in a cooler and we had breakfast at the park and all the kids played. It was low key, great for the nap times, still cool in the mornings and the park was not yet busy. You could rig up a pinata for this one but the park entertained them all. Good luck. Remember though that the first one the baby doesn't even care about yet so enjoy it and relax before they start to want it all like mine do now.
There is no need to plan anything elaborate for a first birthday. Letting him eat the cake (and taking pics, of course) is probably the only activity I'd plan. At this age the party is really for the grown-ups. Make sure that it isn't during her naptime. If he is easily overwhelmed, I'd really limit the guest list. Make it short.
The first birthday party is more for the family, not the child. He won't remember it, and may even sleep through much of it. I recommend you only invite his cousins or older kids who play with him a lot. It' crazy-wild to try to have a "kids" party for a one-year-old.
We actually had a rather large 1st b-day for my son this past November. I started with a theme of primary colors + green and dots. I rented our church's fellowship hall, invited all our family that is in the area, his "aunties" (my two girlfriends), plus our small group at church with everyone's kiddos (ranging in age from 6 mo to 12 yr). We had food, which the grandma's helped bring in, cupcakes in my colors with picks that spelled out "Happy Birthday Sebastian" that I made, tea from Chicken Express and lemonade from Chik-fil-A, balloons, and favors that matched my theme. We also brought our two super-yards, put them together into a huge enclosure and put ball pit balls in it. This kids loved this more than anything! I had tidly winks in one corner, and a huge twister game laid out on the floor, but they really weren't used. I also covered each of my four round tables with a different color from my color palette. Oh, and we had Ratatouille playing on the big screen. When you have nearly 30 people just in your family, it just made sense for us to go BIG! It was a little stressful, but was really a lot of fun and everyone had a blast, including the b-day boy.
1st Birthday's are fun...but let's be honest...is your child really going to remember this one...
We had a rather small gathering of my child friends (along with the parents), at the house...we had pictures of her during her first years...and the tape of her birth on the tv (nothing graphic)...along with all of her first year stuff...1st steps, etc...
The cake we had, well...my daughter got to touch it before anyone else did...what ever she did was fine with us...and she stuck her whole hand way inside the cake and then put it all over her face...cute stuff...then we put her in her seat...and she had her cake, then we served everyone else...we opened gifts...and visited...I would'nt do any decorating, let the cake be the decorations and most of all RELAX!!! The busy, fun birthdays start after this one...
First birthdays are fun, but keep it simple. A one year old is not going to want to do much of the typical party stuff so it will be more you doing it for them, and at one they still get easily overwhelmed. I would plan on having the party about 1 hour long and inviting a small group of family and close friends. Having cake and opening presents will be plenty.
For a birthday tradition, I found and used a little train that held the candles ... nothing fancy, just there with the candles at the store. The engine didn't hold a candle ... just put one car on the first year to hold one candle ... then two cars the next year. By year 3, they were remembering and asking for the train and counting the cars. Thank goodness I was able to find a second one ... that stretched it out to about eight or ten candles! The train always had a little track to run on (frosting, of course) and then other theme decorations were added as the birthday boy chose. But always, the train ... their idea, not mine. Now that little train sometimes shows up, still, on their sons' cakes!
Grandma GiGi
When my son turned 1 i made such a big party then i realize he is only 1 and he did not enjoy it because he did not know what was going on i learned until he learned to walk really good then i did something big for him i say do something small so you can take the pictures he is 1 and there are foods that he can not eat cake he can so just think of something that everyone likes to eat but right now so little he would not have fun and he is the b-day boy
Alittle about me: i am a single mom to a 7 year old i lost 3 babies and god blessed me with victor so i will be 45 with a 7 year god knows when
My daughter is in a Mother's Day out program & for their Valentines Day party they had a large strip of bubble wrap on the floor. They let the kids lose on that & you would've thought that it was the world's greatest toy. For 30-45 minutes straight they were completely entertained, I was amazed!! I will definetly have some at my daughters birthday. It's super cheap & the kids all loved it, you cant go wrong with bubble wrap!
Priscilla,
I remember my daughter's first birthday party. It wasn't for her it was for me! I survived the 1st year!!! and my baby was healthy and happy. I invited a few friends with baby's my age and the rest were just my friends and I had a large spread of homemade and catered foods. I held it inside and some people were outside. The baby won't remember it anyway. However my friends bestowed some beautiful gifts for her.
If you must..and ....If your friends have children older than 3 or 4 and they are all in the same age range...A jumping house is a great idea. Have parents take turn monitoring them while they jump. If they are the same size, its' not a problem.
The absolute best thing I ever did for one of my boys parties was get a kiddie pool at Wal-Mart for $5. I bought a bag of the plastic balls (they have some at Wal-Mart and Target rather inexpensive) and the ones at Toys r Us are a bit more. I put the 1 year olds in the pool and they loved it. They would throw the balls and jump in them sort of--everyone still talks about how such a simple thing was the highlight of the party.