Kids birthday parties..need help

My DS will be turning 5 august 7th but we have decided to have a party for him a week earlier at home as his birthday is not far off my due date.

If its bad weather (which is likely) we will all have to cram inside. Apart from the old original party games i have no idea what to set up or organise to keep them all occupied in between.

So what did you do for your kids party, food, games, activities, how long did you have it for, party bags, theme etc.

I am so new to this and pretty clueless so any help will be greatly apreciated smile

DS turned 5 in May and we had a Pirate theme party this year, I cut out some sword shapes from cardboard boxes and had a table set up with those out to decorate. Other times I just cover one of the kids tables in paper and put crayons/textas in a plastic up on the table and let them all draw as they please. You could also get arrowroot biscuits etc and set up icing and lollies for them to decorate themselves.

For food we usually just do an afternoon tea and have party pies, sasauge rolls, cocktail franks and cakes, slices etc.

We have a small bouncy castle that DH has set up inside the house a few times in bad weather. Its big enough to fill most of the lounge room but with shifting of the furniture DS had enough room to play with his other toys as well.

Having said that I realise that this is not avaible option for everyone smile

I saw something on tv last year that I thought was a good idea for older kids, I am only up to DS 2nd birthday, and it was all about getting the kids involved.

They had party hats that the kids made and decorated with textas, glitter, stickers, etc. The shapes were already cut out and they kids just had to glue/staple then together.
The kids also decorated cupcakes that became part of the cake/cupcake tier, made the decorations, etc.

Basically the partygoers were involved in the planning and prep work for the party and they seemed to really enjoy it. There were also games like pass the parcel between the activities.

So I guess you could set up stations of activites and give them 20 minutes or so on each station. It would probably chew up a couple of hours easy.

Hope that helps smile

My DS will be turning 5 august 7th but we have decided to have a party for him a week earlier at home as his birthday is not far off my due date.

If its bad weather (which is likely) we will all have to cram inside. Apart from the old original party games i have no idea what to set up or organise to keep them all occupied in between.

So what did you do for your kids party, food, games, activities, how long did you have it for, party bags, theme etc.

I am so new to this and pretty clueless so any help will be greatly apreciated smile

I love a kids party smile DD had her 5th party this year and we did it at home - were lucky with the weather and it was outside so in between activities were taken care of as they played in the yard. If you have to go indoors I'd clear out a room as much as possible so there's room for them to play and have toys in there.

Timing I'd do 2pm to 4pm - that way you have all morning to prepare and you dont have to worry about doing lunch, just snack type foods and your birthday cake.

We had popcorn, water melon, vege chips, fairy bread, mini cup cakes, M&Ms, marshmellows all set up on a table that the kids could reach and also had a water dispenser thing and plastic cups and a tub with fruit juice poppers in it - also had a rubbish bin next to the table and all the kids were great - 95% of rubbish went in the bin!

For games we had pass the parcel, a pinata and a treasure hunt and each child got a party bag at the end.

So between the games and the birthday cake there wasnt a great deal of free time.

Send out invites two weeks in advance and I think a pirate theme is great for a 5 year old, there is stacks of party stuff at the $2 shops that is pirate themed and its very easy for them to dress up like pirates with an eye patch and either a paper pirate hat or a bit of material for a scarf on their head.

Thanks for the ideas they are great!

Just a question with the pirate theme, there are quite a few girls coming too. Should i do a half pirate theme and half fairy in regards to activities etc??

Thanks for the ideas they are great!

Just a question with the pirate theme, there are quite a few girls coming too. Should i do a half pirate theme and half fairy in regards to activities etc??

That's exactly what we did smile Think Peter Pan & Neverland... so tinkerbell for girls and pirate for boys and just about every little girl has a fairy dress so that's their costume sorted... but we had a couple come as pirates.

We had a tinkerbell themed cake and pirate ship pinata and didnt bother with themed plates or serviettes just bright colours and in the pinata was bags of gold chocolate coins. Pass the parcel was 2 prizes, a tinkerbell puzzel and then a make your own pirate magnet set - just had to rig it so it landed with a girl then a boy smile

Boys got pirate tattoos and girls got Tinkerbell tattoos (get them in the party section at coles).

We did Tinkerbell party bags for girls (coles) and Pirate bags for the boys, girls got

Small bottle of bubbles
Necklace
Tinkerbell Pencil Set
Fairy dust
Bag of lollies
Lollypop

Boys got

Small bottle of bubbles
Small water pistol
Pirate eye patch
Pirate telescope
Bag of lollies
Lollypop

Cant wait to organise her next birthday, had soo much fun.

Just a question with the pirate theme, there are quite a few girls coming too. Should i do a half pirate theme and half fairy in regards to activities etc??

We had a few girls here too, we have 2 DD's also. But I just did the Pirate theme for them all, they didn't mind, everyone had a great time. I also got some Pirate tattoos and eye patches from the $2 and put one on each child as they arrived, they thought it was great and had a wonderful afternoon!!

lol as kids if there was a dress up thing, mum always got us to go as pirates because they were the easiest costumes to come up with!!

we love parties where there are some non competitive aspects! My friends last one there was a treasure hunt where they had to follow the clues and pick some treasure at the end. They read a story, there were craft activities. Also hiring the life be init equipment for the kids to play in.

Have fun planning!

Thanks for the ideas they are great!

Just a question with the pirate theme, there are quite a few girls coming too. Should i do a half pirate theme and half fairy in regards to activities etc??

My DD who is 4 1/2 recently went to her nephew's pirate party and she loved it so I don't it matters whether they are boys or girls. At that age they just love a good party! Always a good idea to have some healthy foods like fruit sticks, sandwiches etc so they don't just eat junk and start climbing the walls ..... lol

bummer i just wrote all of this then pushed the wrong button grrr

the kids had treasure maps each x marked the spot of a surprise
each child decorated a sword and made a pirate hat from newspaper

games.
pass the parcel
pin the patch on the pirate
musical chairs
sack races
walk the plank- each child had four turns at throwing the ball in the crocodiles mouth, each time they missed they took another step on the plank, four missies and you fall over board.

food
treasure chest cake
chocolate coins in gold foil
biscuits with skull and cross bone icing
pirate ships from half oranges topped with a tooth pick and pirate flag attached
carrot celery crackers and dips
sausage rolls
fairy bread but with blue green and black sprinkles
individual cups of blue jelly with a crocodile inside it.
all i can remember of the top of my head

decorations

balloons with pirates/skulls etc
the kids made there own table cloth from a plastic table cloth and decorated it in pirate stickers
center piece was a handtowl roll painted brown with crepe paper leaves
coconuts
the floor had tarpoline in dining room covered in sand and shells
pirate flags
x marks the spot
dynamite made from string red paper and toilet rolls
life jackets life rings and some net

loot bags
pirate note pad and pencil
pirate bouncy ball
plastic compass
eye patch
chocolate gold coins
pirate stamp
pirate bandana

All things must be managed when you are going to organize any party.

Pirate Pinata
[url=http://www.windycitynovelties.com/213327p/pirat...]

is one of the important thing of the party for the children because children like fun.