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A few months before my son's first birthday I realized that it was time to start thinking about how to celebrate. I thought back to all of the first birthday parties that I had attended over the years and was uninspired! It's really hard to plan a party to cater to the broad range of guests at most first birthday parties. There are typically relatives from different generations, friends and relatives with kids of a wide range of ages, and friends and relatives without kids. If there is entertainment it is generally appropriate only for a subset of the ages of children in attendance. And the parents always seem torn between giving the various guests a good time and keeping the one year old content.

Photo credit: Adele Z. SchellingClick here to buy a pack of these birthday hats — Photo credit: Adele Z. Schelling
Click here to buy a pack of these birthday hats

I realized that a good party would require a ton of planning and major expenditure on my part and I still wasn't confident that my son would enjoy it (and he is a pretty easy going baby). I put the idea of a birthday celebration to the side.

Photo credit: Adele Z. SchellingMy earrings are kendra scott from a prior season.  here is a similar pair that she currently sells. — Photo credit: Adele Z. Schelling
My earrings are kendra scott from a prior season. here is a similar pair that she currently sells.

I observed my son being happiest around his little group of neighborhood friends and at music class. The instant he sees one of his little friends or that we walk into a class his entire face lights up (even when he had been cranky or crying). So.... I approached the moms of his four neighborhood friends and asked if they would be interested in a joint celebration for just our babies and the parents. They all loved the idea.

We decided to hold it in the home that was best babyproofed. We divided up the few responsibilities and everything pulled together easily, seamlessly and beautifully. It was basically a festive play date / private music class.

Photo credit: Adele Z. SchellingThis playmat is great, click the image to buy it. — Photo credit: Adele Z. Schelling
This playmat is great, click the image to buy it.

The entire party cost us about $200, most of which went to pay the musical entertainer. We split the cost across the four families (five babies, four families because there is a set of twins).

The babies and parents all loved it. The parents got to enjoy each other's company and even some champagne and focus on our babies and each other. We had all watched the babies grow up over the past year and enjoyed celebrating them together.

I found the musician when she performed at a class at our local library. She is really sweet and appropriate for babies (she doesn't use an amp) and brought a collection of amazing instruments, which fascinated both the parents and the kids.

Here is the breakdown of the approximate costs of the party:

$100 musical entertainer
$30 cupcakes
$30 bubbly
$20 fruit platter
$11 mini birthday hats (these were adorable, click here to buy them)
$6 confetti balloon
$5.00 paper goods

I know that this party format might not work for everyone. I'm sure that lots of people would want to include their families. My son's birthday falls right around Hanukah, so I brought a cake to our family party so that my family could celebrate with us too. We also sponsored the lunch at our synagogue on a Saturday close to his birthday and invited some friends to that. My son was showered with lots of birthday love all month and we have wonderful memories of the various celebrations.

We also did a cake smash, which turned out better than I had imagined. Check back in next week for my blog post with lots of Pinterest worthy images of the cake smash.

In case you are curious, here are some of the instruments that the musician brought to the party (click an image for details):

We told my husband's parents about the instruments and they ended up buying them for my son as a birthday present. I completely recommend this little collection (excluding the African thin piano, which is the item in the last image, as it is very delicate).

I also run a deals group for moms on Facebook. A bunch of these instruments were on sale a few weeks ago and I posted about them in the group. If I see them on sale again, I will post again. You can join the Facebook group by clicking here.

How did you celebrate your bub's first birthday and what advice would you give to other parents?