5 tips and ideas to a well-planned Baby´s 1st birthday

A baby's first birthday celebration is like a milestone for both parents and baby. After all, you both survived the baby's first year! What better to celebrate this joy than to organize a party for baby and at the same time, to let your hair down.

There are plenty of things to keep in mind when organizing a birthday party and it is most certainly not easy to do so while looking after a baby. Here are 5 great tips to plan a good party!

Always set aside a budget to manage your expectations. Keeping a budget means that you can easily see what are the big ticketed items that require more expenditure to the rest which could be kept at a minimal spending. When you set aside a specific amount of money for the party, you will be able to find the best options within the budget.

Planning ahead on your calendar meant that you can get the invites early, find out what's the RSVP rate and plan it around your best baby schedule. it is important that you select a date that guarantees the best attendance of all your guests. Make sure it doesn’t match with national holidays such as Thanksgiving or Christmas as the turnout will be less than expected. When selecting the time, you should consider your baby´s nap routines. We definitely would not want to disrupt a baby's naptime or visit when the baby is having his/ her nap! 

Take family photos and pictures of the done up decorations before all the guests arrive. Trust us, when all your party guests arrived, you will be busy hosting and watching your baby, you would have missed out a photo momento of this precious party. 

Of course, we would like to invite everybody on our contact list. However, you might like to keep it small and simple since it's baby's first party, a roomful of strangers could be overwhelming for the little one. Consider a family and close friends only first party, closest friends and all the people you want to thank for helping you to raise your baby up to the 1^st year, and the big parties can come later. 

A baby's party is, after all, a baby's party and not a competition. Care about the moments and little things that truly matter instead of obsessing over picture-perfect Instagram cake smash or which mom baked awesome cakes for their kid's party.

When thinking of food for a baby´s 1^st birthday, sorting out food for babies and children are the easiest. They eat little portions and their attention is mostly focused on their friends and where all the fun are. Plan according to the time, finger foods are the best for little fingers during tea parties.

But these baby parties include adults and they would definitely appreciate good food as they celebrate your baby´s 1^st birthday with you. The real challenge for you would be finding a menu that can please both adults and children. Here are some ideas and recipes that could be a real crowd pleaser.

These are must-haves for a baby´s party. The advantage of serving sandwiches is that sandwiches are tummy-fillers that can be made fanciful with various ingredients. For children, you can fill sandwiches with cheese, ham, and a variety of creams. Make sure you cut them in little pieces or use cookie cutters to make them attractive. For adults, you can add more sophisticated ingredients such as avocados, tuna or combine them with chicken and other deli-meat. 

Traditional meatballs are made with red meat. But now you can cook them with turkey, chicken and other types of meat. This is a bulletproof recipe for all your guests. Its preparation only requires the meat, basic condiments and spices, salt and a little bit of pepper. You can easily premake them and bake them as required. 

The variety of fruit sticks are endless and salads are easy, healthy options for starters. You can take any fruit you want and add it to a stick or you could slice the fruits up and invite the kids to make their own fruit sticks. Salads are great healthy starters and you can have an all-rounder caesar salad and go crazy with the toppings and dressing!

Taco cups: You know Tacos? Make it comfortable in kids size! Yummy, healthy and delicious!

Mac & Cheese Bombs: This will be the children's go-to food at the party. 

Mini Bacon & Egg Pie: Try something savoury with this mini quiches, adults can have it too!

Marshmallows dipped in chocolate: What's a kids party that doesn't have any decadent treat for those sweet tooth? Kids will adore these pretty marshmallows with all that chocolatey goodness and sprinkles! 

Jelly Oranges: These jelly oranges would be a great hit with kids. Adults can use the actual oranges for the salad and fruit sticks!

Many people think that the attention of any birthday party is the cake. And they might be right. In recent years, cakes have reached a level of stardom like nothing else. This is mostly due to the pretty cakes everyone is posting about on Social Media. The cake itself is definitely a great element to take care of, taking note that a gorgeous cake that has an equally gorgeous flavour is plus point to any party. 

Cake Recipes:

Lemon Coconut Cake: A simple and elegant Daisy decorated cake with mascarpone frosting. 

Rainbow Crepe Cake: The most colourful crepe cake you'll ever see. 

Ruffle Tower Cake: The pastel pink cake that makes all party guests goes Awwww.

Classic birthday cake: The cake with confetti and chocolate frosting.
 

Zoo train cake: The perfect cake for boys who love nature and enjoy going to the zoo!

Digger Cake: For the boys and girls who love tractors, excavators and all things site related.

Super-easy birthday cake: Throw together a yummy cake that is so easy to make with two different coloured sponges from one mixture and colourful icing. 

The most exciting part of the party would definitely be opening gifts! Get something functional yet nice, such as personalized items which include bracelets, t-shirts or baby blankets. Other interesting options are:

There is no way you could get it wrong with one of these. Babies love their baths and all of them like to play during bath time. The are many figures available in the market and animals are the favorites. Fishes, octopuses, and frogs in brilliant colors make them easy to play and spot under all that bubble foam!

Let parents monitor the growth of their little one with cute growth charts that are decorated with colourful designs.

These cubes which are very popular now comes in different sizes and a wide range of educational activities. Their colours are bright and they are great for stimulate the baby´s intellectual growth and motor skills.

When buying a baby present, you can also ask parents whether the gift you intend to purchase is suitable. Parents would be more appreciative to receive something useful.

When all else fails, fret not! Pinterest has the answers you need. Be it baby items of clothing, baby gifts, ideas for baby theme parties, cakes for babies or even printable invites if you're lucky! 

Food, gifts & cakes are the Pinterest´s stars. Whether you are planning to publish on the platform or search for ideas for your baby´s 1^st birthday party, follow these two tips to get the best out of it: 
 

• Enter the right search word: There are millions of tags on Pinterest and using precise short words will get you the search results you want. After the board displays the results, there is no limit to what you can find, you can even see what other's favourites are when it comes to baby parties.

• Save and organize your own pins: This way, you can easily see and have a visual reference to the party theme you have in mind. You can even share your saved pins with your friends and families, or to the rest of the Pinterest world! 

Regardless of how the party planning turns out, always keep in mind that the main objective of organizing this party is to enjoy it. Don't let party planning pressurize you too, it should be a fun process! Ignore any small glitches that didn't make the party picture perfect and simply enjoy the party.