Loot bag ideas for infants?

[bargain_hunter_lola]

Wow. At our grandson's 1st b'day we were the two sets of grandparents, his uncle, aunt and cousin from down south, and his Mom and Dad!! I've read where expectations of kids regarding their birthdays as they grew up were absolutely out of this world! Each Mom 'had' to top the other Moms or their kids went balistic!.....Sheesh!! I really doubt our DD will ever succumb to that....When our kids were young, they could have 3 kids over when they were 3, 4 with they were 4....etc...and games/food/cake and icecream was all they needed!
Wow.Things sure have changed!

Our daughter's first birthday is not a competition for us. It's a time for celebration! I admit I am doing a few things I dont necessarily need to but I just want to do her first birthday right, she's our first baby!

We have a VERY big family. All of the guests are family! My husband alone has 6 siblings and some cousins that are like siblings. And then of course there is my side of the family. We are all quite close. We're lucky that some of our daughter's GREAT grandparents are still with us and will be joining also. In total we are inviting 33 adults and 6 kids, and YES they are all close family members.

To put our family size in perspective, we got married down south (carribbean) so that we could have a SMALL wedding (I was thinking under 10 because of the cost) we still ended up with over 30 guests! We're blessed to have so many loving family members!

Our reception party when we got back was INSANE! Thankfully we chose to have just a party, no sit down meal. Which is exactly what we are planning for our daughter's b-day. Cake, Coffee/Tea, Juice and Snacks.

I'm just looking for ideas for loot bags for the kids, which having 5 or 6 kids (cousins) is not that many IMHO. My goal is to spend $7 or less on each bag. The puzzles, Elmo board books, Hair Clips, Halloween Duckies are my fav ideas so far.

Thank you everyone for contributing! Lots of great ideas I wouldn't have thought of.

[Lynn49]

Our daughter's first birthday is not a competition for us. It's a time for celebration! I admit I am doing a few things I dont necessarily need to but I just want to do her first birthday right, she's our first baby!

We have a VERY big family. All of the guests are family! My husband alone has 6 siblings and some cousins that are like siblings. And then of course there is my side of the family. We are all quite close. We're lucky that some of our daughter's GREAT grandparents are still with us and will be joining also. In total we are inviting 33 adults and 6 kids, and YES they are all close family members.

To put our family size in perspective, we got married down south (carribbean) so that we could have a SMALL wedding (I was thinking under 10 because of the cost) we still ended up with over 30 guests! We're blessed to have so many loving family members!

Our reception party when we got back was INSANE! Thankfully we chose to have just a party, no sit down meal. Which is exactly what we are planning for our daughter's b-day. Cake, Coffee/Tea, Juice and Snacks.

I'm just looking for ideas for loot bags for the kids, which having 5 or 6 kids (cousins) is not that many IMHO. My goal is to spend $7 or less on each bag. The puzzles, Elmo board books, Hair Clips, Halloween Duckies are my fav ideas so far.

Thank you everyone for contributing! Lots of great ideas I wouldn't have thought of.

I apologize if that came out snarky, Lola...I didn't mean it that way....it's just that we hear so much about birthdays being so over-the-top in some areas, and it just doesn't make sense! You're very lucky to have such a big family and all that support...that's a completely different matter to what I was referring to....if one kid has pony rides, the next kid has to have a live band!! It's no wonder so many of them grow up feeling so entitled......and they all wonder what's wrong with kids these days?!
I hope your wee one has a wonderful 1st birthday....family is everything!

[bargain_hunter_lola]

No worries at all. I understand that some children do get spoiled. Just thought I should clairfy why the party has so many adults coming. There's no way I could say "sorry your not invited" to one of her many caring relatives. LOL. Although sometimes family events do become a zoo!

[Lynn49]

No worries at all. I understand that some children do get spoiled. Just thought I should clairfy why the party has so many adults coming. There's no way I could say "sorry your not invited" to one of her many caring relatives. LOL. Although sometimes family events do become a zoo!

Well, I envy you that large family....all or our family is in Thunder Bay and we're pretty much alone here except for my DH's side of the family....wish I could move ThBay closer! ;-)

[cmoody8107]

THanks for the ideas... lol I have borrowed a couple as my sons first birthday is on the 23rd!

[Candini]

found this on google! great ideas I need in time for sunday!

[mellyskater]

we made gingerbread homemade cookies with icing, put in cello and gave out to all the adults as they left kinda as a thank you! There were only 3 kids and they all got loot bags with some gerber snacks, a book and a little toy (found on clearance). This year doing the same but i got sand packages of 10 toys each on clearance last year for 94 cents retail 6.94 so that with a small treat for the kids will be it (esp since the bday is may) so getting to the warm weather

[bargain_hunter_lola]

Wow, I forgot all about this thread! lol.

For DD's first party, I ended up going with:

-Cloth Carebear Bags
-Heinz Toddler Cookies (were about $1.27 -$1 coupon)
-Carebear board books ($1 each)

For her 2nd birthday, the loot bags were:

-Ariel plastic bags
-Little bags of goldfish crackers ($2.50 or so for 6 little bags)
-Little bubble wands ($2 for 6 at WM in the US)
-Little plastic ducky's ($4 for 6 at WM in the US)

For her third birthday:

-Plain small gift bags from the $ store (3 for $1) with a "thank you note" from DD taped on it (with double sided taped)
-Stickers
-3 of those really small playdough (sold at SDM on mega redemption. 10 for $5 I believe)
-Colouring books from Michaels ($1 each)

Hope that gives people some more ideas!

[gracesmommy]

i love bday party ideas. for my dd's 2nd birthday party we had a backyard sprinkler/dora party so the lootbag was a little sandpail, shovel, bubbles and a free dairy queen kids sundae coupon. was a big hit.
3rd birthday was toy story so i did re-usable toy story bag, coloring book, crayons, bubbles, frisbee, stickers and tattoos.

[shmeelady]

I had the same problem, my son's 1st birthday is coming up and I was so stuck on loot bag ideas!! Then I was organizing my stockpile and it hit me...

A few days ago SDM had gerber graduates on price freeze for $1.99 and I picked up a TON. Plus I had a bunch of those Heinz little kid biscuit packs that I got for $.27 at WM.

I'm going to cut a piece of cardboard and put gerber puffs, a pack of cookies and a pack of yogurt melts. Wrap in cellophane and finish with some ribbon. Badda bing, badda boom. There's one less thing to worry about

[shmeelady]

LOL. I didn't realize this thread was so old.

[blueyedmama]

LOL. I didn't realize this thread was so old.

Me neither...! I was just browsing through looking for ideas for DD's birthday party next week! Oh well! thanks for the info anyways!

[canadamoose]

My sons 1st birthday is this month too... and we are stuck as well! We only have about 5 kids under 3 coming, so I picked up some of the Halloween rubber ducks at Wal-mart for $1.27 each. For a a treat for the young ones, I bought the Heinz baby Granola bars. That's as far as we have gotten! The boards books is a good idea though... you can usually find some good ones at the Dollar Store!

not to scare you but I would do a quick search on those rubber duckies, appears they're pretty toxic especially when in contact with water

[ashokia]

What a great thread! Lots of ideas for when my LO's first birthday is here!

[corbinx]

For DD I was able to get lots of great things for well under $5 per loot bag.
For her first birthday I didn't do much...goody hair clips for her little cousin and pre-made cups with mixed gummy candies for her big cousins for the family party. For the play date party we had everyone bring an item for everyone's goody bag (in lieu of gifts) and so we each added an item or two to the bags...everyone ended up with homemade CDs, mini books, bath toys, baby snacks, utensils, containers, cups, hairclips, bubbles, candy, etc. I had put the kids names and stickers on paper bags ahead of time and when guests arrived they added their item.
For her second birthday we did a cowgirl theme. I bought jean diapers (loved this idea so much!), sheriff badges, bandannas, stuffed cows/horses, and toy story stickers.
For her third birthday we did a carnival theme. I got clown noses, tootie pops, pixie sticks, stickers, fruit by the foot, and tattoes for the kids around 3 years old and blow up pools (on clearance at Wal-Mart) for the younger kids.
One website I ordered a bunch of carnival stuff from was www.orientaltrading.com. I am planning to order things for both my kids parties this year (and other random things) as there is such a great variety of items for any theme and it's no more expensive than any other party store.