First Birthday Party - What did you do?

[spanna]

Hi Guys,
 Just after some ideas for our Lo's first birthday. It's a while away yet but I was just mulling it over tonight.....

I was thinking bubble machine...... ball pool...... It's an August Birthday, (winter in Oz), so could be out or indoors dep on the weather

Any tips on what to do adn NOT to do  greatly appreciated too.

Oh and if you have any funny/disaster party stories let's hear those too!!!!

hehehhe

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I'm just curious as to the responses...we moved on Masyn's 1st birthday so never really celebrated, and just did a family supper for her 2nd as we'd just had Spencer! Poor kid, now because they are so close together they are getting one party this year...

Heidi

[KathrynK]

We just had some family round, nothing very exciting. Sophie had no idea what was going on so it was more for her than us.

My friend went to a wedding the day before her dd's first birthday- it was a very boozy affair and she was in a baaaaaaaad way the next morning; all the family were there and FIL was videoing the birthday girl sitting on my friend's lap as they brought in the cake and everyone was singing Happy Birthday- halfway through singing it my friend had to suddenly go throw up so she practically threw her dd at the person next to her and ran! All captured on video, ha ha 

[Mashi]

Hoping we can get away without doing anything to be honest!  Where I am living now/in our social circle, the kids birthdays (from 1 up) are massive affairs, all of our friends and their children, family etc "should" all be invited round for a huge party/BBQ/drunkfest that lasts from early afternoon until quite late. I am refusing to do this (using grounds that we don't have a big enough back garden....which has prompted the ILs back garden to be volunteered much to my dismay) but refusing to have the christening party (which is the same thing, only more people, more alcohol and at a rented hall) is more important to me so may be forced to give in and have an adult birthday party for my one year old........

As you can tell, I'm not thrilled about this!

What I would LIKE to do is have a regular day, but with something fun and special for DS and a nice new little toy and a family picture.  That's all!

[Shiv52]

We just had our LOs 1st birthday last week.  We had grandparents and adults round in the evening for cake on the day of her birthday.  We had taken her out for the day to the park and had lunch out. It was lovely! I enjoyed spending the time with her ourselves.  

The next day SIL had us up to her house for a 'party' with the nieces and nephews (8 in all) and it was a bit hectic to be honest.  We had some party food at the start to get them settled together and then did the cake and then let them go play in the garden.  There was a big age range (from 1 to 10) so hard to keep them all together (plus to be honest they are all a bit unruly so would have been hard to get them to do much!!).  I think if you were having just little ones it would be much easier.  Your idea of bubbles and a ball pool outside sound great.  If you also stuck out a big box of toys I reckon the babies would love it!  Hopefully you'll get a lovely sunny day!

[mum101]

here's some don'ts!

don't invite too many people, seriously, YOU won't enjoy it anywhere near as much!
also keep in mind the size of your house if you are forced inside and how many people you have invited.
if you make your own fancy cake and you don't normally, allow for at least 8 hours to make it. many mums are up until midnight the night before making it


do's
bubbles ALWAYS go so so well with older kids.
keep the food simple, if it's a lunch make it easy on yourself with not too many foods that need to be made that morning
I tend not to do a 'theme', other than a bubble and bubbly theme for DD's 3rd birthday... esp a one year old isn't going to be aware and the party is often more for the adults!

have fun!!

[Shaunie]

With ds1, we had about 6 of his friends, they smeared sandwiches over the floor, crawled over each other very excitedlly & generally had a fab time!  We also managed pass the parcel then sang happy birthday.  Real simple stuff for party bags too like bubbles, mini book, baloon etc.  Will probably do much the same for ds2.

[Canwi]

We had immediate family over for a "thanks for getting us through this first year" dinner, with regular food as if they were coming over for any other day's meal.

Don't really see the need for more simply because it's not for the kids.  They don't get it.  DS1 only just got the idea of cake and presents when he turned 3.

Avoid too much stimulation if your child doesn't do well with it.  Be it sweet food, too many people, too much activity whatever.  Keep food and activities appropriate for your child's temperament. 
And remember you have a lifetime of birthday parties to make up for having a low-key first birthday party.