Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Christa on March 31, 2011 at 11:39am

Remember that it's about the kids not having the best party as deemed by the adults!

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Permalink Reply by Dana Macario on March 31, 2011 at 9:36pm

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE planning birthday parties for my kids. Aah, if only there were a way to make $ planning parties for my own children.  I think the #1 thing is develop a theme that is all about your child's interest at the time. I think the #2 thing is to get your kid involved in the planning with you. Even as toddlers, my kids love talking about their upcoming parties and get so excited thinking of things to do there. While I love planning and executing parties, I don't love spending a ton of $ on them. Ours are home parties and while I spend a fraction of what most of my friends who rent bouncy houses, etc. do, I think they're a lot more memorable and special for my kids because I make the party about what they're interested in.

 

For my daughter's 2nd birthday, we had a "puppy party" because she loved our puppy and dogs so much. I made a "dog house" out of cardboard for the kids to play in and puppy ears (attached to headbands) for them to wear, along with collars with their names on them. I even made dog bone-shaped cookies for each kid, with their name on it in the goodie bag.

 

For her 3rd birthday, it was all about Sesame St. I did either a food or an activity that corresponded to each character. I made Super Grover capes and Zoe tutus for each kid, we got an Elmo pinata. One of the snacks were Goldfish (for Elmo's fish, Dorothy), or gummy worms for Oscar's worm, Slimy. 

 

We're now in the process of planning a Toy Story-themed party for my son's 2nd birthday and my daughter is dreaming of a Max & Ruby-themed 4th birthday party (even though her birthday's not until November...).

 

www.18years2life.com

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Permalink Reply by Danielle Rice on April 1, 2011 at 6:22am

www.pillsbury.com always has great bdady party ideas. We love the do-it-yourself parties from start to finish...kids help with the planning, decoration, invites, games. Favorite themes...Pirate Party - did a treasure chest cake, hunt for gold coins, everyone took home pirate scarves & eye patches. A prince/princess bday party - girls got princess invites, boys got prince - at a farm with pony rides, pin the sword on the knight, a fantastic castle cake. My oldest daughter's bday is early Dec, so we usually did a craft party where we made ornaments or gifts for parents...you can find really inexpensive craft materials and kits at Michaels. This was actually an easy and inexpensive way to go b/c the crafts take up most of the time and the party favors are the ornaments you make. I am NOT a fan of goody bags!

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Permalink Reply by Lesley P on April 1, 2011 at 10:42am

For our daughter -- the things he enjoys most (& has for many years .. since she was 7) is taking a few friends to a restaurant & they sit by themselves, & order what they want, interact with the waiter, etc..

Mom & Dad are close by - but out of direct ear shot, so they can have some fun & LOTS of laughs.

 

For the younger set -- Treasure Hunts are always a huge hit.

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Permalink Reply by Cynthia on April 1, 2011 at 11:27am

Oh Dana thank you for sharing! This will be my son's very 1st birthday party and though he may be too young to remember it  I want to take TONS of  pictures so that he can see what a happy occasion it is (was).  Already he adores Elmo.  I just may "borrow" your fabulous ideas.  It's been said that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", right??  I wish I had your love of planning & executing parties....Sigh...oh boy...goody bags - what to do?  Back in my day we didn't have goody bags. Our birthday parties were always at home with tons of food made by mom, cake, ice-cream, and always the punch bowl, yep...no drink boxes or pouches when I was youngster.

 

Cynthia

Dana Macario said:

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE planning birthday parties for my kids. Aah, if only there were a way to make $ planning parties for my own children.  I think the #1 thing is develop a theme that is all about your child's interest at the time. I think the #2 thing is to get your kid involved in the planning with you. Even as toddlers, my kids love talking about their upcoming parties and get so excited thinking of things to do there. While I love planning and executing parties, I don't love spending a ton of $ on them. Ours are home parties and while I spend a fraction of what most of my friends who rent bouncy houses, etc. do, I think they're a lot more memorable and special for my kids because I make the party about what they're interested in.

 

For my daughter's 2nd birthday, we had a "puppy party" because she loved our puppy and dogs so much. I made a "dog house" out of cardboard for the kids to play in and puppy ears (attached to headbands) for them to wear, along with collars with their names on them. I even made dog bone-shaped cookies for each kid, with their name on it in the goodie bag.

 

For her 3rd birthday, it was all about Sesame St. I did either a food or an activity that corresponded to each character. I made Super Grover capes and Zoe tutus for each kid, we got an Elmo pinata. One of the snacks were Goldfish (for Elmo's fish, Dorothy), or gummy worms for Oscar's worm, Slimy. 

 

We're now in the process of planning a Toy Story-themed party for my son's 2nd birthday and my daughter is dreaming of a Max & Ruby-themed 4th birthday party (even though her birthday's not until November...).

 

www.18years2life.com

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Permalink Reply by Dana Macario on April 1, 2011 at 2:52pm

Cynthia - Here's the full party plan - copy away ;)

 

My daughter is a huge Sesame Street fan, so for her 3rd party, we did a Sesame Street themed party at home. I kept the budget to $250 all in (food, decorations, everything). I wanted to represent each of the monsters on the show in some way - either through food, or an activity.

 

Invite: An email invite done on Microsoft Publisher. The verbiage I found on this site, read: "Charlotte is turing 3 - Let's all sing, dance & shout YIPPEE!  There's gonna be a party, Sat. November 20th is the date... It starts at 10:00am, please don't be late! Big Bird,Cookie & Elmo, they all say they can come, if you are going to be there, please phone Charlotte's mum. Fun games, prizes and a whole lot of treats... It all takes place on Sesame Street! This party is brought to you by the Letter C and the Number 3."

 

Food:

(For each dish, I put a sign next to it with a picture of the monster and the name of the dish)

* Bert & Ernie cake (I found a Wilton cake pan on eBay)

* Rosita's huevos rancheros

* Dorothy's goldfish crackers

* The Count's jello jigglers (cut into the shape of the #3, with a cookie cutter)

* Ovejita's lamb in a puff pastry (Barefoot Contessa recipe)

* Cookie Monster's chocolate chip cookies

* Slimy - gummy worms

* Big Bird's "birdseed" (Chex Mix)

* Telly's Punch

* Baby Bear's fruit

* Hooper's Store deli tray (sliced cheese, crackers and salami)

 

Activities: (We had several "on your own" style activities and a couple of group activities)

* Elmo pull pinata

* Pin the Nose on Murray (I made a poster of Murray and gave each of the kids a paper "nose" to pin on it)

* Abby Cadabby's wand decorating station (I had wooden wands, decorated with ribbons around the handles and a variety of gem stickers, and other decorations the kids could glue onto their wand)

* Zoe - I made tutus of tulle and elastic for each child

* Grover - I made Super Grover capes for each kid (red fabric, with a "hem" around a piece of yarn. On the back, I used fabric glue to adhere an orange felt lightning bolt, with a blue felt "G" on it)

* Oscar (on tagboard, I made a cut-out Oscar and taped it to the inside of a metal garbage can, so it looked like Oscar was sticking up out of the can). I scrunched up several pieces of newspaper (trash) for kids to practice throwing into the can.

 

For each of the activities, I used a tracer/projector and made a "poster" of the character (I did an outline in black Sharpie, then did a messy coloring of them, like Elmo might do with crayons - very easy and very cute). Each poster was taped to the wall next to the activity, along with a "dialogue bubble", where the character explained the activity).

 

Decorations:

I gathered all of the Sesame Street toys we owned and set them around. I also bought Sesame Street paper plates & napkins. I downloaded pictures of the various characters, printed them out and glued them to cardstock, which I hung from the mantle, along with crepe paper (my daughter had a lot of fun helping me pick out the pictures and rmemeber all of the characters she wanted to include). I also made "Subway Sign" style signs to hang from the light fixture in the dining room, with the letter C and Number 3.

 

Favor Bags:

For the tags on each bag, I downloaded the Sesame Street sign, then replaced the text with the name of each child (using the same font in the Sesame Street sign)

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Williams Bushey on April 2, 2011 at 6:46pm

OMG - I am SO good at planning kids' B-DAY parties that when my youngest was six, I had SCADS of kids invited, a reptile wrangler as entertainment - including a 20-foot boa constrictor - and I got called away at the last-minute for my dad's funeral. 

 

It was so planned, down to the last detail? 

 

No one even remembers I wasn't there! 

 

LOL

 

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Permalink Reply by Lagean "Gena" Marie Ellis on April 3, 2011 at 11:42am

Keep it simple, yet creative. Don't pile in so many activities that they can't enjoy themselves. Give time for them to just 'play'.  Know your limits, too.

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Permalink Reply by ECHOage (Ali) on April 5, 2011 at 8:37am

Birthday Parties are milestones, memorable and too often, overwhelming!  We are all for celebrating - any way you choose - just dial up the meaning and the moments.  Help your guests out by not asking them to shop for unwanted gifts but let them contribute to a group gift that your child can appreciate and treasure (and not end up in landfill). 

We felt so passionate about helping out busy families that we created a service that allows guests to contribute online in seconds to both a charity and a gift.  It solves the problem of what to buy and how to dial up meaning during these milestones.  Who doesn't want to give the gift of helping out people in need? 

In terms of the birthday party itself, keep it short. keep it focused and keep it low stress.

Ali, ECHOage.com

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