First birthday parties?

[Tolly81]

My DD is 9m and we've just been invited to a friend's 1st birthday for her DD who is a few weeks older than mine. It got me thinking about DD's first birthday and what to do. This party is at their house but I find having lots of babies and toddlers at our house quite stressful as we have wooden floors and a tiled fireplace and I worry that they will hurt themselves (definitely getting carpet if we have anymore dcs!). The other thing is that my DSis is getting married a few days before so that will take up a lot of my family's time and mand my DSis will be on honeymoon (my parents will also be away).

Sorry pressed wrong button! Anyway just wondered if anyone had any nice ideas for a fairly low-stress 1st birthday celebration? If you did do a party any ideas for keeping stress and costs to a minimum and what exactly did you do? TIA.

We didn't actually have parties for any of ours, although they had had baptism parties when they were younger. Instead with each of them we went as a family to an aquarium (for ds we went to the one at Chessington so animals and rides for the older ones too). It is a perfect age, they were all facinated by the fish, then a nice meal, low stress.

For dd1 we also had a joint 1st birthday party with our NCT group, we each took a dish and one present for one child, and hired a hall. There is plenty of time for big parties as she makes 20 rainbow jellies, fills party bags and plans 2 different birthday parties

DS was 1 in December we had a party in the local softplay no mess to clean in own house or worry about fireplaces or coffee tables!

Afterwards close friends came back to our house for low key pizza and drinks so had a bit of adult time too

We didn't have a party but both sets of grandparents came to spend time with DS, so that was nice.

My DS is 15months old now and we had a party for all my his friends that we know. Was just 2 hours, and really just the same as a normal get together that our group of mums do but with cake. We had it at our house but it big enough. We only have one set of grandparents close by so didn't need to worry about big family as well.

Quite a few of the mums in our group have hired a room at the local church for about £20 for 4 hours (an hour to set up, prep food, greet early arrivals and an hour for over-run and tidy-up). Most of the parties have been from 1-3pm, that way you only need to provide snacks rather than lunch (sausage rolls, sandwiches, biscuits and fruit, cheese for the little ones). Blow up a few balloons and sing happy birthday with a cake. They are too young for proper party games really so not too hard so long as you have a few toys and space.

For pfb we put a sheet on the living room carpet and put out bowls and plates (Ikea not Wedgwood!) of finger food snacks. Plenty of seating or big cushions. Invited friends round for an hour or up to 2 hours max. A glass of something bubbly with non-alcoholic alternatives available for grown-ups. Extra wet wipes and kitchen roll handy.

Pretty well did the same with DC2 except had only friends with controllable toddlers too.

For DS1, we had immediate family only parties until he was 3. So that basically involved an M&S party food style tea, a cake and drinks. I decorated the room we would all be in each time with banners, balloons etc. I think it lasted a couple of hours each time.

I will do the same for DS2's first birthday.

Thanks everyone, some really helpful suggestions. I might do something with my NCT group but otherwise just take her somewhere nice (like an aquarium or soft play then out for lunch) on her actual birthday if dh can get the day off. I'm not sure I want to do anything with family as my family (who I like) are all away. I'm sure the PILs will suggest something irritating anyway that they expect us to pay for/organise/clean up after or which will be totally unsuitable