Our daughter will have her first birthday this July, and we’re starting to talk about how to celebrate her first year. On one hand, it’s not a day that she’ll ever remember, but it’s a family thing that first birthdays are celebrated with big fanfare.
So today, I’m asking our readers – what’s the most special one-year birthday you’ve attended?
image from pingg
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
she might remember it
i remember mine.
it was interesting to watch my mom makeing a cake + getting ready for the party, then she put a new outfit on me + all the neighbors came over + they all examined me and talked to me + each other. i could understand everything they said, but they didn’t know i could. after i blew out “the candle” on my cake + they gave me a piece, a neighbor boy egged me on to rub it in my hair + i did
My son was born two days after my birthday. And the year he turned one, I turned 30 so we did a huge blow out bash. It was a country club theme and we used hunter green and white with some hot pink thrown in. We held it at our local park and had a graphic designer friend create a crest with our last initial and used that throughout the party. My thinking for the food was kind of an upscale snack bar and we had my mom’s famous caramel corn packaged in cello bags sealed with a sticker with out “logo” and individual bags of pita chips, specialty sodas etc. We set up an easy up tent on the grass with low tables and tons of crafts for the kids to do as well as an area with a baby gate and a bunch of my son’s toys for the little kids to have a safe area to crawl around and play while the parents could have a minute to enjoy the party too. We did a kid pinata with small toys and candies and an adult pinata filled with more sophisticated items like starbucks gift cards, luggage tags and magnets. This was a hit!!! And although my son had a cake to dive in to, my friend Taryn and I made a 4 tier rice crispy treat cake for everyone else. It was a lot of work, but was really memorable for a first/30th bday!!
My son’s first birthday is on Friday (!!) and I, too, have no idea how to celebrate. Part of me finds the whole cake, party hat, and candies pretty lame and unremarkable, especially because he’s only 12 months and doesn’t care either way. I would love to do something a bit original, a bit different. Just something small to mark the special day, but not overload my son with sugar and meaningless party accessories.
The sweetest 1st birthday party I have attended was for a close friends baby girl. Her uncle gathered tons of photos from her first year and made it into a chronological slideshow, with music, and played it for everyone while we ate cake. There were many moments of laughter and many misty eyes before it was finished. It was the sweetest!
@thefayga – Happy Birthday to your little one! Hope you let us know how it turns out. It’s great to have readers who take the effort to not want to do the usual.
@Jenny – great idea on the slideshow. We’ll be doing that for sure!
My son was born in February and we live in New York so it was very cold here. The only original idea I could think of was to have a summer themed party in the winter. I made the main part of my house look like an Island paradise with a tiki bar, rum drinks, leis and fresh fruit decos and then we tarped our den, turned up the heat and filled a baby pool with warm water so that my son could play in the pool and the sand right in our house. The clean up was not too bad because of the tarp and I can’t stop hearing how much both young and old enjoyed the idea. So, my suggestion is to do something out of the ordinary that your baby loves and that helps the adults escape as well. Good luck!
My daughter turns one next month in August and i’m giving her a Little Mermaid themed splash party. It’s going to be right in my back yard and I’m going to have family and friends over and a baby splash pool along with other water activities and toys. the decor is going to be under the sea. the party favors are going inside of beach pails. i’m going to have a little mermaid cake. i’m sure it will be a great time with friends, family, water fun and food. That’s all you really need. I can’t wait!!!!
My daughter will be turning 3 in a few months. For her 1st party we kept it simple. But we did games for the adults. We handed out a “Who knows Bella best” quiz with questions we came up with such as -what time was she born, what’s the meaning behind her middle name etc. We also did a fun game that we still hear about almost 2 years later. this is great for any party. You wrap a shirt box once, then you wrap another layer of wrapping paper around the first then a third layer. Do this to 2 boxes. Ask for 2 volunteers. Then place oven mitts on both hands of both players. Then they have to see who can unwrap the gift 1st. You wouldn’t believe how funny this is in person. We also purchased a piacture mat for framing & had all the guests write a message to our daughter on it & placed her 1 year old pic in it.
Recently I took my son to a first birthday party where they put up a tv that played a musical snapshow made from digital pictures of their child’s first year. The video had a storyline showing the baby grow up from a newborn to the first tooth, first smile, first crawl etc and everything was beautifully choreographed to music with special effects and a personalized Happy Birthday song! They had got it done from http://www.smilingsnaps.com and it was so touching- I had never seen anything like that before!! I am planning to do something similar for my kid’s upcoming birthday- not only will it be fun in the party, but the DVD will be a permanent keepsake which my son would love to see when he grows up! Hope this helps.
I too thought long and hard about my son’s 1st birthday. I ended up with a carnival theme. His cake form the bakery was made into a carousel w/ clowns and elephants it was awesome. I like to be organzied so I thought of the things my baby likes, and we had stations. My family volunteered at the stations (they are the best). I had a play dough station where the children made playdough, finger painting, bubble blower, story station (five little monkeys in a tree), cotton candy (for the big kids), sack racing, and around the world (basketball). The thing I loved most about his party was it was structured so well that parents didn’t leave with a headache. We had hotdogs w/chili, and chips. I also ordered some carnival tent shaped gift boxes from oriental trading as giveaways. It was great and everyone had a good time.
My little daughter Sabrina in June (Birthday June 8th but party was on June 12, I beleive) I took many ideas when she was six months and I kept planning and planning. My older son (who is now 5) Just had a family gathering with Elmo things. But I want my daughter to have DA* parties. She is my lady bug and I did a lady bug theme. It was just like Tori Spellings daughters 1st birthday. It was cute, cute, cute. I take several pictures so for the three hour party I had a slide slow with the songs she dances to and stuff and one of our guest didn’t do anything at the party but just looked.