This past long weekend we were fortunate enough to celebrate not one but two 1^st birthday parties for our friend’s children. The 1^st birthday of your child’s life is a big event and both my friends threw fabulous parties that were super fun. Of course the main event is always standing around the birthday baby waiting for him or her to dive into the giant piece of cake put before them for the first time.  And neither baby disappointed this weekend.  Both children were covered head to toe and were beaming from ear to ear!

Our beautiful  little boy’s 1^st birthday is this weekend and so I paid extra attention at the parties for ideas I could use for our party that would make things go as seamless as possible and make it lots of fun as well.  Here are a few tidbits I picked up that maybe you can use:

Serve booze– Trust me, this is necessary to allow you and your adult guests to survive the dozens of screaming, sugar-rushed children running around your house and destroying everything in their path (even though best bet is that one or two of them are theirs!) I’m not suggesting getting drunk but a nice glass of wine or beer should help everyone relax for a couple of hours, including you.

Keep the children entertained:  make sure to have some sort of activity for the older children who can walk and talk so that they aren’t left to their own devices. Again, trust me the old saying “idle hands are the devil’s playthings” is definitely true in this scenario. Bored children at a party equal property damage in your home. My one friends’ activity was finger painting which I thought was a smashing idea…for the most part (one small child did decide she’d rather paint her entire arm bright blue then the paper).

Moms, don’t wear white:  You will coo over how cute your little one looks all covered in chocolaty cake goodness and this will temporarily distract you from the fact you will eventually have to pick them up out of that high chair to hose down.  When you do this, all the cake that is covering your precious baby will suddenly transfer to you and whatever fabulous outfit you picked out weeks ago to showcase as this momentous occasion.  My suggestion is that if you are serving chocolate cake, a dress in an espresso or mocha color would work best.

Ask for Paparazzi: As the parents, you really don’t want to miss any moment as your little one tastes his/her first sugary treat so ask your friends to take the photos to capture every hilarious moment.  That way you won’t be distracted if your own camera starts acting up or maybe the flash stops working (we seem to be cursed with this happening every time we’re about to take a great photo!) Leave those stresses to your friends and just sit back and take it all in…Remember there is only one 1^st birthday!

We’re doing “Teddy Bear’s Picnic” as a theme for Grayson party this weekend so I’ll make sure to update you next week on how it went and what were the highlights of the day.  And to our guests, don’t worry; we will be passing out glasses of wine at the door!  LOL

Coupon Tip of the Week:  Our BBQ is almost on its last legs so my husband started to look in the flyers to buy a new one, showing me all these supposed great deals. I did a little research and found out that May is the worst month to buy bbqs as you will pay way more money than any other month for one. If you can wait, buy a BBQ in July and you will save a lot of money!