Your child’s birthday is coming up and you have no idea what to do. Here’s some fun suggestions on birthday party ideas for all age ranges.
1. Ballerina Party – Best for little girls about three or four. Find your local dance studio and ask if there is anybody who would be interested in being the entertainment for your daughter’s birthday party. All the little guests are invited to come dressed as ballerinas, and your personal grown up ballerina greets them at the door and does a 1/2 hour or so ballerina class. When the class is finished, they sit down and watch the ballerina perform. She helps cut the cake and pass out some presents and your little girl will think it’s the greatest party ever. Decorate with a ballerina theme, and watch the kids sparkle.
2. Halloween parties (or if a birthday falls near the fall) – Invite the kids to come over in costumes. Have craft stations set up, and hire some local high school kids to assist. One station can be an caramel apple making station, one can be a ghost on a stick station and one could be decorating pumpkin baskets. You can find an easy caramel apple recipe online, and the ghost on a stick is really easy. Just take a stryofoam ball and stick it on the end of a dowling (or even on the end of a pencil) and wrap some fabric around the head and stick to make a ghost. Tie with a bow, and let the kids decorate. At your local five and dime, you can pick up pumpkin baskets for cheap. Let the kids decorate them as their “goody bag” complete with stickers, glitter or whatever you have around the house. Rotate the kids through the stations, having an even number at each station at any given time. When they’re all done with their crafts, they can put them in their pumpkin basket and take home. Have a Halloween story ready to go, such as “Mouse’s First Halloween”. When the group is settled, have an animated adult read the story. Let the kids have a costume parade and then open presents and have some cake.
3. Scavenger Hunts are a hit at any age, and they take some time to do, so if you’re looking for a good party “filler”, this is the one. Make the list tailored around the party, for example, if it were a Halloween party you’d want to do things like, “Blood of a Vampire (ketchup in a bag) and so on. For birthday parties, make a list that includes easy and hard items to find. It’s best if you can knock on neighbor’s doors for this activity, as long as you know them and it’s not too late at night. Make sure to include a half a penny on each list, it will even it out and make it so one team doesn’t wipe the other team completely out. If you don’t have neighbors, or don’t want to knock on doors, have a nature scavenger hunt, or hide items in your neighborhood with a colored ribbon attached to each one. Set the boundaries and have the teams set off to look.
What kind of party games do you like best?