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My daughter’s first birthday party was really a party for myself. When I was pregnant, I did not see myself throwing big birthday parties for my kid, but the first year was hard. My daughter had feeding issues, and there were times I did not see the light at the end of the tunnel. When she turned one, I was so relieved and needed to celebrate.
Ambiance
I do love planning parties, and this one was well-earned. The theme for my daughter’s first birthday was “Life is But a Dream” from the nursery rhyme I would sing to her often. I even came up with my own verses of that rhyme. I did not like the idea of the boat so I changed it to a hot air balloon. I imagined a hot air balloon filled with baby animals going off on an adventure. That is what I planned her birthday around. (The cake was from Stein’s)
I wanted to create a whimsical/magical ambiance that gave the feeling of being carried away by the wind. I found these hot air balloons on Amazon. We hung them from the ceiling of our living room at varying heights with fish lines. So when people walked into our living room the first thing they saw were these hot air balloons that looked like they were floating the in the air. (I reused these balloons and tweaked it slightly for the second party).
Food, Game, Photo Opp
In Addition, I got a backdrop of the sky and hot air balloons stickers. A huge circular basket was set in front of this backdrop and Balloons were tied to the basket to resemble a hot air balloon. It was a photo opp for other kids.
I wanted to create a carefree child’s world around this theme. Bounce houses are common at birthday parties but it was essential for this one. I love bounce houses myself. I was in there with my daughter. I made sure the bounce house was adequate for adult weights (my weight). As I previously stated, this was not just a party for my daughter—it was for me too.
Although we had children at the party, there were a lot of adults. We had family friend and coworkers both mine and my husbands. They do not all know each other. We had a fun ice breaker for them. We wrote the name of children’s story book characters on name tags and place on people’s back. Our guest would have to ask other guest questions about the character to figure out who they were. We had everyone from Winnie the Pooh to Batman. All but one of our guests played. I feel like people enjoyed the game. I wanted adults to feel like a kid,
Making it personal!
The one thing I do not like about the children’s birthday parties I have attended is that I do not know much about the kid. Sometimes I feel like I am an extra in a movie production. Since we were there to celebrate my daughter’s birthday, I wanted them to know something about her.
So the second picture opportunity was close to the heart. During my daughter’s first year, she had feeding issues. She refused to drink milk. We were dream feeding her. That is a whole different story. It was a stressful and scary period for us. People told me, statistically, kids like her end up with a feeding tube, but my daughter is not a statistic! The first time she drank from the bottle with eyes wide open again, I recorded it.
I wanted something to remind her of this time when we proved them wrong–when she overcame and beat the odds. It was important for me to capture this moment. It felt like Jane the Riveter moment. We made the poster ourselves. This one is for the future, when things get hard, and she needs proof she can do it! For Alana’s birthday, we hung this on the wall with the bandana so our guest could take a picture of themselves with the background.
Another way, we tried to to let our guest get to know more about my daughters. We decorated the hall. I took twine and draped it along the walls like the old clothesline. I hung 1st year pictures of our daughter with colorful clothes pins along the clothesline, and stuck hot air balloons around it.
Lessons Learned-What worked and did not.
I love planning so I do not mind the work it takes to plan events and activities. I enjoy it. This is not work for me. However, there were things I would differently now.
- The Type of Food worked. We got the food catered from El Fenix. It was a great price and our guest enjoyed it. We had chips and Salsa and fajitas. Catering is the way to go. I am so glad someone else prepared the food!
- The quantity of the food did not work. We had too much leftover. I would plan for 70% of guests (maybe even less). Not everyone will show up, and people do not eat much at a party that does not have a formal sit down. They also like to save room for dessert.
- Schedule. Aside from the cake cutting, I would not schedule anything. You will be running around coordinating rather than enjoying. Have everything available for the guest as soon as they walk in. Also, do not draw out the schedule. I had guest leaving before they had a chance to enjoy cake and ice cream. Cut cake an hour after start.
