Planning My Son's First Birthday- Help Needed!!

I did my son's first birthday in Baby Einstein. They have a first birthday theme and I bought a banner, plates, invitations etc online. You can google first birthday and you will get a lot of choices.

Try http://www.birthdayexpress.com They have everything you can think of and more. That's where i get my ideas from.

I have a couple of suggestions depending on how much you want to spend. I used Mango Ink (www.mangoink.com) for my daughter's birthday last week. They are a little pricey (16.80 for 8), but they were GORGEOUS! I also like paperstyle.com. A friend of mine used paperlicious.com and was really happy with them. If you're wanting to spend a little less, you can design your own at kodakgallery.com. I hope this is helpful!

Hi J.,

My son just turned one in May and I had so much fun planning his party! We didn't do any t-shirt so I don't have any advice on that one. As for the party we had kind of a "unique" one. I called it a "baseball fiesta", lol. Fiesta mostly because of the food. I am half Mexican so we had enchiladas, refried beans, and rice. We also had chips with salsa and homeade guacamole. The food was nice because since it was mainly soft stuff all the little ones could eat it. I had planned on a pinata (they have ones with pull strings for little ones) but they didn't have a baseball one :( As for the baseball part of it (mainly daddy's idea since he LOVES baseball) we all wore jerseys and mommy made two baseball cakes. A little one for my son and a big one for everyone else. He loved digging in to that! I found already made fondant at Walmart and it made the cakes look really good. At the Party America I found themed napkins, goody bags, invitations, etc. Not sure if you have one where you live but I'm sure any party store will do for whatever you decide on. I had to be creative for the goody bags since all the guests were around one but it was pretty easy. Just remember that most things will go straight to their mouths! In place of candy I did Gerber fruit snacks. We also had blowup balls for the kids to play with. I hope this helps and let me know if you have any questions!

We made our invitations from our home computer. We used pictures from his entire first year. I used word and inserted a picture, made it into a watermark in the page and then inserted other pictures of him through his first year and then used a really cute kid font and told everyone where it was, etc.

Good luck!

For our oldest son's first birthday, we had everyone bring something small that meant something special (maybe something they shared with our son during his first year, or something from a big event that happened that year)and we had everyone write a little note to him on note cards. We put everything in the box so when he gets older, he will be able to read them and look at all of the neat items!

For our second son's first birthday, we took a picture of him when he was born and one of him on his birthday. Then, I put them in a frame with a matte that had wide borders. We bought multi colored sharpies, and everyone wrote a note on the matte in different colors. Then, we framed it and hung it up in his room.

Hope these ideas help! It's hard to find a way for them to remember their first birthday and make it special!

My second daughter just turned one May 22. She loves ducks so I wanted to use them at her party. I bought two tiny wading pools and filled them with water then covered the water with rubber ducks. The pools were small enough that the babies could sit in them and have just enough water to splash in. I also filled the sandbox and added some sand toys. Her guests were 9 month - 2 year old friends. We have a large covered front porch with gates covering the steps so we had the party there so no one would get sunburned. Orientaltrading.com has "One Is Just Ducky" themed party supplies. I ordered mini rubber ducks with party hats on them and put them on the cupcakes. The little ones had a great time and the adults could relax and chat. I also took a picture of all the kids and plan to each year.

I found some cool ones on shutterfly.com that you can use a pic of your child and your own wording. My little is turning one soon, so I worded them to be him inviting everyone.

Hi, J.. Congrats on your son's first b'day! My sister-in-law and I have an online boutique...we make birthday hats, shirts, etc. We are always looking for new ideas, and we love to do custom designs. If you have any ideas about what you would like we would do our best to create it for you! For example, my sister-in-law made her sons jon-jons with monkey faces appliqued on front. Very cute! Please let me know if we can help.

Thanks,
B. Sims
www.simplysimsational.net

i found the cutest thinks at birthday express. Party city had a one shirt also.

hey this is what i did for my son's first b-day (last july)
we had an elmo party and i got him a shirt air brushed with elmo on the front and his name under the pic. on the back it said i'm 1. it was so cute. and this year i'm going to gett him a wiggles shirt off of ebay and on the back it will say 2nd birthday.

if you want to make your on inv. go to www.winkflash.com and you can make a card right now they are 23 cents i just did some for this years party. (25 cards cost me $5.00) they even let you copy prof. pictures. for his card this year i used a desk top off of the wiggles website and 1 ordered 1 card to see if they would do it and they did so i ordered the others last night. hope this helps.

B.

My little one isn't one yet but I love what my friend did. She would take her little one's finger print or hand print or with one child footprint and scan it into the computer. She than turned it into some type of animal for the front of the invitation. Ex: The footprint was a baby duck with the heel being the head and the toes being the feathers and drew a beak and feet on. She wrote "Your invited to waddle along with us on ..."

when my son turned one he was the theme. we used primary colors and had pics of him on display for the first 12 months. it's my brain child but I love to share great party ideas. the invitations had the number one and his shirt was monogrammed with a one...actually it was a rumper. I still have it. u can always upgrade that idea and put candid shots on a postcard that mailing is .24.

Check ot the website www.kristiscollection.com She lives in the Chattanooga area and does home parties where she sells her stuff. She can do anything you want! She is updating her website now but you can view some of her stuff.

Is your son a ball boy or a car boy? Maybe you could do a sports theme or a race car with the number 1 on the side. Does he have a favorite character like Big Bird or Elmo? What about a royal theme? He could be the prince or the knight. Check out www.birthdayexpress.com for some ideas too. Hope this helps.

http://www.zazzle.com/disney You can custom make him any t-shirt you want with anything you can imagine on it. I made t-shirts for my kids for our first trip to disney and they loved them. They wanted to wear them every day we were there (of course I didn't let them, lol). You can put his name, the date, whatever you want. They are so cute and really not too terribly expensive considering they are custom made.

Check out www.Shindigz.com and www.birthdaydirect.com. I did a farm theme for my son's first birthday. Every since he could hold his head up he has loved the Baby Einstein On the Farm DVD so I decided on this theme very early. I made a big huge barn from the room decorators and a huge cardboard box and ordered a banner and yard sign from shindigz. My colors were red, yellow and white. Everything from the ballons, tableclothes and plates and silverware. We had chicken wings and fingers, french fries, cole slaw, baked beans and mac and cheese (I have a lot of family who helped!!!) I think I bought the cake kit from birthdaydirect, but anyway they have really cute stuff and also after you pick your theme check out www.birthdaypartyideas.com. They have a MILLION ideas on there and don't forget about www.orientaltrading.com (they are great)Hope I helped!!!!

As for the shirt part of your question, we got our son (who turned 1 in March) a blue t-shirt with stars on it at Party City that says "Fun to be 1" on it. They have lots of great party supplies for first birthdays, too.

try this website http://www.celebrateexpress.com/celebration/default.aspx?...

Or Party city has good dectorations. Our little girl is also turning one in July. Our family lives in chattanooga so we are going to have the pary there at Colige Park. There is a water fountin and merry go round. Fun Fun!

Being on the coast for my son's first birthday our them was "Reeling in the Big '1'". Everyting was focused around fishing and fish. The invitations were pictures of him with a fishing pole glued to decorative paper with the party information on the reverse side. We then used snacks for the party as goldfish, fished shaped gummies, etc. The cake was even fish themed. Hope this helps. Good Luck.

For my daughter's 1st birthday we made our invitations. We took a cute picture of her and made postcards. I printed them on 4x6 photo paper. The picture was on the left half of the paper, and the invitation words on the right. With them being postcards, I didn't have to buy envelopes, and the stamps are cheaper! haha For the addresses, I printed them on mailing labels and stuck them to the back of the postcards. I also printed directions on the mailing labels and stuck them along the left side of the back of the postcard (out of the way of the address & return address areas).

For food/snacks we had goldfish (regular and the cinnamon kind), crackers, chips & dip & veggie trays, apple juice, tea.

We got our cakes from Publics. If you get a regular sized cake there, you get the "smash cake" free.

My daughter wore a bib that says "Baby's 1st Birthday" that I got from Babies R Us.

Have fun!!!

Cupcakes with a 1 ~ the little ones can chow down on these ~ Invitations~ myself if I had to do it over again.... I would make my own w/ a stenciled "1" and maybe spalshes of different primary colors, and his hand print in the center.... I think that would be fun for you, hubby, and baby to do together and other family members will have a keepsake....

Just my thoughts....

God Bless