Help, I've never done this before!

Ok, coming up to Sam's first birthday, DH and I have finally decided that we'll celebrate the occasion with a back yard BBQ. The idea occurred to me when I looked out on the freshly mown lawn that DH was watering and noticed that he'd tidied up around the herb pots and the BBQ and things looked pretty decent.

It's December 19th, so we're lucky enough to be able to have his party on his actual birthday, and we figure that if we go for around 5ish, when our back yard is in shade, things will be cool enough and we can make it an early dinner and everyone will pack themselves off pretty early. Birthday boy disappearing for a bath around 7:30-8pm should call things to a natural halt, I think.

Now, what things do I need to consider? I figure if we go for sausages, breadrolls and salads things should be fairly inexpensive. Paper plates and plastic cutlery to save cleaning up and we'll just need to ask people to bring picnic blankets or chairs as we don't have that many.

What am I forgetting? Is it really necessary to do kids party games for a first birthday party? Are lolly bags an absolute must? I have NO idea what to do for a birthday cake... are fancy, fondant-covered masterpieces really necessary? Speaking of, I need to create another birthday cake for Sam for mothers group as well... AAARRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!

Please, put me out of my misery and stop this headless chicken running around in circles... I've been to the grand total of ONE first birthday party in recent memory - I've avoided those of my friends' children as I just couldn't cope with all the infertility dramas and so on...

I want to keep it simple and basic and straightforward and most of all, inexpensive, relaxed and fun... where to from here?

BW

BBQ is a great idea.
Definatly plastic/paper plates, cups, throw away cutlery etc. I even went as far as getting those al-foil trays to put meat etc in so I didn't have to wash baking trays etc.

I didn't do lolly bags for DD and we didn't do games either. Have you got older kids coming??? If you want to do something, maybe just one game of pass the parcel or something like that.
I think just a sponge cake will be fine. Again, this is all we did for DD....i made a sponge cake and decorated it with some butter icing and lollies. Nothing too fancy.
I don't see any issues in asking people to bring picnic mats etc....it's not something we have allot of here either. ;)

If you want deco;s maybe just a few balloons, no need to streamers etc.
Um....if i think of anything else, l'll be back to post.

Hope it goes well. x

I have many many kids cake books if you need ideas? For all of mine I ahve made a simple cake in the shape of a 1 and decorated it with pink frosting and marshmallow flowers for J & E and in blue with smarties for R.

cake - do what you want - SIL bought mud cakes for her kids, or marble cakes - put a candle on them - the kidlet is the star of the day, and they know no different! whatever you do, make sure you have something cake-ish that Sam can have though - even if it's a muffin that you've made. not fair to put him near cake and give him nothing kwim?

food - i think that sounds fine. get everything on the day (meat and bread wise) - if you don't use it all, you can freeze it for later. if people offer to bring stuff - ACCEPT!

lolly bags - entirely up to you. i went to a birthday party last month (first birthday) where it was a big hurrah so there were lolly bags - well, gift bags really - it was a big party, so it matched. with a smaller party, you don't need to do that kind of thing if you don't want to. MG kids are all Sam's age, so won't be into lollies, so maybe a small book (Mr Men maybe lol) to thank them for being there. but only IF you want to. people don't go to parties expecting gifts for their kids

asking to BYO rugs or chairs - completely fine. a lot of people will just stand around anyway

ummmmmmmmm, paper plates and cuttlery - completely ok - we do it all the time for big gatherings.

make sure you have some snacky food while the bbq is cooking as people will get peckish - and you can't possibly cook enough snags for everyone at once! no matter how good a cook your DH is... even if you just put out a fruit platter or something for people to pick at.

so glad you've decided to have a party to celebrate Sam's birthday - and one year of being awesome parents to your sweet little boy!

That first birthday party is an exciting one! :hug:

I wouldn't even consider games for a 1st birthday. It's really about you celebrating his birth - the first year is such a milestone. No to the lolly bags too - it's just not necessary...

I would ensure your sausages are gluten free - lots of people are intolerant and babies/littlies especially. I would have a google of all the fun things you can do with fruit (sounds a bit norty!!! :rofl:). You can scoop out a watermelon and fill it with melon balls and grapes... That's always a winner here. Or you can make a porcupine if you scewer fruit and poke them in a turned upside down watermelon shell...

Fruit is always a good thing for littlies parties. Lots of bright balloons and steamers. You can make a nice alcohol free child friendly punch with sparkling applejuice and fruit. That's also a winner here...

Just try not to do too much it's about you having fun and celebrating too!

As for the cake. This would be the time to decide on family traditions a bit. In my family we have the Womans Weekly Birthday Cake book and the kids choose their own cake and I am at their mercy! :lol: Most of them are very doable and it is fun. It's nice to have a tradition if you are in to that.

I think I have made them all now. It's my DD6 birthday next Sunday & I am signed up for the Gingerbread house this year!

You can also buy platters of antipasto from the deli of most supermarkets. They are ace for parties if you want to cut down the work...

Most of all enjoy it! It's fun and it's been a year since your beautiful boy graced your World! :hug:

Sounds pretty good to me BW!

I agree with MrsMac. We did the one covered in smarties from WW birthday book too. I made one and DH wanted to make the other we needed so he did.
Like Inanna we have a picking tradition too. This year at 31 was the frist year I didn't have a cake made for me :redface: The little kids are horrified that I've had most of the cakes in the book and some....

I think a cake in the shape of a 1 might just be within my abilities. But that's probably about as far as it goes, though! DH is more the cake decorator... I recall ages ago for a friend's birthday he decorated a cake with a kangaroo, birds in a sunny sky and some trees... Her name was Therese (hoppy bird day trees), but I can't see him coming up with anything too clever for Sam like that.

When it comes to mothers group, it's not your traditional mothers group where all the kids are the same age and started by the MCHNs. I go to a group at church which has all ages from birth to school age. Sam's birthday falls in the last week which will be the Christmas party, but I've been asked to bring a cake for Sam as my contribution to morning tea that day. Perhaps a simple round cake and invest in a piping bag and write "happy birthday Samuel" on it?

Ok, scratch lolly bags and party games, excellent. Nibblies were one thing I hadn't thought of, so thank you for that one! Deb, melon-balling and fruit-porcupines are probably a bit beyond my arthritic hands so we probably won't go too much further than chips, dips, cheese platters and that sort of thing. I might ask a friend or two if they can bring a fruit platter for me, but I'm a bit wary of them with my fruit allergies. I also hadn't even thought of drinks... might just go BYO drinks and stick a few eskies full of ice out the back for people to keep them in. Half the problem at this stage is that I'm not sure of numbers (both in how many to invite and how many are going to be free so close to Christmas) so it may not be anywhere near as big as I'm thinking.

At least dessert is nice and simple - birthday cake and the fruit platters if they actually made it into existence!

Going to have to get a notebook and start writing lists - definitely time to start chucking a few packs of chips and paper plates, etc into each grocery shop between now and then (how to keep DH out of them?!) so it doesn't become a huge expense then...

We were thinking of just keeping it to friends rather than family (most of our family lives 2+ hours away and we'll see them some time for a Christmas thing), but I'm feeling a little guilty about that as I have a nephew who'll never forgive me if he doesn't get to come... but that then means inviting the SIL...

Head still spinning, but I am feeling a bit more on top of things - thanks for all the help so far!

BW

A BBQ can be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be... asking ppl to bring chairs etc is more than acceptable, you want them to be comfortable.
We also had close family make some salads or favorite dessert to bring, ie. parents, SIL etc.

That big party BG was talking bout was for my DD, we had over 70 ppl attending as my DP's family tend to COMPLAIN if they are not invited to things so we said one big family do, my family & his all at once as i am PG with #2 and then from 2 onwards it's only ppl that see her all the time.
A lolly bag is not a must and we did not do games, we did lollies for kids over 3 with some small toys from the cheap shops, the 'baby bags' which BG's daughter got had a book with a little msg from my DD, some stickers, bubbles and a choccie for mummy :-)
Everything i bought was from the cheap shop and all up it cost me about $5 per child.
No-one expects gifts or lollies for young ones though so it's completely up to you.

Whatever you do have fun organising it, don't cut your nose off to spite your face... :p
And on the day please please remember to get someone to take some pics of people there, all i have is pics of DD opening pressies as the camera followed me and thats all i seemed to do... i should have gotten those cheap disposable cameras for ppl to play with... :doh:

And a cake.. it doesn't matter, a sponge cake or mud cake is awesome, you can even buy those edible pictures for on top, just whack one of those on... for MG i just bought a mud cake and put love heart and butterfly sprinkles on it :D

I'm thinking bubbles for the kids to play with... Fairly simple, isn't going to fill them full of sugar and hopefully not too expensive?

BW

Everyones ideas sound fantastic - and definately agree with BG... get the food that morning & you can always freeze what you don't eat ;)

We've never done lolly bags as such, but having the Italian tradition of bomboniere, I usually do up something little for guests... depending on how many guests you have, but for an early birthday of Lukes, I bought really cheap little photo frames (to fit wallet size or next size up) & put a black & white photo of Luke in it.
I printed out a little card to tie to it that said ''Thankyou so much for being part of my special day, my 1st birthday, Love Luke''

I only gave one per family, so it wasn't costly (and I printed the message & photo on the computer so really didn't cost anything)... some say over the top, but I think its a special occasion (my parents & a lot of other people still have the photo on display). I also sent one each to the grandparents as they live too far to travel - they really appreciated it).
Its a tradition to do it in this family anyway ;)

Otherwise I don't think lollybags etc are necessary unless you want to do them - its your choice :D

ETA - We posted at the same time, but the idea of bubbles for the kids is fantastic!!! Keeps the kids occupied, and they come up brilliantly in any photos you take as well ;)

can you organise a "party" at Christmas time that J can go to - and maybe Ob friends little boy as well? so that J doesn't feel left out kwim?

E's first birthday will probably be a bigger affair cos DH wants it to be - he wants to do a bday for me and then three weeks later for her - i've said we're only doing one, so i think he'll combine it. her bday will be on a Saturday as well so we can do it on the day. it's likely to end up like Ava's size wise - but that's cos of the timing with my birthday. you do what YOU feel comfy with - and if that means something small and leaving the family out - do it.

the number 1 cake should be fairly simple for you - you've done a bit of baking lately with the muffins and stuff - so it should be easy enough for you. delegate where you can. dont go overboard - it's about Sam, you and DH, not how much you do or don't do

if you ask someone to bring a platter, remind them you can't have banana or rockmelon due to allergies - i'm sure no one will mind (and i'm hoping i got the right fruits lol)

i'm happy to help do a photo invite if you want - just let me know!

Invitations are sorted. Just a generic pad of fill in the blanks invitations I found at the newsagent (but they had cute jungle animals!), but having something concrete to show DH was the only way I'd get him to commit to it. Besides, if I waited for him to have the printer in full working order again, it just wouldn't happen!

On the other side of things... having SIL and family down then gets us out of the "didn't see them for Christmas at all" bad books... and it gives us a huge buffer and a smaller amount of time with them. And yes, BG, you got the right fruits - which is more than SIL can manage! :rolleyes:

BW

Sounds like you've been given excellent tips already, so just a couple of handy ideas we did for Cam's 1st birthday.

Keep an eye out for soft drink and juices on special over the next few weeks.

For Cam's birthday cake- as we ain't the best cake decorators (I did a trial cake a few weeks before to test my ability and i'm glad i did...cause i suck at cake decorating...lol!)- we (moreso DH, it was just my idea thats all)- did blue baby cupcakes arranged into shape of a 1, then bought a premade set of icing letters which we arranged on some of the cakes to say Happy Birthday Cameron 2009. They we're a big hit, and Cam enjoyed his own little cake.

We did do treat bags, but only at my mum's insistance- so i let her organise them- but all they ended up having in it was 1 chocolate, a balloon, 1 of those party whistle things, a little bottle of bubbles and i think a sticker- so really cheap anyway.

The fruit platter was also a big hit too, particularly the watermelon- no fancy cutting here though- just sliced and whacked on a plate.

Another nibble we had was of course the all important and somewhat messy fairy bread- but hey we've got some good photos of Cam enjoying it...lol! Plus the adults enjoyed eating it too!

I think thats all i have for you for now. If i think of anything else i'll let ya know.

The main thing is to remember not too stress about it all too much and just have fun and enjoy the day with you much loved son and partner.

Fairy bread is always a hit!! At Riley's last party my brother found blue and green sprinkles with little dinosaur shapes in them instead of the traditional fairy bread and they looked awesome and the kids and adults loved them.

I have done sausage sizzles for Jess (she was the first she got big parties LOL) they are cheap and easy, I'd get the bread from Aldi ($1.29 a loaf) soft drink is very cheap at Aldi too (69c, juice is only $1.89 for 2 lt too)

Oh and with the fairy bread you can buy natural sprinkles now too, not so full of sugar! if thats something your worried about... some parents are.

OMG, BW I can't believe Sam is nearly one!!!

And I am SO happy for you that you are going through the dramas of organising a toddler's birthday party, considering what a journey it's been to get here. I hope you and DH celebrate this milestone too!