Daughter's 1St Birthday Ideas

Hi,
I have twin girls and we also have a lot of friends with kids, so we opted to have their first birthday at Brookfield Zoo. There birthday is in June, but they also have an indoor room to have the party. If you choose, they can have games to play for the older ones also. They did a GREAT job and my husband & I highly recommend having a party there. They take care of everything right down to the treat bags.
Good luck & congratulations.

Hi! My daughter's birthday is Feb. 1st....and we had the same problem. What I did is have a coloring party. I put butcher paper on the tables and on the walls. Laid out crayons everywhere as well as coloring books. I made a crayon cake and before I knew it...even the adults were coloring on the paper and in the books. It was hilarious! I got some ideas at Familyfun.com and I googled 1st birthday ideas. There are a lot of really good ideas out there.

I don't get it. I don't see any reason to have a big party for a baby. The parties should get bigger as the child gets older. It's not about the parents, it's about the kids.

When the child doesn't care about the number of guests, then have a big family/friend gathering for another occassion in the warm weather, when all the attention is not on one poor baby.

For my kids 1st birthday, the Grandparents came over, we opened a couple gifts, and took pictures eating their first cake. What a one year old really wants is love and kisses, and there were plenty of those to go around.

We had ours at a local pizza place that had a private party room and I had a kids only table with crafts that the older ones could help the younger ones with. I baked cookies in advance and then brought frosting and sprinkles, etc for each child to do some decorating. Oriental Trading has so many things that kids can assemble that are made from foam if you want to do something like that.

We were invited to Brookfield Zoo for a 1st birthday and that was really nice, but I do think that must have been expensive.

Honestly, you could go either way. We usually have family parties only for our one year olds(I have had three so far, and my youngest turns one in August), but I have 13 kids in the family, and we have always planned activities based on the general age of the kids. Your little one won't mind one way or another what you do, and actually may be a little overwhelmed with all the activity - my first was. If you do have all the kids plan some sort of activity, because otherwise the kids could get out of control, and in a small space that would be chaotic( I have a small house too).

Good luck and happy early birthday!

my thought would be family members only because your daughter cannot really socialize/play with the other kids yet, it can be all about her turning one, eating her cake etc. with that and the weather,space constraints you'll probably be happier with a family only party.

Hi, A.,

When my elder son turned 1, I had zero experience with modern juvenile birthday parties. We lived in a small apartment and couldn't count on good weather. I had no help -- it was a school-year weekday afternoon and his dad did not come home from work for the event. Well, I invited all the neighborhood kids, about 12 total, ages 1 to 12, and got lots of balloons and a tank of helium. It was great! The young 'uns loved the balloons and could have as many as they wanted; the older ones loved having squeaky voices and helping inflate balloons. I don't think we even had any games. Then we did cake and it was no longer than 90 minutes. I got the helium at Doolin's on Halsted and hauled it upstairs, but nowadays there are small tanks at party stores.
Good luck and go big! It's always fun for the kids and we are making memories here, even when it's messy!

S. F.
mom to 2, now 23 and 19!

On my son's first b-day (also in March) we decided to have a huge party with family and friends. Although it was nice,it was WAY too much work and since then haven't had another huge party for their b-days. He is now almost 6 and since b-days are a bigger deal now we have had a few of his friends over for a b-day party at home. My third child turns 1 on Monday and it will just be family at the party. They really don't remember anything and it added a lot of stress in my life and money out of my pocket.

If you want your daughter to be the focus of the party, skip the friends, and just have family. The older kids require activities and sometimes "steal the show". I had to try really hard to get photos of my baby eating her cake because some of the older friends (who realize what a camera is) wanted to be in every photo. It really is her day, and she will have no recollection of who was there. Also, the whole birthday thing gets out of hand very easily these days, so take it easy while you can!

My son will be 1 on March 28th. We're planning an indoor party, too, with lots of children of various ages. Space is limited in our home also, so we're going to plan a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. They provide food and there's lots of entertainment for all ages. Plus, you don't have to clean up!!

I know it is exciting to have your little one turn 1...however, they will not remember anything...I would invite family and if there are any children you see regularly, invite them...I have never planned "activities" for children at our parties...they seem to invent things to do and play with each other. We had good luck with a brunch party...everyone was gone by lunch and no naps were messed up. I would save your money for a bigger party when they will rememeber it!

I am also going with our park district. They have an indoor play room that will be just for my son and his guest. It is cheep $110 for 12 kids and it is for only 2 hours which they suggest is the perfect amount of time for a 1 year old. Good luck!!

We just had my daughters first birthday party with some older children attending. Our theme was butterfly's. So, I printed a bunch of pictures of butterfly's from the Internet and everyone had to color a picture (including adults). I put out a table with markers and crayons. Then, I separated the finished products into adult and child categories. My son (who is 3 or any other designated person) then chose which was his favorite and that person won a prize. I had a children's prize (small gumball machine) and an adult prize (small basket with two martini glasses).

Chuck E Cheese sounds like the perfect place. The older kids can play, and they have an area for babies and young kids. Then, you can all sit down for pizza, cake and presents and there will be no mess at your house.

Not that I'm suggesting this but for our older daughter's first birthday we had 2 parties-one for family and one for friends. Both at our house, back to back days. I was just really excited she was turning one and wanted everyone to be able to celebrate...I wasn't going to continue this for subsequent birthdays. I'm sure if my daughter could talk, she would have said she hated every minute! She was very shy at that age and didn't like all the attention from so many people, many that she didn't know well at all. When my second daughter turned one, we had a party with immediate family only.
We did have my oldest's second b-day party at MyGym. There were some kids that were older (none above 10 though) but everybody really seemed to have a good time. I know I spent waaaaaaay less money since all I had was some chips, pizza and cake. Both my girls are born in March too so I know what you're going through to figure something out! I'm sure you'll come up with something fun-happy party planning!

We've always had "bigger" 1st B-Day Parties, but I know a lot of people who do smaller...mainly family parties. For one of my kid's birthdays we rented a room at our Park District along with the playroom. There was plenty of room for the adults to sit and talk as well as a a place for the kids to play. This worked out great for us. Happy early B-day to your little one! :)

To be honest, I went a little nuts on our Son's 1st birthday with a Jungle theme and had lots of people and fun, but tons of stress. For his 2nd birthday, the night he was actually born, we had both sets of Grandparents for a family dinner. We ended up singing Happy Birthday right at 5:27pm, when he was born, and then had a dinner. We had invited cousins, but they couldn't make it. It was actually really nice! Then the next day we had kinda a cake"Open House" party in the afternoon for family, friends and neighbors as well. I just did a "sports cake/cupcakes" had them made :) and had helium balloons for all the kids, no matter what their age as favors. Sams had a kit this fall which included helium, 12-15 balloons, strings and clips. Hope those ideas help, just be creative, have fun and don't get too stressed or spend to much money!! :) Good luck!!