1st Birthday Party - is a cake enough?

[Jade2022]

Hiya,

It’s my daughter’s first birthday in a few weeks & we’re having a drop in type day at our house. We’re having family over for lunch (sandwiches, sausage rolls, crisps, etc) then friends in the afternoon (some with babies). I’ve also got a cake & some cupcakes being made too.

Do you think just having the cake & cupcakes for the afternoon will be enough? If not, what else would you be offering/expect as a guest. (I was also going to get some baby snacks for the little ones.)

Sorry for what might seem a silly question, I’ve never really hosted anything like this before & have a tendency to overthink everything!

Sounds fine to me. Will you have some decorations? Could anyone do a bit of home baking? Having an all day thing fills me with dread a bit though, are you having set hours they’ve to pop in around?

What time will you friends be there?

Just right for a first birthday. Enjoy.

What time are the friends coming and how long are you expecting them to stay for?

after 15:00 and only for an hour or so? Cake and drinks are fine

any earlier I’d expect more of a lunch

I’d do food for the babies that the adults could eat too. Grazing style stuff, but not necessarily a platter, they seem to be controversial! Presuming all the babies are around one, they’ll likely be eating pretty good meals/snacks by then. And they’ll probably want cake, if they see the adults eating it, but not many will be allowed it yet.

I wouldn’t go mad, but I’d keep some of the lunch food back for friends later.

I was thinking about making a few cookies & brownies to go with the cake but wasn’t sure if that would be too much? Or if a few savoury bits would be better.

Our family are coming mid morning for a few hours & then I’ve told friends to come from 2ish. I’m hoping baby will then get a nap in between the too.

In this case I’d probably just get a bit more of the lunch buffet foods planned for family and have it just out when friends come in case

Thank you @Jessandtess and @TakeYourFinalPosition , I had been thinking about just making extra lunch buffet food to keep back. Save myself the extra work of making anything different!

I think a light lunch buffet is more appropriate eg perhaps a cheeseboard with grapes, crudités and dip, crackers or bread, antipasti then birthday cake. Not too much quantity

I’m going to have some balloons up & got one of those photo banners plus a few generic Happy Birthday banners. I didn’t want to go too crazy as the babies will probably try & pull it all down anyway!

I was just going to put a load of toys down in the living room for babies to play with & have food & cake out in the kitchen for people to help themselves