1St Birthday Party for Daughter

I had a princess party for my daughters first birthday. I went to www.partycat.com and found the cutest princess crown invitations. A friend of mine then made a 3 tier cake and put a crown on top.....it was too cute!!! Have fun!

We did a cupcake party for my 1 yr. old niece and it was too cute! I made a "cupcake cake" and decorated it to look like one big cupcake...does that make sense? So, when it was time to eat the cake-everyone just pulled a cupcake off. It was so cute and now (Valentine clearance) is a great time to get some goodies for the party.

Hi,
I saw your post and wanted to respond. I LOVE planning kids birthday parties!! For my sons first birthday I had him a ball party. That meant any round ball I could find was at the party. There were lots of balls in all sizes and colors. Very festive! I did all the decorations in colored circles or round balls. All the kids food was shaped in circles. I ended up finding round place mats with colored circles on them that I used as runners on the tables. The centerpieces on the table I layered different kinds of round candy in big clear plastic jars(the kids did not even try to open them). I filled the cealing with balloons and at the bottom of the string I hung his initial C on a circle I made on the computer. I made a sucker tree for the kids and used round suckers then I put a sticker with his picture on them and stuck them to the tree, then I stuck gumballs all over the tree as well, to tie in the theme. All the food was labeled with round labels. I had lots of stations set up outside as well that were games to play with the balls. It was a great party and kids of all ages loved playing with the balls. The adults couldn't resist either! : )
I am so detail oriented so there are more things I could share, but this post would be too long.

My sons 2nd birthday I did a coloring theme. That turned out great too. If interested I can share some ideas.
So if you need anything email me I would love to help!
T.

My daughter just turned 1 in Jan. and believe you me I was probably more excited then she was. I think I started planning for her party 2 months before and the only reason was because I wanted it to go smooth and @ the end it did. I gave her a circus theme party. I know she is a girl and most people thougth she was going to have a girly party, but really I did that because what 6 or 7 year old boy wants to go to a party with tinker bell hats they are forced to wear and pink all over the place. So I played it safe! It was really fun for the kids though because I borrowed me mothers popcorn machine, I rented a cotton candy machine and a moon bouncer with an attached slide (I had one of the older kids take her in there of course when there were only a couple of little children in there and she had a blast jumping and rolling around). Then I hired a balloon artist for 2 hours (I thought this was a good idea) he stayed inside for one hour making the harder things like the cartoon characters, frogs, butterflies and a Tinker Bell for my daughter. Then he went outside for the other hour interactings with the children making them all sorts of cute things from flower rings for the girls, hats, all sorts of animals and of course the swords for the boys. Then I also hired a clown that put on a very good clown show and magic show for the children even including the adults. I mean he was great, he had the children go up and help with the magic and he gave out prized. For the food I also did things that they sold @ the circus like hot dogs, hamburges, turkey legs, corn on the cob and frito pie. It was a hit. For her cake my mother made her a regular sheet cake (we didnt do cupcakes because I have come to find out that it just makes a big mess with the papers) and decorated it with clowns, and a big tent she made out of card board, she even put lites inside of the tent (she is very creative). The good thing about the party was that it didnt cost a lot. All the rental things came out to a little over $200 with the table and chair rentals too, the balloon artist and the clown came out to a little over $200 as well and the food came out to no more than $150 and that was because I have a really big family and there were about 50 + kids with there parents) If you have any other questions please feel free to get back to me...again this is just an idea. I hope I was helpful and good luck.
T.

For my daughter's first birthday we had a puppet show. You could do this or have a petting zoo. Either one will allow several age groups to enjoy=including your daughter.

Your daughters 1st birthday will be more about those attending (grandma, grandpa) than your daughter. Try to schedule the party around her nap times, during her "best happy times", and make it short and sweet. We did an afternoon party, then put her down for her nap, while the rest of the family spent some time together, just hanging out. We let her big brother invite a friend over during the party, so they were happy playing. We made mistake, however. We had her sitting in her high chair, and put a cupcake with a candle on the tray, adn started singing happy birthday. Before I could stop her, she reached out to touch the cupcake, and burned her hand on the candle. It was not bad, but she cried, and after that, did not want anything to do with the cupcake. So much for that picture memory. Try not to overwhelm her with alot of stuff. She will not remember, nor will she be able to handle the pace of a big blow out party. She is after all, only 2 year old. Save the blow-out for her 2nd birthday. She will enjoy it more then.

Gymboree Play & Music is a perfect place for your one year old's party. It interacts with the children and adults. It's really awesome! www.gymboreeclasses.com then click birthday parties at the top.

For my daughter's first birthday party I did Dora and she loved every moment of it more than anyone.There are alot of great ideas out there and you can even try Party City too.

Hi S.!

I have a four yr. old daughter and I get great ideas from Birthday Express. It is a great web site. You may want to check it out. I order from them every year. Good luck!

K. R.

My daughter is 2 months away from her first birthday party so i'm full of ideas!
How about a costume party? (if alot of little friends will be there) You could dress her as Cinderella, and have a "Princess'" night. You could make a tiny Pumpkin out of Paper Mache, and buy the plastic Horses from the dollar store. You can hang miny Disco balls for glitz, and hang self-drawn or bought posters of cartoon characters. Pin the Tail, or a game of dress up "in mommies clothes" or if you can splurge, find the treasure chests of costumes. Hope that helps!

go to www.birthdayexpress.com they have great stuff

I'll never forget my daughter's first birthday party. We invited all the relatives and had it in our home. She got a huge doll in a huge box. She took the doll out of the box and crawled into the box and had the greatest time playing peakaboo with her grandparents! That reminded me that sometimes the simplest things are the most fun.

One time I took a long roll of bubble paper and let her jump all over it and stamp all the bubbles flat. She had a great time. I think she was 4 and the she loved making noise. I don't know if it would work with a 1 year old.

Another time I had a huge amount of syrofoam peanuts & a huge box. I let her jump and play in them. She pretended that she was swimming. What a mess! They stuck to the walls and went everywhere. It was a mess to clean up but she had a great time!

Order a small cake (or get a cupcake) with some really disgusting colored icing (green photographs great -- pale colors look good in photos) and take photos of her eating it! What a mess! Have lots of cameras ready for the experience. Priceless!

Then the adults eat the regular birthday cake.

Look at familyfun.com and Marthastewart.com They have great ideas on both.

www.kxpressions.com;

S.,

When my oldest daughter (now 23) turned ONE, I gave her a family birthday party and invited the neighbors. We had a blast and she treasures the photos!! As she aged, I gave her and her siblings, themed birthday parties (what they were interested in at the time). Parties at McDonald's, Chuck E Cheese's, Burger King (I brought the decorations and cake), ice skating, roller skating, Cinderella, Pocahontas, Barney, Power Rangers, Pirates of the Carribean, Buzz LightYear, etc. I've also done birthdays in the park (weather permitting) and the kids loved it!! We've even done sledding and swim parties. If weather is super cold, we've done indoor jungle gym, neon jungle mini-golf, bowling and movie theatre.

Does your daughter like Dora, Barney, The Wiggles, Barbie, Disney Princess's, etc.? Will it be warm or cold? Try sledding if it's cold or a swim party if it's nice outside, little kids and babies love this!!!

The crappiest birthday we've ever had was being stranded on the side of the road on my 3rd daughter's 10th birthday. She's 14 now and she loves to tell the story, but I made it up to her in spades, she had 2 birthday parties!!

I advise family parties because as parents and grandparents age, they may not be there for the next birthday. Grandparents on both sides are deceased, so the pics taken at reunions, bday parties, easter, xmas, etc are special to my children. They may not remember a particular birthday party, but it is in picture form and it will last a lifetime or more.

Best of luck!!

P.

PS...don't sweat it

We did a lady bug theme but pink. For the second we did a barnyard theme with animal shaped cookes.

Honestly, there are tons of "cute" party themes out there. The best advice I ever got about "kid parties" is to NOT over-do it -- to invite only as many children as yours is years old (1 "child guest" for the 1 year old, 2 guests for the 2-year old, etc). You can have a fun party without 100 guests. You can create wonderful memories (for you, not her at one year old) without spending an insane amount of money. It seems like lots of folks try to out-do themselves from years prior, or out-do someone else's party, or whatever. I don't want to rain on your parade, but consider how much she will remember of this event and how much you want to spend (not how much you can afford). Good luck & happy brthday to your little one! JW

This First Birthday is really for you & Daddy. People won't like that, but it's really to celebrate everything you have enjoyed this first year (My Mom said tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek that it shows Mom & Dad survived the Year of Firsts) and the child won't remember it :) *Don't stress about the pony rides little Susie had last summer for her First Birthday.* This is about your Beautiful Little Girl, not how much the Jones' shelled out last month with the Gymberee Party. I know this will sound like procrastination, but you may want to prepare "general" items right now. For my daughter's 1st birthday we did an "I'm 1!" theme. I made her a little cake in a small 1-shaped pan for just her and a sheet cake with "Happy 1st Birthday, Yvonne". I took one of the napkins and copied to the computer, then printed it on cardstock to make matching invitations. I did a Peanuts theme for my son's First Birthday and did the invitations the same way. I had balloons and streamers for decorations and goody bags for the cousins. We rented a park pavillion so that I didn't need to stress over the house. We did hot dogs, chips and juice & sodas (you can buy bottled water and flavor pouches instead of sodas - I do this now, for the cost). I didn't go all out, but I didn't follow the "1 child guest per year of age", either. Between my parents, I have 11 aunts & uncles and most of them have atleast 3 kids each (my cousins)and many of those cousins have several kids each and none were her age (she's the first great grandchild on my dad's side and about the 12th or so, lost count, on my mom's side). I also have 5 brothers and sisters and 3 of them have 2 kids each. So I couldn't invite "just one kid". I'm not sure, they might mean "one classmate per child's age"... if they do, that doesn't apply to me since I stay home with my children. The important thing is: Don't stress over non-essential stuff. Enjoy the planning and the party!

HTH,
Donna

when my daughter was 1 (now 3) i did ice cream cone cupcakes and thay are very simple to make instead of putting the cuppcake holders in the pan u just butter that pan so the batter dont stick and put the batter right in the pan and then put the ice cream cone one top of the batter befor u bake. u will bake the ice cream cone with the cupcake i know is sounds weird but it doesnt hurt them. and u would bake them just like the mix says for normal cupcakes nothing chages about that. we did the ice cream cone cupcakes for the kids and then made a little sheat cake for the adults but the adults had more fun with the cupcakes then the kids did. but your shouldnt listen to all that nonsince about one guest for there age its complete none since and a total waste of time to worry about. but hope u have fun with ur daughter's first birthday. try the cupcakes even if not for the birthday party they are great for the summer party's and stuff. J. C.

My niece (4) and daughter (1) had a combination bday party and used the pink poodle Birthday Express theme. The 1-year-old didn't really know what was going on. However, my niece, mother, and sister planned everything (because the 4-year-old wanted to make most of the decisions) so all we had to do was show up with the second guest of honor!

Because it was only family, we did have a little party for friends. Well, OUR friends. (After all, any friends of a one-year-old are actually kids of the parents' friends!) One-year-old bdays seem to be a time when parents' friends can come and fawn over the cute one-year-old. They love to do it, even though the kid may be oblivious, AND, as another person said, the pictures you have from the party can become treasured keepsakes when the child is older. For a party like this, I didn't see much of a need for a theme. So, I had ladybug invitations (because I had some leftover from an out-of-state shower), I bought plates from Dollar Tree, made FunFetti cupcakes, and served our friends a spiral-cut ham so I wouldn't have to do any major cooking. We had kids of all ages, so for an activity, I took a bunch of fabric scraps I already had, and gave them the scraps with construction paper and glue and they had a great time. So, no theme, and most of what I used I had around the house. Still, a great successful party.

We're doing my daughter's first birthday next week and I wanted a theme that reflected what she was "into". SO, we are doing BOAS AND BALLOONS. We made up our own theme. I got white and pink feather boas for the kids to wear, tons of balloons, pink and white crepe paper, and a cake made out of cupcakes in the shape of the number "1". I'll let you know if it's a HIT. As a party favor for her guests I burned a CD for each of them with my daughter's favorite songs. It's been fun planning....

I noticed that someone already recommended Gymboree Play & Music. I too had my son's 1st birthday party there and EVERYONE had a great time! Not much planning or work necessary on the parents' part. The Gymboree teacher takes care of all of the activities. You just provide the food/drinks, decorations, cake/cupcakes & party favors (if you so choose). The kids can run around and have a great time on the safe gymboree play equipment. The Missouri City location charged $195 for 20 kids for 1&1/2 hrs. Not bad!

I did a polk-a-dot theme for my daughter's 1st b-day. It was pretty cute. I cut out paper dots and put them on the table, had a dot cake made, dot accessories and blew up balloons to put on the floor. She'll never remember it, but I had a blast doing it! I did a circus for my son's first b-day. I'm not into characters or cartoons but babies love Elmo.

My daughter is turning 1 in May and I am also looking for ideas. We went to card and party factory and they have a lot of ideas and decorations for little girls turning 1. I cant wait it should be lots of fun.

I made my daughter an outfit. It took me about an hour (I'm not a really gifted seamstress or anything) I used a super cute bithday themed print for the top and chennele for the pants.

Then we had a few close friends/family over and I decorated with the 1st birthday stuff from Party City, cost me about $30 for a large streamer I hung in our entry, a highchair decorating set, a septer, a hat and a few other things.

I made cupcakes for the guests and a small cake for the bday girl, who enjoyed everything!.

Good luck