Yellow, Favorite Color

Age of Birthday Girl: 3 years old
Age Range of Guests: 2-7 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 1-8 years, depending on specific focus & activities

When our youngest turned three she wanted a yellow birthday because "lello" was her "faybrit" color!

Invitations: We used a variety of yellow scrap-booking paper patterns to create a very yellow card covered in yellow stickers. The front had a "You Are Invited" stamp, with the party details on the back. (Sorry there is no picture - this party was sparse on photos for some reason).

Cake: At first we were stumped for the cake but then decided to go with the sun & rainbow theme - appropriately yellow and very easy! A 9x9 inch cake was covered in yellow frosting. We sprinkled yellow sugar around the edge to give it some sparkle and drew a face for fun. For the rainbow we decorated cupcakes in rainbow colors and placed them beside the sun cake. They also each had a smiley face on them and color-coordinated sugar for some sparkle.

Games & Goodies: Each child decorated a yellow paper plate "sun" with markers and stickers. They each had colorful crepe paper and ribbon to attach for the rainbow. We played color matching games, did a scavenger hunt for various colorful items around the house or yard, and sang some songs about rainbows & colors.

Yellow goodie bags were filled with with yellow pencils, yellow smiley face stickers, rainbow stickers, yellow bendy toys, fruit snacks, and a variety of candy.

Red Sox Baseball

Age of Birthday Boy: 7 years old
Age Range of Guests: 5-9 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 3-13+ years, depending on specific focus & activities and how difficult you make the games

Invitations: We printed out a Red Sox logo, glued it to red construction paper, and wrote party details on the back. We found some Red Sox stickers to use on the envelopes (the iParty store is an official Red Sox merchandise distributor and was a good source of items for the party).

Cake: We decorated a 9x13 cake with a baseball diamond using frosting, crushed graham crackers for dirt, and mini marshmallows cut in half for the bases. A Red Sox scoreboard was printed out on the computer and added to the field (complete with the score showing them beating the Yankees - important detail). Using a Red Sox/Yankees chess set we placed players on the field. It was a hit!

Games & Goodies: Party guests were encouraged to wear Red Sox pariphinalia, or the team colors, and were each given a Red Sox souvenir pin as they arrived at the party. Everyone had a chance to stand in front of a "Red Sox Clubhouse" sign and pose for a photo with a baseball bat & glove if they wished. These were then made into personal baseball cards (quickly downloaded & printed out during the party while other activities were going on) which the kids filled out later with personal stats. They also all posed for a team photo. Other activities involved baseball type events - throwing small soft baseballs at a target, catching balls that were being bounced off a re-bounder (a bouncy net used for soccer and baseball practice), and running "bases" outside in an obstacle course set-up.

Goodie bags included a then-current Red Sox player baseball card, baseball shaped pencils with baseball notepads, sports themed erasers, small soft baseballs, Red Sox stickers, candy, & gum. Plus they got to take home their own personal baseball card and a team photo.

Angels

Age of Birthday Girl: 5 years old
Age Range of Guests: 3-8 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 2-10 years, depending on specific focus & activities

An angel party seemed like a fun idea (and it was) except it's hard to find angel decorations in May! We eventually found a few things that would work but this party may be easier to put together in late fall or early winter once Christmas decorations are in the stores.

Invitations: On plain white card stock we taped silvery star paper on the front and added small wooden angels we found at Micheal's Craft store (we cleaned them out of their supply at the time). We stamped "You're Invited" on the front and then wrote the party details inside.

Cake: The cake was made in a 9x13 pan. After covering it with light blue frosting we added mini-marshmallows, cut in half, to make clouds. Small wooden stars and angels were taped to toothpicks and inserted into the top of the cake. Cupcakes were covered with blue or white frosting and then topped with star & moon sprinkles and/or a mini marshmallow. We decorated the table with a white tablecloth covered with silver star confetti. It was a very nice effect overall.

Games & Goodies: The birthday girl wore a white dress, angel wings, and a halo. Party guests made their own halos out of silver or gold pipe cleaners. We found an angel craft from Oriental Trading and decorated them with markers, stickers, gems, ribbon, etc. We played games with angel themes such as a halo version of musical chairs, an angel scavenger hunt (find something white, something that makes music, something that has wings, etc).

Goodie bags were made from white paper bags decorated with the silver star paper and another wooden angel. They had angel stickers inside, silver glittery pencils and paper, candy, and gum.

Noah's Ark

Age of Birthday Girl: 2 years old

Age Range of Guests: 1-6 years old

Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 1-6 years, depending on specific focus & activities

Invitations: Our daughter (turning two at the time) helped us make these simple invitations. We cut out a boat shape from brown construction paper & placed it on a blue piece of paper. We attached a brown flap for the ark door in the front and glued a white piece of paper with party info on the back. Insdie she placed a variety of animal stickers for decoration.

Cake: We baked two cakes for this creation - one 9x13 and one 9x9. We covered the 9x13 with blue frosting and cut the square one in half.

One half of the square was covered in brown frosting and became the bottom of the boat. We cut about 1/3 off the end of the other half, and then sliced some off the long edge so it would fit nicely on top of the base. This was also covered with brown frosting. The remaining 1/3 was cut into two pieces diagonally so they could form the roof of the ark. This was also frosted.

Small chip sticks were used for the roof but pretzel sticks or other candy and snack foods would also work. We found fish sprinkles to add to the water, but you could also use gummy candy or plastic fish if you have those. Animals pairs (found at a party store) were placed around the ark and we also came across animal candles to stick on top. Cupcakes had blue frosting with the fish sprinkles.

Games & Goodies: The kids all made an ark out of paper plates and construction paper. They added stickers and/or drew pictures of animals on their ark. We gave them colored cereal O's to make a rainbow bracelet. We played animal games - making animal noises to a story, searching for animals in a treasure hunt - and read them the account of Noah's Ark.

Garden Party

Age of Birthday Girl: 4 years old
Age Range of Guests: 2-7years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 2-10 years, depending on specific focus & activities


This was a fun theme for little kids - boys and girls all enjoy gardening. You could emphasize the bug aspect more if you have a child that is not into flowers.

Invitations: For the invitations we cut out colorful card stock in the shape of petals. The center of the flower was a small circle decorated with glitter. The information for the party was written on the flower petals and then they were all attached with a brad fastener. We made sure the flower would fit into an envelope but if you are hand delivering invitations that is not necessary.

Cake: This cake was inspired by one we saw in Family Fun magazine (search their website for "gumdrop garden" - their picture is much better than ours). The base is a regular 9x13 inch cake, frosted & surrounded by a fence made from wafer cookies (Family Fun used ladyfingers). Cookie crumbs were sprinkled on top for dirt. We had food allergies at the party but if you are not worried about that you could add green-colored coconut for grass.

Large gumdrops were cut into tulip shapes and stuck onto toothpicks. We found sour gummie butterflies and of course used gummie worms. Cupcakes were covered in green frosting and each had a gummie worm or gumdrop flower on top.

Games & Goodies: We decorated goodie bags with spongy flower stickers. Inside each child had some of the gummie butterflies and gummie worms, flower and insect stickers, paper & pencil, and some candy.

Using the same spongy stickers the kids each decorated a small flower pot and created their own flowers to put into them. They had small rocks for the bottom and shredded green tissue paper for grass. We did some games outside in the yard including searching for garden tools in the sandbox, a treasure hunt for some hidden plastic flowers, and a small obstacle course using garden equipment.

Detective - Jigsaw Jones

Age of Birthday Boy: 6 years old
Age Range of Guests: 3-9 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 3-12 years, depending on specific focus & activities


This party was inspired by the "Jigsaw Jones" chapter book series by James Preller which our son loved at the time. But, it could easily be adapted for any detective-themed party.

Invitations: We cut out puzzle shapes and glued them on the outside of the invitations. Small stickers taped the card shut for a more "secretive" feel.

The Cake: Using a 9x13 inch cake we cut it into a puzzle shape using a template made from wax paper. This was decorated simply using frosting & sprinkles with a simple math problem on it that indicated how old our son was turning. Cupcakes were decorated with a number code and the kids had to figure out that it read "Happy Birthday".

Games & Goodies: The front door read "Welcome to the Jigsaw Jones Detective Agency", each child was given a detective badge as they arrived, and they put their fingerprints on them using washable ink. We played a number of scavenger-hunt and code-breaking games, as well as games to test their memory. The kids had to follow clues, crack the codes (number codes, alphabet codes, riddles, and symbol codes), and find missing puzzle pieces.

 There were then two puzzles to put together once all the parts were located - one for younger kids and one for the older crowd. For a memory game the kids were briefly shown a group of random household items, the items were hidden, and they had to remember as many as possible. The first turn gave the kids plenty of time to see & remember the items. By the last try the items were viewed only briefly and they all did a great job figuring out how to work together to get them all right.

Goodie bags included detective notepads & pencils, puzzle piece erasers, their name badges, and a variety of candy treats.

Butterfly

Age of Birthday Girl: 2 years old

Age Range of Guests: 1-5 years old

Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 1-8 years, depending on specific focus & activities

The Cake: Using a template we found on the internet we cut out the butterfly cake from a 9 inch round pan, and decorated it with frosting and candies. We found a template that is close to what we originally used on the Parenting website (link on the sidebar). On their site click on "recipes" and then search for "butterfly birthday cake".

Games & Goodies: The kids decorated papers and door hangers with butterfly, bug, & flower stickers and foam pieces. We played games outside in the yard such as easy scavenger hunts and musical freeze tag. Goodie bags had butterfly stickers, small butterfly and bug toys, and candy treats.

Finding Nemo

Age of Birthday Girl: 1 year old
Age Range of Guests: 0-5 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 0-10 years, depending on specific focus & activities (who doesn't love Nemo?!)

This was a fun party for our 1-year-old and her guests that ranged in age from infants to 5 years old.

The Cake: We found a picture of Nemo and printed it out on the computer to use as a stencil. After the 9x13 cake was cut into the correct shape the frosting was added, again using the picture as a guide. We also made cupcakes and decorated them with blue frosting, frosting or gummi fish, and sprinkles.

Games & Goodies: We had kids fishing for prizes, crawling through tunnels of "water", and playing matching games with Nemo cards. Goodie bags included Nemo stickers, ocean/fish toys, and candy appropriate for the child's age.

Dinosaurs & Volcanoes

Age of Birthday Boy: 5 years old
Age Range of Guests: 3-8 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 2-8 years, depending on specific focus & activities

The Cake: For this cake we used a pan that is designed for the skirt of a doll - you can purchase it at most craft stores and it can have a variety of uses. For us it became a mountain and we placed it beside another base cake. We then covered it with chocolate frosting and added orange frosting for lava.

 Malt balls & crushed chocolate cookies were rocks coming down the side of the mountain but any round or crumbly cookie-type food will work. Green & blue frosting made up the grass & a watering hole. Around this we placed plastic dinosaurs. We also had extra cupcakes with blue or green frosting and a plastic dinosaur on each one.

Games & Goodies: Games were dinosaur themed versions of classics such as pin the scale on the dinosaur. Goodie bags included candy treats, dinosaur stickers, and plastic dinosaurs.

Ladybugs, ladybugs!

Age of Birthday Girl: 3 years old

Age Range of Guests: 0-5 years old

Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 0-8 years, depending on specific focus & activities

Invitations: Ladybug invitations were made using black circles for the body with red circles cut in half for the wings. We used smaller half circles for the head and a hole punch to make the dots. A white circle had the party info which was attached to the back.

The cake: For the cake we used one 9x13 cake and some cupcakes. We cut the cake into a leaf shape using a stencil made on wax paper, covered it with green frosting, and then drew lines on it with darker green icing gel. The cupcakes turned into ladybugs with red, white, and black frosting. We could have used black licorice for antennae but didn't find any in the store the day we went. After much searching we have not found the original inspiration for our cake.

Games: We did a variety of games for party guests that ranged in age from infants through 5 years. We found some ladybug bean bags at Oriental Trading and used those for many of the activities. Kids got to toss them, build for them, stack them, match them by color, and play musical chairs with them.

Goodies: We had wanted to send guests home with real ladybugs but weren't organized enough to order them ahead of time - it can be done though! Goodie bags included stickers, candy treats, and bug-themed toys.