an eco friendly birthday

Gracie's first birthday is rapidly creeping around the corner. In my attempts to go green, I am feeling very torn, because I know deep down inside how wasteful it would be of me to go buy all kinds of cute, coordinated, pink birthday paper products. So this morning I googled eco friendly birthday parties and wouldn't you know, my new favorite magazine, KIWI, had a great article full of ideas! I totally am going to save this article because, while many of the ideas are what I need for a one year old, they will be great as my kids continue to grow.

A few of the ideas they share are:

• A day in the field- A field trip to an organic farm
• Color their world: tie dye t shirts with natural dye
• BookWorms- Have everyone bring a gently used book for a swap
• Music party- Dance and have tons of music instruments for the kids to play

You can get all the great ideas for parties and play dates here.

Some other things you can do to make your party a little more green:

• Use an Evite. This is the greatest invention ever! And you can customize your evites now too!
• Instead of having everyone hit up the major toy store in town, when people ask what your child would like, ask for natural toys, memberships to places like a children's museum, donations in your child's name to green organizations.
• Make "green" goodie bags. Sandpails are great goodie bags, that can be put to good use. Or use cute fabric to tie up your goodies, and put healthy, fun treats in them!
• Use reusable party products. I think I am going to invest in some that I can use over and over again!

In doing my research I found a great website called Little Cherry, this is exactly what I needed! Unfortunately, it is only in the UK, so if anyone knows of anything like this in the states, please pass it on!

Please share any great green party tips you have in our comments section. I still need lots of ideas!!