"Still More From Our Visitors"

Pirate in the Park
The best kid party I have planned was several years ago when my son turned five. We have a neat park/playground in our city with a pirate theme so we decided to make that the theme of his party. I made invitations on paper that looked like parchment with pirate clipart and titled them "Come to the party or walk the plank..." I drew a quick sketch of the park and made copies to use for treasure maps and had a treasure hunt to find their party favors. The favors were small toys, felt eye patches that I made, and candy in cardboard craft boxes that I spray-painted gold and decorated with large craft jewels. I made very blunt, rounded cardboard swords which were painted silver and the handles wrapped in black felt and bright colored ribbon, also with jewels glued on. The cake was just a sheet cake with some blue frosting for water, brown for sand, and a few plastic palm trees, a little plastic treasure box that I found and more jewels and beads spilling out of it. Aside from the treasure hunt, we did face painting, a bingo game that we made keeping the theme, and just let the kids play at the park. It took quite a bit of prep time, but was well worth it. My son loved it and had a great time. - Thanks to Lauri in Wisconsin.

Basic Training
Invitation: (on camouflage paper) "Draft Notice" - Private First Class xxxx xxxx invites you to report for basic training on Sunday, May 18, 2003 from 1500 hours to 1700 hours (3-5 civilian time) at the xxx Family Compound at 712 S. Boise Avenue. Uniforms are not required: however, recruits will be performing drills outside, so please dress appropriately. Birthday rations will be served.
Decorations: Set up a tent to serve as HQ. They will get their faces painted with camouflage and get their "missions" from the HQ tent, the front flaps will be wide open. Decorate with green, brown and black balloons. On the table, put a green tablecloth and the GI Joe helicopter, with Joe in it, as the centerpiece.
Cake Ideas:
1. A helmet-shaped cake (by doing one layer of a round pan, and then baking a cake in a bowl), iced with green icing and then added black, brown and green icing in a camouflage pattern.
2. A sheet cake with a road, lake, etc. with soldiers placed strategically on the cake.
3. A sheet cake decorated like an American (*or Canadian) flag.
Before singing Happy Birthday, have the kids say the Pledge of Allegiance (*or sing Oh Canada). Serve the cake in Army mess kits (or cheap plastic ones).
Games:
1. Assign missions for the soldiers to complete
2. Drills - Play "Sarge Says". Have one of the older kids lead the kids through a series of drills, including jumping jacks, push ups, and cadence (left, left, left right left).
3. Field Training - Create an obstacle course with tunnels made out of refrigerator boxes and spray-painted green, and take garden stakes (8) and make two columns of 4 and attach string to the stakes by criss-crossing across so that they have to crawl under, etc.
4. Flight Training - Have each child build a paper airplane and fly it. Mark the distances and give a "Medal of Honor" to the longest flier.
5. Scavenger Hunt - Have them look for their goody bags. Give them a clue that leads to another clue, that leads to another clue, that leads to the prize.
Goodie Bags: The local Army recruiting center (*or military surplus store) may provide water bottles, pencils and posters. Also an assortment of some of the following items: plastic army men, light/glow sticks, army "dog-tags", bomb bags, military gliders, barbed-wire bracelets, compasses, canteens, helmets, binoculars, flash lights, walkie talkies, grenade-shaped water balloons, dried rations or MRE's.
Thank You's: Have the kids salute the camera for a group pose. Use that pose as the background for the thank you. Or send each child a "Certificate of Completion of Basic Training". - Thanks to Ellen from Idaho.

Bubble Party
I loved the bubble wrap idea. I am having a party for my 1-year old little girl. The theme I am using is bubbles, and I am using bubbles and bubble necklaces for party favors. Decorating is in pink and iridescent balloons to represent bubbles, along with the same colors for party supplies. I intend to wrap the favors in iridescent pink tissue paper to match. I am having a cake made in the shape of two spheres to look like two bubbles. The bubble wrap game will go great! - Thanks to Cristy in Texas.

Wizard of Oz
Last year we had a Wizard of Oz party for my daughter's 2nd birthday and the kids loved it. I got some yellow material and drew black lines for the yellow brick road going up to our house. Next to our front door, I put my daughter's playhouse and got a pair of white pantyhose and put black electrical tape stripes up the legs and used my daughter's ruby slippers and had the legs coming out from the house like the house had fallen on the wicked witch. Inside I had a black cape and witch's hat I got at the dollar store at Hallowe'en time and had that on the floor with a broom stick as if the witch had melted. I had cut-outs of all the characters set up on the table and we played pin the heart on the Tin Man and pass the ruby slipper. It was a great time! - Thanks to Monica in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Clown Party
The best party we've had so far was our 3rd. It was a clown party. We made clowns out of cardboard and attached bouquets of balloons to the hands. We made felt collars (for the kids) out of orange felt with yellow polka-dots, and had plastic hats that were yellow with orange polka-dots. My mom dressed up as a clown and walked around the kids. We took a brown bag and added a face with legs and arms, filled it with candy and small prizes. We hung it from a rope so we could raise and lower it for the kids to whack it. They had a blast. - Thanks to Dianna in Mississippi.

Still More Bugs
I love all of the birthday party ideas. I also had a bug party for one of my boys, but I did a few things different. Instead of giving them the dirt cake on a plate, I put it into a sand pail (like for the beach) and made them eat it with a shovel. I also sprinkled the table with ants and had ants frozen into their ice cubes. I also made a spider pinata, and had spider rings and magnifying glasses inside so they could look for bugs after. Instead of having goody bags, the kids just used their pails to put their candy into from the pinata to take home. - Thanks to Angie in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Jungle Party
One of the neatest parties I remember was for my sister. She loves to plan parties, so she decided to have a "Jungle Party". Food had jungle names, i.e., little wieners wrapped in pieces of crescent roll dough were called "monkey fingers", etc. The punch was called "swamp mud". After we ate, we all played games, each team having either a monkey face or a bird face mask to designate their team. It was great, and all ages enjoyed it. - Thanks to Judy in Cincinnati.

Off to the Museum
Best birthday party so far was my son's 4 year-old party. We had it at the Milwaukee Public Museum, and the kids got a big kick out of the personalized dino exhibit tour, and dino dig and other scavenger hunt type games played. It was worth the money - everything was included!! - Thanks to Sandra in Wisconsin.

Bubbles Everywhere
For my son's first birthday party, we made it a bubble theme. I got some bubble paper at my local craft store to make the invitations. For the cupcakes, I frosted them with blue icing (for water) and took the creamy part of the Oreo and made little bubbles. After we ate, all the toddlers went outside to blow bubbles of their own with some big bubble wands we made. The goody bags were filled with bubbles, bubble bath, a bath sponge and some cookies. It was a great party! - Thanks to Heather in Arkansas.

Blue and.....Madonna?
I enjoy theme parties. The two best parties I've done were (1) Blue's Clues Party: We cut out blue paw prints and created a path leading to the party location. Needless to say, everything was Blue's Clues related. The centerpieces were buckets with candy. The party favors were stuffed Blue's Clues toys, Thinking Pads, crayons, etc. Of course, Blue and Magenta were there. The other party we did was (2) Madonna: This was an adult function. The centerpieces were female torsos. All of the guests were dressed in one of Madonna's era. Yes....we had a Madonna impersonator. Then the birthday boy got a make-over as Austin Powers. So he and Madonna danced the night away. Don't want to bore you with all of the other details. Just want you to know that your website is extremely great! I love the ideas and stuff you carry. Good luck and I can't wait to plan my next kiddie function. - Thanks to Iris in New York.

And Bring Your Laundry
At my son's last party we invited the entire baseball team, friends from school, friends from the neighborhood, and family. The year prior, we lived in MS way out in the woods and only 2 kids showed up at his party, and we wanted to make sure there were more this year. I think that we had about 30 kids there at the park. My mother-in-law told me about this really fun game and we tried it. We brought some socks, washcloths, hats, and other items and put them in 3 different laundry baskets. We hung rope in between two trees. We also brought some clothes pins. The kids had to take all of the clothes out of the basket and hang them on the line. Then they had to take them down and put them in the basket. The next person in line does the same thing, and so on. We had 10 kids in each line. The first line to finish wins. They all got a candy prize. It was wonderful and the moms really got a kick out of watching their boys doing laundry! - Thanks to Andrina in California.

102 Dalmatians
For my daughter's 6th birthday party she wanted 102 Dalmatians. I (with a little help from a few other people) enlarged, cut out, laminated, and cut out again, 102 dalmatians. After that I numbered them and put them on large craft sticks. I then put the 102 dalmatians all over my yard so when the guests arrived there was a yard full of dogs. All of the kids loved it. I wrapped large boxes and had them in my yard also between the dogs. I made bone name tag necklaces. Took a picture of each guest and my daughter in front of a large poster board cut-out of Oddball and got double prints. On the back of the picture I made it into a postcard and sent them as the thank you notes. I also made puppy chow out of chex mix, chocolate, and powdered sugar. We played puppy games from dropping the bones in a jar to pin the nose on Oddball. All the way up the walkway and into my house were dog prints cut out and laminated. The dog prints led into each room the children were allowed in. Outside the bathroom I had a fire hydrant. The kids (and adults) had a great time. Just wanted to share this fun time with you. - Thanks to Dawn in West Virginia.

Previous Page
Next Page
Back to the Party Idea Page

Party Themes ~ Party Ideas ~ Favors and Fun Stuff ~ Party Planning
The Cookie Jar ~ Good Stuff to Eat ~ Top it Off
Family Sites ~ Things We Can Learn From a Dog ~ There Yet? ~ Photo Album
Contact Us ~ Order Info ~ FAQ ~ Shipping ~ Home