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I need ideas for my daughter's first birthday party.


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When my son turned one I had no friends with kids, and we didn't have a big party. We just went to my parents' house and had dinner and cake. Well, it's 10 years later and now I have a daughter:) She is turning one next month and thanks to my local ICAN group and a mothering group I have mom friends now. I'm planning a party for about 15 adults and another 10 kids. I know that a lot of people go to extreme lengths for first birthdays. Some families I know have rented bounce houses, had pony rides, etc. We are NOT financially able or willing to do that. I've never done anything extravagant for my son's birthdays and I don't plan to start with this one. Especially since she won't remember it anyway. For example, for my son's 9th birthday we had a sports theme. He had his friends over and they played basketball, competed to see who could throw a football the farthest, etc. Then they made their own pizzas and had cake. They had a blast. The next year he had a pool party and hot dogs and cake, and last year he got to take 3 friends to the local skate park and then come back for hot dogs and cake. So I want to keep it low key and home made, like his parties. I just need some decorating ideas, or a theme, or something.

 

Anyone?

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I don't know about for the second kid (mine came out as a pair, lol), but in my mind, the first birthday is a celebration of the parents - especially the mom - for making it through the year. I'd say pick whatever theme you like and serve grown up friendly food that you and your mom friends would like. If you want to indulge your little one, make her her own small cake that she can really go crazy with.

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Ok, so how do I decorate or incorporate this theme other than giving away dollar store books? Maybe set up a table with blank books for them to color and write in? (the older kids, not my 1 year old). Have some Super Why coloring pages and crayons? Have story time before we open cake?

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Different mom's reading her favorite books for all the kiddies to listen too.

Foods that are in the books maybe.

Maybe making a scrapbook page with the other moms to be filled in later.

A book shaped cake would be fun too.

I would aim more for the grown ups with a few things for the wee one's to do. I love the Hungry Caterpillar that is super cute. No matter what you do enjoy celebrating the day with your friends and family. :001_smile::001_smile:

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Oooh, the storybook theme sounds neat! I love planning my kids parties.

 

I'd definitely have story time at some point in the party. I'd choose a few classic kids stories and have all the kids gather round in a circle for someone to read to them (preferably someone who is very animated when reading to kids).

 

You could do a small craft project focusing on a particular storybook theme. Maybe a Little Red Riding Hood craft....or a Hungry Caterpillar one.

 

I like the idea of each child receiving a book as a "goody bag" gift.

 

If you really want to get into it, you could have each child come dressed as their favorite storybook character.

 

Instead of the craft mentioned above, you could purchase blank books and have a "book making station" set up. Put markers, pens, etc, and let the kids illustrate their own book. If they want words, parents can help write them while the kids dictate (depending on their ages and abilities).

 

For snacks, you could pull ideas from storybooks. Maybe have snacks that are listed in the Very Hungry Caterpillar book? I'd make up a little sign that says something like "The Hungry Caterpillar Snack Bar" and put a stuffed caterpillar up there too. I think you can purchase Hungry Caterpillar plates, cups, etc from an online birthday place.

 

Not sure of the ages of the kids attending, but you could have a Storybook Quiz with a prize. Ask questions from various childrens books and whoever get the most correct wins a prize.

 

As for other games, you could do something like "Pin the book in the readers hands"....draw up a person on posterboard with blank hands. Draw books for each kid and then they are blindfolded and have to try to put the book in the readers hands. Or a balancing game....see who can walk from point A to point B while balancing a book on their head.

 

Okay....I think I went overboard. I love planning birthdays LOL!

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For a one year old's party, I seriously wouldn't sweat it. It will be exciting for her and the other kids no matter what. Just the idea of a party is exciting at that age.

 

We did a princess theme for my daughter's 1st birthday party. We had no planned activities and just let the kids in attendance (they were all family) run around and play. We passed out crowns from the party store for those who wanted them, and my mother made a cake that looked like a castle.

 

I don't know the ages of the kids who are coming, but at my friend's daughter's princess party they made crowns---like the cone shaped ones---out of construction paper, then used stickers and sequins to decorate them, and taped curling ribbon as streamers coming out of the point. It was super cute and the kids loved it.

 

You could also get a simple face painting kit from the party store and recruit an artistically inclined family member to paint up the kids. That's always a huge hit.

 

And as already noted, balloons are ALWAYS a good choice.

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Ooh speaking of a story book party! We had one of those the year my daughter turned 8.

 

One of my favorite parts was that we bought online one of those story-book shaped cake pans...

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0000VYYOC/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1295271302&sr=8-1&condition=new

 

...and we made our own Storybook Cake (I'll attach pics!). On the computer we did a layout that had a picture of her on one side and text on another based on an idea we'd found online...

 

It said: "Once upon a time

Not too long ago

Not so far away

There Lived a Young

Girl Named Alexa

Who Loved Books...

 

and the other side was her picture with the text "Happy Birthday Alexa" over it.

 

We took that printed page to Walmart as they can do the edible photo sheet things, and they copied/printed it up for us (careful, they won't do anything copyrighted though as I found out when I tried to get them to do a Dr. Seuss one for me one year for a Dr. Seuss's Birthday Party I wanted to host on Dr. Seuss's birthday as part of a fun class/activity day for our homeschool group).

 

We then applied the printed, edible image to our cake- and it was beautiful! See pics below!

 

In addition to that, I looked up pictures online of various well-known storybook covers and printed them in color and taped those up on the walls for decorations, along with lots of balloons and streamers. (You could also cut out construction paper balloons with colorful yarn for the 'string' and tape the printed storybook images onto those, and hang those up- I ended up doing that for the Dr. Suess party I mentioned, which was a separate occasion, and I thought that was cute, too!)

 

Anyway! We asked kids to come dressed as their favorite storybook characters.

 

I gave a book or two and some candy or whatever as a party favor to each kid (which I bought cheap from Dover Publications online in their Children's Thrift Classics section)

 

http://store.doverpublications.com/by-subject-children-children-s-thrift-classics.html

 

(Lots of those books are only $1.50-$2.50 each!!)

 

For activities, I gave the kids craft supplies and paper bags with handles to decorate, which I think a bought a bundle of at Michael's craft store, and they brought their books/favors home in those bags they'd decorated with markers and stickers and glitter glue and whatnot.

 

We had a 'relay race' with books on top of the kid's heads.

 

We told stories. (My sister who is a librarian and a good storyteller told them a story, and we had an activity where they took turns going around and taking up where the last person left off to tell their own story).

 

Anyway... it was a really nice party :)

 

ETA: Oh no. I forgot to upload/attach the pictures after all of that, and I can't do it in an edit. I'm going to reply again and attach there. Sorry!

Edited by NanceXToo
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That cake is amazing. I need to forward that photo to my sister. She wants a book for the groom's cake at her wedding (she and her future husband are very academic) and that would be rocking.

 

Not to hijack the thread or anything, but how did you make it look like a book? Did you cut into a 9X13 to make the page indentation or something? PM me instead of replying on the thread if you want.

Edited by fairytalemama
Clarification on how to make the cake look like a book
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That cake is amazing. I need to forward that photo to my sister. She wants a book for the groom's cake at her wedding (she and her future husband are very academic) and that would be rocking.

 

Not to hijack the thread or anything, but how did you make it look like a book? Did you cut into a 9X13 to make the page indentation or something? PM me instead of replying on the thread if you want.

 

Thanks! I really loved the way it came out :)

 

It is a book shaped cake pan, I put a link to one on Amazon in my post above the one where I put the picture. So we can't really take credit for making the cake look like a book- the pan did that haha. We just baked the cake mix, frosted it and laid the printed image down on it.

 

P.S. Oh, and we added the "bookmark"- a piece of licorice! And hubby used the point of a knife to scratch lines to make it look more like loose pages, which might be visible in that second pic.

Edited by NanceXToo
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That cake is amazing. I need to forward that photo to my sister. She wants a book for the groom's cake at her wedding (she and her future husband are very academic) and that would be rocking.

 

Not to hijack the thread or anything, but how did you make it look like a book? Did you cut into a 9X13 to make the page indentation or something? PM me instead of replying on the thread if you want.

 

There is actually a book cake pan and you can have almost any picture printed with edible ink. :001_smile::001_smile:

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