Do I need to elaborate?
Okay. Here we go.
On May 16th, my little guy is going to be 1 year old. It’s a momentous occasion and a special day for his daddy and me… yet it won’t mean anything to him. So I guess I’m asking what on earth we should do to mark the occasion.
We’ve ear-marked Saturday 18th May to celebrate and written invites for our immediate family. They are rather boring - the time, the place (our house), and a number to RSVP. That’s it. No theme, no mention of what we’re doing, no mention of nibbles…
So far the only thing Craig and I have decided, is that we’ll be supplying alcohol for the adults. We’ll need it. Our house has a huge downstairs - but a huge downstairs means there’s more space to tidy when the chaos is over!
My friends have really thrown down the gauntlet. I’ve attended first birthday’s with bouncy castles, BBQ’s, magicians etc. But Dexter is 1! I can’t help but think (uh know) that he won’t remember a damn thing. We’ve been to pirate parties, superhero parties, swimming parties… the list is endless! Do I even try to compete with the big boys? I can already hear you shouting a resounding NOOOO.
But what if I don’t?
I’ll have all these people around our house, some ASDA nibbles, a superior selection of wine and beer… and that’s it. I’ll have a room full of little people (ages 6 months to 6 years) and naff all to distract them from smearing cake up the walls!
I’m weary of the television. As tempting as it is to give the kids a Justin Fletcher fest and down wine in the kitchen, I don’t think I could stand 3 hours of Mr Tumble (or any of his alter ego’s).
I’m also aware May won’t be warm enough to get in the garden and create a kid’s paradise. There’ll be no sandpit, paddling pool, bouncy castle… beer barrels (sigh)… The weather is bound to let us down.
So we’ll be house-bound.
So what do we do??? Help! What activities can we do that’ll impress the babies, the toddlers, and the kids? PLEASE help.
Oh and if you can send me the links of online shops that could help make the house look a bit more kiddified - do. I’m guessing I’ll need to do the ‘gaudy thing’… Oh and then there’s goody bags… HELP!
I When my eldest was 1 I just did some nibbles, had cake and we drank beer! But the oldest child wasn’t even 2 years old so they just toddled about and played. This year my youngest will be one and I’ll be doing a proper kids party - decorations, couple of games etc as they will be a bigger age range and his brother will love it - and me lol
Yep - beer is the only thing I have decided on! Tee hee
If you want to do a theme go for something simple that’ll be easy to run with, not too hard on other parents and look good in pics (maybe for a 1st birthday something as simple as a rainbow theme) You could make up sensory boxes to go with the theme for the younger kids. My daughter was 3 last year and the activity that went down best with kids from 2+ to 6 was decorating their own party bags. I just got a load of plain paper bags with handles, tonnes of stickers, sequins, pritt sticks and crayons etc, wrote a name on each and then let them go wild. We had about 10 kids in that age range and I was stunned when they all sat for ages working on them quietly (even the 4-5yr old boys!) We had an under the sea theme for that party. If you’re feeling brave a cupcake decorating station for the older ones?? I got so many ideas from Pinterest that were easy to execute.
Sensory boxes sounds great. There will only be 3 children under two so no point spending a fortune. I’ve trawled Pinterest too! Some cute little craft ideas we could do with the older ones x
For my little boy’s first birthday, I figured the celebration was more for us than him. I also thought we’d very soon be in the situation of bouncy castles, etc so why do it before we had to! The theme was teddy bears, but that was only seen in his small cake (everyone else ate ‘normal’ cakes), some cupcakes and some decorations. I never considered goodie bags.
I’d suggest leaving out some games that don’t have small pieces that can get lost, clearing some space and have some kiddie music on for dancing. I really wouldn’t worry too much this year.
I like the teddy bear theme. I could buy all the kids a little bear to take home! Might be able to convince Craig to dress up as a giant bear too!
He had a huge party for Dylan’s first but only as it was summer so we could have everyone in the garden ( http://www.themummyadventure.com/2012/08/a-rainbow-first-birthday-party.html ) It was very simple and I didn’t buy too much for it really. As for kid’s activities though, I just let them all run around in the garden so I have no ideas! Good luck with it all and I look forward to reading about it afterwards! x
Thanks my lovely. Your garden looks massive! I wish Dexter’s birthday was in the summer. So much more you can do x
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