Let's Plan: Baby's First Birthday Party

linzoirv · January 2017

What's the status of your baby's first birthday? Have you felt the urge to plan yet? Are you making to-do lists and going crazy like I am?

If so, I want all the details!

As for me, I'm torn between doing a "mega-super star" package party at Chuck E Cheese (less hassle for me and DH) or doing a BBQ with Daniel Tiger or Sesame Street décor. Right now, I just have a date set (4/8/2017, which is my birthday. The 9th would be too much since we go to church on Sundays).

amandac12581 · January 2017

We're just going to have the grandparents and probably a few aunts and uncles over for lunch and cake.

UnbreakableKimmySchmidt · January 2017

We have the date set and grandparents have their tickets booked! Just need to decide how many people to invite, I would love to invite a ton of family/friends BUT our house isn't too big and it could be pretty cold outside in mid-April.

Theme possibilities: Trolls (LO's Uncle works for Dreamworks and has already sent us a ton of Trolls stuff and could get us more PLUS I had a Trolls themed bday party as a child...ie. full circle). I also like the idea of a book theme, like "Brown Bear, Brown Bear." Another possibility is a Hawaiian Luau because we're taking LO to Hawaii in a few weeks. OR I just texted my DH asking if we can do a "Hamilton" theme...he said that might be too violent but we could do a "contribute your Hamilton's to LO's college fund." (also kidding about this last idea).

ladylolly89 · January 2017

We are doing the 8th, 9th or 15th. We normally do family gatherings on Sunday afternoons after church, but the Sunday closest to DS's birthday is Easter. It will be small - I'm planning just close family (DS's grandparents and aunts/uncles/cousins). It is usually still chilly in NE in April, so will have to be indoors. Our house is tiny upstairs, but the basement is pretty open. I'm...just not fond of having people over, plus I'll be 7 months pregnant, so I will admit I haven't gotten all excited over planning yet. I have pinned a few things on Pinterest - probably will go with a simple vintage boy, paper airplane, or outdoors/woodland theme.

Part of me wants to plan it for Easter anyway just so fewer people can come. Heehee.

randilea0110 · January 2017

We will be doing dd's party on the 30th after church. I haven't decided on a theme yet, but I've got lots of ideas to narrow down! It'll be cold outside yet because we live in IA so it'll be inside at our house, but I know DH is going to be smoking brisket and ribs for everyone to enjoy even if he freezes his butt off doing it. We'll have grandparents, godparents, and my brother and his wife and kids if they can make it. I don't want it to be anything huge and if I could get away with not having anyone over I would just spoil her rotten myself all day. After the holidays I am sick of our families, so hopefully I will feel differently by the end of April.

linzoirv · January 2017

I'm in Florida so April should be lovely down here. I would love to enjoy the weather outside. If we go with the BBQ theme, we will be doing it at a park or something because I don't want a lot of people at my house either.

linzoirv · January 2017

My husband also brought up SkyZone as party venue option but I'm not sure how that would go with a one year old. Is anyone familiar with SkyZone? Is there a separate area for little kids to jump?

JayeSkylar · January 2017

We're gonna do a BBQ at the grandparents house with family. Presents if they want. And let him have his own little smash cake to go to town on. No real decor we may do pictures of him from month to month but we're not really doing a baby birthday party. Just a celebration for all the adults who have been in his life and got to watch him grow with us

g&tlewis · January 2017

I'm somewhere between going all out and a small family gathering. We will invite family and friends to our house. The weather in April is hit or miss in Alabama though. Some days it's gorgeous, and some days it is cold and rainy. LO's birthday is the 14th so I'm planning on having the party on the 15th even though it's Easter weekend. Might delay it one week though. I think I'm going to do a Lego/block party theme. He loves to chew on his wooden and mega blocks, and I've pinned some cute stuff for that theme.

momofmanyinthemitten · January 2017

We generally do a cake with grandparents who are in town at the time. We did one blowout party for DD1's 4th birthday and we took the whole family to an indoor water park last month for DD1's 6th birthday. I see a quiet cake and ice cream event for DS2 for his first birthday.

Missingchampagne · January 2017

My mom will be out of town and DH's mom will have just moved away, so I feel like a big party will have them feeling broken-hearted from exclusion. We're going to do a photo shoot and then a little cake with him, maybe a pre-packaged party at one of those party places if the mood hits us.

@linzoirv I live near a similar place and they have a smaller kid jump area, but the youngest I've seen is like 3. The play can get pretty rough even in the younger kid area, but that area usually has more employees watching.

ImpatientPatty · January 2017

We'll probably just do family and close friends.

redselig · January 2017

Our families are faraway so we're going to keep it low key. I think it'll just be smash cake photos for posterity and a couple of friends over.

brie_and_almonds · January 2017

For DD1, we just did cake and ice cream at MIL's house with grandparents / aunts and uncles. Truly, I am not sure I even want to do that much this time around. We are slowly working on finishing our basement, so it would be nice to get that done and have the party here, though I don't think that's realistic.

DD1 just had her first big birthday party this year when she turned four, and I was glad we waited until she was old enough to appreciate it. She had a blast.

Cwyatt2571 · January 2017

Half our family is Jahovahs so we are going as all out as we can with friends and some of our family. Our baby shower was marvel themed but his birthday will be solely Hulk themed (my other half loves hulk)!

loveymay · January 2017

I'm planning a small party with grandparents and my brother/sister in law. I live in south GA so the weather will be nice. His bday is March 31st, so we are having his party on April 1st which is a Saturday. We plan on grilling burgers and hanging out in the backyard. I'm doing a Babyfirst TV theme party. I'm having a fancy cake made with his favorite characters from that channel (vocabularry, peekaboo, color crew). And we'll do a smash cake as well. I'm also having professional photos taken 2 weeks before with LO, DH and I and a smash cake session for LO. So I'm kinda going all out but having a small intimate party, lol. I don't want the hassle, stress and expense to plan a big party with all our aunts, uncles, cousins, cousin's kids....just too many people. This party will be relaxed and fun! I still can't believe I'm already planning his first birthday. Where has the time gone??

linzoirv · January 2017

loveymay said:

I don't want the hassle, stress and expense to plan a big party with all our aunts, uncles, cousins, cousin's kids....just too many people. This party will be relaxed and fun! I still can't believe I'm already planning his first birthday. Where has the time gone??

I totally understand. It's already overwhelming realizing how quickly time has gone by. Planning a bigger celebration does add stress, especially if you don't have help or are just Type A like myself and want every detail "just so"...

Love your theme also!

linzoirv · January 2017

@Missingchampagne My husband and I toured the SkyZone place on Wednesday and I was not impressed at all. Definitely not age appropriate and not really a separate court area for my son to jump. The price was also not reasonable for the amount of time spent in the party room and the time allotted on the jumping court.

Back to the drawing board...

stephpl · January 2017

i'm really hoping it'll be nice in April this year so we can take DS camping for his birthday. He loves being outside. His actual birthday is in the middle of the week, so we might take him out for pizza or something just the 3 of us.

mb0112 · January 2017

We will probably invite close family over for dinner and cake. I'm excited to pick a cute theme and decorate but nothing expensive or over the top. I'm debating splurging on one-Year-old photos or just doing my own photo shoot at home. The sensible side of me says it's too expensive and I can do a decent job myself, but the sentimental side wants special pictures because she's growing up so fast!!

momofmanyinthemitten · January 2017

mb0112 said:

We will probably invite close family over for dinner and cake. I'm excited to pick a cute theme and decorate but nothing expensive or over the top. I'm debating splurging on one-Year-old photos or just doing my own photo shoot at home. The sensible side of me says it's too expensive and I can do a decent job myself, but the sentimental side wants special pictures because she's growing up so fast!!

Get the professional ones. It's the one thing I've regretted with the babes I didn't have them done for.

ivyvines6 · January 2017

kielpinskim said:

mb0112 said:

We will probably invite close family over for dinner and cake. I'm excited to pick a cute theme and decorate but nothing expensive or over the top. I'm debating splurging on one-Year-old photos or just doing my own photo shoot at home. The sensible side of me says it's too expensive and I can do a decent job myself, but the sentimental side wants special pictures because she's growing up so fast!!

Get the professional ones. It's the one thing I've regretted with the babes I didn't have them done for.

I have done pictures with my LO every month so far, but his one-year pictures are going to be professionally done. It's really important to me at least to have professionally done milestone pictures.

JayeSkylar · January 2017

MY SIL did the pictures for LO's birthday invitation. She's doing pretty well at photography. She's a stay at home who's slowly making a hobby into a career and she does pretty well. I don't think we'll actually do 1st birthday pictures past what was done for his invitation. And we'll try to get a really nice picture of his cake smash

mb0112 · January 2017

Yes I had newborn pics professionally done at 10 days old and I do monthly growth shots myself, but it's gotten harder and harder to keep her still and posing! I'm pretty good at getting cute shots but pro pics with good lighting would be a lot nicer. I think I'm convinced!

loveymay · January 2017

I second getting professional pictures taken. I wanted them done as a newborn, but never got around to finding around photographer I liked while pregnant. I take a billion pics and do monthly growth pictures. But I have already booked a photographer for birthday pictures. Now I regret not getting newborn pics done. We did buy the hospital photos but those aren't anywhere near as adorable as newborn photoshoots.

K&Elizabeth · January 2017

We went all out for DD's first birthday, but for DS we're just doing family.

linzoirv · February 2017

If you want a good chuckle:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-warning-to-parents-who-dont-throw-extravagant-birthday-parties-for-their-kids_us_5888e967e4b0737fd5caf0dc?section=us_parents

ivyvines6 · February 2017

linzoirv said:

If you want a good chuckle:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-warning-to-parents-who-dont-throw-extravagant-birthday-parties-for-their-kids_us_5888e967e4b0737fd5caf0dc?section=us_parents

That was great!

ribride07 · February 2017

I started thinking about it when I was looking for my DD's cake for her party which was last month. I saw an awesome cake and knew that was the theme I was going to go with, lol. It's going to be a nursery rhyme themed party. We were going to do it on April 8th too since DS was born on the 4th, but my dad and stepmom are going out of the country for two weeks due to a death in our family. My dad just wants to be with his sister and fam for a bit and can go then. Anyway, now I'm debating the 1st or 29th. Those are the only days we can do it.

I thought maybe the 29th cuz a) it might be better weather (New England) and b) it was my due date. I want to do a big party, but I did that with my first and it was a lot of stimulation for her so I'm not sure. And by big party I mean there was a lot of people. We didn't go crazy with the cost.

ribride07 · February 2017

linzoirv said:

If you want a good chuckle:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-warning-to-parents-who-dont-throw-extravagant-birthday-parties-for-their-kids_us_5888e967e4b0737fd5caf0dc?section=us_parents

Omg, that was hilarious!

Let's Plan: Baby's First Birthday Party

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