Creative Party Blog

This idea is a great way to kill two birds with one stone! At this Almost Sleepover Birthday Party, the girls got to put the toppings of their choice on their own pizza square. It was a great idea to get the girls involved in the party AND it took up some time which can be a mom’s worst nightmare…….what am I going to do with all these girls for 4 hours…..

You can buy pre-made pizza crust at many grocery stores. Roll it out yourself and place on the baking sheets. Let the kids put on the sauce or it might be easier for the mom to do it. Then have bowls of cheese, pepperoni slices, peppers, mushrooms….anything you think the kids would like. Then one at a time, let them prepare their own slice just the way they like it.

Send them to tear up your daughter’s room and a few minutes later, the pizzas are ready!

I don’t care the age, I don’t care the sex, I don’t care what kind of party it is or just gathering for that matter…….having an organized ice breaker at the beginning always starts the party off right. Now, I’m not talking about a silly ice breaker. I’m talking about a planned activity that is ready to go as folks walk in the door. I’ve watched adults and children hesitantly walk into a room when there is a great deal of commotion and it takes them a while to warm up. Then I’ve watched the same kids walk in and immediately sit down to a project with other kids and they are engaged right off the bat.

At this almost sleepover party, the hosted had the idea to let the girls decorate their own craft supply caddy to take home. It was very timely as it had just been valentines and my daughter for one came home with a box full of craft supplies! So this was a great idea for her to keep all those supplies right where should could use them when she wanted.

I’m not sure where these boxes were purchased cut with “storage” and organizing being the thing right now, you can find a myriad of things out there at hobby shops and scrapbooking supply stores. Provide the storage box and a little permanent paint and the kids provide the creativity. Honestly this could be done for any age kindergarten and up.

Having a Halloween Party or a Halloween Birthday Party? Make it more festive by encouraging everyone to dress up…..even moms and dads.

We had a kid Halloween Party and to encourage everyone to dress up, we gave prizes for the best or most creative costume. Funny enough both winners (mom and kid) were pirates!

For the moms we gave an orange spatula and I can’t even remember what we gave the child winner but just about anything works. It’s all about the fashion show and suspense of who wins!

Resources: We found the orange spatula at William Sonoma. During the holidays they have lots of fun items. If not, Halloween is just about the easiest time to find holiday items that would be fun prizes!

Making playdough can be a rewarding activity for kids of many ages no matter if it’s at home or during a party. I make playdough with my kids all the time. They love working with the dough. I just make sure to plan the activity on a day that I don’t care if my kitchen gets messed up!!!

Following are some recipes that I’ve accumulated. My favorite is recipe #1. I would recommend you try them all and see which one works best for you. All the recipes for the playdough are very similar. Only slight variations but as with baking, slight variations will make very different playdough.

Play Dough Recipe #1

Directions:
Mix together dry ingredients:
2 Cups White Flour
1 Cup Salt
4 tsp Cream of Tarter

To 2 Cups of Boiling Water, add:
4 Tbsp Cooking Oil
1 tsp Food Coloring

Pour liquids into the dry ingredients and stir well. When slightly cooled, knead for a few minutes until smooth.

Hint: Use and electric mixer and it’s sooo easy. If you are doing it by hand and the kids are helping, you might choose to put the food coloring into the dough after it is kneaded. And the better or more concentrated the food coloring is, the brighter the color of play dough you will get.

Play Dough Recipe #2

Directions:
Mix together:
1 Cup Salt
3 Cups Flour
4 tsp Cream of Tarter
2 Tbsp Cooking Oil
1 1/4 Cup Boiling Water
Food Coloring

Makes 4 small plastic containers of Play Dough

Play Dough Recipe #3

Directions:
Mix Together in Saucepan,
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Salt
1 Tbsp Cooking Oil
3 tsp Cream of Tarter
2 1/4 Cups Water

Cook above over medium heat 4 to 6 minutes until batter is like mashed potatoes. Pull of stove and let cool. Add food coloring into the mixer or add later when the kids can knead it in.

Be sure and keep the playdough in an airtight container or a plastic storage bag and your playdough can last up to a month!

I’m about to share with you an activity that did not work out so well…..but only because the kids were a little young. For my daughter’s 3rd Creative Art Birthday Party, we decided to have an activity for the kids to do when they arrived at the party. And what could be more fun than making playdough?

Well, it was not so much fun for this age. I recommend you consider this as a GREAT activity but do it for ages 5 and up. At 3 they were still a little hesitant to get their hands goopy.

I had little containers already measured out with the dry ingredients. All the kids had to do was to dump the playdough ingredients into bowls and add water. Mix with your fingers and add a little food coloring. Easy craft or activity for a kids party. Maybe a little messy but super fun.

My kids are older now and they just die to help me make playdough. And love that they’ve done it themselves!

Resources: We have several playdough recipes that we’d like to share with you.

Once all of your guests have arrived to your Princess Theme Party, a great idea is to have a puppet show set up in another part of your home for the kids to move to. This idea is great for younger children as it’s all really magical for them. Most cities have puppet show artists that you can hire. Super easy and you don’t have to be in charge of too many activities or games!

The puppet production groups will often have multiple shows that can fit within your party theme. If they don’t advertise one that you think will work for you, feel free to ask them if they could put one together for your particular theme. These folks are often very creative and can come up with a show very easily.

Resources: The puppeteer for this party was Penny’s Puppet Productions for Birthday Fun.

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

A great first activity when kids arrive at a birthday party is to have a craft project to work on. This keeps the kids busy while others arrive and gives you something to direct them to immediately.

The boys decorated cardboard shields purchased already cut and glued a handle on to the back. Then the girls project was to decorate their own party crown. Again, the hats/crowns were purchase and then the kids glued on adornments and colored on them. Both a nice compliment to the want and swords that were given as favors.

Resources: Pre-cut shields and pre-made hats were purchased at Oriental Trading.

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

A great way to start a birthday party is by providing an activity to start the party. This gets the kids comfortable doing something they LOVE to do and keeps them busy while other guests arrive. We have two coloring pages that have flowers on them for you to print off and make copies for your guests to color.

If these don’t strike your fancy, there is tons of free flower clip art online that you can look for to print off for the kids to color.

To See Templates:
Click below link through 2 screens.

Flower Clip Art 1

Flower Clip Art 2

Having a Birthday Dance Party for little kids was really fun. And what was more fun was to see parents and kids realizing that they can like the same music!

As part of the kids favors for this dance party, we put together a Dance Party Music CD that we gave to each family. We photoshopped the cover images and made a collage on the front of the jewel case. We could have gone a step further and made a sticker for the front of the CD but didn’t. They are easy enough to do. All you have to do is purchase the stickers from Avery or someone and then use their software. I hear it’s pretty easy.

Anyway, we wanted to share our song list with you in case you want to make your own dance party CD. Vogue, All Star, Gettin’ Jiggy, Faith, Can’t Touch This, Celebration, Come On Eileen, To Be Real, Hooked, Sweet Home Alabama, Joker, Comin’ Out, Tide is High, Curious George, YMCA, Jack & Diane, Dream Machine, When It’s Over and Brown Eyed Girl.

Enjoy your own dance party. This is just the beginning. There are many more popular dance songs to add to your music list.

Oh my this was such the best idea! It was the cupe de grace for this party! Yes, face painting is all over the place but no matter how often the kids get to go it, they still can’t get enough. Think about it……if you are a female, how often do you put make up on?

This lady is a clown who does face painting and balloon magic. Most major city will have many folks who do the same. These people really love their art and are quite good. Our clown goes by Bizzy and was so nice and great with the kids.

Because it was a bug party, all the kids got a bug face painted and then were able to get the complimentary wings to go with their face! So, if you wanted a spider, you go it. If you wanted a butterfly, you got it. You wanted a Ladybug, you got it. Any bug the kids could dream up, Bizzy could do them. The painting can be as intricate or simple as you wish.

These were more simple faces. Simply because the kids were lined up for Bizzy’s magic and didn’t want to do anything else until they were all dolled up!

With some simple asking around or searching on the web for clowns in your area, you should be able to find one that is willing to come for an hour or two to your party. Know their policies up front and ask all the questions before the party. You don’t want to get to the party and have to negotiate with your clown while the kids are running around. You want to be focused on your child and how much fun they are having.

Resources: If you live in Portland, OR, check out this clown for your child’s bug birthday party at Bizzy’s Website. They will go home as spiders, lady bugs, a butterfly or whatever bug they can think of and the make believe play will last way longer than the birthday party.

Many games that you play at Birthday Parties can be altered to fit almost any theme you are having. These that were played at this bug birthday party are not new games. In fact I played them when I was little and I suspect my parents played them when they were little. It’s all in how you present it. AND the kids never know. The simplest of games are often the most fun for kids.

What’s better than being blindfolded and sent to pin the tail on something? And in this case, the children needed to pin the spots on the lady bug. It was so funny. No matter how close we started out the kids, they had the hardest time of getting the spots anywhere close the the ladybug wings. And she was so big!!! Easy. Fun. One they will stand in line to do.

This game is also nothing new. Toss the bean bag into a tub or through a board with holes in it standing up. In this case the hostess had drawn bug pics on the solid colored bean bags. And it completely pulled the theme right in!

Remember that you don’t have to create new games. It’s just all how you tie them in to your current theme.

What better for a Superhero Birthday Party than having a Superhero Obstacle Course? The game part of this party was left up to the dad and I’d have to say that he rose to the challenge. This Superhero party was for kids age 3 to 6 and a simple obstacle course was all new to them. No timing was done. Just simple go through the game and finish…..before the rain comes.

A funny or not-so-funny side note is that the sky was clear for this whole party. Then when it came time for the game, the rain started coming down. But you know what? The kids didn’t care. They went through the course and had just as much fun!

The first part of the course was to run through hoola hoops. 6 Hoola Hoops were set up and even the shortest of kids could run through them.

After than they were to run in and out of these short orange cones. I could also be fun to have them kick a ball through the cones if they are older and most on soccer teams. Nothing like a little dribble practice.

Stage 3 of the game was originally to shoot or hit a super hero mask that was nailed to a tree with a super hero squirt gun. Then the squirt gun promptly broke and a quick switheroo had to happen and the game was changed to throwing the super hero frisbee at the mask instead. Either works. A super soaker water gun could also be fun for this stage.

The grand finale of the game was to jump into a pile of sofa cushions. What is more fun for a kid than to jump into a pile of cushions? Nothing. My kids try and take off my cushions weekly! And we are telling them they have to jump into the cushions as part of the game? No…..you jest? Look how much air wonder woman got?

As far as the best Super Hero Games go for your birthday party, this one rocks.

Supplies Needed: Hoola hoops, frisbee, sofa cushions and small orange cones.

Photos taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

I love how this crown turned out. For a Princess Theme or even for a Queen of Hearts Theme, it would be perfect. My photographer thinks it looks like a boys crown but I think it could just as easily be used as a Princess Crown. My daughter loves wearing this one around.

You could do a lot of things with this.
*  They could be premade for each child.
*  Your daughter or son could even help you make them if you don’t mind the sequins being totally random AND sequins ending up all over the house.
*  Or you could just make one of these crowns for your birthday child.
*  What would be fun is to have this as an activity for each of the party participants. They could make their own crown right as the walk in the door to the party. Great ice breaker and allows them to get use to the surroundings. Have some hats already cut and just staple to the child’s head size when they arrive.

This particular crown was fastened in the back with 2 brads but it would look just fine with staples. If you can’t tell, the hat is made from bulletin board boarder. School Supply companies have some up with so many creative bulletin board border options that it’s super fun looking for them. They generally come in packs of 12 strips and you can really only get one hat our of one strip. There is a bit of waste using these but the printed ones are so much cuter than the corrugated boarders that come in big rolls. But you certainly could use these for your Princess Crown. Just embellish…..embellish.

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

Birthday Party Clowns are a great way to have entertainment. When there isn’t other things to distract even the newest clown can occupy a kids attention and cause so much laughter that it’s absolutely contageous.

We’ve been to many birthday parties and school functions where this particular clown has been invited. He is engaging for preschoolers and involves the kids in his presentations. Any clown who loves to do this and has been doing it a while will be engaging as well.

Be sure when securing a clown for your birthday party that you know up front exactly what he or she is willing to do. How long they will perform and how flexible they are. It’s just always good to know everything you can upfront and don’t have any surprises the day of the party!

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

This is a great birthday party idea! For kids age 2 to probably 4 or 5, depending on your kids, having someone come to sing and lead in interactive activities is a great idea. At this party, this gal led the group in songs and Ring Around the Rosies and other musical activities.

In any city, there are many many of these folks around that you can hire to come to your party. Off duty Gymboree or folks who have worked with Gymboree before are great. I don’t know if she would do it or not but we have a FABULOUS children’s librarian I would love to have at a party. Other suggestions would be preschool teachers. They don’t get paid very much and would probably love the extra cash.

Anyone around who plays the guitar and interacts with kids well would be great be it a person you pay or a friend who does it for fun would be a great birthday party addition. And keeping the kids active in a controlled manner is always a good thing.

There is nothing more fun for kids than to run through spraying water on a warm/hot day. This fire truck sprayer makes the theme of this party perfect.

Two big points on water parties like this. They are great for kids you may not be swimming by themselves yet. Parents don’t have to be on top of the kids at all times like when they are in a pool and can’t swim.

The second thing to remember about water parties is to make sure your invitees know what is about to happen and have them bring a bathing suit or an extra change of clothes.

Photo by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

At the Fire Station you never know if the fun is for the big kids or for the little kids. Here the “kids” were shooting the water at an orange cone. Each kid had a turn until they knocked over the cone with the water. The big kids from the fire station had just as much fun as the little ones!

Photo by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.