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Hawaii Babies
Need your opinion on LO's 1st bday party (long)
I am starting to plan LO?s 1st (gasp!) birthday party. I want to get your opinion on a few things:
1) DATE - LO?s bday falls on Nov 3rd which is several days after Halloween. We are planning to have her party on Sat, Oct 29th vs the following Sat, Nov 5th. We are traveling to Oahu/Manila on Nov 10th. DH does not want to have the party on Nov 5th since it?s too close to our travel date and we may be busy preparing things for our ~3 wk trip. I assume a lot people will have Halloween parties that weekend. I am worried that a lot of people may not be able to go on Oct 29th since a lot of them will have their own Halloween parties (granted ours will be an afternoon party). Do you think we should still go ahead with the 29th vs the 5th? We plan to invite a number of people (+ kids) to the party. We do not want to splurge but at the same time we want to have a nice get together with family and friends. We haven?t seen much of them since we had LO and we think it?s a nice way to get everybody together and introduce her to everybody.
(2) THEME ? One thing that LO REALLY loves is music (particularly reggae lol). We are planning to hire Mr. Baba Ras D (that?s his name lol) who I have seen play at LO?s daycare. LO loves his music and kicks and smiles a lot when she hears him play. Mr. Baba plays the djembe (in fact, he said LO will have her own djembe!) and sings kids/pre-school songs. He does a lot of work with preschool kids and some parents in LO?s day care have hired him for bday parties. He is very entertaining and he encourages interaction with the kids. I am thinking we can do away with games and just have Mr. Baba entertain the kids?
Since the day we want to have the party falls on Halloween weekend, we thought of having the kids come in costumes. I think it will be cute? It will be their little Halloween party too. I plan to have a dessert buffet table with candies/sweets so that they pick their treats. However, since it is LO?s bday, I do not want it to be too ?Halloween? so I am thinking of incorporating falls colors and add a little bit of girly feel to it.
Color theme
Color theme
Invititation idea
Idea for "treats" table but will change the color theme to the one above.
(3) LOCATION ? we live in the city so we do not have space in our house to accommodate a lot of people. During that time of year, it may start getting a tad chilly so having it outdoors may be tough (note to self, make sure 2nd LO will be a spring/summer baby! lol). Also, DH does not want to worry about us having to set up/clean up etc. We do not have a lot of family close by who can help set up and we do not want to burden our friends to come a couple of hours early to set up/clean up. Now, here comes the idea of reserving a party room. We can do it in a rec center but again, we would have to worry about setting up/cleaning up, coordinating food, etc. 2nd option is reserving a private party room in a restaurant. We found a big party room at Bar Louie which is a restaurant/bar. Question is, is it bad that LO will have her 1st bday in a BAR!? Lol. The private room is enclosed so it is separate from the main restaurant/bar area. There is no fee for the private room but there is a F&B minimum which we do not mind paying (rental fee for some community center already cost almost ? of the F&B minimum). I also want to mention that the day that we plan to have the party falls on DH?s bday. He likes the idea that if the dads get bored, they can walk out to the main restaurant/bar area and get drinks or watch sports. Another thing I am worried about this option is how to keep the kids entertained since it is going to be an indoor party? I would have to have things lined up (coloring books, games, bubbles?) inside the room to keep them entertained.
I know this may sound like an adult party but I do plan/want to make it kid-oriented ( i welcome any suggestion!). It would have been easier if we can have it in a park so the kids have the option to play or if we have a huge backyard where we can set up stuff however, in our situation it doesn?t sound like that?s an option :-/. What do you think? Should we change our them and venue location? I promise you won?t hurt my feelings lol.
Thanks so much.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Need your opinion on LO's 1st bday party (long)
Glad to hear you all think it is not a ridiculous idea :-P. we haven't finalized the guest list yet but more or less 80 people + kids.
I think it sounds awesome! Halloween can be busy, but it's a daytime party and the kids have another excuse to wear their costumes, so I think it'll work out great. I don't think there's anything wrong with the venue, especially in light of your concerns. The entertainment sounds awesome.
If you're not doing games, maybe you can hand out goodie bags (at the beginning) with little things to keep the kids busy -- crayons and pads, play-doh, bubbles, noise-makers, etc. We used stuff like that and only spent a few bucks per goodie bag. You can also have fun, festive music playing throughout the party to encourage dancing and fun -- we did oldies, and it added a nice touch. Yay for E!
I think that sounds like a great time! I like the pp's idea of handing out treat bags with things to do.
As for timing, I think it should be fine during the day. There may be other daytime parties the weekend before halloween (I know my community does) so just make sure to spread the word to get people to add it to their calendars early.
Thanks for all the great suggestions! Now I am getting excited planning the party :-).
Yes, I was planning to give out treats (will put in the invite that kids in costume will all get treats) when the kids come in. I personally want to do away with the games.
Leah - Where did you buy the stuff for the treats? I was going through OTC's catalog earlier and I may get stuff from them. We were at COstco earlier and they have a trick or treat pack of playdough (80 small cans) for $9.99! I grabbed a pack in case they ran out before halloween :-P.
OT is a good place for that stuff.
I splurged on the coloring books (easy since it was only for 6 kids) and got the actual VHC ones from Amazon. There was a buy 3, get 1 sale going on, which helped. Crayola products were buy one, get two free (!) a while ago from TRU, so that's where I got those. Check back to school sales, you can often get crayons for $.25 a pack right now.
Good call on the play dough!
sounds like a great idea
just don't stress too much over the planning, esp if you're getting ready for a big trip a few days later....remember that she doesn't really "get" what's going on, and will only be awake for a few hours before she's ready for a nap 
i love your color scheme/idea! have fun!
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
yeah i know. that is why i am planning to get a lot f stuff done way early so i only need to worry about preparing for our trip as it gets closer. so far i am having fun planning :-). the only thing i need to do is get the invite out, put the treat bags together and order treats for the dssert table. at least i do not have to worry about the food and the games. like Renee said, 1st bday parties are more for adults than for the baby lol. i guess it's a cultural thing too. like in Hawaii, 1st bdays are kind of a big deal in the FIlipino culture.
thank you everyone for your input!! i really appreciate them :-).