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Our baby just turned one year old. Does that mean we have to start calling him a toddler now? I don’t know if I’m ready for that but we threw him a pretty fun first party and the best part was it didn’t cost us very much!

This is a good list if you have a small house like us and can’t fit that many people plus you don’t want to have to make sure your house is spot less on top of planning a party. I decided very quickly the party was not happening at my house.

First, make a list of everyone you want to invite. We tried to keep our list to only family and really close friends. People actually involved in our sons life. Remember, the less people you invite the less food you have to buy and you can get away with a smaller venue.

Second, pick a location appropriate for your number of guests. Also, consider the ages of your guests. In our family there are a lot of kids and most of our friends have kids so we had to find a place safe for them and with something to entertain them. At first, I thought I want to do it at a petting zoo! But, after talking to my mom and thinking about it more, I realized a petting zoo would be more appropriate when Corbin and the other kids can follow directions and obey the rules. I liked the idea of Chucky Cheese but thought that will also be better when they are older. Living in Washington state, we had to consider the weather too. I wasn’t going to take a chance in October, so I knew his party had to be indoors. We ended up choosing Round Table Pizza. I liked that they have arcade games for the kids to play, a room the right size for my number of guests (bonus: the room has a door so all the kids could be locked in 🙂 ) they have great pizza, drinks, they let you bring in cake and the best part, the room was free! All we had to do was purchase pizza from them! I felt like we won the venue lottery! I definitely suggest calling pizza places and seeing if you can find something similar in your area.

Third would be to decide on food and beverages. Pizza is usually inexpensive and feeds a lot of people but you could do something like Subway sandwiches too. Another good option would be to ask family members to bring something. Most people are happy to help! For beverages, we had lots of different kinds of pop and some apple juice for the kids. Luckily beverages are pretty inexpensive.

Fourth you should decide on a theme or decorations. For example we chose a dinasour theme for Corbin’s party. There are tons of ideas for first birthdays. I got almost all our decorations, plates, cups exc. from Oriental Trading Company. They have the cutest stuff and great prices! They also delivered our stuff only a week after I ordered it!

Last but not least,  the Cake! For Corbin’s cakes we went to Safeway, a near by grocery store. We ordered one cake large enough for all our guests and it came with a free small cake for a cake smash! It was perfect! Even though Corbin was not a fan of the messy frosting 😂

I hope this helped you plan a first birthday party or any kind of party!