I know the 1st birthday is a big deal for some. I definitely want to celebrate, but I get a little "down" when I think about it b/c of distance from our families, winter (potential for bad roads here in the Northeast), and the holiday season. Typical Dec mom concerns. We'll figure it out though.
So, share with us. If you're doing a 1st bday party -
1. How extensive will your guest list be? (meaning, will you only invite immediate family? Or will you include extended family, your friends w/ kids, your friends who don't have kids? Will you also invite babies/moms you just met [like thru TB or baby classes/mom groups] so that your LO has "friends" there?)
2. Will you have a theme? If so, what will the theme be?
3. Are you sending out formal invitations, or just word-of-mouth/email?
4. Will you have the party right on LO's actual birthday wknd, or will you push it earlier/later due to the holidays?
5. Do you intend to throw LO a party every year, or just for certain age milestones? (e.g., aside from my 1st bday, I didn't have real parties [w/ invitations, friends, etc.] except for my 10th and 13th bdays)
6. Anything else you want to tell us?
Re: Okay - Dec bday parties...Survey
1. How extensive will your guest list be? (meaning, will you only invite immediate family? Or will you include extended family, your friends w/ kids, your friends who don't have kids? Will you also invite babies/moms you just met [like thru TB or baby classes/mom groups] so that your LO has "friends" there?)
Any grandparents and aunts who can come (some would need to travel), and 2 sets of our friends who are like family. If everyone came that would be 12 adults and 4 kids (ranging from 6 to 1 year) - including us and DS. I do have one mom and baby that we have play dates with. We're new friends, so if it continues I might invite her, her H, and her son too.
2. Will you have a theme? If so, what will the theme be?
If we did it will probably be penguins. As a family joke, DH has asked me for a baby penguin since seeing March of the Penguins, and it's sort of wintery without being too Christmasy.
3. Are you sending out formal invitations, or just word-of-mouth/email?
Probably both.
4. Will you have the party right on LO's actual birthday wknd, or will you push it earlier/later due to the holidays?
I haven't checked the calendar yet. DS's birthday falls in between Christmas and New Years. It would also depend on possible travel plans if my family wants to come out.
5. Do you intend to throw LO a party every year, or just for certain age milestones? (e.g., aside from my 1st bday, I didn't have real parties [w/ invitations, friends, etc.] except for my 10th and 13th bdays)
We'll probably have small casual parties every year.
6. Anything else you want to tell us?
NopeBFP #2 5/27/12. EDD 2/1/13. m/c and D&C 6/21/12.
1. Immediate family, maybe close friends
2. Oh, hell no.
3. Email
4. Birthday weekend (he's early dec.)
5. Every year, though I'm not sure what shape they will take just yet.
6. Not really. My opinion on this topic will probably get me flamed.
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1. How extensive will your guest list be? family who lives in the area and friends with kids. Nothing too big.
2. Will you have a theme? Under the Sea/nautical/pirate
3. Are you sending out formal invitations, or just word-of-mouth/email? I've already found the invitations, I want to send out
4. Will you have the party right on LO's actual birthday wknd, or will you push it earlier/later due to the holidays? On his birthday (Sunday, December 4th.) It's early enough to not interfere with holiday events.
5. Do you intend to throw LO a party every year, or just for certain age milestones? We'll have a birthday party every year, but it's not going to be a big, crazy event. Friends, family, and cake.
I can tell you what we did for DD#1, her birthday is in January. Not sure what we're doing for DD#2 yet but it will probably be similar.
1. How extensive will your guest list be? (meaning, will you only invite immediate family? Or will you include extended family, your friends w/ kids, your friends who don't have kids? Will you also invite babies/moms you just met [like thru TB or baby classes/mom groups] so that your LO has "friends" there?) We invited Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles and Cousins. My house is too small to host any more than that.
2. Will you have a theme? If so, what will the theme be? The theme was Winter One-derland. I decorated with blue snowflakes.
3. Are you sending out formal invitations, or just word-of-mouth/email? I made photo invitations with a cute picture of DD on it.
4. Will you have the party right on LO's actual birthday wknd, or will you push it earlier/later due to the holidays? I was on her b-day weekend, DD#2 b-day is Dec. 3rd, so I think we'll go with her b-day weekend too.
5. Do you intend to throw LO a party every year, or just for certain age milestones? (e.g., aside from my 1st bday, I didn't have real parties [w/ invitations, friends, etc.] except for my 10th and 13th bdays) I think we'll have small family parties every year and then when they're in school they will want to include friends.
6. Anything else you want to tell us? Keep it short and sweet, you don't want to overwhelm the one year olds.
1. All of the above will be invited, prob around 20 maybe 25 ppl invited
2.Little Man Party, so excited!!
3. Formal
4. On his birthday since it will be a Saturday
5. Every year
1. Small. We don't have any family in the area so if they wanted to come they would have to travel from way OOT. So it will likely be just a few close friends.
2. The theme will be: birthday. I'm not really a theme type person and until she can say "I want an (insert popular kid thing o'the day here) party" she gets a plain 'ol b-day party.
3. We'll probably send out real invitations since it's so few, it won't be a hardship to write them out.
4. I don't know what to do about this. Her b-day falls smack in the middle of the Christmas and New Years' weekends. I don't really think anyone would come if we had it on NYE or New Years' Day. And definitely no one would come on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. So I guess we will likely push it to the week after New Years'.
5. She'll have a party every year. It will stay small until she has friends from school, then we can switch to a friends' party.
6. No. Well, I do have opinions on over the top parties for 1 year olds, but I'll keep that to myself. However, if you start to spend up to the cost of a wedding on a 1 year olds' birthday party, I will judge you
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1. How extensive will your guest list be?
It's probably going to be huge. I originally wanted to do something small, but DH says the 1st b-day is important to his family. We'll invite immediate family, extended family within driving distance, friends w/kids, best friends w/out kids.
2. Will you have a theme? If so, what will the theme be?
Yes. We have been throwing out ideas. We thought of doing an "Up" theme because LO loooooves balloons, but not sure how to really follow through with that other than having bunches of balloons everywhere. We'll probably do Winnie the Pooh or something Disney, since DH is big on Disney, esp Pooh Bear.
3. Are you sending out formal invitations, or just word-of-mouth/email?
Formal invites. I'll probably have a friend of mine design them, so they won't be too costly. Basically will just have to pay for paper.
4. Will you have the party right on LO's actual birthday wknd, or will you push it earlier/later due to the holidays?
Probably his actual b-day weekend. His b-day is 12/30, so his party will be New Years Eve or New Years Day. It will make it easier for our families if it's over the holidays, since they'd have to drive to visit.
5. Do you intend to throw LO a party every year, or just for certain age milestones? (e.g., aside from my 1st bday, I didn't have real parties [w/ invitations, friends, etc.] except for my 10th and 13th bdays)
We are only doing a huge party for his 1st and probably 5th, 10th, 15th. We'll celebrate every year, but on a much smaller scale.
ETA: The party will be large (invitee-wise), but no clowns, pony rides, or inflatable ball pits or anything. It will just be food, some decorations, and everyone hanging out.
Happy birthday a week from tomorrow! :-)
I think we will have a small family get together this year, on his actual birthday. Birthday Cake, no real theme (but maybe Dinosaurs?), no big deal. It will be in our house, so it can't be that big.
He will get a party every year. When he has friends (maybe 6 years old or so?), we will throw a party the weekend before Christmas and tell parents to drop their kids off, and go to the mall down the road for last minute Christmas shopping! We think that will go over well
1. We will have a small party with close family / friends. No more than 15 people, if that many.
2. We will probably do a winter theme of some sort. That way I can make cookies and cupcakes with snowflakes or whatever.
3. I will send out invitations. I want a keepsake for his baby book, and it will keep family members from asking me "when's the party?" a million times!
4. We will probably have his party the weekend before his birthday. The weekend after is Christmas.
5. He will get a small party every year. It's his special day!
6. DD has gotten a party each year so far, and she seems to really like having her friends around and everyone paying special attention to her. For her 2nd birthday, we had a small party at an aquaplex. It was so much fun. I think we will stick with things like that until the kids are old enough to ask to do something specific.
For Jorge ( bday is the day after Christmas) we will have a "family" party and invite parents,siblings,grandparents, and our friends w/ & without kids for the actual day (invite list will be close to 60 people but due to time of year we've never had more than 40 attend) (He'll also have a small friend party on a weekend close to the actual day.
Each boy will have his own theme when it comes to decorations. LO will probably get Elmo or some kind of "I'm 1! party" while DS1 will get police themed.
We will send out formal invitations a few weeks ahead of each birthday. With them being so close to the holidays, it is better to have people aware of the party as early as possible so that they can arrange to attend.
We have parties every year. However, we have just a family (and some close friends) party until turning 3 (or first year of preschool) then we start having a family party on the actual day or as close to it as possible and a small friend party. I'm 23 and my family still does the family party for me. It's something that my cousins,siblings, and I always had so I thought that it was common growing up. DH has never had a family party and rarely had bday party due to his birthday (also day after Christmas) yet his summer birthday'd sister usually had a party with friends so it is important to us for different reasons that our kids have their own parties.
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1. we're inviting family, immediate and extended, only. we want to keep it small but DHs family is huge (prbly around 150 compared to my less than 50 ppl) so there will be a lot of ppl.
2. i dont think there will be a theme. maybe if griffin shows more interest in something before then but prbly not.
3. formal invites prbly from vista prints
4. griffins bday is the 11th which falls on a sunday, i believe. so we're having that party on saturday, the 10th.
5. big parties will be the 1st and 7th. we'll prbly do small immediate parties for the other bdays.
6. griffin is pooping on my lap right now =D
1. How extensive will your guest list be? We will invite family and close friends. We each have large families, so the guest list will be around 35 or so. I don't expect more than 20, if that.
2. Will you have a theme? If so, what will the theme be? I will have a theme, even though I usually detest themes. I was thinking maybe a ladybug theme, since we call her Ava Bug (and that's her blog, too).
3. Are you sending out formal invitations, or just word-of-mouth/email? Formal invites, probably from Vistaprint.
4. Will you have the party right on LO's actual birthday wknd, or will you push it earlier/later due to the holidays? I was thinking December 3rd, even though her birthday is the 13th. Our whole family goes to Florida for the weeks surrounding Christmas so it would be too crazy if we tried to do it on the actual date.
5. Do you intend to throw LO a party every year, or just for certain age milestones? We will throw one every year, although I think they'll vary in size/formality.
6. Anything else you want to tell us? I really, really, really want to try and rein myself in. I've been to 1st birthdays at yacht clubs, country clubs and even a circus themed one with a petting zoo. I just want to keep it (moderately) low key, even though our families usually go over the top with celebrations.
OMG that is genius. I wish I could steal that idea, but the mall isn't close enough, lol.
1. How extensive will your guest list be? (meaning, will you only invite immediate family? Or will you include extended family, your friends w/ kids, your friends who don't have kids? Will you also invite babies/moms you just met [like thru TB or baby classes/mom groups] so that your LO has "friends" there?) First birthday will be extended family and our friends, with or without kids. After that, all birthdays will be immediate family only. Once he is in school, he'll have two parties - one for immediate family, one for friends.
2. Will you have a theme? If so, what will the theme be? Yes, it is going to be a Hawaiian theme.
3. Are you sending out formal invitations, or just word-of-mouth/email? Formal invites, that will actually be ordered online through Shutterfly while we are on vacation in Disney World in November, because I plan on putting a picture of him with Lilo and Stitch on it.
4. Will you have the party right on LO's actual birthday wknd, or will you push it earlier/later due to the holidays? We'll have a small family celebration (meaning mommy, daddy, and grandparents) on the day of the birthday and any parties after. Friend parties when he is older will likely be during school vacation!
5. Do you intend to throw LO a party every year, or just for certain age milestones? (e.g., aside from my 1st bday, I didn't have real parties [w/ invitations, friends, etc.] except for my 10th and 13th bdays) Every single year.
6. Anything else you want to tell us?
1. Immediate family and friends we consider family.
2. Nope. I am not a theme gal.
3. Ill probably just make them/write them out.
4. Not sure. We are a 3 hour flight from everyone we love, so we will have to talk to them about it.
5. Every year.
6. My idea of a good birthday party is: homemade cake, BBQ and family hanging out in the backyard*** When the babe is older, im sure we will add things like musical chairs, pin the tail on the donkey, duck duck goose. I am SOOO not into themes, bounce houses, live disney characters! when he's older, if he REALLY wants a theme, of course he can pick out invites, or help make them how he wants them.***sadly, we live in MN right now, so no back yard for us. people around here seem to "solve that problem" by going to an indoor water park or renting a room at mall of america. we will NOT do that. we will likely smoosh into our living room
1. Immediate family like grandmothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, and cousins. We'll probably have to have 2 since our families don't get along and more than one person has been known not to attend. Selfish.
2. We had a "one year old" theme with Isaac, not sure what we'll do for Spencer. Haven't put much thought into it this time.
3. Word of mouth.
4. I'll do it on a weekend day closest to his birthday.
5. Every year with just immediate family for known, once school age I'll probably allow 5 friends.
6. I went all out on Isaac's first birthday, sent invites, decorations, balloons, and favors. It ended up being so stressful for me that I didn't have a good time. I'm keeping it to a minimum now.
I am not sure if we will do one.
1) if we do have one, the guest list would probably be whomever we'd invite to any typical: family and local friends. We might also focus more on people with babies, though we don't have that many friends with them (not locally).
2) We have never done a party theme for any party, so no.
3) It would be evite/e-mail if we have one.
4) Yeah...the holidays might be why we wouldn't have one. I bet it would be on/around his actual birthday, though. His bday was a Saturday last year so I think that means it would be Sunday this year, so we'd have it that day probably.
5) I think we will have a party every year once DS is old enough and has friends of his own. I think I had a birthday party with friends starting when I was 3 because I was in preschool. So, around then I think he will have parties. I bet he might have to have them a bit earlier than his bday to not conflict with the holidays, though.
6) My vision for bdays is what I had. I had a bday party pretty much every year, as did my sisters. But they weren't some fancy ordeal. There would just be a bunch of little girls over at my parents' house. There would be cake (I don't even remember if there was any other food served). There were traditional group games like duck, duck, goose and red rover. As I got older the group was smaller and we might have gone to a movie or something. I think I also had a sleepover party once or twice when I was older...I certainly remember attending other people's sleepover parties. Those were the best! I don't know if boys even really do that, though. And I wonder if I'd be willing to host all of these parties with a handful of boys at my house...haha. So I could see my vision changing. Unfortunately with DS's birthday in December we can't do outdoor parties, which are way better--there are so many more activities you can do outside, especially with rambunctious kids.
2. Will you have a theme? Probably Mickey & Minnie Mouse. I am so not a cartoon theme person, but DD loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. There are some super cute polka dot balloons, etc, so I am sure that I can Martha Stewart/Amy Atlas it up somehow.
3. Are you sending out formal invitations, or just word-of-mouth/email? Invitations, and I should design them, but I'll probably be too lazy
4. Will you have the party right on LO's actual birthday wknd, or will you push it earlier/later due to the holidays? Her birthday is on 12/18, so it's a Sunday. I am wanting to do it her actual birthday, probably early afternoon.
5. Do you intend to throw LO a party every year, or just for certain age milestones? Every year...I LOVE entertaining and couldn't imagine not celebrating one of the happiest days of my life
We do this too.my daughters birthday is Dec 18th and the parents love dropping the kids off and then doing their last minute shoping.