Celebrating baby's 1st birthday

EsaEinai

Sat, Jan 10 2009, 5:42 pm

Thanks, I'm aware that my daughter won't have a preference for what tablecloths and center pieces I use, that doesn't mean I don't want tips or ideas. I want to celebrate my dd's birthday because its a big milestone. I have no idea what to do for a 1st birthday though so I'm asking others what has worked for them.

Sat, Jan 10 2009, 8:52 pm

I made a big fuss of DS's 1st birthday!

I made a really nice birthday supper for the granparents and served a cake for dessert and then on the sunday I made a party for MY friedns who had little kids aged 2 or under.

I set the table with snacks for the adults with a bright cloth and baby-dolls and see-thru cups of candy etc I took inspration from the Kosher by Design Baby Shower decorating ideas.

I used co-ordinating table-ware, balloons etc in light-lime and pastelly-turquoise with silver edging.

I gave each child a card-board lunch-box ( u know like what some ppl use 4 purim shalach manos?) and in it I put a jar of baby food, a fruit, a bib, a baby spoon and maybe one other thing - I cant remember. It looked really cute and I think it made mroe sense then having tonns of nosh for such little kids.

I didnt bother with games, just had some music on and some kids toys on the floor.

One of my friends filled a kiddie-pool with balls for her kids party and that was very popular.

Pineapple

Sat, Jan 10 2009, 8:54 pm

We just invited the parents over for supper it was really nice.

My niece and nephew happened to have been by my parents so they came aswell.

I made cupcakes for desert and wrote 1 with colorful chochchips on top - for the guests the b-day kids got plain with frosting

Happy Birthday

EsaEinai

Sun, Jan 11 2009, 4:04 am

cl wrote:

I was also thinking about using some of the ideas from the kosher by design baby shower. I think I'm going to get tons of candies and candy scoopers and fill glasses, as you mentioned. The little box for babies sounds adorable. And we actually have a ball pit (dd's 1st birthday present from her bubby) so good to know that that can be incorporated as part of the party fun.

thanks pineapple for the cute cupcake idea!

Yakira

Sun, Jan 11 2009, 4:39 am

Esa, I'm thinking of doing a power point slide show with some nice song and the progression of DDs growth this past year, a few pictures from every month. I think everyone would enjoy watching it and I'll be able to show it to her when she gets older. Just gotta find the right song now.

I'm still deciding between keeping it small and in my apartment (just a few sibs / sib-like friends and their families and my Mom) or making it bigger, in my sisters house so we can invite more good friends and extended family. In any case, it'll just be pizza, ice cream cake and maybe a game or something. Nothing too major.

catonmylap

Sun, Jan 11 2009, 9:37 am

We didn't really do much for the 1st birthday.

I'm planning a bigger deal for the 2nd. I'm planning to do it together with our Purim seudah and invite a lot more people than usual, mostly family with one friend of his. I imagine by his 3rd or 4th birthday, it will become a party with kids.

NotInNJMommy

Sun, Jan 11 2009, 9:41 am

I made a cake and invited family. Actually, ds slept through most of it, and we all hung out.

lol

By bday #2, I was sick with a vicious stomach virus (his bday is the 3rd day of pesach...so thank you very much sedarim....)

By bday #3, I had to make an upsherenish, which was actually pushed off because of sefirah. So, then he had a proper party. On his real bday, I gave him a gift and made a fuss and gave him his tzitzis and yarmulke, and he went to a chol hamoed party that day.

The first 2 years he had no clue. But now he does know abotu birthday parties, so I'll have to keep up. I think have a couple years for dd though.

EsaEinai

Sun, Jan 11 2009, 10:28 am

I wasn't planning to do anything for my dd's birthday originally, but I feel like my birthday is always forgotten and overlooked so apparently I'm projecting and making a cute party for my 1 year old dd Smile

I'm going to be having it in my (small) apartment and I'm inviting friends and neighbors with little kids. Yakira, I love the slide show idea! if only I knew how to use powerpoint and had more time....

Yakira

Sun, Jan 11 2009, 7:23 pm

EsaEinai wrote:

It's actually really really easy, you just drag the pics you want and the music you want. If you want, you can leave out the music and just do 12 pictures, one for each month. I can help if you want. But if the birthday is like tomorrow than its not k'dai.

tovarena

Mon, Jan 12 2009, 9:19 pm

We did a big party for our kids' first birthday but it was totally not fancy. It was in a pavillion at the park. The theme was Mickey and Minnie - partially since we have a boy and a girl, and partially because we loved the whole M&M thing for Moshe and Malka (okay, corny but we were on a roll - their first purim we dressed them up as M&Ms and their first birthday was Mickey and Minnie... Only problem is we're out of M&M ideas now!) So we got the usual tablecloths and plates and cups with the Mickey's playhouse designs. We even found a cake at our local bakery that had a Mickey and Minnie decoration to it. We used Mickey and Minnie balloons.

Beyond that, we brought a boom box and some upbeat CDs. And for the kids, we had easel paper that we put on the ground and let the kids color and we had bubbles with the great big bubble wands for the kids to share. Very simple, low cost entertainment. But it was especially good because our friends' kids range in age from 8 or 9 to just older than our kids.

The food was also not much - aside from the cake, we mostly did nosh - chips and dips, cookies, and fruit. We intentionally made it at 10:30 in the morning so people weren't expecting a meal. And besides, it was the perfect time for our two to be in their top form (fresh after their morning nap).

shopaholic

Tue, Jan 13 2009, 10:14 am

DS - we mostly had adults because we didnt really have friends with kids yet. I baked some goodies & did a fruit platter & veggie platter.

DD - 3 years after DS so we had lots of friends with kids. Did bagels, nosh, cake in the house

DS - 1.5 years later - even more friends so we had a bigger crowd. Pizza, nosh, cake in the house - better food choice than the others.

DD - in 5 months. I plan on inviting about 5 friends & their kids because KAH that will be about 20 kids. We'll do it on my back porch, weather permitting & have pizza, ice cream, cake.

yellowrose

Thu, Jan 15 2009, 10:42 am

celebrated DD 1st b-day last night. Had great dinner @ MIL home while we brought ice cream & cake for dessert. She enjoyed all the attention though was complaining 1/2 the night. (I guess it was all the food bothering her little belly...)

EsaEinai

Thu, Jan 15 2009, 1:25 pm

Yakira wrote:

EsaEinai wrote:

thanks! it is almost tomorrow, haha. too bad I just saw this thread again now!

and thanks everyone for sharing your great ideas, ill let you know how it turns out!