1St Birthday Party Ideas!!! - North Anson,ME

This past year for my daughter's birthday we did cupcakes for party favors (it was an Elmo theme party). I bought boxes on Ebay and my husband and I made the cupcakes and decorated them- put Elmo faces on some of them. We tied ribbons around the boxes and put labels on them I had made from someone also on Ebay that said thank you for coming to my party. I liked it better than giving out little toys for the kids and so did the parents. I can send you pics if you want- just let me know! ____@____.com

Don't bother with a theme. No one will care. Just get some good food, a cake that you can eat, and a cake that your baby can smash. That's it.

Whatever theme you pick - do books with that theme as the favors. Just think of what she loves the most and go with that. I did a big party for my son and loved it. Everyone warned me that he might cry the whole day but he's so social that I wasn't worried and turns out he had a great time too. I don't think he napped all day. You know your child - go by that. My only advice is don't go crazy on the food because you spend too much time working and not enjoying the guests. We had tons of appetizers, main course, BBQ and deserts. Also, make sure your daugther has no allergies to the cake or treats for the day. I just heard of someone that had a reaction to the bakery cake that had raw eggs in the frosting. The last thing you want is an ER visit.

I'm so happy to hear that you are not trying to overwhelm a 1 year old with a whole bunch of kids and a lot of activities & games!! You obviously understand that your child will have no idea what is going on. So it sounds like you are more making this a celebration for adults to join in - which is great. They will know not to overstimulate your daughter! I think it's nice that you aren't going all commercial for characters she doesn't relate to yet!

You could use any banana bread recipe and just frost the top (not the sides) with cream cheese frosting. It's nice and moist, and you can still put a candle on top.

If you do a rainforest theme, you can get some fake trees at the party store - hopefully they will come in handy for something else in the future. For the kids, do goodie bags with fake snakes or bugs in them - or rainforest animals (birds, monkeys...). Simple, and something they can use. They love that stuff! You could also hide things throughout the house and let them hunt for them, depending on their ages. Adults can help the younger ones if you want. But overall, keep it simple. Your daughter is only 1, and I really feel strongly that people get into a vicious cycle of outrageous parties that stress them and their kids out, as well as break the budget. So go simple and make it a social event to celebrate your daughter being in their lives, not an extravaganza! People will appreciate that you kept it simple, and so will you and your wallet!

How Sweet. Wish Upon a Star would be awesome. Just cut out some yellow stars from construction paper and hang them all from the ceiling. Get a dark blue table cover (cheap and something you can throw away) and some yellow plates. But remember!!!! Your child is 1. She/he will not remember this party. So don't go overboard.
Depending on the ages of the kids... the party favors can be stickers, bracelets, and a sucker or two. No party favors for the adults. We come for the cake. ha ha!

As far as themes go, is there a particular kind of animal that your daughter likes? My oldest's first birthday was centered around fish, because he adored them. My youngest will be 2 in January, and I suspect the theme for his birthday will be dinosaurs or lions because he loves things that roar LOL! Unless, of course, something else becomes his favorite between now and then. Just pick one of her favorite things -- something that always makes her happy.

The key is keep it simple! Don't go overboard and you'll have a lot more fun. For my son's first, we did it at a park (Memorial Day in Southern CA, so the weather was good...not sure how Oct in ME is). I invited several friends so there were a bunch of little kids/babies and a lot of adults, maybe 50 people total.
For food, I got Subway sandwiches, chips & fruit, plus cake. For decorations, I did a first birthday theme that I found at www.partyexpress.com - did some stuff with the themed plates, cups, etc and got some solid to save a little money. We hung up a few decorations and got balloons, but that's it.
Since the party was at a park, I made the favors all stuff they could play with during the party. I got everyone a pail and filled it with chalk, playdoh, crayons & coloring books, etc. Kept it simple.

His second birthday was almost identical, but fewer decorations and pizza instead of sandwiches. For the favors, I made a CD of his favorite songs and called it "Josh's Greatest Hits." People loved it!

Happy first to your little girl.

K.
http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao - perfect gifts for babies & kids of all ages

I did a circus/carnival theme party once which was really fun! Just google "Circus Birthday Party" and you can get tons on ideas.

For favors, I always like to do little treats (but not candy). For example, small individual bags of animal crackers. Personally, I can't stand when my daughter goes to a b-day party and comes home with a bunch of little nick-nacks that are useless and eventually get chewed up by the dog anyways! LOL

Get pink balloons and streamers (since it's for a girl!). 1 year olds LOVE balloons. My daughter's entire first birthday party was all her cousins and friends and family (that were around her age) playing with big pink balloons! There really is no reason to go nuts on the first birthday. They won't remember.

When my daughter turned one, we had a Tinkerbell theme. She had a fairy costume on, and her cake was a Tinkerbell cake, balloons were pink green and yellow, and the favors were in Tinkerbell bags... and so on (you get the idea). We had like 100 guests but it wasn't difficult to pull off coz if you got a venue the restaurant would take care of the food and the other stuff. I just had to come there and get my daughter into a fairy costume.

Anyway, I think your WISH UPON A STAR idea is great. Maybe you can get star-themed stuff, like straw stoppers, plates and things. Maybe you could do a "walk of fame" thingie on your floor. For food, you should have like 4 kinds and a dessert-type meal and a choice of beverages.

For party favors, you could take photos of the guests in a home made photo booth, like something you'd see on a red carpet, with a backdrop saying "Leandra's First Birthday" or something. Print outs of said photos could be used as favors. It would be a nice thing for them. We have something like that and I treasure it because it's a family photo.

Time sure does fly my guy will be 1 in 10 days...yikes...I asked a similar question and someone suggested rubber duckies...I have a bubble machine a small pool with lots of rubber duckies everywhere also make duck feet tracks either with chalk or felt to wherever I think Im going to bring mine up part of the driveway and either to the pool or the cake. Another suggestion was splish splash music playing not really sure if Im going to do that or not yet. I got to say I really like your rain forest idea too. Oh and another thing I got his 1 year pictures done and Im going to do an autograph frame for guests to sign. Whatever it is you decide take lots of pictures and enjoy the day...Happy Birthday to your baby girl!

We just celebrated my daughters first birthday and this is the cake I made for her. It had good banana flavor, but wasn't sweet. You could add sugar if you wanted it sweeter, but I was trying to avoid sugar for my 1 and 3 year old as I didn't want them bouncing off the walls at the party.

BANANA CAKE

2/3 c. banana, mashed
1/2 c. butter, softened
3 lg. eggs
3/4 c. water (I used applesauce instead, and the texture was just fine)
2 c. unbleached flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. (or more) cinnamon
1 tsp (or more) vanilla extract

Grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch pan. Beat together mashed banana and soft butter until creamy. Beat in water. In a separate bowl, beat eggs until very foamy. Beat into mixture. Blend in flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Beat until smooth. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Cool. Serves 8-10.

I put it in several pans to make thinner layers, then used a cookie cutter to cut heart shapes and stack them to make a smaller/taller cake. I also used cool whip (that I colored pink) for the frosting and in between the layers - I think it makes for cuter pictures!

I think that a great party favor fwould be a 2 part gift - at the party they could get a picture frame (perhaps a 2 picture frame with 1 picture of your daughter already in it) - then at your party you can take their pictures with your daughter and send them with the thank you card.

Note - I am the great procrastinator - I still have not gotten the pictures pritned from my daughters 2nd b-day in January so if you are like me I would not reccomend this idea.

Good luck!