PeekabooNWA

A Dad’s View

Posted on 01. Mar, 2009 by admin in A Dad's View

With all due respect to the relatively mysterious Saint Patrick, March is a month that lacks very many of those special days that warrants its own shelf or section at Wal-Mart. Last year, March welcomed Easter to its lineup and appreciated the Good Friday holiday break. While you can buy all things green this month to recognize the life of St. Patrick over 1500 years ago on March 17, the mailman still brings the bills, the school bell still rings, and the time clock still awaits a good punch.

However, for my family, March is one of birthday cakes, cards and family get-togethers. Within just a few days of each other my father, my little sister, and I all celebrate a new year. Then, last year, I was blessed to have my son come a month earlier than scheduled and be born in March as well. That is a whole lot of birthday cake and ice cream!

As PEEKABOO successfully celebrated its first birthday last month with its anniversary issue, Cassandra and I started thinking what to do for Malachi’s first birthday bash. This is a pretty stressful event to commemorate our son’s first year. This lead me to share with you some ideas for celebrating your young one’s first birthday – or whatever number your son or daughter has on the top of their cake. I would like to share five ideas that I think would help you in planning the perfect party for your one-year-old VIP!

5. Birthday Box Bash – I remember growing up, my siblings and I would love to play in big cardboard boxes for hours and hours. Dad can build a city of refrigerator box skyscrapers and washing machine box grocery stores courtesy of your local furniture store dumpster! This will be sure to entertain the little ones and reinforce their imagination! Be sure to have small sheets of paper and crayons beside a decorated shoe box to collect special birthday wishes from your guests for the child-of-honor’s keepsake box.

4. All-American Sports Party – If ESPN is always on at least one of your televisions throughout the day and your son or daughter appreciate that fact (even though mom may not as in my case), you may want to take advantage of having a sports theme party. Invite those attending to wear clothing of their favorite team; regardless of the sport. The game possibilities are endless; but be sure to record each of the events. You may even want to edit a highlight video that even Chris Berman would appreciate to send as a thank you gift to all your guests.

3. Old McDonald’s Hoedown – Take the party out to the farm. What do kids love more than pony rides and chasing little goats and sheep around the yard. If you are like me and are not that fond of animals and all they have to offer, you can always decorate with stuffed animals and have a plastic chicken egg hunt or a quick round of Duck-Duck-Goose.

2. Mother Goose Dress-Up Party – Decorate your house with scenes from Mother Goose’s book of nursery rhymes and invite your attendees to come dressed as their favorite rhyme character. This is something that mom and dad can join their children in doing. The children will love it and those photos of the moms and dads dressed up like Little Miss Muffet and Little Jack Horner will make for some interesting comments on your Facebook page!

1. Baby-Grammy party – Malachi loves to dance to music and will stop whatever he is doing when anything with a beat comes across the radio or TV. If your little one is the same way, you may consider having a red carpet affair and invite your guests to come dressed in their Sunday-best. You can present miniature plastic trophies with awards for a creative list of things providing all an opportunity to walk out winners!

Whatever you choose to do for that special day, make sure that it reflects the interest of your little one and is unique to the day. Since his birthday falls on Friday 13, we even considered a Camp Crystal Lake theme and provide hockey masks for everyone; but quickly agreed that that was probably not the best of our ideas! In planning the party, make sure you remember it is about that perfect boy or perfect girl and regardless of what you choose; it will be the perfect day that they will always remember and appreciate.

Have a blessed month and Happy 1st Birthday Malachi!

Dad’s View by: Chris Whitaker
Husband to Cassandra Whitaker and
Father of 3 wonderful children, Ian, Symone, & Chi.
Co-founder of Blended4Life Ministries.