Anyone have 1st bday party suggestions?

So, the girls turn one in just over 2 weeks. I have been trying to plan a party, but it's not going too well. I happen to be the least creative person in the world. I think that I am going to do a princess themed party (mainly because everyone keeps asking me what the theme is and I'm not a big fan of cartoon characters) but I would be fine without any kind of theme. We don't have very much money to spend for the party and I'm having an awful time figuring out where to have the party and what kind of favors to hand out.

Our house is tiny, so the only way we can have the party at our house is if people can be outside too. The problem is that I live in Missouri and the weather here has been awful. One day it's 80 degrees and sunny and the very next day it's 30 and snowing. Literally. I'm waiting until the last minute to decide if we can have it here. If we can't we'll have to rent a room somewhere, which will probably cost $100 for two hours. There aren't any free places around here.

The other problem is trying to find cheap party favors that the kids will actually like. We will have quite a few kids here, ranging from 14 yrs down to 6 months old. I just don't have a clue what kind of favors to get.

I wish we could have a small little party but our families are so big that just immediate family and a few friends is over 40 people.

If anyone has any good suggestions I would greatly appreciate it! TIA

 

Ditch the cartoons, licensed stuff and go with color themes instead. It's what I did for the boys and for Annabella. In the end-MUCH cheaper. But, that's also because I was doing first birthday parties with 80+ people invited and attending. The boys were blue/green. Annabella was pink/purple.

Some things I did:
1.) Pink/purple plates-I stacked them pink...purple..pink...purple..
2.) Pink napkins, purple ribbon. Purple napkins, pink ribbon. It's how I rolled up all of the silverware
3.) Pink/purple tablecloths
4.) Decorations were just some simple First Birthday stuff from iparty. Nothing crazy.
5.) Dessert was a smash cake for her and a cake from Costco for the guests
6.) I made #1 cookies and frosted them in pink/purple
7.) The COOKIES were the goody bags(for the boys party). Edible. Not going to waste-and you are already making them!
8.) Oh, and for Annabella, I made lollipops-so those were the goody bags for Annabella's party.

Now, the boys had their third birthday party, and I did it themed(Toy Story). But the first one, I feel like you don't have to. It's so expensive getting all of the licensed products. Here's two links for the albums:

The Boys:
Boys Party


Annabella:
Annabella

 

I could not agree more! When you are planning 1st birthdays they don't care about charecters. Its not like they are at that point where they have an obession with Elmo or Manny etc.

Plus "color" themes are WAY cheeper. Pick your 2 colors, hit the dollar store. Get your plates, cups, napkins, streamers etc there. Next, do it at a time of day where you don't need to serve a MEAL. Or make the meal simple. Our oldest dd's birthday is October 30th. So we did a big pot of veggies soup and a big pot of chili and lots of corn bread. It was cost effective and filled people up. With the twins being in summer we will either do a cookout or just do finger foods. Lets face it when you have a bunch of kids at a party the last thing that you can do without making yourself crazy is having a sitdown meal.

So far for the twins party I have planned 1 big cake and 2 little smash cakes maybe even just cupcakes.

as far as "favors" go, once your girls get older and start going to parties as a mom you are going to HATE favor bags. ITs almost always plastic crap that is noisey or messy that you will end up stepping on 100x's before you throw it away. I suggest for the parties when they are babies eigher a cookie or lollypop and thats it. When they get bigger you can do a craft and that will be their favor. My oldest turned 9 last Oct and we did a small party with 3 friends and we took them to get their nails done and to a movie then we came back here for pizza and cake. The favor was a picture frame that said "Girls Day Out" on top then Bella's birthday 2010 on the bottom and I took a photo of the girls after they got their nails done. I have been to I am not sure how many birthday parties in her 9 years and ALWAYS the best favors are the 1 items that mean something. Don't stress yourself out trying to do favor bags for that big an age range, 14 year olds love cookies just as much as 1 year olds.

 

Thank you ladies, those are great suggestions. Megkc03: Those are great pics! I would love to do something like your cookies and lollipops but I'm not much of a baker. I wouldn't even begin to know how to do those lollipops but they are a great idea!

 

The cookies are EASY! The best recipe hands down is this one: And I got it from someone on TS back when my boys had their first birthday party. Awesome awesome cookies!


"No Fail Sugar Cookies:"

6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring
1 tsp. salt
Cream butter and Sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.

Chill for 1 to 2 hours (or see Hint below)

Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350
degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe
can make up to 5-dozen cookies.

HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess -- Rather than wait for your cookie dough to
chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper.
Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop
it into the refrigerator. Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have
used it all. By the time you are finished, the first batch will be completely chilled and ready to
cut. Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus is that you are not adding
any additional flour to your cookies.

As for the lollipops-that was my first time ever making them! If you set your mind to it-you can do it! They were time consuming though, I won't lie. But the end result was worth it. Have fun planning!

 

Our 1 bday party is coming so close, this sat. I have not prepared anything yet. I'm so nervous. how come they grew so fast??? Lol

How can I make those 1 birthday cakes? They're great! But I don't think ican make them

 

They sell a #1 cake at iparty, Michaels, ACMoore. And then you just frost/decorate as you wish. For the boys #1 cakes, I did it freehand. But a friend drew out the picture for me. You make a regular 9*13 cake, cut it in half, and then with one half is the long part of the one, and the other half you cut to make the rest of the formation of it. So hard to type out and explain! LOL!

 

Delicious, fun and easy to make: put grapes on a stick and dip them in dark melted chocolate. Let dry in the freezer for 30 minutes or 12+ hours in the fridge. You could do it with other fruit as well.

 

That sounds yummy! I'll definitely try it! Thanks!