What did you do for your babies first birthday?

[Stefka]

It will be here soon enough. I don't plan to do much because I don't have the space for anything grand but I thought about asking a couple of mums from the baby group to pop round and a couple of relatives.

Not sure what sort of food I should serve for the babies though. So far DS hasn't really had sugary foods - just things like yogurt etc - so what sort of cake thing should I do?

I am the first to have the first birthday in our group so can't copy anyone else even!

[IAteRosemaryConleyForBreakfast]

DS crawled round in his bare bottom, ate some caterpillar cake from the Co-op and refused to sleep. When he eventually did I drank a bottle of wine and slurred emotionally before crashing out.

Highly recommended

[dizzydixies]

sod all - she was too young to notice - we on the other hand ate cake and drank wine

[Overmydeadbody]

I just had a little family afair and a chocolate cake, a nice gooey moussey dark chocolate cake to be exact.

TBH I don't see much point in making it into a big afair and getting stressed over it.

Keep it simple, like having friends round for coffee and cake.

And no harm in one year olds having a bit of chocolate cake

[Overmydeadbody]

actually the others are right, scrap the coffee, open the wine!

[penona]

I had family here for the day on the weekend, and then local mums etc during the week for a day. Just did normal food and a fruit cake - DTs ate a little bit of the fruit (not icing) but TBH were not much into finger food then anyway. Organised the parties for the afternoon (2pm-5pm) so no-one expected a meal (no space to serve one...) just tea and cakes.

[Lubyloo]

We just had both sets of grandparents round (no room for anyone else!) DD had also never had cake or anything similar before. Her 1st birthday cake was the first time she had tasted chocolate.

[WendyWeber]

For my first baby's first birthday my brother was staying with his four kids (aged approx 2, 5, 7 & 9), and also our next-door neighbours (kids all gone) & another neighbour with a toddler 6 months older, all came for chocolate cake. It was fab & was DD1's first chocolate cake, she loved it

(No other relations because we were living abroad at the time)

[penona]

And when everyone left we drank a fabulous bottle of champagne someone gave me when I got pg (daft present at the time, was v welcome all those months later!!)

[penona]

Oh and for a present we had a photographer come to the house and get lots of 'natural' photos of the DTs and their parents/grandparents/cousins etc. Will eventually make them into some kind of photo album for them. And for me. (at the moment they are just in a big pile on the floor!).

[cathym]

We had a big family/friends party because we didn't have a Christening and I wanted an excuse for a big party.

[mazzystar]

for ds we had 3 babies, their mums [plus a dad], granny and ungodlyparents[as they are known in our house]. wine for parents, fruit platter and homemade banana loaf with candle in. very simple.

the wine is the critical bit

[beckmo]

We had a joint a party for all the babies/parents that had become friends through NCT as the babies were all 1 within a month of each other. Everyone bought something to eat-really for the adults- mini pizza, salad, sarnies and 1 mum volunteered to make a cake. It was really nice and loads less hassle that way.We hired ahall in alocal park and it worked out dead cheap.Spent the actual day round her nans eating the cake I made her. If I wasn't preggars again wine would have definatley factored.

[sagacious]

All of out friends over for a big party

(vague memories of far too much champagne)

There was cake
It was chocolate

dc's were oblivious but enjoyed the sparkler candle on the cake

The time for "kiddie" parties is aged 3+ when they understand whats going on.

[Elibean]

Made a cake and shared it with her and dh

Second birthday was a much bigger deal...IMHO, first birthdays are for the parents much more than the kids. And 3 days before Xmas, with colds, we just wanted a cosy family day more than anything.

[elmoandella]

just had friends round with kids same age and close relatives. had it in afternoon. after luch and before dinner.

have cake and tea/coffee/wine.

couple of balloons.

my dd did enjoy it even though people say too young. just make sure it's after the nap so they're fully energized.

[ShowOfHands]

Couple of balloons here too. Tea and some cake. Made some jam tarts iirc. Grandparents came and cooed and aahed at her. Went to the park, ran around a bit, swinged and slid, bath, bed...

[Pinkjenny]

We had a party with a few friends and the family. I found the first year quite challenging at times, and it felt like a huge celebration of how far we'd all come.

[Twiga]

For both of our dcs, we had an open house in the afternoon of their birthdays and invited close friends and some relies. Had a buffet lunch/tea and just hung out really - we had a range of ages on a child front from 9 downwards so did really simple stuff like pizza, finger foods (grapes, strawberries, wee sarnies etc). Worth making an effort on the cake front - wether you make it or buy it. Hope it goes well .

[Mummyfor3]

Our family tradition (was done for me, my brother and all our cousins) is to have a "pudding" cake for the birthday child for them to demolish themselves while copious amounts of photograph/video are taken.

Cake can be Jello/set custard/anything at all really.

Great photos all round. I have done it for my DSs and plan to use the photos for maximum embarrassement when they turn 18/get married/ or similar.

Note: be sure to put wipable water proof matting down

[dinkystinky]

Had huge party for DS's first birthday party - hired out church hall next door to our flat, got soft play area in there (as would be lots of kids of all ages and DS loved ball pits aged 1 and crawling over stuff) and did lots of food - really did it for us and our friends (as never got round to headwetting when DS was born). Was great. This year, for second birthday, had 8 kids round with parents for paddling pool party in the garden...

[squeaver]

We took her to the zoo. She crashed out. We went off nice lunch.

[muggglewump]

I had lunch at a Brewsters with my family. I splashed out on a cake from M&S and then went to Indonesia for ten weeks!
The lunch was OK, the holiday was fab

[LittleMyDancingForJoy]

We had a picnic. It was fab.

[elkiedee]

I had a May baby so just invited various people - some relatives, some grown up friends of ours with their kids if they wanted of ages 2-18, a few people DS and I met at baby groups. His birthday is around a bank holiday weekend so quite a lot of people were away, and the weather threatened to ruin things but in the end it worked out well.

I made a birthday cake and some buns, I think ds got one chocolate bun, dp made some sandwiches which no one ate, but I also suggested people brought food, drink, picnic blankets, loved ones, as they felt like doing really.

I also chose a park which isn't the closest or nicest but is in a convenient place to get to, has quite a lot of fairly cheap car parking available (though we don't drive ourselves!), has a kids playground and a big cafe with highchairs in case the weather was awful.

I said people were welcome to drop by any time between 1 and 4, in the end we were there until after 6!

[elkiedee]

Food wise

mini sandwiches?
baby finger foods and snacks made for them (Organix)
Fruit
A little cake won't hurt