Help needed with first birthday plans

skintchick

My DD will be one in July and as we clearly will not have moved house by then :mad: I need to book a venue as our house is too small, so I need to start making some vague plans.

As she sleeps after lunch, and is usually not that interested in 'socialising' in the afternoons (she gets grumpy after a while) I thought it would be best to hold it from about 10.30/11 till 1.

I plan to provide food, for adults as well as babies, and the venue I'm using has highchairs.

But both my parents and the in-laws live 100 miles away and OH thinks it's a bit early as they'd have to be on the road about 8.30am. My parents are OK with that though.

So I wondered what people usually do? I've been to two 1st parties recently and at both of them the child in question ended up asleep and/or crying because it was the afternoon and their nap/grumpy time.

I want to avoid this so think the morning would be best, and probably best for other babies too.

It will be on a Saturday as our families don't want to travel in the week on the actual day.

Any advice on timings? And any other first birthday advice?

Counting_Pennies_2

Why not plan an afternoon tea party after she has had her afternoon nap?

How many naps is she on at the moment, two or three? If two you can easily do the party for 3/4pm and make it a nice cake and sandwich affair.

Personally though I really wouldn't go booking a venue, I would stagger through the weekend different people coming round.

We did my NCT group, inlaws, my family separately and just had mini tea parties. We made cup cakes and iced them with the initial of the child (for the NCT party) and put candles in the middle and sung happy birthday to all the babies at the same time. That was the most special memory, not having a big bash.

As you say, they sleep through it all, or get grumpy because it is so overwhelming. Much nicer just to meet with a few people and do it at home and spend quality time with the people in a relaxed way.

Plenty of time for big parties. My DS had a Go-Karting party with 18 children, he is six and I am glad I waited until now to do big parties.

angelicmary85

I agree with Counting_Pennies.

I've only had 2 tea parties and had them both in the late afternoon when I knew DD would be wanting her dinner, I made sandwiches and sausages rolls and stuff for her 1st party and we had a indoor bbq for her 2nd (large George Foreman) with things like tattie salad and home made coleslaw...so much easier/quicker to prepare as I had another baby who was about 7months old on DD's second birthday.

sweetdaisy

My DS was 1 years old last June and as he has his nap from 12-2pm we had an afternoon tea party. When DS is 2 years old this June, we will again be having a Tea Party/BBQ (BBQ if weather is nice) as I think he is too young to hire a venue. Also, I don't know many children, other than the ones in nursery.

skintchick

Late afternoon is her worst time, so I really don;t want to do it then.

It's not a big thing, just you can;t fit more than three people (or two people and two babies) in our house I'm not paying for a venue, I'm using my church, just makes it easier.

angelicmary85

My sister took her wee one to a party on a Sunday morning at 10am...the kids were given pizza/salad/cakes...not a great breakfast!!

If you'd prefer to do it in the morning, then I'd suggest being well prepared the evening before (put up the baloons/banners/whatever) and have your sandwich fillings made in advance.

You could make it a sort of a brunch instead of a tea party?

Apricot

My mum held my little brothers 1st birthday party 11-1 in the local church hall. All of the kids stayed happy and a lot of parents commented to on how nice the timing was as they weren't hanging around all day waiting for the party. My mum also found it easier as the kids were up and dressed and straight to the hall to get ready for the party rather than having excited kids waiting around. For us it was the best timing as once the party was finished we went home, put the kids to bed for an hour and could then spend the afternoon opening and playing with presents.

skintchick

THanks guys. My plan is to make sandwiches and as it won't be a big do I should be able to do that on the morning. There are toys at the church so I'll just use those.

I think 11-1 is perfect so I'm going to go with it!

xxvickixx

Sounds good to me.
For DS's 1st birthday I asked each mum to send me a photo of them as a child and a photo of their child as a newborn, I then made this into a picture quiz where they had to match the mum to the baby. It was a really good ice breaker (I had about 8 guests and mums) as some of them didn't know each other. I had some cheap canvas on frames from "The Works" and some paint and all the babies did a hand print to take away.
Other than that the kids all played with the toys.

skintchick

Vicki those are fab ideas! My mums won't know each other so that's a brilliant idea. I can include pics of me and OH as babies too!

Did you use special paint? or just normal stuff?

xxvickixx

I used ELC paint, it said suitable for 3+ so I just made the mums aware that it should be OK, but pointed out the3+. I think it's generally OK as long as they don't eat much. I had lots of wipes and water and sponges to clear up!