Just let Brody dig in to his B/D cake & get some good pics! Thats about all I can remember when my kids turned one-

Donna (^_^)

I'd throw a backyard barbeque and plan it mainly around the adults. The first year is mainly a celebration for the parents. You can still do the cake and party hats for the little guy.

My philosophy with the boys has always been not to make things more complicated while I can still get away with it. I buy clothes cheaply and use hand-me-downs when they are little. When they are older, if they want name-brands, then I will consider it but I see no reason to buy expensive clothes when they don't care about them.

Same with toys. Nick got very little his first Christmas because it made no difference to him at 11 1/2 months old what he got for Christmas. Unfortunately I had to buy a little more for Dan's first Christmas since Nick was old enough to question it if Santa didn't really bring much for the baby but I kept it as minimal as I could.

So for Nick's first birthday party was just family and close friends. If my close friends and relatives had small children, I would have invited them but we had no other children in our circle at that time so it was just adults with good food and drink, cake for us and a matching smash cake for the baby (both made by me). I did buy a few generic 1st birthday items - plates, a banner, a couple of balloons. A one-year old won't remember. Just have a nice party and take lots of pictures.

For Grants first birthday, I just had family and some close friends over for an afternoon party. We had lots of great food and just hung out. I didnt invite any little kids. I didn't really do a theme, just bought some 1st Birthday plates/napkins and had tons of helium balloons all over because at the time, Grant loved balloons. It was festive and colorful for him, and not too over the top for the adults.

I had a little small smash cake for him that he tried to pick up and eat like a sandwich. He loved it.

It was a great, low key day. His 2nd birthday was pretty much the same but with no smash cake and Mickey Mouse decorations.

His 3rd birthday I'll probably invite some friends to, and I might have a petting zoo. I'm going to need to look into it a bit more.

For the 1st birthday and I can not believe he is already turning a year old, plan the party for the adults. When Connor was a year, we did close friends and family with 2 cakes. One for the big people and one for Connor to mash up. Try to do this outside for obvious reasons! This party is really more for you and DH rather than Brody. You will be spending the next 17 years planning great parties just for him!

Trish who misses having little babies-

my dd's did the same for the grands..it was geared more for we adults, and had a special little cake for the bday child...

one dd does love to have themes and makes her own invites...nick's first was a puppy dog, mia's was a pink cut out and we all wore some form of pink...was harder to find a man's pink golf shirt for grandpa to wear than the present, lol..

oh on the puppy theme, the kids had their lunch in a doggy dish, and took it home...

DD did a meal for both families and cake with the 1st birthday. Just a few decorations and balloons. It took DGS Hunter forever to open his many gifts! He'd open one and want to play with it and didn't want to open the next! LOL I might try and split up gift opening. Let him open and play with a few. Have the meal and cake and ice cream and then let him open more.

In keeping with Indian tradition, we had planned a large 1st birthday celebration at a local steakhouse and were going to invite 30-40 people (the first birthday is important because so few babies live past the first year). I ended up quitting my job a month before, so we decided not to spend the $. Instead, we invited the only family I have left - my dad and sister over for a dinner. Like others, we had a regular-sized cake for us and a little one (from Walmart) for DD with a little candle on it. We still did the "cone" hats, plates and napkins that all had the number 1 and a bear or something like that (also gotten at Walmart). She had gifts but I had to help her open them. I still love looking at those photos!

Instead of a first birthday, I took all of my home videos for Bella (and Luca too when it was his turn) and made a short 4 minute video and sent them to family and close friends. It was all of the funniest/cutest shots we got of them; home from the hospital, shots of feet and hands, first solid food, first steps, laughs, etc. all put to two songs. One was "We Thank God For This Day" from Veggie Tales done by the little girl and one song a friend wrote for us. At the end it had Bella's full name, birth date and "We made it", then "Thanks, God". It was PRECIOUS and simple. I worked in multimedia 7 years ago so it was easy for me to do. A lot of media companies do these kinds of things now.

Blessings,
Haley

Haley, that sounds like SUCH a nice idea! And that's one of my favourite Veggie Tales songs.... from Madame Blueberry, yes? :)

Bearcat, we kept ours simple, too. 1 year olds generally get overwhelmed quickly. For Sophie we had a few friends/relatives over for a visit, dinner and cake. With Benjamin, we went and played at Chuck E. Cheese for an hour or so (just the 4 of us and his 2 grandmas) and then had cake at home. Oliver's getting even less for his first... this year we're planning on doing a joint party for all three kids, since their birthdays are all very close. Backyard potluck barbeque with 5 or 6 families with games and stuff. We're going to request that instead of presents, the guests bring a dish to contribute to the meal.

Sorry, that was absolutely useless as far as creative ideas go. :)

Really, whatever you do will be fun for him. 1 year olds are so easy to please! Just take bazillions of pictures.

Happy first birthday, Brody! (just a wee bit early)

Yep, Madame Blueberry! :) I even edited it like theirs in slow motion and slow fade in/out transitions. It's such a great keepsake and great brag video for the grandparents, LOL.

Blessings!
Haley

You might try setting up a special chair or corner of the room and take his picture then take a picture every year in the same spot.

Thanks to you all for such great, low-key ideas. We are definitely going to keep it simple. I'm going to ask DH to make a photo slide show and play it on the TV during our get-together. :) I'm going to go green and do an e-vite as well. Thanks again!

In keeping with the slide show you can make it a milestone keepsake by including other things besides photos. I did one and it included videos, birth certificates, slides of special memories such as first tooth,etc.

And if you want to do something for him you can mimic Sesame Street (is that still popular) and have a "This day is brought to you by the number 1" and have #1 decorations.

Have fun with your little guy! He's a sweetie.

It's mainly for the adults, just decorate and have fun! When our kids were little,(both have summer burthdays) I'd clean house once, buy one set of decorations. Had a party Saturday for their friends (sometimes a sleepover), and the next day a party for the family. Again, just have fun. Don't go overboard renting a jumping castle, magician, all that expensive stuff. Kids have fun any time they get together. If they're old enough, make a pinata.