Tell me everything (or just the special things) about your child's FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY!

We are going to most likely be having a combined 1st birthday and baptism party for Sienna in August (I know I have 4 months but time is flying). I've only been two 1st birthday parties and both of them were at their community's clubhouse and were more for adults with one just having a small bouncy house for the 4-5 kids that were there.

Our house is too small so we won't be having it there so if you had it at a place (and don't worry about rec's b/c I live in FL) did you have lots of things for kids to do? Right now Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is her absolute favorite so i'm thinking of maaaaaaaaaaaaybe doing something with that... but I'm not sure yet.

How many kids did you have? We will have I think 7 kids there (from 4 yrs old down to 8 months old).

Anything you can recommend or not recommend doing would be great!

These are times when I wish I lived in NY... I would definitely have the party in my mom's backyard and call it a day!

Re: Tell me everything (or just the special things) about your child's FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY!

I didn't really have a theme because I have boy/girl twins and thought it would be more work for me, but here are some of the things I did:

We had about 30 kids and we hired someone to do balloon animals/facepainting for about 1.5 hours. Right after that, we had a lady come in with a keyboard and she sang and entertained the kids for about an hour. I have to say both of those were very worth the money and it wasn't that expensive.

Also, as centerpieces, I used cupcake trees (held 13 cupcakes) and bought cupcakes at BJ's (thx to a friends recommendation). They spray the icing any color and put different colored sprinkles on them. They were also very cheap...4.99 per dozen. I bought cupcake boxes from Oriental Trading and put one by everyone's placesetting on the table. Also, the cupcakes at BJ's tasted like Twinkies and Devil dogs to me...so kids will probably love them. I wasn't a fan though..lol

Lastly, I did a candy/toy buffet. Everything flew off the table. I bought jars at homegoods and colorful plastic bowls from Target and labeled everything. I bought smiley erasers, bouncey balls, engraved pencils, bubbles, and pads from oriental trading. I got all of the candy from Costco. I purchased chinese food boxes and party bags from Christmas Tree Shoppe and had the hall display it all.

Good luck and enjoy the planning! I felt like I was wedding planning all over again.

Message edited 3/30/2010 2:11:27 PM.

Re: Tell me everything (or just the special things) about your child's FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY!

Re: Tell me everything (or just the special things) about your child's FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY!

Wow 30 kids? We only have a few family members and one friend with kids so it'll only be like 7 of them including Sienna. So I just don't know if I should get entertainment since it's not that many and 3 of them will be under a year old...

I love your ideas though, I definitely want to do cupcakes and we have a bakery down here that does cake sticks so I may do those as well.

I feel like 2nd, 3rd, 4th birthdays will be so much easier...