1St Birthday Party- Girl

So is this her 1st birthday or her first party? If its her 1st birthday, family and a cake equals a party. She would be overwhelmed with anything else. And anything else would just be for the grown ups/ cousins.

First birthday parties are for the adults. The birthday child has no idea what's going on and can easily be overwhelmed.

Just have family over for cake and ice cream. Make sued you get the special 1st birthday cake for the birthday child to have to him/herself.

Don't spend money you don't have for a party your child won't remember.

If the party is for a one-year-old child, don't worry about it. She won't remember it, so no point in going overboard. Have teething biscuits and apple juice.
We didn't do the cake-smashing bit. Waste of food, a huge mess to clean up, and she wouldn't understand why it was ok to play with her food that time, but not okay the rest of the time.
If the party is to impress friends and family of the parents of the one-year-old child, have canapes, cucumber sandwiches, and champagne.

just invite family over, and have a potluck. no need for anything fancy- your daughter won't remember it. have a nice cake, and keep it low-key and brief, no more than 2 hours. and take lots of pics!
:) khairete
S.

A first birthday party is special in itself. The birthday girl won't understand it or remember it (though, when she's five, she'll look at the pictures you took). So the party is for the rest of you. If you want to take the opportunity to have a ice party, you could have a picnic in the park (can you reserve a picnic space?) and ask everyone to bring something in the way of food or games. Supply the meat and, of course, the ice cream and cake. This has been done in our family many times for birthdays (first and otherwise), and it has always been good.

Don't try to make it special for your baby - she won't care till she's at least 3-4 about anything like this. Plan the party for whoever is attending. Pick a theme, have your cake, decide if you're serving food - and if you are, keep it simple, and enjoy yourself.

Cheap and festive birthday stuff includes-

party hats
balloons
crepe paper streamers

Go to the dollar store or the party store. DIY on these items might save you a few cents, but not really worth it. Keep it easy, by choosing some cheery colors over a theme. i.e. yellow, blue and green or red white and pink etc.

Doesn't matter what you serve. just have a veg tray, a fruit tray, some chips, cake/ cupcakes and whatever main you want.

take pictures and have fun.

Best,
F. B.

What made it special for us was just being together, a nice dinner and a few presents, a picture of baby with his/her first sugar :-) A party for a baby/toddler always seemed silly to me because they really don't care, but I know a lot of families like to make a big deal out of it.
If you have a large group, how about a potluck/picnic at the park? Provide the meat and drinks and ask everyone to bring a side.

Depends on where you are having it. I love stuff you can make ahead of time like pulled pork which you can cook in the crock pot, shred and then return to the crock pot.

One of my favorite things from my younger son's first birthday was watching him demolish a cupcake! A birthday hat and free rein with a cupcake or small cake are all you need for great photos. You can buy a couple large balls or beach balls for her to play with in lieu of balloons, I saw some at Walmart yesterday for $2.99
Are you planning to invite adults or kids or keep it just family?

First, understand that a party for a child this young is entirely for the adults, and that pretty much everything about it will overwhelm the birthday girl! She will not understand the crowds, the theme, the decor, the cake or anything else. It's possible she will understand some of the presents (only the toys) but she will not understand opening one, then having it taken away so she can have a second one, and so on.

So scale back your expectations. Define what "a good party" means. Does it mean something you can have photos of? Does it mean something that the guests enjoy? Does it mean that everyone "gets" what a 1 year old birthday is about?

Assume that the one year old will become overwhelmed with a lot of people and a lot of hoopla. Figure out your guest list - usually it's just family or a free close friends for a child this age. They don't really play with other kids at 1. Plan around her nap time. Make sure food is kid-friendly. If you do it at meal time, you'll have a bigger expense and more work. If you do it at "snack time" (which may or may not work with her needed naps), it's less money and less effort.

If the party is sometime around July 4th (and anything between Memorial Day and Independence Day, which surround Flag Day might work), you can make one of those "American Flag" fruit desserts with strawberries and whipped cream or cream cheese forming the flag "stripes" and blueberries forming the "stars". Google it - you will find 100 recipes with pictures. Another fun thing for a buffet is a fruit "porcupine": take a seedless watermelon half and scoop out the flesh, turn the shell over to drain on paper towels or a flat-bottomed colander. Meantime, cut up fruit cubes (or buy from the store) in assorted colors: the scooped watermelon, then honeydew and cantaloupe, pineapple, red or green grapes (halved if large), peeled kiwi, strawberry halves, blueberries, mango - whatever you want. If you use apple, drizzle with a little lemon juice. Soft fruits like bananas don't hold up well so skip those. Take a skewer and poke holes in the green rind of the inverted watermelon shell - they can be random or in even rows. Get long frilled toothpicks (I prefer the plastic ones with a little arrowhead on the end - they hold up better) and spear 3-4 pieces of fruit in different colors on each one, then insert in the pre-made holes. Mix up the order of fruits on each pick, and note that not all picks will have the same 4 items. When you're done, the whole thing looks like a porcupine and it's a conversation starter. It takes no more budget than your usual fruit budget. Get small quantities of each kind. Of course, you can also make a fruit bowl out of the half watermelon - just slice off a piece of the bottom rind so the bowl sits flat and steady. Just keep all those used picks away from the birthday girl - put out a dish or a plastic cup for the used picks.

I make a unique salad with no mayo that can sit out at a summer event. Use Israeli couscous (also called pearl couscous - the pieces are larger than regular couscous, more the size of barley). For 2 cups of uncooked couscous, use 2.5 cups of water or a mix of water & vegetable broth, cook until all liquid absorbed (follow package directions). Add in about 4 cups of mixed chopped veggies (cukes, cherry tomatoes, celery, onion, green peppers, etc.) plus plenty of parsley, add about 1/2 cup olive oil and 1/3 cup vinegar (rice wine vinegar works great) plus salt & pepper. Everything is "to taste" and this can be made ahead.

You could add some cocktail meatballs (any flavor sauce you like, but the easiest is chili sauce or ketchup mixed with melted currant jelly in roughly equal proportions - sweet & sour. Keep then in a crockpot or a chafing dish. Again, make ahead, use toothpicks, limited prep and clean-up.

Cupcakes are all the rage for some years now - easier than a large birthday cake and everyone can choose their own flavor.

The thing to remember is this is a 1 year old, and your goal is to get some cute photos and not to have a massive blow-out party that overwhelms her and you. Just invite the really special people in your life - and keep it small!

We only invited family. My daughters watch tv and each have a favorite. We decorated with balloons and printed out some decorations with their favorite cartoon theme. My mom helped me make the cake. It's the time together that counts.

Why are you planning something like this? She won't even know what's going on. I'd simply have a birthday party. Cake, Ice cream and cheap pop or water.

You DO NOT NEED TO FEED PEOPLE or give goody bags or anything else.

If you're having a dinner party where the cake for dessert is for a little one then you're having an adult dinner party with kids present. That's a totally different party.

And please do not have balloons at all. Kids can bite a balloon, pop a balloon, pick up a piece of it, kids die when they get a piece of balloon in their throat.

If you want to see something completely sad then take first aid/CPR classes with the firemen and docs in your town. Then ask them about balloons. When they get a call where a child has this issue they go in knowing that there is very very little hope. They try to insert tools, that just stretches the piece of balloon and it doesn't give them air. They can't reach in and pull it out, docs are the only ones that might have a tool that would be able to do that but even then the balloon is wet and slippery. It almost takes a surgical procedure to get that piece of balloon out. So don't have balloons.

The best part of summer birthdays is that you can do a pool party. So maybe you can have a baby pool, those are pretty cheap at Walmart or Target. Then you can invite people to a "Baby Pool Party" to celebrate her turning one. :)

We had a small party and invited neighbors and some family. I made cupcakes, and we barbecued so my husband made hot dogs/burgers. It was fun and relaxed. :)