Birthday Party Ideas
Published on: June 30, 2007
Birthday Parties Just for Kids
Birthday parties for toddlers and preschoolers are happy, fun filled events. They can be a joy and delight for everyone. When planning a party for young children, there are two main things to consider, the number of guests and party planning.
Fun and Easy Party Ideas
Many people believe you should invite the same amount of children as the age of your child. For example, if your child is turning 4, you should invite 4 children. I think you can break this rule if you have extra people to help you at the party. You can even hire neighborhood teens to help you with the party. Also, if space is limited you can host your party at a local park.
When planning a party make sure you have someone to take videos, digital pictures, or instant photos of the party guests, activities, and the birthday child. When all the activities are finished you can show pictures or videos to your young guests before their parents pick them up. It's a nice quiet activity that will keep their attention; children love looking at themselves.I have found one of the most important aspects of a successful party is to have lots, even more than enough, activities for the children. I love creating a party from a theme and finding games and activities to support the theme. When choosing an idea, take into consideration the guests ( all boys, all girls, or both), seasons, holidays and weather. Make sure you have little transition activities to do while you set up for the next birthday activity.
Invitations can be made by you and your child several weeks before the party. Make sure you provide the following: when the party is, how long it will last, who the birthday child is, address of party and your phone number for the RSVP, what to wear if there is a special theme.Here are a few easy ideas:
Balloon invitation-buy big balloons and confetti. Make the invitation on flexible paper you can roll into a small scroll. Blow up the balloon, add the confetti and invitation. Tie the balloon and add a streamer with a tag that says, "Pop me!" Deliver to the guests.
Using a print shop maker use your computer to design a custom invitation. You can even research the news headlines the day your child was born and add it to the invitation.
Get plain white prepaid postage postcards and decorate with stamps and stickers along with the party information.
Here are some party themes you can use.
Birthday Garden Tea Party.
You can have the children dress up in their best or have dress up clothes available. Decorate with a flower theme using bright umbrellas, paper lanterns, and artificial and real flowers. Buy inexpensive toy tea sets to serve the tea and tea sandwiches. A great idea is to let each child decorate a plain cup cake or sugar cookie. Provide toppings and frosting for each child. Make sure each child has their own paper plate, paper towel, plastic knife and their own dollop of frosting to decorate their cake. The guests can make their own necklaces and bracelets using beads and thin shoe laces. A great game to play is treasure hunt in the garden. You can give each child a different colored bow on her basket or container. Put a different color on each of the treasures. Each child looks only for the treasures that match their colored bow. A great place to get treasures is a dollar store, thrift store, or an outlet store. Costume jewelry, stickers, stamps, suckers, balloons, bubbles, make great treasures. A pretty bedding plant, such as a colorful pansy can be given as a party favor.
Bug Safari Birthday Party.
This is definitely a casual dress, outdoor party. Decorate with pictures of bugs, spiders, and fake spider webs. You can make a pin the wings on an insect game. Use the same rules as pin the tail on the donkey. Use bug eyes for the blindfold. I use a sleep mask with big googley eyes glued on the outside. The spider web game is a great game to keep everyone in the same place for awhile. You divide the children into 2 groups, give each group a ball of yarn , let each child have a turn unwinding the yarn a few inches, then he passes the yarn to the person next to him.. Make sure the children only wrap the yarn from the neck down. The team that finishes unwinding the spider web first wins. You can do the game in reverse by letting the children rewind the yarn. Finally, provide bug barns (make your own bug barn ) and nets to go outside and find bugs You can purchase the barns and insect nets at a discount store. Instead of a birthday cake you can make a dirt cake with worms, and other creepy crawlies. Besides the bug barn, and net, you can give a magnifying glass, plastic insects, worms, and spiders as a party favors.
Teddy Bear Party.
The children can wear their pajamas and slippers to this party. This is a great indoors party theme. I would provide a cuddly stuffed teddy bear or stuffed animal as a party favor. You can find small ones on sale quite often. Instead of musical chairs, I like to play musical pillows. The children sit on a pillow when the music stops. I give the winner a prize, but to prevent tears and unhappiness, I give all the other children a little consolation prize. Another fun game is 5 teddy bears. You can change the number to fit the amount of children playing the game. Line up in a row, give the first teddy bear in line a round fuzzy tail. March around and chant or sing, "Five teddy bears that I once knew, big ones, little ones, just like you, but the one little bear with the big fuzzy tail, he ruled the others with his Grrrrr! Grrrrr! Grrrrr! He ruled the others with his, Grrrr! Grrrr! Grrrr! Down the stairs they would go, Wiggle Wabble Wiggle Wabble, to and fro. But the one little bear with the big fuzzy tail, he ruled the others with his Grrr! Grrrr! Grrrr! Let the children take turns wearing the big fuzzy tail.
Messy Birthday Party Bash.
This party is great when done in an area that you can hose down the mess. The guests should arrive in play clothes that can be washed, or thrown away! Fun Activity. Finger painting with shaving cram or whipped topping with a drop of food coloring put in middle. Put down big black garbage bags on lawn placing the finger paint fluff and color in the middle. Let the child have a messy fun time. Plastic Ball Swim. In a child's plastic wading pool fill with plastic balls, you can use different colors and sizes. Let them have a ball playing in the pool. Make sculptures out of Play Sand. Clay.
Silly Party.
Wear silly clothes, like odd shoes, different colored socks, a funny hat, etc. You can start the party backwards. When the guest arrive you say good bye, eat the cake first, any silly fun thing the children and you want to do. A fun game is musical clothes. You put all sorts of silly clothes in a bag, old hats, mens or ladies, purses, big shoes, bibs, rattles, etc., Have the children sit in a circle and pass around a small ball while the music plays. When the music stops, the child with the ball is the winner, closes her or his eyes, picks out an object, and put it on. This game can get really wild and fun! Another fun activity is to do face painting.
Some more fun