First Birthday Party Ideas

I have a great book on childrens birthday parties - if you PM your email address I will scan the 'baby boy' pages / suggestions and email to you.

 

 

In my opinion, 2 hours is a long time for a bunch of one year olds! Some of them may still be having a sleep around lunchtime so you might want to factor that into your timing.

Was it the last Treasures magazine that they had some ideas on birthday parties? Their idea was just to have the birthday child's toys out for the kids to play with. Their attention span wouldn't be long enough for games I would imagine.

For a 1yo I wouldn't go to too much effort since none of them will remember it the next day! lol But here's some things to keep in mind

1 hour is long enough before they start tiring of so many people around
Timing doesn't matter too much so long as your child (and hopefully the others) wouldn't usually be tired/sleeping at that time. Go for 1/2 hour after his nap usually finishes for example.
If you want to do a BBQ it generally helps for littlies to have the start time close to the eat time... if that makes sense? Either a 12pm lunch or 5 or 5.30 dinner.
Anything finger food is good. I'm a big fan of cheerios for parties but watch the tomato sauce lol. Big uns/cheezles are great for little fingers, without causing choking like chippies do.
Lollies... eskimos or "bananas" are great for this age because they are soft but not very chewy. Marshmallows are fun but very sticky!!
And then cake! Sponge cake is generally a lot tidier than chocolate cake
It's sometimes helpful to get the other parents to bring their highchairs for a meal.

Favours are a personal choice. I choose not to do them, I kinda feel if I did them once I'd have to do them forever!

I had a teddybears picnic at a park for Kiya's first birthday. We had watermelon and cake, and bottled water for afternoon tea, and the kids just played on the playground.

For Josiah's first birthday, we took him to the hot pools in Taupo. He loves baths, so we gave him a big one! We tried to organise it for a weekend when all our family from Tauranga could meet us there, but in the end only Nat's parents could make it. We had a picnic lunch and play in a playground first.

Oh Roksana!!!
For the first two birthdays of Hannah's we just had an afternoon tea with one other family. So relaxed!

Amy, come right on in! You certainly don't need a theme, most of it is going to go right over the 1yo's head anyway but one thing is for certain: they love cake and yummy food

i found kobes first was more for the adults than kids. we had a bbq lunch and just did little nibbly party food things for the kids. Ice cream cake is always good (wendys do yummy ones for about $40) we did do loot bags but thats cos we had a lot of cousins there who were a little older plus i know for some it was exciting for the parents that thier little one attends thier first friends birthday and my SIL still has the loot bag from kobes party cos it was the first party my nephew went to and also cos i love parties and love making loot bags etc.... for addisons this year im not sure if we will do anything major, probably just the same but i might make it a bit of a butterfly theme just for fun.