Menu for My Daughter's 1St Birthday Bash

Updated on April 27, 2010
S.A. asks from Los Angeles, CA
10 answers

My daughter's 1st birthday party is coming up and we have 30+ guests BOTH PARENTS&CHILDREN attending. My dilemma.....menu!!!!!! I am a new mommy- i have never thrown kiddy parties so i am totally clueless! It will be a PRINCESS THEME outdoor party so any helpful tips from menu to party favors& DECOR will be very much appreciated!!!!

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B.C.

answers from Dallas on

For my daughter's 1st b-day, we did bbq, chips, dips, etc. We included chicken, sausage, brisket and ribs.
We have a large family with lots of differently aged kids (between 1-12yrs) and we had a ball pit, sandbox, and the swingset open. DONT do a bounce house! Babies are scared of them. TRUST ME! lol!
For favors I did teddy grams, cheese its, and stickers with a printed note saying thank you for attending Aubrey's party.

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M.F.

answers from Phoenix on

I like to use Oriental Trading for decorations, favors, invitations, etc. They're reasonably priced and have a pretty good selection. I also got some supplies for my daughter's recent 1st birthday at Birthday Direct-again, reasonably priced and a good selection.
www.orientaltrading.com
www.birthdaydirect.com

I wouldn't worry too much about trying to make the food fit your theme. That's what the cake is for! :-) We did an outdoor party at the park at 2:30 pm for 80 and did mini-appetizers (tacos, flautas, chimis), guacamole, chips and salsa. The mini-appetizers were great for the parents to snag on the run and good for the kids and babies because they were fist-sized and easy to tear apart. De pending on the time of your party, you might not have to do a full lunch/dinner. If you do want to serve a meal still without too much chaos and work for you, especially trying to transport, keep hot/cold, pizza is always a great option. Everyone loves it, it's minimal work, can be room temperature for a long time and can even be delivered straight to the party location. Good luck and congratulations on hiting the big 0-1!

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D.D.

answers from Pittsburgh on

My suggestion is to keep it simple. As far as the menu consider a backyard bbq and go with foods that you would have at a bbq. Remember to keep lots of finger foods for the kids like, cheerios or fruit loops, those melt in you mouth puffs from the baby isle, mini gold fish, get cubes of cheese and slice them for smaller squares of cheese, crackers, slice strawberries, chunks of watermelon, slice bananas, blueberries etc. The party favors I would suggest just a bottle of bubbles, all kids love bubbles, especially 1 yr olds. This party is about your baby so have things that she loves. I don't know the ages of the children attending but perhaps consider setting up the sprinkler. Even if some guests are not walking they may enjoy a splash from the sprinkler. Also for your baby's first piece of cake I have to recommend that you give her one piece for just her and let her eat it how ever she pleases. I did this with both of my kids and the pictures are priceless, messy but priceless. Another very important thing you need to include is a quiet corner. Some babies get overwhelmed by "Party chaos", so create a little place out of the way where, mom and baby can go to get away from it all. Just put down a blanket, a few books and some quiet toys. This space was invaluable at my daughters first party, the moms truly appreciated having a place for the baby to have a few minutes of quiet. Good Luck and I am sure it will all come together.

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M.A.

answers from Houston on

Congrats on the first b-day!!! I hope you all have fun!!! I dont have a menu, but I would like to say that you dont listen to people that suggest that you dont make a big deal out of it. You will get, "she's only one", "the party is for the adults", "she wont remember"....
I got that response...it was such a downer.
I say have fun and totally celebrate your DD'd b-day!!!!

Happy Birthday!!!! :)

1 mom found this helpful

L.A.

answers from Austin on

We did an old fashioned cook out with hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, fruit salad a veggie platter.. Punch , birthday cake and ice cream.

FYI, our daughter took her nap and everybody else partied. when she woke up she rejoined us..

Have a blast. Take photos..

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S.S.

answers from Chicago on

make it easy. hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill or a pasta baked in the oven. some fruit and salads and your good to go. as far as themes go. at her age. get some paperplates and cups with the princess stuff on it and be done. she is not going to remember it anyway lol. don't make yourself crazy over this. wait until she is a little older and its not just family lol. the crazy shouldn't happen till the first time she says "Can I have boys too?" lol

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S.D.

answers from Los Angeles on

It's the 1st of many birthdays and I say keep it simple. Otherwise, if you complicate it and make it an overloaded birthday blow out now, where do you go from there for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and beyond birthday party.

For my daughter's 1st we had more adults than kids because it was immediate family mostly. I had Cuban food from a local restaurant: beans and rice, plantains, a rice and shrimp dish and garlic chicken smothered in onions. Adult and kids could eat and it cost very little. I had some drinks for adults and juice boxes for kids. The kids played with my daughter's toys as an activity and we sang songs. I made a small party favor bag that had two small age appropriate gifts for the kids. We had one big theme balloon (ours was a butterfly) and a simple tasty sheet cake from a local bakery.

I figure we've got many more years of big parties to have later on. This one turned out to be perfect for us and everyone had a fun time.

Don't make it stressful for yourself. The goal is to enjoy your daughter's 1st birthday. Cheers!

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B.R.

answers from Milwaukee on

Is it mostly children or adults or both?

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K.P.

answers from Los Angeles on

There are several different menus that work for these size groups. You can do BBQ (hot dogs, hamburgers, Chicken) with pasta salad side and appetizers. Pizza is super easy and if you add salad and apps is plenty of food. I find Mexican works well with big groups too... you can have carne asada, chicken and/or carnitas and put out all the fixings for people to make tacos, burritos, or taco salad.

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