Need Creative 1St Birthday Ideas

I've always tried to limit the number of people at my babies' first parties - the guest of honor usually melts down between 10 and 20... but your idea of a photo party sounds cute. I would add, if your baby is up for it, taking a picture with each guest and baby and making thank you for coming post cards out of them or at least including them in your thank you notes.

S.

This weekend (7/26-27) the babyfest will be in Ft Worth. Last year I got this great frame titled "MY FIRST YEAR" with a big space on top for a photo of your child on her birthday, and then 12 smaller spaces for 1 photo for every month of the first year. I LOVE it, and it was inexpensive. For Joseph's first birthday I had that on display on the gift table.

I think the first birthday really can be a "theme" in itself! We had a little pull-string pinata that was a number 1 because there were older children at our party. Being 1 is a little young to play a lot of games or hang out too much, but my son did do well. We had family/friends that gave him a lot of attention because most had never met him, we planned it for soon after his nap so he was wide awake and not cranky, and we played fun music and served easy food. Walmart sells pretty good cake, and the "smash cake" (individual cake for the birthday child) is free.
I tried to do the disposable camera thing and it was a dismal failure in my experience. We had the before and after wedding stuff in Las Vegas and the actual wedding, we flew in helicopters into the Grand Canyon for the ceremony. I gave everyone disposable cameras and a note saying that we'd like their perspective on the weekend too in their favor bags. We did not get a single picture!!! People were busy hanging out and having fun and just forgot about the pictures. (*sigh) Thank goodness we arranged for a professional's photo tour during the reception and stuff, or we'd have nothing. I've since learned that for anything fun like my husband's 50th birthday or whatever, if pictures are important, NEVER take for granted that a friend will do anything...you want them to have fun, but if they're having fun, they'll forget to snap the pics.
There are other crafts for a first birthday that would be neat though. Maybe a handprint and special message in a book from every guest? Or you could print out slips of paper with messages like "You're special because...." or "You make me smile when..." (etc) and the guests can pick one or a few to fill out, and you can add that to a birthday scrapbook later. For thank you cards (and a scrapbook) I would definately suggest a photo of your child and all the other children (or all the other guests, adults included) and give it to everyone in their thankyou cards, as well as a page in the scrapbook. Assign a specific friend or neighbor to be the "official" photographer and make sure you have candids of everyone there. Serve something to eat, have some laughs, open the gifts, and do the cake as a "grand finale" (because a bath and changing of the clothes may be required afterwards). Keep it to a 1 or 2 hour maximum. Another thing I did was have a little bulletin board with funny pics of us all on Joseph's first year, set up on the gift table. Then pick out a couple simple things for the older children to do to keep them occupied (things that don't require too much supervision). Have fun!!!

First birthdays are a BIG deal to me! It's a major milestone -- and I'd like to think the kid will appreciate knowing (seeing pictures) that mom and dad went all out.

With our first -- we had an adult party. It was clear it was for adults so it was in the evening. Baby stayed up a little late and adults had shish kabobs, wine, and for fun -- there were bowls of 'snacks' -- cashews AND cheerios.

With our second -- all our friends had kids and our first was 4 -- so we got a petting zoo to come to our house. Everyone loved it -- from the 2 year old to the 8th grader to the adults. Everything was 'farm' themed. Party favors were duck feed. We did it in the morning and had egg casserole, bagels, fruit. I put Little People animals on a cake. This was just last month! It was definitely pricey but we tone it down with the later years.

Good memories! Have fun!

I have 3 boys ages 5 and under and for all 3 of my boys 1st's we had a special party. (the 1st birthday party is really for the adults involved because the baby wont remember it and wont know whats going on.

for my first son, We rented a party room at our church and invited the family and all our friends and had a short magic show, buffet lunch, balloons, decorations and I made cute chocolate lollipop 1st birthday favors. (i own a party favors company!) We ordered a yummy custom cake that matched his napkins and he had a smash cake.

for my second and 3rd sons, we had the parties at home and had bubble machines in the yard and snow cone machine, swimming for older kids in our above ground easy set pool, cake, ice cream and pinata for the older ones. a custom cake and smash cake the babies just ran around and was passed around by adults...

One informal, do it yourself activity I had set up was on each table, I had plain party hats I bought at the party store then i purchased a hole bunch of different foam stickers you get at hobby lobby or craft stores and I placed a stack of hats on each table surrounded by a pile of foam stickers and the kids made their own party hats. I did not know it would be so popular but the parents really got into helping the kids make their hats...

My advise is to always save the cake for last because that will keep the guests around longer and the kids are a mess after cake, have plenty of baby wipes and paper towels and big bags for trash handy.

A good party schedule to follow is

Party from 11-1

11:00-11:20 People arrive, meet and greet kids play in yard or with toys and games, enjoy the already running bubble machines.
11:30 Lunch buffet is open (to keep it simple make finger sandwiches, juice boxes, snack crackers you get the idea or you can go all the way and cater bbq from dickeys or your fav bbq place- this is what we did it was inexpensive and EASY!!!)
A good thing to do while every one is captively eating is to open the gifts (baby probabaly wont understand or be able to help so you can open them while sitting next to little one...)
12:10 Pinata
12:30 Cake
1:00 say good buy and hand out the party favors!

It also great if you can hire some one like your babysitter to "work" the party help you keep the kids in order or help cut the cake so you are not having to do everything your self and not get to enjoy the party. this is the best thing I did was to hire a helper for the party day. you would pay about 15.00 per hour so about 30 bucks for a helper for 2 hours is SOO worth it!

Well this is my advise for a 1 year old party, i really like 2 and 3 year old parties then you can do the petting zoo and other fun stuff that kids really get into!

If you need custom favors or gifts, give us a call.
A. J :oD
www.celebritypartyfavors.com