My son just had his first birthday.  Since he is really not into any cartoon or television characters yet, I didn't want to use a character theme for his party. I decided to have a beach party at our house.  I ordered invitations off of the internet that had a border with surf boards, flip flops and lifesavers.  It was pre-printed so I didn't have to write anything except to address the envelopes. For decorations I had helium balloons everywhere that were lime green, yellow and light blue. For the centerpiece for the buffet I filled a sandpail with sand and inserted a piece of wood that had signs on it that listed beaches with there milage from our house.  I also covered the buffet with a beach towel and scattered seashells randomly.  For the food I served hamburgers, hotdogs, goldfish crackers out of a sandpail, three different kinds of homemade salsa and chips (chips were served out of a sandpail), rice krispie treats shaped like fish, watermelon and the birthday cakes.  I made a cake in the shape of a one and put some tropical fish candles on it.  I also made a cake that was supposed to represent the ocean. It had white icing with nilla wafer crumbs for the beach on one side and blue icing with a shallow hole cut out in the middle for the ocean on the other side. I used teddy grahams for the people and piped bathing suits and snorkleing masks on them.  I also had a sailboat and a lifeguard stand. There were goldfish crakers and seaweed made out of fruit roll ups on the sides of the cake.  We had 43 guests and most of them were adults.  When the kids arrived they were invited to go to our garage and make decorate a sunvisor with paint and foam stickers.  This went over well and it was an easy and quick craft idea.  I had pre-made one for my son that said Birthday Boy and I had painted a sun on it and had several fish stickers. When the kids were done with that we all ate, then we had cake and ice cream.  As soon as we finished eating my son opened his presents. Then, we let the kids swim.  We had a large inflatable pool and a small baby pool. Also, we had a Nemo sprinkler. We also let the kids play in the sandbox, swing and slide. While the kids were playing we also were making snowcones for anyone who wanted it. The kids played for a while, then they began to get tired so everyone started heading home.  The party favors were small sandpails filled with packages of goldfish crakers, bubbles, sunglasses, watersquirters, beach themed stickers, sand molds and a rake or shovel.  For the most part everything was bought at Target or the Dollar Tree.  This was the first childs birthday party I have given and I feel like it turned out really good!