what did you do for your childs first birthday?

[fairycakes]

dd is one in six weeks. cant decide what to do. what did everyone else do? thanks!

I took her to a local farm and then we had a little tea party at home.

was meant to be going to aquarium but due to dodgy finances just went to park and had tea with another mummy and baby.

let all 3 kids have a biscuit binge.

DD is 1 in 4 weeks, got a thread going on ideas for 1st birthdays already?! also gonna take dd to zoo on her actual birthday x

We took ds to the zoo for the first (just me and dh), and then had very low key 'tea' with a couple of other mums and toddlers.

It was a lovely day, and TBH was glad we didn't do anything too huge or complicated.

Hmm, glad I've seen this. DS is not yet 9 months but thoughts of this are occurring already! I know my Dm has time off, so does dp, I can have time off, thought about maybe trying to get as much family as possible and all my other DS's baby friends

whats the name of your thread mmmchocolate, sorry, am rubbish at finding things,! x

With DS1 and 2 we had a party for friends and family at my MILs. We didn't with DD as we'd had a big bash for her christening 2 mths before, so I took a birthday cake to our M&T group and she had a little party with the kids there, shared with a friend's DS whose 1st was the week before!

its called 1st birthdat party - ideas pretty please x

Went mad had a huge party, with all the family and many friends,though must admit i had her naming ceremony on the same day so the party was mostly that actually.Very very special day also a big celebration for us to have gotten through her first year so a big day for us all.

mmmmchocolate i cant find your thread anywhere! thanks though x

We were rather lowkey about it. Had 3 couples over who have special relationaships with ds. Did a Hawaiian theme with leis, sunglasses, etc. All the men wore Hawaiian shirts - even ds! It was fun and since I still had PND at the time, pretty much all I was up to doing.

We hired a hall and caterers and invited all friends and relatives and all anyone remembers is that ds screamed and cried the whole time - very traumatic.

So for ds2's first birthday we did nothing and have decided to have more of a do on his 2nd birthday.

We had a bbq and invited family and close friends, it was lovely, dd2 was passed around to everyone and had a lovely time.

For my ds's (a couple of weeks ago) had grandparents over,made a cake with dd and ate this along with salmon sandwiches,strawberries and cream and lashings of Champagne out in the garden.

Couple of helium ballons too.

We had a small party at home for family and close friends. All grown ups were people ds knew, and there was only 1 other girl his age, that he knows well. And I was aware that even this was more for our benefit than for his!

For his 2nd birthday, we did pretty much the same!

We also went mad.
We had BBQ with all family and friends at the house. About 50 people all told.
We had to go through so much to get him that we wanted a massive celebration of him with every one we care about.
We did it for us i suppose you could say.
He had a lovely day.

We left ds3 with his grandparents and took the others to see Jack & the Beanstalk. We had a cake with a candle after tea but that was it.

I don't see the point of going overboard as they haven't a clue what's going on anyway!!!

extended family came over the weekend before so they were out of the way.

on his birthday we went to the butterfly house which he loved (was in backcarrier so kept trying to grab them as they flew past). then lunch at a family friendly cafe. grandparents came round for party tea and cake with a candle. was lovely

Went to the pub! With dd!

Our excuse was that we were moving house 4 days later and couldn't have everyone over, and these were friends we were leaving behind.

cried a bit (remembering the horror of the last 12 months!) went for a sandwich with DH and DS, then had chips and a bottle of beer on the beach!

We got married on same day as DD1's 1st birthday so it ended up being a combined reception and birthday bash. Hasten to add that we had already planned to marry on her birthday date and everything was already booked for that date. But she was 10 days late and everyone said that the two wouldn't clash so I shouldn't worry! Everyone always thinks I'm cruel for combining the two but I couldn't change certain aspects of the wedding without losing certain things and paying out shed loads of money.

We took dst to the zoo on their first visit and then out to dinner at a family restaurant, just the four of us.

Of course their birthday is in the dead of winter, possibly if they had summer birthdays we would do something different. But we take them somewhere special each birthday, last year was the Jelly Club and this year it will be Dynamic Earth.

I guess not very exciting eh?

We went mad, August baby so had a big party in the garden with some friends I met at Ante Natal classes and still see 3 years later. So we had 8 babies (including ours) and Mums and Dads. DD's 3rd birthday in a few weeks, but all the Mums have now had 2nd babies, so 16 3 and unders plus Mums and Dads. I know I'm mad but we seem to have started something and we always have a lovely day.

DD's birthday is in December (depths of winter and so near Christmas) - so we had a little party at home with 8 of her little friends and their mummies. I did a bit of food but tbh nothing special and had a cake made for her. Just had a few toys out and that was it. DD woke from her nap in a foul mood and clung to me the whole time but apart from that it was wonderful!!

IN the evening our local town had the christmas carnival so we went to watch that and had some fish and chips for tea (well, me and DH did anyway!!)

First birthdays are more for the parents that the children imo. Its a celebration of surviving that first year!! I put so much into that day but really a cake and a present would have been enough. But you know what we mums are like......... !!