Birthday Party Ideas

What does a birthday mean to you? Does it make you excited about the year to come or does it make you feel old? Is it a day to do something fun and celebratory or just an excuse to eat whatever you want?  Birthdays, to us, have always been a time to reflect on the past year and look forward to the new challenges and events the next year was about to bring.

This past weekend we celebrated our daughter, Georgia’s, first birthday and it gave us a whole new meaning for the word BIRTHday.  Just one year ago we were in a delivery room - naive and nervous – trying to prepare ourselves for how our lives were about to change.  Today, we feel proud, accomplished, and extremely blessed to have experienced and survived the first year of our baby’s life!


At Georgia’s birthday party we wanted to achieve a few important things. #1- Celebrate Georgia! #2 Make sure she, along with all her friends, had a great time. And #3 Thank everyone who has influenced her life over the past year.  We hope you find some inspiration in these ideas, incorporate your own personality, and share a wonderful day with those you love on your next birthday.

A birthday can be a little overwhelming at times, but with a some planning and attention to detail you can be sure people feel welcomed and have a good time. (It also doesn’t hurt if your mother was a party planner in another lifetime).

 

CELEBRATE THE BIRTHDAY BOY OR GIRL.

#1. A Quiz! Everyone loves a little friendly competition, right?  By simply thinking of 10 trivia questions about the birthday boy or girl, you can create some great conversation starters.  It helps if you make the questions multiple-choice and it’s always a good idea to have a tiebreaker question.  All you need to do this is your computer and printer.  An example of a question from “The Georgia Quiz” was “Which class has Georgia NOT attended? a. Mark Morris Baby in Motion, b. Music Together, c. Brooklyn Little Swimmers, d. The Little Gym”.  This question really had people comparing notes.

#2. A Slideshow! This one is a lot easier now that almost everyone has a digital camera.  By using iPhoto or a similar photo editing software, chose your favorite photos from the past year and burn a DVD.  Have it playing the background for people to see throughout the party.

 

MAKE SURE THE BIRTHDAY BOY OR GIRL & EVERYONE ELSE HAS A GOOD TIME

#1. We think the key here is good food, good music, and a comfortable place for everyone to hang out.  Whether you cook the food yourself or have it catered, having some ready when guests arrive is crucial.  Good music is as easy as creating a play list and setting up your iPod.  Since our party was a kid’s party, we tried to have a section where the kids could play and run around, as well as a section for the adults to eat and drink.  Of course the two overlapped, but we think people appreciate having their own space.

#2. It’s a must for the birthday boy or girl to have their favorite cake.  Since Georgia is only 1, she hasn’t had many sweets, but we know she loves her veggies, so we made her a beautiful Turkey Meatloaf Veggie Cake! We had lots of nay-sayers when we were describing this before the party, but we’d like to think it was a big hit! And the most important person LOVED it!!

 

THANK YOUR GUESTS & THOSE WHO HAVE MADE THE PAST YEAR AWESOME!!

#1 & #2. The Gift Bag! We may have gotten a little carried with these, but we picked a theme and went with it.  We think a good gift bag has things people will actually use in it.  We were inspired to do gift bags, when we got bubbles in one at a recent birthday party.  Georgia just loved them and it kept reminding us of Sofia & her party!  Our theme was “Bath Time”. It started with the idea to burn a CD of bath songs and somehow turned into a canvas tote, which included a disco ice cube & homemade bath sea salt for the moms.  By including a note, we were able to explain the reasoning behind each gift item.  We had a lot of fun making these and we hope everyone enjoyed them.




A birthday is a great time to reflect and celebrate! We hope you can use some of our ideas at your next birthday.  And for the next birthday that you attend, we hope you bring the birthday boy or girl one of our cards!!  Have a great week.

 

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