Um, where did the time go? My daughter will be ONE YEAR OLD six weeks from today. I have been in serious denial and have not planned a thing. Nothing. Months ago I was fantasizing about her big over the top birthday party, knowing full well she won’t remember a thing. I readily admit it’s all for me and for the photos.
Anyway, I need help. We’ll be celebrating her birthday on Sunday, November 22 – a few days after her birthday because a) my in-laws will be in town for Thanksgiving and b) we can’t have it on Saturday the 21st because that’s OSU v. Michigan day. (Go Buckeyes!)
What in the world should we do?!?!? I’m at a loss. An afternoon with pizza and cake at 4? Light dinner of salads and sandwiches and cake? A brunch at 10 with cake? Clearly the only thing I do know is that we’re having cake!
And, the theme is pink piggies. Help!
When we did Sunday birthdays we did them at two pm. Because mostly at that time everyone was out of church and already had lunch. So they would come over for some cake and then some finger foods like chex mix, something really light. For decorations I would check Oriental Trading first.
We are having my son's first birthday party this Saturday and we are doing Pizza!
I like the idea of not having to provide a full meal, for sure. The only problem with 2 is that it's smack dab in the middle of nap time at my house. (And others, I think.)
Have a great birthday party this weekend!
I'm a total slacker! My kids love Chuck E Cheese, so we went there for dinner and games then came home for a small family birthday. Don't stress too much! :)
thanks! my daughter's 1st bday is november 20th… and now you have me completely freaking out!!! what am i gonna do?!?!? :)
Good luck, I always overdo it. I like the idea too of not feeding a full meal…
I'm sure whatever you do will turn out great!
I usually throw food into a crockpot and make some simple pinwheel sandwiches, plus fruit and veggies. For my son's last party we had a candy buffet on his request. But kids are usually more into playing and could really care less about the food!
pizza & cake sounds great. Maybe a salad to go along with i!
I love the brunch idea! Then you'd be finished and could recover for the rest of the day…and everyone would be home in time for naps. Plus, brunch food is just fun.
I found this blog last night and it is full of ADORABLE party ideas! I love it! http://tomkatstudio.blogspot.com/
I am getting some ideas together. I LOVE party planning. I will e-mail you! :-)
when was your daughter born? My daughter was born Nov. 17th it will be her first bday too! I am doing a cupcake theme. Big huge cupcake cake. I saw it on someones blog awhile ago and it was sooo cute.
Congratulations! I too like the brunch idea – even if you don't serve it at 2 you could still offer light finger food. The kids won't eat much anyway and if you are having a bunch of kids the parents won't be able to sit to eat so finger food would be best!!
Try to schedule around nap time. It will make life MUCH easier if you have a well-rested baby!
I would do pink cupcakes with little plastic pigs on them or (if you have better art skills than I) make pig faces on the tops.
Of my older daughter's three birthday parties and my youngest's one and only, my favorite by far was my littlest's first birthday party this June. We held it at a local park at 10 am (right after morning nap!) with a garden theme. I served breakfast items like bagels, donuts, juice, coffee, etc. I made fruit skewers and then arranged them in a flower pot, which was adorable. We brought together lots of picnic tables and decorated them. For ease of transportation and serving, we had flower cupcakes instead of cake and I served them with "dirt" and gummy worms.
The kids just ran around and played for 2 hours. I didn't plan any games or activities, which was awesome for me! For the take home goody, I gave each kid a shovel, a bucket, and a pack of sunflower seeds. They all played with the shovel for the last 30 minutes and just moved dirt around.
One of the things that we loved best is that because we were able to keep cost down this way, we invited tons of people. We are planning to do the same thing for her second birthday next year. We've decided to do a luau theme next time. What can I say, I'm a planner :-)
I know that the party is at the end of Nov but I thought I'd pass this on in case it might be warm enough there. Happy planning!
Jana
We did a Winter ONEderland for our 1st bday – and it turned out great! We just hung snowflakes everywhere and set up a hot chocolate bar, which was loads of fun for the older kids. We had every kind of sprinkle, whip cream, cinnamon sticks, etc. etc.
(and some peppermint schnapps and bailey's for the MUCH OLDER kids!)
We stuck to the warmest part of the day in case some of the kids got antsy and wanted to play outside.
For party favors I downloaded a kids Christmas CD from Itunes and then used Lightscribe to decorate CDs and burn copies. They turned out cute and all the kids remember getting music.
We just celebrated my sons first birthday party in August. We did a monkey theme party. The favors were homemade tote bags that my little guy fingerpainted. We filled the bag with curious george gummies, crayons, curious george audiobooks, and the curious george soundtrack. With the download on itunes it also came with a color book so we copied those and added those into the goody bags.
We were lucky enough to have the birthday on his exact birthday date and time. August 1 at 10:40 AM!
We served a brunch. Bagels, Croissants, chicken and seafood salads, wraps, fruits, and chicken tenders tater tots and goldfish for the little ones.
And an AWESOME cake!
My blog has pictures!
I love the idea of brunch! Then you cna tire all the kids out and they'll all afternoon for their parents.