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1st Birthday Party ?'s

preissless1preissless1
in D.C. Area Babies

It's about that time (holy sheet) and because I will be on a work trip this Saturday - Friday, I feel like I need to start getting my ducks in a row if we are going to do anything for C's birthday.  I feel like I would be a bad parent if we don't do something to celebrate.  Who attends the first birthday party?  Both sets of grandparents live out of state, so they won't be coming, but do I send invitations to them anyhow?

Tell me about smash cakes - are they made with less sugar than regular cake?  Can it be just a fancy cupcake?  Does Giant do smash cakes?  How far in advance do cakes need to be ordered?

I started freaking about this topic the other day and DH was all "It's no big deal, we'll send out an evite and have people over."  I love how a man's perspective never thinks about preparing food, ordering cakes, decorations, cleaning the house, taking naptime in to consideration... 

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Re: 1st Birthday Party ?'s

  • kastlekastle member

    We were just going to do local family for sprout's 1st but then everyone everywhere wanted to come so it ended up being quite the family reunion.

    i just did cupcakes...for everyone.  i figure the little bit of cake he was actually able to shove into his mouth before he got disinterested wasn't enough to worry about.

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  • MrsPhilDunphyMrsPhilDunphy

    Ha! That sounds like my DH. He enjoys "planning" a get together the night before by inviting his buddies over and then buying a sack of chips and lots of beer.

    Invite the people you want to invite! For C's first bday we invited grandparents (all local) and great grandparents (also local), our immediate families and then all of  our friends with kids. I think it ended up being 30 people? I think the 1st bday is usually the least kiddyish and more for the parents, so invite the people you would like to have celebrate with you!

    We threw caution to the wind with C's "smash cake" and gave him a giant Costco cupcake. Nothing special beyond what everyone else was eating. I know someone that gave her kid mashed banana in the shape of a cupcake with yogurt on top as frosting. Other people get special little cakes.

    There aren't any rules - do what you want!

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  • DCtoLowcountryDCtoLowcountry
    Ditto MPD. We invited family and friends and gave DS a piece of real cake. I fully admit that a big party for a first birthday was about celebrating our first year together as a family of three - meaning, it was more for me than him. DS had a blast though.
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  • Hey JellisyHey Jellisy
    We're doing the same for DS that we did for DD.  Throwing a big party for all of our friends, not just the ones with children.  A good friend is an amazing baker so she is making DS a smash cake and a regular cake.  I went with a decorating theme, just for fun.  DD's we did midafternoon and served a light dinner.  For DS we are doing brunch.  Really, while the occasion is the LO, the party is for the adults and for the LO to be played with, admired over and amused.     
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  • ArtslvrArtslvr
    Great advice above. We didn't have a smash cake for any of our kids.  Happy Birthday to your little one!
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  • belizeitornotbelizeitornot

    i can't believe a year has gone by! seems like just yesterday we were at mssaints house with our teeny brand new babies. Crying

    we debated a long time if we were going to do a party for H, complicated by the holidays and having a holiday concert on the 18th which eliminated the ideal weekend for a party. i decided we needed to do *something* but it wound up being a total last minute pull together.

    we did an evite to immediate family (my parents, Sis/BIL/nephew, grandma are all local) and a handful of close friends who have been important in her life so far. scheduled for the 3-5 timeframe between naps and offered appetizery foods like veggies/dip, cheese/crackers, crockpot meatballs, crockpot pulled pork, and cake. H's smash cake was a small round that I cut from a 9" round - box mix and canned frosting. yum yum! :)

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  • tomandcourttomandcourt

    Do you have any family nearby? And are you sure your parents wouldn't want to come? DH's parents are in Ohio and they came out . . .

    Regardless, we invited all our family in the area, plus friends. A lot of our friends had just had their first kids that year, too, so there were lots of little toddlers walking around.

    The ILs brought some decorations (otherwise I wouldn't have done any) and we had it my mom's because she has a big backyard and we did not. We made a cake and gave J a piece of that--he ended up eating the candle. We didn't request it, but a lot of our friends offered to bring food, and we just had dips/apps and then the cake. It was scheduled for after his second nap of the day, which J did not take that day. You can't plan for everything, sadly!

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  • SofkaSofka

    we did the party after the morning nap, around 11-ish

    harris teeter will give you a free smash cake, it has just as much sugar; neither of my kids would touch their smash (or regular) cake at their b-day party so we saved it and let them go at it a few days later and they were totally into it and we got great pix!

     

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