First Birthday Ideas

By WINDELLA (Guest Post)

Thanks to all for the feedback We had the party Saturday,the theme was Care bear.We had 26 guests ranging from 98 years old( the birthday girl's great great grandmother to several 1 year olds.The party was at a public park,near the playground area,the parents were able to let the kids play close by,we served mini burgers for the little ones,hamburgers assorted bags of chips,pasta salad,punch and homemade strawberry and vanilla cupcakes.The birthday girl slept through lunch but everyone had a great time,the only problem was the Pink Bear character we hired from Happy Days Entertainment.It was terrible.The head kept slipping the character constantly was holding on to it,he was terribly hard to understand,strong accent and not very loud,the children had a hard time understanding,he brought the birthday girl a stuff rabbit.He made sword ballons(the website stated animal shaped balloons,only one child got a temporary tatoo,he stood around alot without playing with the children he seemed afraid. the website claims :happy,eneretic performer,this Care Bear mostly certainly WAS NOT ENERGETic DID NOT seem to "love to work with children" as the website claimed,when we complained,he spent over 20 minutes trying to reach someone at the company on his cell phone!! He did a 2 min."magic show" which was not age appropriate for the children(when we booked the party we told them the ages of the children) the parachute games consisted of the Care Bear and the children standing in a circle holding a colorful piece of plastic in the wind for 2 mins! We paid $225.00 for this! I would NOT recommend Happy Days Entertainment to anyone !Not worth the money. the website 's "contact us" is not available,you get an error message saying "not found" I would bet they were tired of getting negative hits! I notice all the positive comments are from 2004. I will be calling them on Monday morning.Despite the character we received many phone calls today saying they enjoyed the party.

By j.l.o. (Guest Post)

you should have an outdoor B.B.Q. this way it will be easy to keep everything under control also you can buy stuff such as volleyballs basketballs and jump ropes and hola hoops. in doing this the price should stay very reasonable

By (Guest Post)

A Baby Einstein theme is extremely popular with this age group. Decorate with lots of primary colors, and of course, a colorful caterpillar cake.

Dee
http://www.fun-theme-party-ideas.com/baby-einstein-party.html

By

brenda thompson

We held my son's first b'day party at the park. At that age they love to just run around loose and play on the kiddie toys, slide with an adult and be pushed in the baby swings. All the little ones had a blast and the adults were at ease too. And the best part was no extra cleaning before or after. we just decorated the shelter and threw everything in the trash can when we were done.You could call it "a day at the park", maybe have some pets for a petting zoo type thing.
Personally I think birthday parties have gotten a little crazy over the past several years with all the money people are willing to spend on one birthday party. I told my daughter, if you start out big...where you going to be when it comes time for that special big sweet 16 party.
We dont do big parties in our family unless it is a special year, otherwise its just cake ice cream and gifts with family. So the 1st b'day, 5th, 13th, 16th, 18th, and 21st are what are the big bdays in our family.
There are alot of things little ones can do that don't cost alot of money. For example bubbles, what kids don't like bubbles? Bubbles could be your favors too, that they can play with while at the park, then take home with them.
JMO
Brenda-ohio

By Knitter (Guest Post)

I had not given any thought to this till I read your request and had a couple of instant ideas. 1. Mark numbers on ping pong balls, corresponding to numbered prizes. Let child pick a ball out of a bucket of water, and he/she gets prize that goes with number. 2. Put prize name or number on a small piece of paper, put paper in a small balloon, blow up balloons and attach to a board or put in a group with a string on each one and hang them somewhere. Let the child poke a ballon with a pin, winning prize in that balloon.