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Best time for a first birthday party?

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creations:
Can you send out "save the day" cards to people you want to invite and then send the invite proper, with time, venue etc closer to the time so you can work out the best time around her naps?

I had hopes for a little party at a sensory play centre, it looked super cool.  Problem was I didn't know the mums of the other babies all that well and his birthday is January before the mum and baby groups started the new term and right after Xmas. It just turned out too hard to invite people and be sure I'd have enough for the party to hire the place out etc.  So in the end I opted for just family instead.  I booked a table at a family friendly pub/restaurant for about 20 mins after nap wake up time and literally as soon as he woke we piled him in the car and drove there. Granny, Nana, a couple of great aunts, DP and me.  DS LOVED it! (he has always loved eating in restaurants) I took individual sugar free cakes for everyone and balloons.  When it got close to our regular wind down time we whizzed him back home and got him ready for bed.  TBH it was a couple of hours and all the guests were ready to go home by that point having had enough time for the meal, a chat and play with DS, and each other etc.  Granny came back to our house and visited with us a while after BT as we don't see her often.
And for his 2nd birthday I did get to hire a place and invite a bunch of kids - you still have to work it around naps even then!

BeeAnn:
Thanks for the insight.  I will have a think but at the moment I am thinking that maybe half 12 or 3pm might be quite good.  Because then if she is on two naps (I think that is most likely) it should be in the middle of the two naps at half 12 right?  Or 3.30pm you might be able to squeeze two naps in before then.  Do you think people might think 3.30pm is too late and may run into dinner / bedtime?

It is more the venue that I think would need a time.  However, I will try to hold them off as long as possible! 

She does tend to melt down if she doesn't get enough sleep - but not usually till we try to get her to nap again and then all h*ll breaks loose!

I think we will need to hire somewhere as there are a few friends I would like to invite from my NCT group - and then I have to invite everyone from the group plus the other people we have play dates with - suddenly you are into 30+ people including the babies!

At the moment I am thinking of just hiring a ball pool and maybe some bigger toys like inflatable bricks, ride on ponies etc (and little cars for the toddlers) from a local toy library, and then taking along some of our toys too.  Plus cake and finger food.  Does that sound like it might be good?  I did think about hiring a big soft play and ball pool but think it may be overkill as not all the babies will be mobile.

*Ali*:
I think that sounds great.  A big soft play might end up with you all split up and be intimidating if there were others there.
12 might be a problem if she's on one nap but would be fine on two naps.

creations:
sounds like fun :)
I agree that a soft play place is not quite as suitable for a first birthday, although they have an area for under 4s that can still be overwhelming and too rough for 1yos, fine for a trip out but not quite as fine when it is your special day.  I did DS's 2nd birthday at soft play and it was great, there were a few babies (sibs of toddlers) and that was fine, the place did a good job of rounding them all up for pass the parcel and their private room for the food - but it's all rather loud and big for 1yos.

Mama2Athena:
We had both my DS and DD's first birthday at a local park, both started at 12:30 PM.  Both were about 2 hours long.  I wanted it to have it at a time when I could invite lots of people and serve a proper meal (lunch).  I didn't really worry too much about whether my kids would be on 1 or 2 naps come their birthday parties, only because both kids are easily APOP for an earlier nap if needed.

It was really easy with my DD, because even though she started the 2-1, she still went down for her nap at 11 and we woke her around 12:15 to head out to the party.  She had a blast at her party, just "walking" around  and showing off her new skill.  By 3 PM, when the party had ended, she was exhausted, so we were able to put her down for another nap.

With my DS, it was a little trickier.  My brother got married the evening before, so we were out late (past 10 PM) so DS slept in the next day, so no time for an early nap.  Then he got fussy around noon while we were setting up.  One of my uncles had to walk him around in the stroller until he fell asleep.  He slept for a bit, but was awake for his cake and still had time to visit with his guests.

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