The Secret To Creating Fantastic First Birthday Memories
The Secret To Creating Fantastic First Birthday
Memories
The day has arrived,
quicker than you could ever imagine, your baby’s first birthday! You want to
make this first celebration of life fun, significant and memorable for both
your little one and your guests, but how? We suspect you still find it
challenging to shower and dress by noon, let alone plan an elaborate
complicated party.
Your baby’s first birthday
should be a day more about fun and celebration and less about stress for Mom,
so we’re going to give you a few ideas to create affordable, unique,
once-in-a-lifetime party memories in a snap – and free-up more time to clean-up
the mountainous piles of diapers, wipes tubs, toys, and peas splattered on the
wall next to the high chair before your guests arrive!
Picture/video montage
Chances are you went and
purchased a digital camera sometime
‘round week 13. Admit it – you have a ton of pictures on your camera
that you haven’t yet uploaded, right? Now is
the time!
·
Check the software
that came with your camera;
·
Use pictures from
birth to present;
·
Add your favorite
tear-jerker songs and let it run during the party on your PC!
·
Or a create a DVD for playing on your television!
If you want to get really
ambitious use some cute font from your word processing software, insert your
favorite picture, and print out “CD covers” to create additional CDs or DVD’s
for your guests to take home. If you need help a quick Google search will give
you some great pointers.
Framed “Guest Book”
Let your guests write
“guest book” entries on a canvas and create a piece of art your baby can keep
for a lifetime. Any craft store will sell art canvases (those for acrylic
paints work best) you can use for this project. The same store will usually
have open wooden frames (no glass) that fit the canvas size you choose.
·
Decide on your color
scheme: dark blue and silver, dark red and gold, or light pink and purple, for
example.
·
For the background,
choose any of the multitude of acrylic paints (Hint: The most expensive isn’t
necessarily the best; you shouldn’t pay more than $5 per tube for this project,
and one larger tube will paint a large canvas.).
·
Select one or more
paint pens and choose colors that will show up well against the background.
·
Allow your guests to
write a message to the baby with the paint pens on the canvas as they arrive.
After the party, use the
wooden wedges provided with the canvas, place the canvas in the frame, and with
a few whacks with a hammer you have professional looking framed art!
Life Predictions Scrapbook
At the same craft store,
go to the scrap booking section. Before you do this however remember that you
could seriously go nuts, so unless you want to spend a chunk of Junior’s
college fund we suggest picking a theme and keeping it to a couple items.
·
Choose some great
looking card stock paper and a blank scrapbook (Hint: You may be able to find
cheaper scrapbooks at the dollar store and make sure you check out the
clearance section at the craft store.).
·
You can get some
additional decorating accessories in this section if you want to jazz up the
pages a bit.
·
You’ll need scissors
and Tacky Glue later.
·
Cut the paper into
note card sized pieces and hand them out to your guests. (Hint: Use the paint
pens but make sure they have something underneath the paper when they’re
writing.)
·
Ask your guests to
predict what the baby will be later in life, either their personality, job,
anything they want to say.
·
Encourage them to
have fun with it – and make sure they sign their names!
After the party, glue the
notes into the scrapbook. It will be a blast to go back and read the notes 17
years later!
First Birthday Time Capsule
A final idea is to ask
each of your guests to bring one inexpensive item to add to a time capsule to
be opened on baby’s 18th birthday. Allow them to choose anything
they want and only place the restriction that it can fit in a sandwich-sized
Ziploc baggie – you’ll be happily surprised at what they come up with! Use some
of the leftover card stock and label each of the items, seal them up and place
them in a sealed box.
Remember, this day is
about fun and celebration, so don’t knock yourself out creating a 5 course
spread for 100 people. Invite your closest family and friends, fire-up the BBQ,
toss the little tyke in a walker with their own cake to destroy (patio &
hose work best for clean-up – both the patio and the baby), have fun, and don’t
forget the camera! Using the suggestions above you can create lasting memories
of this day – and a yearly tradition - with fun items you can go back to
reminiscence with year after year.
About the Author:
Jennifer Kirkpatrick is a
mom turned entrepreneur who creates and sells unique items for kids of all
ages. Visit her online store Pipsqueak Boutique for unique first birthday gifts. And check
out her new clothing line, Define*Me Clothing for fun first birthday shirts.
