any ideas

my little guy is going to be 1 on april 14th!! i still cant believe a whole year has gone by already... people say once u have kids the years fly by and trust me this year has... i am planning a big party for him on the 17th and i am trying to come up with ideas for food.... so far i am getting platters made one deli platter, one like chicken salad egg salad platter, a veggie platter and a fruit platter... and i am going to make potato salad and spagetti salad and get chips and dip and stuff but i am trying to come up with cheap and easy ideas that will serve alot of people... do you guys have any ideas for me? i think once i pay for everything it is going to be around 600.00 opps i know what you are pro thinking why spend so much for a 1st b-day party... well when i started i didnt realize the decorations were going to be so much... i have 75 people coming and was being dump and paid like 5.00 per pack of 8 plates... and 4.00 for 8 cups so i am going to have to go buy even more this weekend... and plus i realized i didnt get enough table clothes eaither and this is after spending 120.00 on decorations so far... it is getting over whelming for me and on top of it i still have to pay for my son to get his taken for easter and also with the easter bunny at the mall... and then i have to buy him easter gifts because it will be his first easter and cook easter dinner... i am going crazy... times liek this i wish i didnt cut up my credit card but at least with paying cash i would have a huge bill to pay at the end.... i am going to head to the dollar store tomorrow and get streamers and ballons and stuff and i have to get to bjs and order a cake and pick up silver ware and stuff... i think i am just going to buy some plain plates and once the cute 1st b-days are all used up i will use those instead of buying like 3-6 more packs of plates that only give u 8 for 5.00... also do you guys have any ideas for decorating? i am going to get a bunch of ballons and stuff his theme is sesame street first birthday it is really cute thanks girls

How many of those 75 are children, cause you know they will not eat much?

well we invited 75 people and there will be around 10 kids there... i am still waiting to hear back from people so far there is around 20 who said they are coming...

It sounds like you have a lot of food planned. How about chex mix and maybe hotdog slices in bbq sauce in a slow cooker(cheap hotdogs turn out great in good sauce and you can get about 50 to 60 slices out of 1 pack of hotdogs) I normally fix 3 or 4 packs for a big group. Adults and kids love these if you don't make the bbq sauce too hot.

ok, you need to go to the $ store! they have sesame st decor for parties. plates, cups, the string paper, and tons more! they even have party bags and party favors- that can be so cheap!

as for food, i always make for big parties (cheap) tortilla wraps.
you get the tortillas, cheese, turkey, cream cheese- put on the tortilla roll and cut into slices.

then slice to look like this

Yeah. What Laura says sounds great. I would go to The Dollar Tree and get all the paper plates and all the silverware (plastic) , napkins and streamers and cups there. They have all colors that you need there. I know cause I worked there for like 7 months. I know what they carry on a regular basis. You may even find the seseme street plastic characters to put on the cake too.

As for decorations.....choose yellow and red for the plastic table clothes...cuz Big Bird is yellow and Red is Elmo....and then if he has any stuffed animals of Seseme Street, you can use these for around the house.

For the kids.....games?/ Have you come up with some games? I know how to make a homemade pinata with inside except WITH THIS PINATA YOU DO NOT USE A BAT OR POLE STICK TO GET THE CANDY OUT!!!! THIS IS DANGEROUS. I we use a flap underneath the box of the pinata and on this flap we poke little holes and cut ribbons like as long as your arm and poke on end of it through the hole and then tie like three big knots so that when the kid pulls down on it the ribbon dosen't slid out.Tape the flap with regular scotch tape when your done filling it up with all kinds of goodies for the kids. Candy, toys, whatever you can think of.Oh, don't forget the confetti too. One whole bag otta do it. With kids standing underneath the pinata....you have each kid take a ribbon in his or her hand..INSTRUCT THEM NOT TO PULL UNTIL YOU COUNT...1, 2, 3....GO!!!!!! THEN THEY ALL PULL ON THE STRINGS AND THE FLAP OPENS AND ALL THE CANDY COMES OUT AND NOBODY GETS HURT THIS WAY AND HAVE ALL OF THE KIDS HAVE A GOODY BAG SO THEY CAN PUT THERE CANDY IN IT AS THEY PICK THEM UP. My grandmother made kick butt pinatas out of a just plain cardboard box. She would decorate the box on the outside with that tissue paper strings thing...of the colors of the charactor and then buy the organ open charactor to tape very good on top of the pinata. Make sure you hang the pinata in a high place. If you need more instructions PM me. This is the cuban way of making a pinata. Because the Mexican way is with a bat or stick and blind folding the person hitting the pinata and we don't go that route because it can hurt someone.
You can also put not only inside the pinata but little toys that come in packs at The Dollar Tree as well. I wish I was there to make you one. Very very easy to make girl. Nothing to it.

Musical chairs....whoever wins gets a prize. Remember to buy the toys at The Dollar Tree both for girls and boys. And depending on who wins they you give a girl a girl prize and a boy a boy prize. (you can use Seseme Street music for this one..

Then you have pin the tail on the donkey.....same thing as for prizes. Maybe you can play Pin the nose on Elmo or something pertaining to Seseme Street.


You can play hot potato but use a stuff animal instead of a potato (like Elmo or Ernie or whatever you have around the house) as your hot potato

Dont' forget to wrap the prizes...and mark them GIRL OR BOY WITH A SHARPIE MARKER. THAT WAY WHEN YOU GO TO GET THE WINNER A PRIZE IT WILL BE FOR THE RIGHT CHILD. YOU CAN PUT ALL THESE PRIZES IN A CUTE OPEN CARDBOARD BOX WITH IT ALL WRAPPED IN WRAPPING PAPER...SESEME STREET OF COARSE!!! AND MAKE SURE YOU PUT IT IN A PLACE THE KIDS CAN'T GET TO. THEY ARE SNEEKY LITTLE THINGS AND WILL TRY TO STICK THERE HANDS IN THERE TO GET THEM A PRIZE WITHOUT YOU LOOKING.....hehehe.

Paint faces.....Seseme Street characters....make a poster of all the charactars you can paint...Elmo, Big Bird, Ernie, Bert, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, etc. Then when it's time for the child to sit down to get it's face painted on it's cheek....he/she can choose which character off the poster. And make sure you have a mirror so they can see when it's all done. A hand held one or what ever you have lying around. And make sure the paint is non-toxic. Have water in a cup, some paper napkins in case of spills or whatever. And a towel in case they change there mind in what they wanted. (You know how children are)

If you need more PM. me.....needless to say I had a terrific childhood and each year I had a great party thanks to my mother and grandmother.

That sounds like so much fun, lsmile! Will you do a party for me? J/K, but it would be great to be a kid again, with you to host the party!

I was thinking the same thing Wicked, WOW what a wonderful time lsmiles, thanks I enjoyed it!!!!!!

Laura, What is the green in your rolls?

wicked1 wrote:That sounds like so much fun, lsmile! Will you do a party for me? J/K, but it would be great to be a kid again, with you to host the party!

cin_20 wrote:I was thinking the same thing Wicked, WOW what a wonderful time lsmiles, thanks I enjoyed it!!!!!!

Why thanks girls....yeah, I dreamt of doing a kids party. Never could for my daughter because we have no family in this town. And her growing up in this town I felt sorry for her. We live in a tight trailer back then and I couldn't do what I wanted to do for her birthday. So she missed out on so much. Maybe when she has her children one day I can devote the time then.

Sucks. But anyhow, we did they best we could. Considering what cards we were dealt with in life.

But at my own parties growing up my grandmother knew so many people she had the hook up and one year I had a magician at one of my parties, and at another one a clown that did balloon animals.

I had the best grandmother a girl could ever have. I miss her so much. She was awesome. She died in 2008. We lived so far apart since I was 18....we only saw each other every so often. I would go there or she would come here. Boy did I love her. She meant the world to me. .................. Okay, moving on to another topic before I cry myself into a coma over here.


But anyhow, I wish I could pour all my knowledge in what I know do make other children happy. I just don't know how. I only had one child....but was pregant 4 times in total, so my 1 child was a blessing. But I was never ready to finish. You know what I mean? But I guess it was never meant to be. But I love kids and I just wish I could do something with having to do with kids. But what? Now a days you need a license to do this or that. Sucks.

i pulled those off the internet but i imagine lettuce??? to make it cheap though you could do ham or turkey with cheese and cresm cheese OR cream cheese and chopped olives. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm