1st birthday party - ideas and advice needed

[lorisparkle]

Its my ds first birthday soon and we are planning a party with just close family and a few friends with children. There could be 7 children ranging from 1 yr to 12yrs.

Basically I'm feeling mightly stressed about the whole thing and need some ideas for food, times, party bags, anything really to make the event as stress free and enjoyable as possible. We were thinking about starting at 3pm after his afternoon nap but that is about it

Any ideas gratefully received

for ds1's first birthday each family member brought a plate of food, i just did balloons and banners etc round the house, and if only family coming then no need for party bags IMO

I agree with ellenkpa, you don't need to do party bags for the family. A buffet and a nice first birthday cake is all you really need.

We prefer to have our parties about 10.00. That way children not as tired and grumpy (because they have slept all night and in your case might have had a morning nap as well), and it will be easier to get him calmed down after all the fuss the whole family have been making over him all morning/lunch time. They tend to get quite sugar tense, and have great difficulty in understanding why they can't keep on partying.

Hope that is of help

Thanks everyone, I think I am getting myself in a tiz about nothing but hey I was like this for the Christening aswell!!

Any other suggestions gratefully received...

for my sons 1st birthday we just did a big bbq and nibbles and then for the children I just did some sweets in a party bag and everyone was happy , we had about 30 at our house which was all friends with there children .

DS is 1 weekend after next.

We are having a small party for family, godparents and a couple of other friends with babies. It's 2-5pm (just because that timing is good for DS nap) and I'm just doing a buffet with a birthday cake. I'm not doing party bags but each of the children will have a caterpillar balloon on a stick to take home and I've done a small pass-the-parcel. Apart from that entertainment for the children will be DS normal toys. In terms of food my mum is kindly bringing some flapjacks and brownies, then I am going to do some rolls with ham, cheese and a few other easy to prepare things. Oh, and bought a few decs for the house. It's been pretty simple to prepare. My only concern is the weather as it will be so much easier if we can use the garden, but that one is outside my control.

Have fun with it, don't let it stress you out! If it does you could always go to a local farm etc and just invite people along?

I've been thinking about it and your party seems similar to what I had in mind weegle so please let me know how it all goes.

Thanks again everyone - my stress levels are slowly falling.......

I did just as I did for coffee mornings but had cake too. I did do party bags, and put in a blower thing, a bath toy, piece of cake and some chocolate for the mums.

If it's any consolation I was in a real tizz this time last week over dd's 4th birthday party!

We had a similar age range for DS's 1st birthday so did craft tables with lots of paper, glue, glitter etc for the older kids to make birthday cards with, and DS's toys for the toddlers. You can buy packs of cheap card & paper in those cheap bookshops - can't remember name. A buffet with pizza, breadsticks etc plus b'day cake, fruit & sweets. We didn't do any games. Plenty of balloons to play with. Twister or Giant Jenga would be good if you can get hold of them.

If the weather is good, a treasure hunt would be good - the older kids can help the young ones and they can make their own party bags from stuff you hide in the garden!

Don't stress!

My DD1 turned 1 last weekend. We had a picnic in the park. I baked a cake for everyone and cupcakes for the kids. I took my DD's milk tins and put some bright paper around it and decorated it very nice. I've put in some chips, chocolate, sweets, balloons. There were 17 children aged 9months to 16 years old. They all loved the tins, it was a big hit.
Everyone brought there own picnic basket and we had a great time. Played cricket, kicked the ball a bit and played games. It lasted for about 3 hours. It was a wonderfull 1st birthday party.

Hope all goes well!

For DD's first birthday, we hired a bouncy castle, and a brilliant face painting lady, who brought a bubble machine. I got a couple of platters of ready made sandwhiches from Sainsbury's, and lots of cup cakes and mini battenburgs. Filled the house with pink helium balloons. I did party bags, just because I like doing party bags. Infact I made my mother sew pink gingham party bags for the girls, and camoflage bags for the boys. I'm just showing off now.

The first birthday is for parents to celebrate getting through it imo - the baby won't remember anything about it. So I didn't bother with a party just a bottle of Champagne for us. Be nice to yourself, buy a cake, don't call it a party, don't do party bags, ask parents of othe children to bring things to amuse them (you prob haven't got stuff for older children anyway), do some food if you want to. Enjoy!

I didn't mention DD slept through the party. The party was actually for me, and I had a great time.

www is spot on

i still cringe at making 5 1 yos play pass the parcel at ds's 1st birthday

and the agnoies I went to to be sure that everyone got a prize they they would like (They were 1 fgs)