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1st Birthday

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First Birthday Activity Ideas
1st Birthday

First Birthday Activity Ideas

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Ahhh… the First Birthday. Such a weird age to throw a party for! You get the food done and the decor done and then it is like…
What is everyone going to DO?
Often a first birthday will have an array of different ages of people. Our first birthday had about 20 adults, a teenager, a 9 year old, and 5 babies! I was completely stumped for a long while trying to figure out some fun activities for everyone. Mostly everyone chatted, played with the babies, and took a lot of photos. (Common… 5 babies together, not crying, is probably one of the cutest things EVER.)

Here is what we came up with for our particular spread of people….

For the adults—

  • We had lots of food and beverages. Some of those beverages were adult-only type beverages. It made the whole party go smoother in my opinion.
  • Instagram/ Twitter Hastag Fun— I planned this one, but then forgot to put out the sign with the hashtag or use it myself. But, Adi’s Where the Wild Things Are party did a GREAT job with this idea!
  • “I Remember When” and “Advice for your Birthday” slips for people to write memories or advice for the birthday boy. (Look for a free printable next week!)

 

For the Babies— 

We wanted happy and comfortable babies for the event. So, we wanted to provide shade, food, and toys. I don’t recall any of the five kiddos having a melt-down!
  • TOYS! Put out some baby friendly toys for the kiddos. We put out several of X’s stuffed animals, cars, and wooden toys. The main event though were the yellow beach balls!
  • Do a baby time with a story and some songs. If you have ever brought your kiddo to “Mommy & Me” groups, Gymboree classes, or Book Baby programs at the library then you know what I’m talking about. Pick out a few fun books to read (in excited voices with lots of movement). Break up the story time with songs that have movements. Of course, we had to sing “You Are My Sunshine!”
Books that would be great to read at a You Are My Sunshine First Birthday:
Songs to Sing:
 
You are my Sunshine, My only Sunshine
You make me Happy, When Skies are Grey
You’ll Never Know Dear
How Much I Love You,
I Love You More, and More
Everyday!

* Photos by Motormouth Studio
** Some of the above links are affiliate links. Affiliate links help support the bloggers that post them. I do not link items I have not used and/or do not like. For more information on my Advertising Policies click HERE.

 
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1st Birthday

First Birthday Surprise

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One of the things I really, really want to do as a mom (that I feel my parents did for me) is make each and every birthday extra special. It doesn’t need to be anything crazy, like a huge party. It needs to be something special though.

X’s First Birthday was on a different day than his party. We didn’t know what to do for him, because honestly he won’t remember much and not a whole lot of stuff leaves a huge impact on him. We decided to have a big family breakfast and then go to the beach during the day that day. (X loves the beach.)
We had decided to not purchase him a gift from us, and instead throw his birthday party. At ten in the evening, the night before his birthday, I got really sad that he wouldn’t have a gift to open on his actual birthday. I wanted something for him to open, that would not sit around the house and collect dust, and that would engage him. Thus came this idea…

First Birthday Surprise

Our little man felt like he needed to climb in the box rather than open it the traditional way.

But, he was still pretty surprised!

DIRECTIONS:
1. Inflate balloons with helium. I used a disposable helium tank that I had already and “Happy Birthday” balloons.
2. Pack balloons into a large box. Tape box shut— I used painters tape and only on the edges so that my son would have an easier time getting the box open.
3. Wrap box. (Do not use a lot of tape so that the wrapping is easy to get open.)
4. Let the kiddo wake up and have a blast opening his/her surprise!

“Where did all the balloons go!?”

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Kid-Friendly Banana Cupcake

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So, a few things before I share this recipe with everyone:

  1. I am not a nutritionist. I am not a doctor. I am a mom who likes to cook. That being said, I do know a little about things like calories, sodium, sugar intake etc. 
  2. I have no problem with sugar. I like sugar (a little too much). And, I don’t think it is a bad idea to introduce sugar to a child as long as it is managed. That being said, my son had not had sugar other than fruit (a whole different type of sugar) and exactly one bite of vanilla ice cream before he turned one. I didn’t want to load him up with sugar on his birthday. 
  3. I like cake. I love making cakes. I someday hope to share that love with my son. I wanted him to have a little smash cake on his birthday… so, I came up with a recipe that was tasty but didn’t load him up on a bunch of unnecessary fats & sugars.
  4. This is not gluten free. It is not dairy free. It is not vegan. It is not made with super awesome, healthy grains. This could be a whole bunch healthier. Personally, I probably wouldn’t eat it then. 

Now that bit is over with… this cake was TASTY. The cake was basically a normal easy cake recipe where I substituted banana for sugar and applesauce for oil/butter (another thing I wanted to cut back on in his first treat). The frosting was whipped cream cheese with a touch of vanilla and a touch of powdered sugar. The cake consistency was close to muffin rather than cake. But, it was a small price to pay when cutting out butter/oil!

(The smash cake did have a food coloring spray to make it yellow. I opted out of putting it on the cupcakes that all the other kids were eating.)
Funny thing about this cake… everything on the sweets table was melting in the sun at my little man’s party. Everything but this cake. They looked and tasted perfect the entire time! Thanks to Motormouth Studio for the pics!

Kid-Friendly Banana Cupcakes
Estimated Time: 28-25 minutes, Approximately 24 standard sized cupcakes

Ingredients
  • 1 cup smashed and strained banana
  • 1/2 cup applesauce
  • 2 cups cake flour
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup milk
Directions
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
  • Prep cupcake tin with liners
  • Sift (I like to throw my dry ingredients in a food processor instead of sifting) flour, baking powder, and salt together in one bowl.
  • In another bowl, mix together the apple sauce, banana, eggs, milk, and vanilla. Whisk just a little bit so that they are fluffy. 
  • Slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the apple sauce mixture.
  • Spoon batter into cupcake liners (a hefty amount, but not too full… about 3/4 the liner works great)
  • Bake for approximately 18 to 25 minutes. The bake time varies with different ovens. If a toothpick is put in the center of the cake and comes out clean then the cupcake is done!
  • Let cool and top with frosting. Right before serving add a slice of banana to the top.

Now, I couldn’t go and make a healthier cupcake and then top it with sugary frosting. But, come on.. a cupcake just ain’t a cupcake without frosting. So, I opted to put a dollop of whipped cream cheese frosting on top. I made WAY too much frosting. So, if using this recipe plan on either putting on more frosting per cupcake, attacking frosting with a spoon, or saving it to go on a batch of cinnamon rolls!

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ingredients:
  • 1 Large bowl, 1 kitchen mixer (hand held or standing work… you could do it by hand and not powered, but you have to have more muscles and time than I have!)
  • 2 packs of cream cheese (pretty sure that is 16 oz) at room temperature (very important)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon powdered sugar (this is significantly less than regular icing)
Directions:
  • Whip cream cheese in large bowl until fluffy.
  • Mix in vanilla and powdered sugar until incorporated.
  • Put in piping bag and pipe a dollop onto each cupcake
If you end up making these cupcakes (or a variation) I’d love to hear about how they turned out! 
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