Hello! My son's 1st birthday is on October 4 and he is my first child, so I have NO IDEA what to do for him. We are attending another child's first birthday party in a few days and hope to get some ideas, but don't want to do the exact same thing. We are young, new parents, and don't have much furniture at home, so are kind of thinking of hosting the party at Grandma's or at an outside location. The birthday party we are soon attending is being held at a place called My Gym in Plano/Frisco.
Any ideas such as party favors, games for adults, things for babies/toddlers to do, etc would be greatly appreciated!! Also, what might make good birthday gift requests, if anyone asks...THANKS!!
My son's 1st birthday is September 20 and we will have his party at Pump it up jr in Plano. It is the cutest thing they have little bounce houses just for toddlers.
We're doing my daughter's at little Gym. It takes out a lot of the work of having to plan activities. The only problem that i have with it is that there are time limitations. You're only allowed an 1 and a half for the party, they have the parties booked back to back so you can't go over your time slot at all.
We have friends who are doing their one year old's birthday at the pumpkin patch. We're really excited about that one...they have animals out there and we're going have a hayride and the kids each get to take home a pumpkin.
If you're going to have lots of kids I would do a park or something like Gymboree or Little Gym. If it's going to be more adults than kids just have it home where the kids can play with whatever toys you have and the adults can mix and mingle.
Last year for my daughters 1st party we had it at home. The older kids played upstairs with some older kids toys we have. The little ones stayed downstairs and played with my daughters toys. Some of the adults watched TV upstairs, others mixed and mingled outside. If Grandma's willing to host it that's certainly an option to consider.
If you do party favors keep them age appropriate. Why give a 1yo a bag full of candy? Bubbles would be good (I know they can't blow them but what 1yo doesn't love seeing bubbles)?
For gifts, the little people sets are good for this age or bath toys. If your family will go with what you say you could also suggest savings bonds or money for college fund or something. My family would laugh all the way to Toys R Us if I suggested something like that but some families are all for helping out with future finances.
Good luck with what you decide, don't stress about it too much and have fun.
Remembered something else - schedule the party after naptime or whatever time of day he's happiest. Your son will probably be overwhelmed with all the activity you don't want to throw him in the mix when he's too tired also.
We did our first birthday at home. It was lots of fun and we just couldn't see spending a ton of money on a party yet.... that will come soon enough. :o) We got a cake from Tom Thumb and decorated the table, had a cupcake for him, put an old shower curtain under the high chair and let him have at it.
You can put together party favors for super cheap at the dollar store.... a coloring book, crayons, bubbles and a page of fun stickers in some kind of bucket or pencil box thing.
Take lots of pictures!! We started a "tradition" of taking a picture of the 3 of us together. Another cute thing I did for his first birthday was to take a picture of him holding a sign that said "thank you!" and had the picture made into note cards through Snapfish. Everyone loved them and we have a cute keepsake from his first birthday. Of course I had to take about 10 pictures and went through 2 signs but I got a great shot and we're glad we did it.
~ t
J.,
You will love the My Gym party, but indoor facility parties can be expensive. I did my son's first birthday at home. I set up some tables with throw away tablecloths and put playdough on one. There was a table with bubbles. There is a swing set so the kids had that to play on as well. Get some big balls. He will have fun no matter what. It is more work to have a home party vs a facility party...but for the first one it was worth it.
L.
Have you thought about going to a pumpkin patch? My daughter's birthday is on October 12th and we took her there last year (in Flower Mound)and will be doing it again this year. They have bounce houses, hay rides, food venders, mazes, face painting and all sort of stuff. For party favors we bought all the kids a pumpkin (with a limit per child) and a kit to decorate the pumpkin. Lots of fun and not a lot of money!! I was really pleased with this decision compared to the money I spent on my first daughters 1st birthday.
