Planning a First Birthday Party

I cannot believe I am about to say this, but I am planning Madison's birthday party! Her birthday is in April, and well, that’s not very far away! We will be starting to build our deck soon, and plan to have it finished by her birthday. We can’t (and don’t really want to) afford to rent a place for her party, so we are just going to have it at our house! I haven’t totally decided on a theme yet, but I know I don’t want characters. And I def don’t want owls. Don’t get me wrong – I love owls, so, so much – but I just want to do something different. Since it is April and everything will (hopefully) be blooming and pretty, I’d love to go with a garden theme! Flowers and cute butterflies and such! We have tilled up a pretty good spot in our back yard for a garden, and it will hopefully add to the theme! I am looking forward to printing out all of Madison’s month to month pictures and displaying them somehow – maybe like this:

I have also found a ton of cakes that I like as inspiration, too!




I know it's not "first birthday-ish" but I really love that last one!
Of course, these are just ideas for the theme.

We will do a smash cake for Madison, but I’d either like to make it myself or get someone to follow a nice “baby-friendly” recipe. I’m not really a fan of letting her eat as much sugar as she wants (I know, it’s just my quirk as a mommy- ingredients). Has anyone made their own smash cake before? I really want cup cakes for all of Madison’s guests. That way I don’t have to cut a ton of cake :) 

How cool would it be to have a lemonade stand?

My sister in law had fruit skewers at my niece's birthday party, and I thought that was a fabulous idea! Hopefully we will have lots of fruits and veggies! Maybe a few cookies and such!

Husband and I also discussed a new trend for gifts...
The recipient doesn't open gifts while the guests are there. It of course has its pros and cons, and I've been on the very sad end of gift opening gone bad with grandparents and family trying beat out one another's gifts. What do you think? Hopefully all Madison will get is diapers, but I can only dream ;)

This is way out of my price range, but how's this for a party favor, huh?

 Like I said, this is rather surreal that I’m even thinking about this party, but I’m so excited about it! Hopefully it won’t turn into something big. My goal is a nice intimate party with our closest family and friends! What tips do you have for planning a first birthday party?
The Life Of Faith

7 comments:

Sarah said...

Love the spring/flower theme! And that lemonade stand, too cute! We didn't open gifts at my son's first birthday party, but we had TON of people there, and a few wanted us to open while we were there, so we did that. Towards the end when it was just close family we opened the gifts. This year we opened his gifts with everyone since it was Christmas day and we stopped "Christmas" to celebrate his birthday with cake and gifts.

Unknown said...

Gosh I love that cake with the little strawberries on it. So cute. I think having fruit and veggies is very appropriate plus it seems like a "springy" thing to do.

Joy said...

:0) It is super crazy that we have to start planning so early! We are thinking about adding a note on the invitations that asks in lieu of gifts to please make a donation to Rilee's grand adventure fund (to be used at our discretion for something fun like Disney/Orlando). We don't have space for more toys/gifts...and she would rather play with the box.

Alli said...

Your ideas are precious! I just love the cakes! I'm already anxious about planning my little girl's birthday party and she's not even a month old! I don't want to think about it! Haha

katie ridings said...

Don't feel bad, my little guy turned 6 months old today & in the last two weeks I have gone full party planning mode!! I think it is SO much better to pick things up along the way, especially when you see stuff that is on sale & so on, so when the big day hits you don't spend a ton of money :)

Cara said...

I did made my daughter's first Birthday smash cake and actually cake. She had never had anything like cake or sugar for that matter and barely touched it. I had so much fun getting ready for my daughter's 1st Birthday... Enjoy it!!

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