1St Brithday!

i had about that many at my son's as well. i opted to rent out the field house at my local park district and had the event catered. luckily the park district i used was very clean, very organized, and sat on beautiful grounds with a lake and a huge open place to run around as well as a playground. i was so worried about how to entertain all the kids that would be there and had so many games prepared but kids find ways to entertain themselves. we only ended up playing one party game. definitely best to start planning now, it took alot of work! good luck and happy early bday to your little guy.

Hi S.,
I don't have any ideas (however, I love the airplane theme that the other Mamasource Mom wrote about), but I picked up the April Chicago Parent the other day and there was a special insert this month for party planning. I haven't breezed through it yet, but I know there are a lot of advertisements and probably good ideas in it. I always pick my issue up at The Little Gym, but I know libraries carry it in the children's section. Who knows...maybe there's something in there that will spark an amazing idea. Good luck!
N.

Hi S.,
My friend and I are all celebrating 1st b-days about now. Two of them are having it at their Park District building and catering in food. This is nice if you have a lot of small kids that will be running around. I had mine at a local pizza place but only half the size of your group.
Good luck and happy birthday to the little one.
V.

My friend just had an 'airplane' theme for her son's birthday and she did it really cute. Invitations/thank yous/goody bag stickers at practicallydarlingdesigns on Ebay (I just used them too for my son's 6th with a camouflage theme - liked her a lot). For in-house decorations - she cute out clouds from posterboard and hung them on ceiling with little styrophome (sp?) planes hanging down. Then she had a "Jones Airlines Snack Bar Menu" chaulkboard listed by the buffet. Goodyboxes (like the box lunches you recieve on planes) included some airplane shaped chocolates, granola bar, cheese/cracker packs, bubbles, & more little styrophome planes. She didn't do a craft or activity, but I think a fun one might be to get some of those little planes in just white and have the kiddies paint them, then they can fly them around and have distance races and stuff. Try Oriental Trading Company or maybe Hobby Lobby to see if they would have planes.

If you don't like that idea, try looking on the practically darling designs Ebay store (she was working on a website too, so that might be up by now) and she has LOTS of invitations where you might be able to pick up more ideas.

Good luck and have fun!!
K.

I just had a birthday party for my son and we had about 50 people. I have to say that Cosco has great, delicious, and cheap cakes, as well as vegi plates with dip and other bulk items such as juice etc.

The one thing that was really overwhelming was the gifts. In the future, if we have another big birthday party I will either ask that all gifts either be for a charity that we choose such as Paws (pet adoption agency) or that you receive gift certificates to various stores, or a monetary gift for a college fund, etc.

Blackberry Farm in Aurora - beautiful farm setting, petting zoo, historic pilgrim houses, carousel pony rides and an old fashioned train to take folks for a ride around the lake. they supply the cake, food, decorations and party coordinators to organize games for the kids. Had my son's 2nd Bday there. Such a hit!!!