Tell me about your child's first birthday...please

[AliBaby]

What was your child's first birthday like?

Where?
Time/Duration?
How many guests?
Did you combine family with friends or do seperate things?
What worked?
What didn't work?

Thankyou in advance. I need to get my head around this now as I will be back at work next month and want to organise in my head what we are going to do over the next few weeks that I am home.

[thepixie]

Running off to bed now, but what I would say is save yourself a ton of stress and DON'T MAKE THE CAKE! Unless you're a cake making guru (which I'm clearly not) making a first birthday cake is downright stressful and will distract you from what should be a wonderful celebration. Buy the cake.
Sorry if that seems a bit random but I think I would have enjoyed the day a lot more if I hadn't put myself under pressure to make a birthday cake that I felt was 'good enough' IYKWIM.

[AliBaby]

LOL Not random at all. I have a good friend who is a professional cake maker and makes the most amazing cakes so I will pay her to be the one to stress over that! She did a great job of DD's christening cake as well.

[Sterla]

Subbing I want to know all this too for DS's upcoming birthday *sniff*

[Arimeh]

Where? Was at our house
Time/Duration? Um, from memory I think it was after lunch so I didn't have to feed them lunch.. lol.. couple of hours I assume
How many guests? gaw... can't remember it was 2 years ago.. LOL... (kelts didn't have one)
Did you combine family with friends or do seperate things? Family and friends.
What worked? Um the kids played nicely and Aricyn sorta knew how to socialise.. lol
What didn't work - well nobody ate my snack food or cake because they had eaten before they came Oh and there were far too many kids in our teeny tiny house.

[Astrolady]

Kameron's was huge.

We had it at home with 2 BBQ's going to provide lunch. It was combined family and friends and went for about 3 hours.

We got the cake made from a bakery, and it was awful. I was so disappointed in it and it cost me the bomb as well. Since that day anytime it is a birthday I get my cake from the Cheesecake shop.

The other boys were on a much smaller scale, and were after lunch so all we had to do was provide nibblies.

[ladybird11]

Where? DH's grandma's house (our house is a bit small and far away ish from where the rest of the family live).

Time/Duration? We made it for 12pm and ppl started leaving around the 3pm - 4pm time.

How many guests? About 20 - 25 ppl

Did you combine family with friends or do seperate things? We don't really have other friends with young kids so we kept it to family.

What worked? Everything - we ordered a cake (I'm no cake decorating genius although I've done a course on it lol), basic decorations, we had video and photo footage taken throughout the day (by my brother), it was hot so we had cold meats, salads, little pasties and sausage rolls, spinach and cheese triangles etc for food so no cooking had to be done, just heating.

What didn't work? Nothing - it all went smoothly!

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Where - our house

Time/Duration - 12 til about 3-4 but we had some friends/family stay for the leftovers for dinner and DP's mates stayed til the next morn after partying all night..

How many guests - 120 invited about 80 showed

Did you combine family with friends or do separate things - family with friends, my parents are separated and re-married and DP's fam is big, being pregnant i didn't want the hassle of 4 different parties to clean up after and cater for etc.

What worked - having everyone together worked well, getting the cake MADE was the best idea ever, getting close relo's to make some salads etc so your not working your butt off all day oh and we got DP's aunts pie oven to do all the pies, sausage rolls etc.

What didn't work - allowing DP's friends to get drunk and party all night

TIP - have a presents table and if need be open a couple but don't spend all day opening pressies, thats what i did and thats ALL i have photos of, DD opening presents.
Get someone else to carry around the camera and take pics of everyone there for you, maybe even one of those little disposable cameras if it's in the budget?

[Rach75]

Where? local park

Time/Duration? 11am -1pm

How many guests? about 40 (kids as well)

Did you combine family with friends or do seperate things? both

What worked? we had a BBQ, very simple and just a basic get together

What didn't work?
having it at the park worked great as the kids were mainly a little older than Jack was so they were occcupy with the swings etc...

[BrightSparkles]

What was your child's first birthday like?

Where?
Time/Duration?
How many guests?
Did you combine family with friends or do seperate things?
What worked?
What didn't work?

Thankyou in advance. I need to get my head around this now as I will be back at work next month and want to organise in my head what we are going to do over the next few weeks that I am home.

What was your child's first birthday like? It was great fun

Where? At Home
Time/Duration? From memory we went from 1pm until whenever everyone left
How many guests?Hmmm....invited about 40i think about 30 came
Did you combine family with friends or do seperate things? Combined it all in one - too much work otherwise
What worked? We didn't have games, just lots of toys etc around, lots of food both for adults and kids, didn't open presents until people left - this way it was just us and nothing got lost or broken
What didn't work? I think most things went to plan - except my cake decorating skils LOL

[Olive]

Where? home
Time/Duration? 2 onwards from memory, many stayed on for tea
How many guests? 80+
Did you combine family with friends or do seperate things? combined
What worked? everything
What didn't work? all went well, no issues!!

[{sarah}]

Alexzander's

Where? Home
Time/Duration? Lunchtime BBQ for just a few hours, no set time
How many guests? About 30-35, mostly family & some friends, noone had kids but us at this point
Did you combine family with friends or do seperate things? Combined
What worked? Having it when he was well rested, after his morning sleep
What didn't work? Nothing, it all went very well


Juliette's (hers had to be cancelled because I was in hospital the day before but this was the plan

Where? A picnic area at a dam
Time/Duration? Lunchtime BBQ
How many guests? Around 45-50, this time there were lots of kids
Did you combine family with friends or do seperate things? Both together
What worked? Nothing, it was cancelled
What didn't work? Having an ovarian cyst burst the day before & being in hospital

[thepixie]

We had a party for family and friends at my folks' place. It went for about 4 hours and we had lunch from memory. Not to many people, maybe 15 or so.
The best thing we did was have a group party for our mothers' group. Everyone brought something, we had a kris kringle for presents and all the babies had a great time. It was low stress and very enjoyable!

[AliBaby]

Thank you so much to all of your responses. You have no idea how helpful it is. ALl your info will def help me plan DD's party.

Sarah- You poor thing having an ovarian cyst burst! Ouch!! Hope you recovered quickly.

Sunshine- I can say 1st hand I thought your DD's party was fantastic and I loved your cake. I also loved how you had a photo with each of the party guests with you and Jorja.

[{sarah}]

LOL yeah I was at home for her actual birthday (day of the party) and we just had a quiet family BBQ.

[~Kim~]

Hey Ali, DD's was similar to all of the above only we had to have 2 family parties as the ILs didn't get along with anyone else .

Best bit of advice I can give though.
A 1yo birthday party is really for you guys to celebrate your little person. They really won't get a whole lot out of it, so do what suits you two as the parents, not what you think people want to see at a 1st b'day party (runs and hides).

[sneakysparkle]

Im a bit shocked that so many people had such massive parties for a first birthday!

[Cassius2]

Where? In a park with BBQs
Time/Duration? 2 hours (officially)
How many guests? my Mothers Group and some family and close friends...mebbe 25ish...
Did you combine family with friends or do seperate things? combined...made it easier for us as family lives out of town
What worked? the open space
What didn't work? non children friends found the event fairly overwhelming and couldnt really mingle with the main group.

My tips: the simpler the better! simple party foods that way people can wander around the food table and you aren't too busy in the kitchen putting together finicky foods.

A big mat with simple toys for the bubbas to play with. gives a centre focus for the kids to play.

hope you have a gorgeous day celebrating this special day!