Share Baby Book at Birthday Party

[babyfiorina1]

DD's 1st birthday is coming up next weekend. It's not going to be a huge party. There will be 10 adults and 2 kids. I'm thinking of sharing DD's first year baby memory's book during the party too. Our guests are mainly family member and close friends. I don't know if that will actually bore people or a silly thing to do. TIA.

[vonfirmath]

Have it out where people can page through it if they like, but are not forced to if they don't want to?

[Minnifer]

Not that I did a baby book :bag but I'd be a bit worried that it might get inadvertently messed up somehow by a guest - food or drink dropping on it, sticky fingers, etc. Although, maybe if it somehow did you could incorporate it into the book ("this mark is from the blob of cake Uncle Tim dropped at your 1st bday party...") :) .

[twowhat?]

At DDs' last bday party we kept a photo slideshow running on the TV of some of our favorite pictures over the past 3 years. People seemed to like it - several made comments on particular photos and for those who were bored by it, they weren't pressured to comment:)

[sunshine873]

Go for it.

At my DDs 1st Birthday party, I showed 2 Slideshows set to music that I had done of her 1st year. Since she was born 3 1/2 months early, she had gone through a lot of changes in that year. A lot of the people at her party had supported us through all the months in the NICU and we had some new friends there that hadn't really experienced it. It was wonderful and incredibly moving to be reminded of just how far she'd come - all while she was playing around in front of us on the floor. :) Sure a few people may have rolled their eyes at 1st, but there quickly wasn't a dry eye in the place...

The party is all about celebrating making it through that 1st year, so why not share what happened along the way!?!

[SnuggleBuggles]

I would have it out but I wouldn't sit there and read it to people. Like a pp though I worry about it getting messed up.

I like slideshows but you have to keep them short or just keep them running so people don't feel like they have to commit X minutes to watching it then. I just went to a party with a 10 minute long slide show. I didn't really know the kids well. I was in to it for the first 2-3 minutes then I started tuning out. Watching it was a group activity.

An alternative is lots of stills, maybe with captions. "First steps!" "She always hated that hat but it was so cute!" "Not sure what to make of that" "her eyes light up whenever she sees X" We hung pictures all over for ds1. For ds2 I made 2 collages. I had been taking monthly pics of him with the same props (baby blocks to spell out his age). I had one collage that was 12 pics along the perimeter and 1 picture in the middle that was all the "perfect" shots. The other collage was same format but my favorite out takes of those monthly photo sessions. People loved the candid one! I do too.

Beth

[BayGirl2]

Have it out where people can page through it if they like, but are not forced to if they don't want to?

:yeahthat:That's what I did. I made a pretty nice (if I say so myself) scrapbook for DS and worked to have it finished by his first bday. I had it on the end of our counter (bar area) where adults could page through it if they wanted. It was out of reach of children so it was less likely to get messed up, and it didn't. Some people flipped through and complimented it or laughed/commented on the pictures of him. It was a fun thing to have around.

I've also seen slide show running in the background thing and that's kind of nice. I say if you have those kind of things available, no reason not to share them. But let people do it at their leisure.