It has been only like yesterday since you find out you are pregnant, but reality is your child has been born for 12 months, and is turning one! To celebrate this birthday, it has to be a grand party with your family and friends! Although, a baby doesn’t really have fun all throughout this kind of occasion, a first birthday party is always remembered over the years. When your young boy or girl becomes 10, 15, 20, or 25, the pictures from the first birthday are something he or she can cherish forever. So, plan a big event now and make it really special!
1. Take a Seat and Plan
The very first thing you need to do to pull off a beautiful and memorable party for the first birthday of your baby is to plan it ahead of time. It is always a golden rule to make a plan that lets you execute things in a lot of time. This is somehow very useful to you so you won’t feel stressed out at the end of the day.
2. Choose a Birthday Theme
A party for a one-year old baby needs to be spectacular. You do not just prepare foods and drinks and let everyone consume them. There has to be some activities, too, which must be all related to one thing, and that is based on a theme. This is how you can easily choose other stuff that completes the party, such as decorations, food and costumes, if needed.
For birthday parties of children, there are tons of cute themes to select. You can choose a cartoon character or a fairytale character, animals, sports, flowers, butterflies, ladybugs, toy cars, robots, etc. The list of themes for children’s occasion like a birthday party is a long one. There are definitely different themes you can choose from. To help you narrow it down, better think of the best feature that can reflect your child’s future. Of course, always choose that matches the gender of your baby. Lastly, you need to have a friendly theme as this is appropriate to your child’s age and the years of most visitors to invite.
3. Pick a Spot
For a cheaper budget, your home can be the venue to host the birthday party. It is more comfortable for you and your baby. This also gives you less stress and more convenient time to prepare, such as displaying all decorations and cooking foods. Remember your baby is still a year old, who needs your attention.
Some parents do like to have a party in a restaurant, a junction or meeting hall of a hotel, a park, or an indoor playground. This is usually a case if the parents choose a theme that requires the right place, or if it is a big, expensive type of party. Wherever you want it, make sure it is safe, friendly and peaceful as most of the people who gather to this kind of event are young and innocent.
4. Invite Guests
The next thing that must be on your planning list is the guests. This is more personal, so you will just certainly invite the closest people, including your family and a few friends. The most important of all is to have children, either kids of your relatives and friends or their nephews and nieces. It is better that you only invite a handful of people, but ensure every child has supervision from an adult. You cannot just take care of everyone of them, because yours is already enough to babysit. The less people around, the more comfortable your baby will feel. Also, the faces of the people to join and celebrate the special occasion must be friendly or familiar to your little child.
5. Provide Entertainment
Even though this party is only for a short time, it does not mean that you do not entertain and accommodate the guests. After all, this is a kids’ party, so have some fun stuff around that every child, and every parent, can enjoy. You may hire some clowns to do some magic tricks, zoo keepers to give animal show, or give some painting or drawing tools for each and every kid. Just make sure the invited children won’t get bored. As much as possible, provide toys, drawing kits and coloring pages that can make them busy. Although balloons can get the attention of kids, decorations alone cannot make them fully entertained.
6. Serve Healthy Foods and Drinks
When you talk about birthday party for kids, the foods to serve are usually spaghetti, ice cream, fried chicken and hotdogs. Those sound really delicious, but as a loving parent, you must also consider the health of those other kids. You need to provide some nutritious and scrumptious foods. This does not mean you have to go vegan, as most kids won’t take the chance to bite at all.
Instead of the usual spaghetti or baked macaroni, choose vegetable-based over white flour pasta, and some low-fat cheese too. For the drinks you can have fresh fruits blended, instead of the powdered juice, which is mostly artificial in flavors.
The cake is something you cannot miss for a birthday party, especially to your soon-to-be one-year old child. However, there is a much healthier option and that is to choose fruits or vegetables as the main ingredient. You can have blueberry cheese cake, carrot cake frosted in chocolate, etc.
These are the right ways on how you can plan and prepare the first birthday of your first baby. You have to make it a really wonderful and memorable occasion. Aside from that, always remember the safety of each and every attendee, especially that they are kids. Do not display things that can cause accidents. Do not provide large-sized or hard foods that can choke them. Most importantly, prepare your kid for his or her own party. Weeks before the special day, he or she must be well taken care of. You do not want your own child to feel ill and uncomfortable on his or her birthday.
