First Birthday Party - Edgartown,MA

I once attended a 1st b-day party at 8:30am. It was foer my cousin's babies who were twins and they were the most happy in the morning when they first woke up. Rather adjusting the babies' napping schedule around the people you invite to the party have a morning breakfast party when the baby is happy and energetic...just a suggestion!

Hi J.,
I would do a small family & close friends( if you have very close friends). You want to enjoy the day & if you have a million people you won't have time to enjoy the day. Do a small cake for her to play with( my son never even touched his). Her second b-day will be a lot more exciting.

a big b-day is gonna be tiring but a small get together is a great idea and a lot less stressful and your daughter wont remember it anyway so just have fun with her!!

Go for the party-she only turns 1 once! We did pizza and I made a balloon cake (we had a Curious George theme)- the balloon cakes are easy- cupcakes attached to ribbon.

Hi,

We just did a small party for my oldest daughter. But we also lived in a small place. She isn't going to remember it anyway and like the last person said she will remember her 2nd birthday party and enjoy it more. Happy Birthday to your little girl!

We had a party with family and friends - event tho my DD doesn't remember it - we do - and she loves to look at the photos from it - and see all the people and see herself covered in frosting.

We also just had pizza, veggies, and cupcakes. simple and easy food - no games - just let the kids play outside and all around the house.

It was a lot of fun to see all the family and friends together. I am under the mentallity that you don't know who will be here the next time (we have lost a few people along the way) - so why not live it up each birthday and holiday so you have those special memories and photos of everyone.

It's really a personal choice. Honestly the 1st birthday is more for the adults than the children. For my oldest I did a big party with all of the family. My middle I kept it small with just grandparents and godparents. I liked that. We also didn't have the space for anything big. Then my almost 2 year old I did do a big one for him too, but I liked his party so much better than my oldests since one we did it at the house instead of a restaurant and two I was more memorable. For my middle and youngest child I did something very similar. I created an invite that had pictures of them from the first year. Wrote up a little something about the first year and asked everyone to bring a memory, story, or piece of advice they would like to share. For my daughter I made a scrapbook for all of these things to go in for her. For my son I did a time capsule. I got a box to put everything in and wrote not to open until his 16th birthday. As far as doing something with her that day don't over stimulate her. I would just keep everything low key. It's not like she's going to remember. If you don't do a party on her birthday or at all then I would probably just do the traditional cake thing with her after dinner. Just for the pictures. Every kid should have the first cake pictures to look at ;).

What I did for my sons first few birthdays is I would do something with him early in the day like the my gym, butterfly place, the aquarium, ect. and then would have family come over for dinner and cake around 4 pm. For his 1st birthday I just had a cookout with family and a few close friends.

Hi!

I recently had my son's 1st Birthday party on August 22nd and since both my husband and I work full time we wanted to make sure we enjoyed the day as much as our little one. We wanted it to be less stressful than most 1 year bithday parties we had heard about.

We saved a lot of time by ordering two six foot subs from subway...one meat and one veggie. It was such a great idea! The kids loved it and the adults too! We also had our party outside (contigent upon weather of course). This saved us the hassle of house clean-up afterwards. I also made homemade cupcakes instead of ordering a cake - we didnt want a ton of left-over cake afterwards! I made my son a triple decker cupcake and frosted it - he loved it!! You can also hand out goodie bags to all the kids ahead of time so that they are occupied and amused with their new toys....this saved me with feeling like I had to amuse the adults and children!

Good Luck and remember to have fun yourself!

B.

I'm not a big believer in big blow-out parties that strain the budget and overwhelm the child and the mom! Your daughter will absolutely have no idea what is going on and may be over-stimulated from all the frenzy and attention. Other little ones have no idea why the birthday child gets all these toys that they cannot play with, so be prepared for that! It's a big milestone so of course you want an opportunity to take some pictures for your album or scrapbook. Do something small with just family or a few close friends. Make it about the celebration and not about getting lots of gifts - that's a good goal for kids in the years ahead too. When my son was, 4, 5, 6 etc., he got to invite 4, 5, and 6 friends, according to his age. It's a great "rule" that keeps the party manageable for children at different levels of maturity. I didn't want him to get 20 presents and I didn't want our weekends spent going to 20 parties through the year, so we never invited the whole class and he only attended those parties for his close friends.

For this party, I would do some simple decorations and a cake you think your daughter might eat (sometimes an ice cream cake works best for little ones), and just have a few close friends/family over. Take some photos, don't worry about games and such. If you have other kids coming, you could do a SIMPLE craft. One thing that is easy is picture frames - they have wooden ones and foam ones. Kids can attach foam shapes or even macaroni shapes with glue. The foam ones are done immediately, and the wood/macaroni ones can take a quick spritz of spray paint which will dry in 10 minutes max. The frames become the "goody bag" or party favor. Then you can email photos from the party to the guests and they can choose what to put in the picture frame. Have someone else be the designated photographer so that you can a) focus on the party and b) actually be in some pictures. Have someone else collect any email addresses you don't have. A lot of supermarkets or places like BJs will do a 1/4 sheet cake and you can actually put a photo of you daughter on it - maybe use a baby photo to show how far she has come. Or just have a one-year-old theme on it.

Go simple and you will have much more fun and much less of a financial/hostess burden!

I just had a big first birthday party for my son this past weekend and it was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. We invited family, close friends and a bunch of his mother's group buddies - about 35 people total. We have some great pictures and good memories of the day that will last forever. My son is very social though and never went through the stranging phase so it was easy for him. I have heard that many babies are their crankiest ever on birthday's so I think you have to know your child and what they might like and be able to handle. Once we came up with a theme - the whole party came together. Just look at what your daughter is drawm too and go with that. His actual birthday was Monday but the party was on Sunday. On Monday I took him into Boston and we walked all around the Back Bay area checking out fountains, big buildings, parks, etc. Just mommy and son. It was nice and relaxing after the big birthday bash. Good luck and have fun.

For my son Declans 1st birthday, we had a party at my in-laws house (we have a small apartment, so we had it there) and we invited family and very close friends who were involved in his life. It was about 30 people. The party wasn't extravagant, like all the food and the cake was homemade and we just put up some balloons and streamers. The whole thing probably cost $50. I personally think thats how kids birthday parties should be: simple and fun. If you make it a big crazy expensive thing then it will be stressful and you wont be able to enjoy yourself, and your child may even be overwhelmed.

well she won't really remember this birthday, so you should keep it simple, and invite friends and family. as far as an activity, if she likes a certain toy or place got there with her or get her a new toy that she like. at this age it makes no sense to do a big party and spend a lot of money, as she will not remember this, i would wait till she gets at the age, where u can ask her what kind of a party she wants for her special day. i do suggest taking lots of pics though, they grow so fast

Hi J..... my twins will be turning 1 on october 2nd as well and we are having a party for them ;) we opted to have a large party (all family and friends) because they only turn 1 once!! even though we invited ALOT of people we are keeping it simple otherwise. Pizza, salad, and cake! Not going to fuss over too much food, games, or other things like that. It'll be nice to just casually celebrate their turning 1 with all our family and friends! what a year its been, right!! happy birthday to your little one!

Hi J.,

I had the same dilemma -- naturally celebration is necessary and I would be OK to just celebrate with my husband and our son alone. After all he is only one and can barely make anything out of the party.

My issue why not having a party and have people over is size of my place and I did not want to select only few people, all my friends are equally important. They start asking if I am having a party for my son.
So after long time thinking and getting a good deal (comes down to a budget) we are having a party in restaurant. Hopefully by next year we have a house and have our friends over :)

p.s. I and my husband are from Europe and usually B-day for children is with family only. Neither I nor my husband have a family here in USA so it comes down to our friends and I would not want to exclude one over another.
Not sure if this helps.

What ever you do must suit you. If I would not get a good deal at the restaurant I would not have a party. I, my husband and my mom (who happened to be here visiting at the moment) celebrated my son’s on his birth day and it was very cool. Either way you can make best of it. I certainly enjoyed very much our private little party.

Every family handles this differently. We just had a tiny party. If you think about it, the first birthday is more for the adults and the pictures than the baby, because the little one won't remember it. We had some carrot cake which he had no clue what to do with it. He had more fun playing with the frosting than anything.

In fact, the more I think about it, I think we just had his first birthday with just our immediate family--my husband, me, our son. He didn't need anything because we still had plenty from his showers, Christmas, etc. His second birthday was the one where we invited more people to join in the fun. Even then, he was more interested in the wrapping paper than the presents, and the frosting than the cake itself.

Savor the day, whether it is with a bunch of people or just your immediate family. It's a special day.

One tradition that we do is to celebrate the actual day with our son, just the three of us. And he then has a family party on another day. And if a friend party is happening, that is on another day as well. Sometimes we mix the friends and family, but more often we don't. He'll turn 13 in just a few weeks and he loves this tradition. The actual day is saved for just us and he loves that! (This month, his birthday falls on a Saturday. When I suggested we have the family party on that day, he reminded me that it should be just us. He specifically requested that we keep it to just us for that day. : )

Whether or not to have a party is a pretty personal decision. I had a party for both of my girls (nothing too extravagant) but not on their actual birthday. On the actual birthday, we celebrated as an immediate family. My oldest loved just spending time with me (took a 1/2 day from work) and my youngest loved her first experience with cake/ice cream. Whatever you do, just try to enjoy the day with your little one.

your daughter unfortunately won't remember the party.. my kids slept thru theirs.. so it really depends on what you want to do... small is good and when she turns 2, when she'll actually enjoy it, have the big party..

We only had grandparents and aunts and uncles over for cake nothing big. At this age they are very easily overwhelmed. Keep it short and simple.