Stuck for ideas for his 1st birthday - Please help!!

Hi, Cooper is going to be turning 1 soon, and I am having a little party with a lot of other children, most of them going to be around 1 also.

I am SO lacking ideas and I am hoping some Mums may be able to give me some ideas re decorations and foods etc that can make the day fun, (as much as you can with children so young!) . I am also hoping someone may be able to suggest a recipe book for birthday cakes (again, something that the little ones can enjoy also without being too rich)

Thanks so much!

hey:)

I like the idea of having the tables set with butchers paper and lots of crayons or pencils for the kids to decorate their own tables.

i dont really have any more ideas though,,,sorry!

My advice would be to keep it simple. Kids can get really overwhelmed at that age if there are a lot of people.
They're a bit young for structured games so just provide some toys to play with, like a ball pit or something. Singing nursery ryhmes is also fun.
If you look at the news agents they usually have a book of birthday cakes, I think there is a Womens Weekly one. My mum had one of these when I was little. And just before our birthdays it was a big event to go through the book and choose a cake. Mum would then write our name and age next to the cake. She still has the book.
HTH

We kept Sammy's very simple...a teddybears picnic with honey sandwiches, honeyjoys etc..kids danced with their teddybears, pass the parcel etc. This year we are having a construction theme so are getting a load of sand delivered by a truck and are having a wheelbarrow, buckets, trucks in it and really im just letting the kids go for it..i really think simple is the key! Have fun!

Jo

Wow, there's no WAY my DD could have coped with a "party" on her 1st birthday. She was still such a babybaby kwim?

We had a little gathering of grown-ups who were important (some family, godparents and friends) at a local cafe where the staff know and adore Smee. It was very low key but she just couldn't cope with "excitement" in those days - even now, if there are more than 5 or 6 other kids at toddler group she's going mental!

I like the decorating tables ideas but to be honest DD could barely scribble at 12 months and still now would rather eat the crayon than draw with it....

If i were you i'd organise a lot of toys, a lot of non-choking fingerfoods (sandwiches cut up with cookie-cutters into shapes are popular with smee - elephant ones especially ;)) and just let them run about a bit. Do you have a largish room you can make safe enough that a babygate can go on the door and you grown-ups can just lounge about in there while the kiddies play round your feet without having to be watched like hawks? Or a garden? BIt cold just now though, middle of winter.

I guess my POV (very individual thing though) was that DD wouldn't remember her 1st birthday and aged one what made a good day for her were people she likes, a few small surprises, and her familiar routine, so that's what we went with.

Bec