I'm not much of an event planner. I'm not one of those people who gets a kick out of throwing a party.
However, there is one exception to that rule.
I really enjoy planning children's birthday parties.
There are so many fun ideas out there. Also, children are so easy to please. It's so much fun to celebrate my kiddos by doing a party theme that's right up their alley.
Here are the parties we've had so far. All themes are a direct reflection on what he or she was interested in at that particular age.
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Superboy, Age 1 : Cupcakes & Tunnels
We had some friends (adults + children) come over to our flat. (We lived in Edinburgh at the time.) We had cupcakes & played with some plastic tunnels. Nothing like a one year old crawling through those flexible tunnels. (I don't know what those things are called exactly. But one-year-olds get a big kick out of them.)
Superboy, Age 2 : Family Party
My entire extended family was visiting us in Scotland at that particular time. (parents & sibs) Also, Pumpkin had just been born. She was about a month old when he turned 2. We had a great time eating cake and celebrating with family.
Superboy, Age 3 : Bouncy Castle Party (combo with Pumpkin's 1st birthday party)
At that time, we lived very near the Strathpeffer Community Centre (Scottish Highlands). The Centre was very affordable to rent. We rented the rec room at the Centre, and they blew up the big bouncy castle for all the kids. It was so much fun. Superboy had a Thomas the Train cake.
Superboy, Age 4 : Bike Parade
We had just moved back to American when he turned 4. We gathered at Gram & Papa's house with friends & cousins. We decorated our bikes in their cul-de-sac & then rode bikes down to the neighborhood park, where we had pizza and birthday cake to celebrate. It was a Spiderman cookie cake.
Superboy, Age 5 : Secret Agent Adventure
Hunter & I used gold spray painted to paint a bunch of rocks. We had the party at a local park. Right before the party, we hid the rocks gold all over the playground. As the main party activity, we gave the kids black secret agent hats & magnifying glasses. Their mission was to recover the stolen golden nuggets. After the gold was recovered, we ate cake & played at the park. The weather was so pretty that day. We had a blast.
Superboy, Age 6 : Superhero Party
Guests came to the party dressed as superheroes. We made Superhero Control Panels. After making the control panels, we were all playing out in the front yard, when suddenly a huge tree (across the street) fell down. Thor had to come to the rescue.
Superboy, Age 7 : Pool Party
Lots of fun swimming! He chose a cake with a baseball theme. My favorite part of the party was watching the kids go off the high dive.
Superboy, Age 8 : Birthday Quest
This party was sort of a kids' version of the Amazing Race. We split everyone up into two teams. They raced around the house looking for clues. When they found a clue, the team would have to complete some sort of task in order to move on to the next station. We ended the party with a water balloon fight in the back yard. Here's the invitation. There was a "team assignment" card in each invitation.
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Pumpkin, Age 1 : Bouncy Castle Party (combo with Superboy's 3rd birthday party)
This was a combo birthday party at the Strathpeffer Community Centre. Benton & JB were visiting us at the time, so it was super fun that they could be there for the party. The bouncy castle was a big hit with all the kids.
Pumpkin, Age 2 : Family Party
We had just moved back to the States. We had a party with family friends at Gram & Papa's neighborhood park. I remember that Pumpkin wore a cute little green & white monogrammed dress that my mom bought for her. It's one of my favorite dresses from her toddler days.
Pumpkin, Age 3 : Baby Doll Party
We had this party at a park as well. All the guests brought their baby dolls and doll strollers. The little girls lined up one after the other and strolled their baby dolls all over the park. I'm here to tell you: a line of three-year-olds pushing baby strollers through a park is just about the cutest thing you'll ever see. We had cake & then played on the playground.
Pumpkin, Age 4 : Kitty Cat Party
We played a relay game that involved getting down on all fours and eating "kitty food" out of a bowl. (Kix cereal) We made kitty cat collars as the party activity. We had strawberry cake (her favorite cake flavor) and played on the swingset.
Pumpkin, Age 5 : Hula Party
The guests came to the party in swimsuits. We provided hula skirts. We used this awesome DVD: I Want To Be a Hula Dancer. The guests learned one hula dance by watching the DVD's step by step instructions. We made white chocolate shells using shell shaped candy molds.
Pumpkin, Age 6 : Tea Party
The guests came to the party in dress up clothes. We had a proper tea party at the dining room table. Hunter made chocolate covered strawberries the night before the party. We ordered some absolutely delicious petit fours from a nearby bakery. If you ever do a tea party birthday party, be sure to get sugar cubes. The sugar cubes were a big hit with the girls.
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Plans for this year...
Celebrating 7 and 9:
Instead of having a party, Pumpkin would like to invite a friend to go to the American Girl Bistro for lunch (with both of their American Girl dolls, of course.) Hunter & I think that's a great idea and I look forward to it. This will be a much anticipated repeat of Hailey's birthday lunch last year (same idea: lunch with the dolls.) The main difference will be that this year, Pumpkin has her own doll, Elizabeth, whom she cannot wait to bring along! (Thank you Gingi & GPoppa!)
Superboy has mentioned that he'd like to bring a friend to one of those "dinner and a movie" places. The kind of place where you order dinner while you watch the movie. Sounds fun to me. I hope there's a good movie playing. Last year Toy Story 3 came out around Superboy's birthday. (That'll be hard to beat.) But hopefully there'll be at least ONE good option!
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Pinterest Party Inspiration
Frequently, I see fun children's party ideas on the internet (esp on mommy blogs.) If it looks like a cute party, I tend to bookmark it just in case I ever need party inspiration. Recently, I started a pinterest board, which will make bookmarking parties SO much more fun. I like the idea of pinning a photo from the party to my pinterest board much more than simply bookmarking the post. Using Pinterest, I can easily sort my images into different categories. As someone who clips magazine images that "speak" to me, I find pinterest (so far) to be much easier than any sort of paper-based inspiration board. There are so many amazing ideas floating around out there in the blogosphere!
Related: You may want to check out the post I published right before this one. It describes our family's birthday cupcake tradition, which our kids love. (and we do, too!)
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A few more birthday party bookmarks to share before I sign off....
Super Epic Rainbow Party by Hula Seventy
A Princess in Pink by A Subtle Revelry
J's 5th Birthday Party by Shim & Sons
Lego Birthday Party by Living Locurto
Hiking Party by Blonde Designs Blog
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Happy Party Planning!
{Edited to add: Kelly's Korner is having a Link Party today. The topic is Kids' Birthday Parties. So far, there are 50+ links to birthday party posts. Really cute party ideas! Here's the post: Kelly's Korner - Kids' Birthday Parties}
