First Birthday Arrival
and Icebreaker Ideas

They also work great as a way to occupy the babies at the beginning of the party as the other guests are arriving. Here is a list of our best and most popular 1st birthday baby arrival and icebreaker ideas.

There isn't a child out there who doesn't love bubbles, and that’s why popping bubbles is the best and most guaranteed fun way to start your baby's first birthday party. Although, you can blow them yourself, it will be easier and save you valuable party time to use a bubble machine, and if you are having children blow their own bubbles have them use spill proof bottles and wands.

While the children are crawling and running around chasing the bubbles and waving around their bubble wands, it is a great idea to have some themed party music playing in the background to get your guests moving.

Have you ever tried to make your own bubble mixture at home and it didn't work? Here's the formula for making the perfect homemade bubble mixture. Homemade Bubble Recipes

The best thing about having the babies and small children popping bubbles at the beginning of the party is that...

• It is fun to watch
• It gives time for the parents to be introduced and get situated
• The kids will all play together
• It will occupy the children until the other guests arrive

If you would like to use our party ideas for your child's birthday party, don't forget to go to our free download page and download your own personal first birthday party E-Book there you will also see what other free party plans our site has to offer. As a special gift to our visitors, for one week only we will be offering you a free download of a digital copy of our book, “The Ultimate Guide to the Perfect First Birthday Party” (a $10 Value) and a themed E-Book of your choosing (a $5 Value) when you make a donation of any amount. This is to celebrate our sites recent accomplishment of reaching our goal of 12,000 E-Book downloads. Imagine having direct access to the Internets greatest 1st birthday party planning ideas directly from your computer without the hassle of having to look all over the web to find them again. This is just another service our site provides you to show our devotion to making your party planning experience as simple, stress free and money saving as possible. Each E-Book includes: An easy to use table of contents. A list of the highest ranked, lowest priced, below retail online party suppliers out there, guaranteed to save you money. Countless pages of the most in-depth one of a kid party plans full of free birthday party ideas and tips for invitations, costumes, icebreaker games, decorations, food, drinks, cake, party favors, and games. Each E-Book is made in a simple to read and use format and all are Spam and Spy-ware free.

These Playdough arrival icebreaker ideas are great, because they let the children play at their own pace, while at the same time being surrounded by the other babies and children. Playdough is a great 1st birthday party activity for your baby's themed birthday party, and it will spark curiosity and creativity in your baby and guests.

Give your birthday baby and little guest's plastic theme shaped cookie cutters and some theme colored Playdough. If they choose not to use the cookie cutter, that's ok, just let them play and explore at their own pace, the cookie cutters can be sent home with your guests as a party favor.

Do you want to make your own homemade playdough for your baby's first birthday party? Here are some Homemade Playdough Recipes, there are non-edible and edible playdough recipes to help take away that worry of "What will happen if my child ate some of it?"

Make sure that you have a clean plastic or rubber mat set up for this activity, not just for your floors safety, but more importantly for the children's safety. Be sure that you choose a mat that is hard to bend or tear, so that it will not be a choking hazard.

One very important thing to remember before planning to have an art activity at a baby's birthday party is, to inform all of the parents prior to the party. That way, they can dress their children appropriately, to avoid any nice or new clothes from being ruined.

Provide kids with crayons and markers, and have them color in theme related coloring books while waiting for the other guests to arrive.

If you wanted to make this a group activity, you can lay down large sheets of white butcher paper on a non-carpeted surface and let the children crawl and walk around to color wherever they want to on the paper.

To keep the party as mess-free as possible use Crayola Color Wonders markers and finger-paints.

Either you can give each child their own separate sheets to paint or draw on or you can tape many of the sheets together and have the children paint and draw in a group.

Make sure that there is always an adult present while small children are coloring and finger painting, since children tend to want to mark on everything in the room. Also remember marker lids and broken crayons can be choking hazards.

You can show a home video of your baby's 1st year "highlights", this is great because most little children love to watch other babies on television. That way they can be occupied until all the guests have arrived.

Petting Zoo

For this type of entertainment, you can take the kids to your local petting zoo or hire a service that will bring the petting zoo to your home. Both have their benefits. If you go to your local petting zoo...

• You are in a more controlled environment
• The admission fee would be less
• There will be no mess from the animals that you will have to clean up

If you have a service bring the animals to your home...

• You won't have any travel expenses
• If some of the children are frightened by the animals (which can happen) there are other activities they can do
• You can have more of a party because you won't lose time on getting all the children ready and travel to and from a petting zoo

Remember, before you decide to have a petting zoo as a part of your baby's 1st birthday party, to call the parents of the children you will be inviting to see if their kids have any allergies to certain animals.