1st Birthday Party Theme Ideas 1st birthday party theme ideas are many times more exciting for the parents than it is to the birthday child. This is because it is their child's very first birthday and they want to make it as special and memorable as possible.

Ladybugs are cute little creatures and make a perfect theme, especially during the summer months. For activities and games, you could make a felt ladybug with no spots. Then make round black spot markers and play Pin the Spot on the Ladybug. Another fun activity is to give everyone a red apron and have them make their own ladybug apron using black fabric paint. For decorations, use red and black streamers and balloons, a red tablecloth for the food table and red paper plates for the food. Ladybug cakes can be made or ordered from your favorite bakery.

Monkey parties can be loads of fun. For invitations, use a bit of creativity and create a large banana on yellow card stock. Decorations may include yellow, green and brown streamers. You can also hang plush monkeys, bananas and palm trees around the area. Using a brown tablecloth on the event table, along with yellow plates and green silverware, will give the party area a jungle feel to it. Kids love to color so give each guest a monkey picture to color. Treats could include having the kids make their own banana splits and eating monkey face cupcakes which are fun and easy to make. For the goodie bags, give each guest a small bag filled with yellow and green jellybeans, banana flavored candy, miniature plush monkeys and monkey notepads.

Having a safari party is perfect for little ones. Turn your event area into a jungle by creating palm trees out of brown paper bags. Scatter stuffed animals around the event area and decorate the party table with tropical birds and flowers. A fun game for little ones to play is hide and seek. You can take the animals that you scattered around the room and hide them for guests to find. Allow all the guests to keep whatever stuffed animals they find. Jungle juice is a big hit with kids and easy to make. It is made with pineapple juice, 7-Up and lime sherbet. For cake ideas, a basic cake with palm trees will suffice or you can go all out and make a large snake cake.

Kids love farm animals, so have a barnyard bash. You could either make or purchase your own invitations that include either a barn picture or a different barn animals such as cows and pigs. Let the party guests pig out on farm foods such as green pasta that resemble grass and French fries which can pass for hay. If the weather is nice and you have the room, an outdoor party would be perfect. You could spread out several checkered tablecloths on the grass and spread some hay all around. And no barnyard party would be complete without a little piggy cake.

Let your guests go on an under the sea adventure with this theme. Decorations may include green and blue streamers and balloons around the party area. Hang cutouts of seahorses, dolphins and starfish from the ceiling. Use a light blue or light green tablecloth on the food table. Goody bags can include fish squirts, toy starfish or mini beach balls. A fun activity would be to take a large sheet of butcher paper and give the kids crayons so they can draw their favorite sea creatures. You could have lots of fun with under the seafood ideas such as fish sticks and French fries, goldfish crackers, seashell pasta and blue and green Jell-O.

Get ready to sail the skies with an airplane theme birthday bash. Weather permitting; you could turn your driveway into a runway using white chalk. If the event needs to be held indoors, decorate the party area with posters of airplanes and hang little plastic airplanes from the ceiling. Decorate the room with blue and white balloons to represent the sky and clouds. Instead of a birthday cake, try making cupcakes with blue-and-white frosting and put miniature plastic airplanes on the top. For fun activity ideas, have the kids color airplane pictures or purchase some removable airplane tattoos and have them tattoo each other. For goodie bags, give each guest plastic airplanes and airplane stickers.

All small children love puppies so have a puppy themed bash. You can either make or order a dog bone cake for your child. Decorate the birthday area with streamers and balloons that are either Dalmatian spotted or you can use colors such as blue, white, brown and green. Cut out paw prints with brown construction paper and hang them from the ceiling or place them on the floor throughout the party area. A great idea for a tablecloth would be to take a piece of white butcher paper and have the children draw dog prints and write their name inside the paw print. Great party favors include miniature plush dogs, stickers and whistles.

Turn your fun area into an extinct dinosaur area. For invitation ideas, cut out cracked egg shapes from white construction paper. For decorations hang dinosaur posters around the area, place miniature toy dinosaurs on the event table and cut out dinosaur footprints from construction paper and place them at the front door leading to the event area. For a fun game idea, hide plastic Easter eggs around the event area and don't forget to fill the eggs with candy or stickers. Another fun idea would be to have the kids watch an age-appropriate dinosaur movie. For party favors, send guests home with dinosaur books, stickers or pictures.

All of these ideas make a great 1st birthday party theme. Since your child is so young, they probably will not remember their first birthday, so be sure to take lots of pictures. A fun activity to do with those pictures is to create a scrapbook of their very first birthday party. For more resources, the internet has more information.