Daughter's 1St Birthday - Tifton,GA

We just had my daughter's first bday this past weekend. We just invited family over, ate cake and snackes, and played and played. She had a great time. She won't remember it, but it's good for the family to spend these milestones with her. Take care!

I hung up a birthday banner above a bench and had the guests take turns sitting on the bench with my son for a picture. I printed out 2 copies of each - one for his baby book and the other I wrote "Thank you for coming to my party" on the back with a sharpie marker and mailed them out as thank you notes. We just did a simple party, but this way each guest had a little bit of time with just the birthday boy (holding etc).
I also bought some fabric puff paints and wrote "Birthday Boy" on his onesie.

Keep it simple.
You could do a fall maze/hayride.

Start with your realistic budget. What can you afford? What are the logistics (weather, size of your home/yard, etc)? Do you have a large, local family or will it be mostly your friends?

No judgement here on party size... we had 50 people for a huge BBQ with family flying in from around the country. It was a blast and 100% more for us than for him. Hey... you survived that first year!

Themes:
- Disney (Disney Babies is really cute)
- Fall (apples, pumpkins, soups, Thanksgiving, etc)
- Pick a color and go with it (pink, purple, etc)

We did a Mickey theme for our son's party, but didn't go crazy with it. The invites and cake plates were the Disney pattern. Everything else was solid colored (primary colors). We had burgers, hot dogs, different salads and sides and CAKE!

Keeping it simple? Immediate family and a few very close friends... order pizza and have a cake.

Have fun!

we just did a family thing, cake , ice cream
open presents that's it

We did a teddy bear picnic. Already had lots of teddy bears and some baskets, bought some checkered plastic table cloths, made picnic like foods and a bear cake. Everyone had lunch and cake and chatted a bit and that was it. Kids just played among themselves, but you could easily do a teddy bear themed craft or game too.

we are doing a monster party for baby's first. he's an october baby.

party is geared for older cousins and will include pizza, gingerale, make your own monsters from oriental trading for the older ones, pin the tale on the monster, and a monster pinata, and monster cupcakes. costumes are optional. beer and wine for the adults.

hubs has long been calling all the little ones in our life "little monsters" they are soooo looking forward to it.

Baby birthday parties are kind of a pet peeve of mine.

I really wish that parents would remember how stressful big crowds can be for little ones. You're right, simple is best!

I'd get the close family and grandparents together, have dinner, gifts, and cupcakes. Keep it very simple and don't spend a bunch on silly things your child will never remember. Themes and loads of decorations are just not necessary.

Also, plan the party to be after nap time, but before the bedtime routine. Ensure that you don't rock her world too much or you'll have a very cranky little one!

My daughter's birthday is in November too. What a wonderful month. Anyway for her 1st birthday I had a party at home. The theme was a princess crown with 1st birthday on it. We didn't play games because at that age they could careless. Her guests were around the same age and the thing they were most interested in was the remote control. Actually there was a small fight over it.

I fixed chicken nuggets and tater tots. I got each child a sippy cup and put juice mixed with water in it. When it was time to open gifts guess what they were all interested in yes the gifts bags and bows. I tried to get her to open a present but she would have non of it.

Just keep it simple and stress free. When she gets older is when you will have to make big plans. Enjoy this one.

I know a lot of people go all out on first birthdays. It's a big occasion, I get it. And it's really a party for mom and dad more than baby, I get that too. We keep it very simple. A family dinner (nearby relatives and us). We choose a dinner that the baby seems to enjoy. For my son it was spaghetti and my daughter had sushi rice, chicken and broccoli. The only decorating we really do are a few helium balloons and a colored table cloth (to protect the furniture). And we have cake. We plan dinner a little early, so after opening presents and a little quality time with guests and toys, we can still keep our schedule. It's nothing over the top. It's inexpensive, fun and it still marks the day as special.

1 year olds have no idea what's going on, so anything you do is really for the others (family? friends?). If you do too much, you get stressed out and the child gets over-stimulated, and it's a disaster! Just get a small cake and a candle, invite a few close relatives or friends over, take some pictures. Keep it to an hour or hour-and-a-half. Don't invite a lot of other kids over - your daughter won't get it, she's too young for games, and the other kids get confused and jealous about toys being given only to the birthday child.

I never wanted my son to think that a birthday was about him getting 30 gifts - it was about celebrating. So we never got into huge parties at all. When he turned 1 and 2, it was just the family and one neighbor couple.

All you really need is a few photo opportunities to record the day - show her with her cake (they are always fascinated with the candle!) - and put a big sheet under the high chair to catch the mess. Be sure to get a photo of her covered with icing or ice cream! Give her a few toys and get photos - but she'll be interested in the first thing she gets and won't want to take her attention to the next thing. So take it slowly. Get a few photos with the guests and email the photos to them later.

Don't worry about themes and party hats (little kids hate them!) and big extravaganzas. It's a big industry but you don't need to support it! Make this about the joy of having her in your life!

For my oldest daughter's first birthday we took her to the zoo but she was just too young to really enjoy it. For my second daughter's first birthday we threw a simple party at our church fellowship hall. We went to the dollar tree store for all the decorations and some party favors for the other kids. Everything is 1 dollar. Can't get any cheaper lol. Then we got a nice cake and just let the children play with the balloons and party favors. They all had a great time and the adults enjoyed watching them. Remember to keep your party short, babies have very short attention spans and try to plan it for after her nap. Also get a friend or family member to take pictures so you can enjoy the day with your child and not behind the camera. Hope you have a blast with this huge milestone. God bless :)

I have some questions before I can respond . . .
Who are the guests going to be? Is this going to be a party with mainly adults, or will there be kids too. If there are kids, what age range? I will look back later and give my 2 cents!