The Kindergarten birthday party

My grandsons have birthdays coming up in October, November and December. They’ll be 6, 4 and 1. The one year old is easy. And the 4 is pretty easy, too. But now that the oldest is in Kindergarten he has all these friends he wants to invite, too, so a simple family party isn’t enough anymore.

When my own children were young, I limited their number of guests to their age. At 6 that meant 6 friends. Other parents were not so restrictive and their children were allowed to invite their entire class or an unlimited number of friends. I always figured my kids didn’t need that many presents!

Okay, back to my topic. Parties with schoolmates for kindergartners.

At this age, they are pretty easy to please. There’s so much that they are interested in--superheroes, princesses, animals, professions (police, firefighters), cartoon characters--that there are lots to choose from. Party stores have all kinds of decorations and small toys to fit these themes.

Kids this age enjoy a party at a fast food play place, or a park, and are old enough for activities at entertainment venues. They are also content with at home parties, especially if some fun activity is planned.

When planning a party for this age think about:
- Will the guests’ parents hang around like they do for preschool parties, or will you be left in charge of these children, some you may have not met before? What is expected by other parents can vary from community to community, so clearly indicate on your invitation whether parents are welcome to stay, don’t need to stay, etc.
- If you aren’t having parents stay, request an emergency contact number with their RSVP or when you meet them. (Of course, you’ll meet the parents when they drop their children off.)
Keep the party short. 2-3 hours is plenty long.
- If serving a meal, besides cake and ice cream, keep it simple. Expect to have someone not like what you are serving even if it is something as universally liked by children as pizza or hotdogs. (I had a daughter who didn’t like the latter!)
- Planning, supervision, and clean up at an outside venue can be easier, since the restaurant or play place does most of the work. However, it will probably be more expensive than a home party.
- It’s customary to do goody bags so each child goes home with something. Give them out as kids leave and you’ll avoid things being lost.
- Kids will want to play with your child’s new toys. Sometimes the birthday kid has trouble sharing at this point. One solution is to open the presents right before parents are scheduled to pick up their children. Another solution is to have an exciting game planned immediately following, though it may be hard to drag them away from all those new toys.
- If you’re activities will be messy, warn parents ahead of time. Nothing worse than having party clothes ruined by paint, or torn on the homemade obstacle course, etc.

Articles for further thought:

This article title implies one answer, but that may not be the case. Read the full article: "Bashes for little darlings get bigger and bigger"

"Birthday Parties: Kid's Dream, Parent's Nightmare"

"All You Need to Know About Birthday Parties"

Activity and game ideas:

- Duck, duck, goose
- Cup cake decorating – one to eat now and one to take home!
- Pin the tail on the donkey
- Pinata bash
- Yard scavenger hunt, where everyone is a winner
- Water balloon toss or smash – an outside event

Resources for games and activities:

Ecology Theme brings nature to kids’ birthday parties

This list goes beyond birthday parties, but a number of the ideas could be used as a party activity. Each idea has a clickable link with more details.
Kindergarten Learning Games and Activities

And the best resource of all—THE BIG LIST: Birthday Party Ideas where parents have shared what they’ve done for a variety of parties. Click on an idea and it’ll even have what age they did the party for.

Click here to read more!

Halloween or Harvest party?

Some parents are not comfortable with taking their children trick-or-treating, or are looking for alternative ideas to the witches and goblins, etc. of “All Hallowed Eve” on October 31st. Some adults may just want to try something different from the “same old, same old.”

Planning a party is an obvious solution, but it’s nice to have a source of ideas. We’ve gathered together some suggestions and resources for you here.

If you want guests to wear non-scary costumes, you can plan a theme based party that will gently guide your attendees. Ideas include:
- wild animals
- pets
- robots
- a specific movie or book theme (though be sure the villains in these stories aren’t too villainous looking)
- a good guys theme such as superheroes (no enemies welcome)
- a Biblical story (i.e. Noah and the ark – for kids; the Garden of Eden – for a risqué adult only part)
Of course, you’d want to carry your theme through with decorations, food, and party favors.

Teenage or adult parties could be different with these themes:
- masked ball – think of the 18th century Europe and their highly decorated face masks
famous historical or political figure costumes
- tree theme – have materials around for guests to decide what kind of tree they are (strong like an oak, ornamental like some flowering trees, etc.)
- for adults only – a wine tasting

Think outside. What’s fun to do in your area in the big outdoors? You may find community events or fall festivals where you want to invite a group to share in the excitement.

You can do breakfast events, too.

A few resources to check out:

15 Fun Fall and Harvest Outdoor Party Games for Children

Autumn Outdoor Entertaining

A Fall Harvest Party

Halloween Drop-In Party Ideas

Teen Parties: Setting the Rules

And don’t forget to get your invitations at IBY.com – Invitations by you! Here are some fall themed invitations we have available.

Click here to read more!

More ideas for invitation wording

How about starting with a movie quote?

Take this one from the The Godfather, "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse."
Change it into an invite:
I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse.
See you at my party next Friday, 7 pm.

What lines do you remember from movies? Play with them and see what you can come up with.

If you need movie quotes, at this site you can download 100!

If you want to continue with a movie theme for your party, this theater invitation could be fun. Click here to read more!

Help! What do I say?

Don’t know how to word an invite? Try a simple poem.

Some easy types are:

Cinquain – a short, unrhymed poem of five lines. The first line has 2 syllables. The 2nd 4. The 3rd 6. The 4th 8. And the last 2 again. Want more info? Here’s another method: http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/poetry5.html

Haiku – 3 (or fewer) lines of no more than 17 syllables total – go here for a good explanation on how to write one: http://haiku.cc.ehime-u.ac.jp/~shiki/Start-Writing.html

Light Verse – usually brief and humorous – check this site for more info: http://www.absolutewrite.com/specialty_writing/attempt_light_verse.htm

Limericks – you’ll probably remember these from your childhood – here’s a how to link: http://www.poetryamerica.com/Limerick.asp

Or change one.

Take a familiar poem and alter the last two lines:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet,
And so are you

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Party time, we said,
You’re invited, too!

If you want more info on writing poetry, go to this site: http://www.poetry4kids.com/

If you get frustrated trying to create your own, here are some poetry sources. Note: Poets really appreciate it if you give them credit for their poems—this protects their copyright. You can do so at the end of a poem or under the poems name.

http://www.funnypoets.com/

http://www.poemsforfree.com/

And, of course, we do have some suggested wording on our site. Just look up an invitation by the specific occasion and see if something appeals to you. Then match it up with the design you like best.

Here's an example of a fall or halloween poem on one of our invitations.

Click here to read more!

Teen Birthday Party Ideas

I have to admit that girl teen party ideas are easier for me than guy teen ideas, since I was a girl and had teenage daughters myself. So besides my list of ideas for either single or mixed gender parties, I’m giving you some resources where you can find more ideas.

Gaming. What’s one of the fun spots in your area? Like a game themed restaurant or entertainment center? Ideas include: laser tag, video gaming, miniature golf, paint ball. Obviously, this costs money, but it often means no prep or clean up at home, since you can have the cake and present opening there.

Hiking. Most areas have cool places to go, even if it’s just a park. Combine it with a scavenger hunt that requires each team to have a disposable camera or (if the teens have camera phones, they can use them) to “capture” items on the list.

Mystery Meal. This is an at home party, and you’ll need a few volunteers to help you serve. Assign “new” names to each food item, each piece of silverware, napkins, toothpicks, beverages and make a menu using these “new” terms. Names can be nonsensical or fit a theme (motorcycles, movie idols, music artists). Each teen sits at the dinner table and is provided a menu of enough items to make 3 to 4 courses. A waiter or waitress takes each person’s order for the first course. In the kitchen the serves know what the code is and load up the plates appropriately. One guy’s choices give him a glass of juice, a toothpick, and a fork. The girl beside him receives dessert, salad, and a napkin. Kids find what they get pretty hilarious. (Menu items can only be ordered once per teen.) Mystery meal invite idea.

Bike Rally. Bicycle that is. Teens have to go in pairs. Each pair is given different directions (i.e. turn right at the T in the road, or turn left after the fifth house on the left, or at the swimming pool, go west). One partner has the odd numbered directions and the other the even number, so they must stay teamed. The goal is to see which pair can get to the destination in the shortest time. Of course, you want the actual “mileage” to be similar for each route. You may also need some adult spotters at key locations to make sure the teens are on the right route. Of course, an adult host should be at the arrival point, too.

Concert. Many areas have free concerts—they’re the bands who haven’t made it big yet, or the concert may be a benefit for a community food bank. For afterwards find a nearby restaurant where you can bring in your own cake and just buy beverages.

Lights, Camera, Action. Have a video camera or two and have the teens make their own videos. It could be a new music video for a favorite song, a commercial for some item, a short skit. Provide them with some starter ideas, some costumes and/or props. If you want something different than what you have around your house, thrift shops are a good source (except near Halloween). You can even take the teens to a thrift store or dollar store and give them each a few bucks to buy whatever they think they’ll need. And don’t forget the popcorn! An invite idea.

Teen Birthday Party Online Resources

Ideas for teen boys.

Ideas for teen girls.

Article of ideas for either gender.

Diverse list of birthday party themes.

Expert Teenage Party Tips. Click here to read more!

Tailgate Party Ideas

The summer pool party season has wound down and it’s time to move on to other things. Like football and tailgate parties.

Family members who aren’t football fans? You can always plan a dual themed party at home – one room (or the deck or driveway) with the game on the tube and another room with card or board games. Everyone can meet together at the food “locker.”



Here are some resources:

How to Throw a Tailgate Party
http://www.ehow.com/how_11148_throw-tailgate-party.html

Official Tailgating Check List includes: Must Haves, Would Be Nice and Now You Are Just Showing Off.
http://www.tailgatingideas.com/2007/08/13/what-every-tailgate-party-needs/#more-5

And how about a football themed invitation?

Enjoy! Click here to read more!