We just had our family over for the afternoon and had a bunch of appies set out. By the time Max played around and opened presents, he was starting to get tired, so we did cake and then everyone left! I didn't do a theme because we didn't have a ton of people over, I just had balloons around for photo ops. (I'm no help...)

I got cupcakes from a local bakery - they do all natural, low sugar cupcakes. That way I didn't need two cakes, and Max didn't end up face first in a pile of sugary goodness.

Make sure you take lots of photos! It's going to be a special day!

I usually just bake a cake and give the birthday child one piece to smash or eat or whatever. A one-year-old doesn't need a fancy party, so just do as much or as little will make YOU happy, and give you nice memories. A park party is nice, because any kids you invite can run around and play, while the adults sit and talk and eat snacks. Make sure to take lots of pictures! My first got all upset when he tried to eat his cake and discovered that the icing stuck to his hands. It was ADORABLE! That's the kind of thing that you will remember more than what kind of decorations there were.

We did "Winter 1-Derland" and did a penguin theme. I made a little smash cake for him, a hot chocolate bar with lots of toppings (and a couple adults-only add-ins for the grown ups), and then a table of themed foods (white cupcakes for snowballs, little cups of goldfish crackers for penguin food, candy sticks for icicles, and clear rock candy for snow flakes....and one of those igloo cheese balls with olive pengins). For decorations, I just ordered a package of penguin-shaped beach balls from Oriental Trading and scattered them around the house and had a couple of my 2nd grade students make paper snowflakes to string up. It was lots of fun!

I usually just bake a cake and give the birthday child one piece to smash or eat or whatever. A one-year-old doesn't need a fancy party, so just do as much or as little will make YOU happy, and give you nice memories. A park party is nice, because any kids you invite can run around and play, while the adults sit and talk and eat snacks. Make sure to take lots of pictures! My first got all upset when he tried to eat his cake and discovered that the icing stuck to his hands. It was ADORABLE! That's the kind of thing that you will remember more than what kind of decorations there were.

This is the kind of thing we do. A 1yo is not going to remember a theme, but if it makes you happy, go for it.

My siblings and I did our kids' first birthdays very small with just close family. For Thomas's first birthday, we picked the Saturday closest to his birthday, and whoever made it, made it with no hard feelings towards those who couldn't. We bought a regular Publix cake, no biggie.

My BIL and SIL had a huge party with literally 50 people over, appetizers, a buffet, big expensive bakery cake, professional photographer, etc. It seemed way over-the-top to me, but that's the kind of thing they like to do and makes them happy. They probably think we're crazy for being so low-key and not making things into huge events. I am often lacking in the creativity department, so I'd rather save those few creative brain cells for later birthdays that my boys will remember!

That said, Thomas just turned 3, and we did the little classroom party with cupcakes at school. That was it. Of course there are bigger family issues going on that, although they don't directly involve us, could make things awkward. He's still too little to really care that much, and since he's not big into being the center of attention (I wonder where he gets that from!), he became visibly shy at his school party when they sang Happy Birthday to him (he's normally not shy at school). I doubt he'd be sad about not having a big party. Then again maybe I just hate planning parties...