19453

First Year Celebration Party 1yr

February 2009

Denise in Macungie, PA USA

Honorable Mention

I alway think a first birthday should be celebrated big.  We began the party planning about 2 months before the big day but our ideas had come throughout my daughters first year of life. We started with the invitation.  It looked like the front page of a newspaper.  At the top of the paper it said (Last Name) Family Publications.  Under that the name of the paper The Holly Times" her name being Holly.  The headlines read  Holly (last name) turns 1 Year Old named "Best baby of the year for 2008".  This article talked about all of Holly's firsts.  Some being slightly exagerated.  We talked about her being a busy explorer  first plane trip the many languages she could speak that her sisters could understand but her parents didn't quite know yet  first words  favorite foods stargazing in her celestrial bedroom and not to be forgotten her favorite stuffed lamb sammy.  Another article talked about interesting facts about Holly.  Where her name came from her birth stats her due date her middle name meant daisy in french who she gave her first kiss to and so on.  At the bottom was all the party information.  There was also a photo of Sammy the lamb and a seperate photo of Holly.  Small lamb clip art ran across the top of the paper.  This invitation really set the mood for the party from games to decorations party favors etc.  We really wanted the party to be a celebration of the first year but included her lamb and her middle name meaning daisy as the theme.  I was able to find 4 very large myler lamb ballons on ebay.  I purchased a helium tank at party city and we had the 4 lambs scattered around the house and then about 75 other balloons coming down from the ceiling with pretty curled ribbon.  The balloons were white (the color of the lamb and petals on a daisy) some were pink (ears and feet of lamb) and some were yellow the inside of the daisy.  The ribbons hanging down were the same 3 colors.  We had 2 bouquets of daisies in different rooms.  As guest arrived they walked into a sea of the balloons they also imediately saw pink and white lunch size bags on our foyer table.  They were the favors bags but really were an added decoration.  Each one had a lamb on it.  I found a lamb template on line for a craft.  My daughters and I cut them out and then glued cotton balls on for the lamb fur.  They were adorable.  Inside them was a lamb writing pad from Oriental trading individual cookie pack of girl scout cookie the new daisy ones that are actually in the shape of a daisy.  I also added pink lolipops and the pastel over sized smarties.  I had 17 children at the party and about 30 adults.  Everyone over the age of 1 received this.  Anyone under one received a container of Holly's favorite food "puffs".  They just happen to be in the shape of a daisy.  Other decorations were these lamb napkin ring holders that I had from Easter.  I used these around the house as a little added decoration.  Also every stuffed lamb we had was around for the kids to play with.  The party  started and we had a couple of heathy kid and adult friendly snacks fruit cheese and crackers etc.  As people arrived I handed around a clip board for our first activity.  We were doing a mad lib about Holly her favorite things and the party.  I had about 40 words to be filled in.  Adjectives Nouns Numbers Colors Places and so on.  The kids and the adults all helped contribute.  It ended with a spectatular story about Holly.  The next game we played was a quiz.  This was intended more for the adults then the kids but they all played and enjoyed it.  Every single person that responded about the party commented on the invitation being terrific.  So we quized them on the information.  It was multiple choice.  Some of the questions were Who was Holly named after?  When was her due date?  What is the name of her lamb?  Who did Holly give her first kiss too?  What are her favorite foods?  What flower does her middle name Marguerite mean?  The top 2 adult winners received a scratch off lotto ticket with a tag attached.  We hope a little of our luck rubs off on you.  The child winner picked from a bag of pink candy.  In the end any child who wanted the candy was able to take some.  Other games the children played during the party were pass the lamb (hot potato)  and the lamb dance (freeze dance).  Throughout the party we also asked the guests if they could come up with songs/nursery rhymes that had lamb or sheep in it.  Kids and adults even sang the tunes.  We then had dinner and following was the best yet.  The cake was a lamb.  It was sitting up and was about he size of my daughter sitting next to it.  The lamb was sitting in a field of daisy cupcakes.   We did leave it out as a center piece throughout the party and it was the topic of conversation for a bit.  Last but not least my daughter Holly wore a long sleeve tee that was hand painted with a lamb on it and an adorble zippered sweatshirt hand painted with daisies.  I found someone on Etsy.com that was able to cutom make it for me.  I paid $10 for the tee and $24 for the zippered sweatshirt.  I really enjoyed planning this party and think it turned out to be a great success."

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