Anyone have any ideas for my daughters 1st birthday? I want it to be a big deal so I am thinking now so I have time to plan. Yeah she is only 7 month BUT time flies for some reason now!!
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Until we "meat" again, break an "egg"
When my son was little I kept the first 5 birthday events low key. And only a get together for about an hour is enough. First of all, they don't know what is going on and they feed off the excitement in the air and get fried. It is more for the parents and grandparents. I would have a small cake for your child to do the usual "finger" thing and just have immediate family. As far as gifts, he/she will not understand why, so a couple of cute new toys is enough, the attention span is not so hot as you well know! And don't forget pictures!
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I've done the same thing with both of my kids.
I used balloons in bright colors ( hanging where they cant reach them) and had a cake with the same colors on it.
We also got just a couple of bigger, noise making toys and the rest of the gifts were things that could be used for them.....clothes, shoes, diapers even---family members seems to love to buy new clothes!
Looks like you will be celebrating her 1st birthday in the summer. My dd's daughter (my beloved dgd ) turned 1 last July. We did a Hawaiian Luau party, and it was great! We have a pool, but even if you don't, you could buy the kind you fill up and maybe even have several of them for your guests to linger by. We went to the dollar store and bought several of those tikki torch lamps, and even though we didn't have them filled with oil and burning, we had them placed all around the back yard with balloons tied to them. We actually did find a little bathing suit that came with a pink "grass" skirt for my little dgd to wear. Was way too cute!! I borrowed tables from my church, and set those up in the garage for the kids to sit at. (They were from the little kid's Sunday School classroom, so they were really low to the ground.) And, I used plastic play picnic tables. Borrow from your friends! We floated plastic inflatable flamingos, balls, and fish in the pool. Then we hung paper fish, palm trees, fishing nets, etc. around on the fence. We used inexpensive beach pails from the dollar store for dips & appetizers and had the guests use plastic shovels to dish out their helpings! We did a hamburger and hot dog cookout complete with all the trimmings. I also had made up popsicles with 1/2 juice and 1/2 water which were a huge hit with the little ones!
She was only interested in opening about 3 of her gifts, so we let a couple of the older kids in attendance open the rest for her, while a friend took down names for the Thank You cards. And boy, was she ever worn out by the time the 1 1/2 hours were up!! In fact, all the kids were! A quick bath after the party and she was in la-la land!
Hope you have a great time planning your dd's birthday!!
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Debbie
You miss 100% of the opportunities you don't take.
OH! I love 1st birthday parties! They are always celebrated big in our family. When my oldest turned one, we lived in a very small town, and pretty much everyone turned up (whether they received an invite or not!), but that was OK, we turned it into a huge potluck picnic. We supplied the burgers and dogs, icecream, cake and a huge pinata. We didn't have any scheduled games, but everyone had so much fun!
When my dd turned 1, we had a classic pooh party. We had a pinata again (made a beehive ourselves with the help of our then 3yr old son!). It was easter time, so we had a ham and potato salad, cake and icecream, and then roasted marshmallows until a huge duststorm forced us to douse our fire and move inside.
Most recently our youngest turned one. He love farm animals, so we made a huge barn cake, had barbecued pork sandwiches and chips, and (since our few close friends all have big familes too) the older kids made a couple of take home crafts.
We always let our 1yr old birthday babies have their own cake and take lots of pictures. Our first child was the only one to actually dig in to it and make a mess, but it is sooo fun. One thing we always did, was instead of doing a huge gift opening, we had the giftgiver sit with the baby and help open thier gift while we took a picture of them together. Then we used the pics as the front of our thank you cards so each person got a pic of themselves with the birthday baby. And, then the child didn't get quite so overwhelmed.
Anyways, I hope you have fun!!! 1st birthdays are soo special!
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A messy house and happy children . . . I choose to spend my days playing!
What ever you do......Make sure she gets her "OWN" cake......or cupcake......Get the camera ready and let her go to town.......
It makes the GREATEST keepsake photo and you WILL treasure it forever.....
I have a 21 year old and that is still my favorite pictue of him!!!
Enjoy!
Staci
I've been thinking of Candice's first birthday too....Don't know what to do...
For Ben I went so over the top..It was all
Sesame Street...including a Clown and a guest appearance by ELMO...I had to have it all...No regrets though...maybe shouldn't have
spent so much money...but Hey...he might not remember it but I sure do..
I did see the cutest idea..if I have a just 1 party... (debating on having it be a slash Christening celebration)...It was a cake but placed on top was a princesses tiara and scepter...All I could say was *Gasp*I want that...Found a pic of something similar...Hope to get some ideas..thanks in advance =0)
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"I asked for light, God gave me the sun
I asked for water, God gave me rain
I asked for happiness, God gave me you"
Well that was over a year ago gals and now we are working on our 2nd party! Last year we ended up taking Debbie F.'s idea of the Luau. IT WAS GREAT! Everyone was like WOW this was so fun and so different than the standard "character" party! We lived in an apartment then so we rented the clubhouse with the pool outside. Inside we decorated like a Tikki Lounge with chicken kabobs, fruit salad, potato wedges, chocolate covered strawberries and a fruit tree. I put fruit on skewers and stuck into pineapples for centerpieces for the food table. Didn't have to plan games as they just all went outside to swim after. We had a couple of pack n plays set up for naps. My daughter wore a pink flowery bathing suit with the pink grass skirt and lay (sp) We really had a good time and people even dressed up with straw hats, grass skirts, etc. The party favors were in clear goodie bags with hibiscus flowers and inside were candy, pencils with hibiscus flowers on it, bouncy balls, the norm then everyone got a lay when they came in. I was going to make the cake BUT ran out of energy by the time the date came so ordered one. The store didn't really have any Luau cakes so we got Lilo and Stich. It had palm trees, lilo, stich, and a couple of surf boards. It was cute. Here is my little one. I can't believe she is almost 2!!
__________________
Until we "meat" again, break an "egg"
TX Chef Fran
Last edited by Txchef_fran; 02-16-2006 at 07:59 AM.
) turned 1 last July. We did a Hawaiian Luau party, and it was great! We have a pool, but even if you don't, you could buy the kind you fill up and maybe even have several of them for your guests to linger by. We went to the dollar store and bought several of those tikki torch lamps, and even though we didn't have them filled with oil and burning, we had them placed all around the back yard with balloons tied to them. We actually did find a little bathing suit that came with a pink "grass" skirt for my little dgd to wear. Was way too cute!! I borrowed tables from my church, and set those up in the garage for the kids to sit at. (They were from the little kid's Sunday School classroom, so they were really low to the ground.) And, I used plastic play picnic tables. Borrow from your friends! We floated plastic inflatable flamingos, balls, and fish in the pool. Then we hung paper fish, palm trees, fishing nets, etc. around on the fence. We used inexpensive beach pails from the dollar store for dips & appetizers and had the guests use plastic shovels to dish out their helpings! We did a hamburger and hot dog cookout complete with all the trimmings. I also had made up popsicles with 1/2 juice and 1/2 water which were a huge hit with the little ones!
