Thursday 16 February 2012

1st birthday party planning ...

Riley's 1st birthday is fast approaching, a whole year has almost passed to my utter disbelief, and so I have began planning his party. I absolutely LOVE planning things so I'm completely in my element at the moment. We decided that hiring some soft play equipment for the day would be great fun for all the young children we will be inviting to Riley's party and I found this great company - Bugs Soft Play, that unlike so many others, offer so much equipment and for the WHOLE day. We have chosen the Bugs Standard Package priced at £99 (for the day). We had to pay a 40% deposit to secure our date and the rest will be payable on the day. The only problem I found is that May 19th (Riley's birthday weekend) was booked with 3 different companies!! I have therefore settled for May 26th. 


 Images belong to and are taken from, http://www.bugssoftplay.co.uk/index.php



Before I hired the equipment I called the local Church to see if we could hire the hall and use the gardens, as if it rains my Mum's front room won't accommodate all the soft play equipment and there is the bonus that the Church garden is bigger. Church halls, it turns out, are a great place to have children's parties ... £8.50 an hour; BARGAIN!! So, we now have the option to hold the party outside if we are blessed with a nice day or indoors, if in typical Great British style, we have a gloomy day. 

I haven't yet got around to placing an order for a cake but I do have an exact idea of what I would like. I have also got ideas for things like plates, cups, napkins etc. At the moment my next plan is to start looking into party invites as I would like to send out personalised ones to Riley's guests. 

My final big idea, is for the children to have a teddy bears picnic, whilst they sit down and eat, where we will give each of the children invited their own Build-a-Bear. I have so far purchased a couple but plan to buy a few each month, to spread the cost, up until the party. This will be the childrens' party favour as very young children can't have a party bag. 

Two of the bears I have already purchased.

Though Riley won't remember his 1st birthday party, it will be a lovely opportunity for all of our friends and family to celebrate his first year with us and for the children, a great day to play. 

What did you do, have planned or are you currently planning to mark your little one's 1st birthday?