Tinkerbell, Fairy Party

Age of Birthday Girl: 5 years old
Age Range of Guests: 3-9 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

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

Invitations: We didn't get very creative with these this year and just bought some Tinkerbell Invitations from the party store.  (Doesn't happen often since part of the fun for the kids is to make their own invitations but this year just didn't come together in time).  The envelopes had related fairy stickers.

Cake:  The cake this year was fun and easy to make.  It was a regular round double layer cake covered in green frosting.  Blue frosting was used to create a small pond with flower sprinkles to act as lily pads.  We found a Tinkerbell cake topper which we placed next to the pond along with some candy flowers.  For a nice finishing touch we placed fake flowers around the base of the cake.

Activities: Fairy themed games were the theme of the day.  We had the kids do a relay race to place fairy flowers along the path.  One child placed a flower then the next would pick one up and run across the flowers that were already placed to put another one down.  They would then run back along the flower path to tag the next person in line and so on.  Once all the flowers were placed the entire team had to run across the flower path one at a time.  Meanwhile there were parents who were blowing bubbles along the path, just for fun!

We took the kids outside for a scavenger hunt of fairy items and locations.  They had to collect items to later create a fairy house.  We also provided fake flowers from the bunch we had used to decorate the cake.  Somehow we managed to not have any photos of the finished products (??!!) but the kids had great fun.  We had also placed hidden fairy messages in our garden which the kids had to find and decode - messages about where to find fairies and how to create great places for them to live.

Goodie bags: Green paper bags filled with Tinker-bell items such as pencils, stickers, notebooks, and jewelry.  We included some candy and chocolate as well.

Olympics, Summer

Age of Birthday Boy: 9 years old
Age Range of Guests: 7-12 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 6-14 years, depending on the specific focus & activities, and how physically difficult you make each event

Our son's 9th birthday coordinated nicely with the timing of the Beijing Olympics so it was a natural party theme idea and he was thrilled.


Invitations: Invitations were easy but unfortunately there is no photo.  We drew the Olympic Rings on white card stock and put party information the back.  We found some flag stickers to decorate the envelopes.

Cake:  Again, this one was very easy - Olympic Rings out of colored frosting with a white background on a 9x13 cake.  We also had cupcakes with the same design.

Activities:  This was the highlight!  The kids had to register as they arrived for the party, receiving numbers, and choosing a country to represent.  We had flags from various countries and each child chose one to carry during our opening ceremony.  We even had a "torch" to light (cardboard box and tissue paper)!

The guests were sorted into groups to rotate through stations.  Events included javelin (broomstick), shot put (bocce balls), high jump (using a mattress to land on), long jump, basketball, and soccer.

We also had a station where the kids had to identify countries by their flags with points earned for how many could be completed correctly.
After the games were completed, medals were awarded to the guests (everyone received one), and we had our closing ceremony complete with the Olympic Fanfare music.  Then it was on to cake & ice cream!

Goodie Bags: We filled red party bags with candy and various Olympic themed items such as stickers, pens, etc.  They also kept their flags and we took a picture of each child receiving their Olympic Medals to send along with thank-you cards.

Strawberry Shortcake

Age of Birthday Girl: 7 years old
Age Range of Guests: 5-10 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 3-10 years, depending on specific focus & activities

Invitations: We cut out strawberry shapes from red card stock and glued party information to the back with a "you are invited" sticker on the front.  SC stickers were added to decorate the card and the envelope.

Cake: Using a simple template we cut a round cake into the shape of a strawberry.  Red frosting (it turned out more of a deep shade of pink but still looked OK) covered the cake.  We used yellow jellybeans as the seeds and green fruit roll-ups for the stem and leaves.

Games & Activities: Our first activity was a simple craft.  We found some inexpensive small plastic storage containers in red, pink, and purple at a craft store (Michael's).  Using various stickers, ribbon, and markers the party guests decorated their containers.

Next we created a SC scavenger hunt.  Guests were divided into four teams based on SC characters.  Each team was required to find items both inside and outside
the house, such as the longest blade of grass, something yellow, etc.  After a set amount of time teams gathered to compare results and a winner was declared.


Finally, we did a musical chairs or relay sort of game with pictures of SC characters on paper plates scattered around the basement. Teams had to race to find matches for characters and freeze when the music stopped.  Anyone with a match kept their plates.  Left without a match and you went to the back of your line to try again.  The team who got all the matches first won the game.

Goodie bags:  These were simple pink or red paper bags filled with SC stickers, pencils, erasers, and costume jewelry.  The boys' bags has bug themed items instead of SC.  All bags also included a small assortment of candy.

Hello Kitty

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

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

Invitations: Invitations for this party used a simple cut-out of Hello Kitty glued onto pink card stock. The party information was included on the back.

Cake: We took a basic round cake and decorated it using the image of Hello Kitty that we found on some stickers as sort of a template. Frosting was used to make the face and whiskers, with jelly beans for the eyes, nose, and the flower in her hair. We added some sprinkles for extra color and had cupcakes with the candy in the flower shape. We also found some Hello Kitty candles which worked very well on the cake.

Games & Activities: We had a craft for the kids as they arrived. They each had a foam bookmark to decorate as they wished with stickers, markers, and ribbon.

Then we played a game of pin-the-bow-on-Hello-Kitty that we had created for the event. We drew a large Hello Kitty on poster board and then made bows with sticky tape to use in the game.

The other game was a version of Bingo using pictures of Hello Kitty doing various activities. We created the board games by cutting & pasting pictures on the computer into different sequences and combination on each card.

Goodie bags: It was easy to fill bags with all sorts of fun Hello Kitty items from stickers to pencils and erasers to jewelry, etc. We added a few candy treats as well.

Letterboxing

Age of Birthday Boy: 8 years old
Age Range of Guests: 5-10 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 5-13+ years, depending on specific focus & activities

You could very easily do a geo-caching version of this party, especially with an older crowd, but that is an activity we didn't discover until later.

Invitations: The front of the invitation had a compass rose on it and the coordinates of our home. Inside were party details, a map, and a request to come ready to explore outside (socks or long pants, hat, sunscreen, etc).

Cake: The cake was very simple for this party. A round cake was turned into a compass rose design. Cupcakes in coordinating colors had frosting magnifying glasses on them with letters that spelled out a happy birthday message.

Games: The main event for this one was letter-boxing. Ahead of time we planted two letterboxes in a nearby forested area. We then created clues to help the party guests find the boxes. Once the guests had arrived we divided them into two teams (it happened to be older kids and younger kids).

The kids all got a letter-boxing pack which later served as their goodie bag. It was a simple drawstring backpack from Oriental Trading Company. Inside was a compass, a notebook and pencil, a water bottle, a small snack, and a rubber stamp of their choosing with an ink pad (washable ink). A grown-up in each group also carried extra water, a small first-aid kit, wipes for washing hands, and a cell phone to keep in contact with the other group to gauge progress.

The kids had to follow specific instructions to get to the forest and look for the clues to help them find the box once they were there. The two groups set off in different directions once we got to the forest. They would eventually find both boxes but started with different ones to make it less crowded as we walked.

Once a box was found each child stamped their own stamp into the notepad inside the box and left a note in the notebook. Then they used the stamp from the box to make a mark in their own notepad. We stopped for a snack when the two groups met mid-way between the two boxes. Once both groups had found both boxes we walked back home for cake & ice cream.

Goodie Bags: The kids each had their own draw-string backpack as their goodie bag. They got to keep it, the compass, rubber stamp, notepad, and pencil, plus we added candy and stickers once we returned home. In addition each child was given general instructions for letter-boxing and websites for their parents to look up if they were interested in doing it as a family.

This was a super party. The one event took the entire time making planning easy, and the kids loved the detective/exploring part of letter-boxing. For most party-goers this was their first exposure to the activity.

Rapunzel

Age of Birthday Girl: 6 years old
Age Range of Guests: 4-9 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 3-10 years, depending on specific focus & activities

This was inspired by a wonderful twist on the Rapunzel story found in the book called "Falling For Rapunzel" by Leah Wilcox. If you have not yet read this book you really should. It continues to be a family favorite even though our kids have outgrown picture books.

Cake: We attached two cookie sheets and covered them with foil. Two 9x13 cakes (one chocolate, one vanilla) were placed end to end on the long cookie sheet and frosted to form the tower. One end had small sections cut out to form the top of the towers. For the turrets and balcony railing we used Lego castle pieces from our girls' collection. The long braid was designed using gummy peach rings (by Trolli), cut into thirds and then placed to look like interwoven hair. Frosting vines were graced with large flower candy sprinkles.

Games & Goodies: The kids were given long door handle foam pieces to decorate. We had a variety of stickers, markers, ribbon etc. for them to use. The original idea had been to make them look like Rapunzel's tower but really, they could do whatever they wanted with their craft. It was fun to see the various designs develop.

The main event was the acting out of the book for the party guests. Our three children played the roles of Rapunzel (played by the birthday girl), her maid (little sister), and the handsome prince (big brother) as it was narrated. It is a delightful story of Rapunzel misunderstanding the prince's request to let down her hair resulting in hilarious responses, much to the frustration of the prince.

Following the short skit the kids formed teams and had to unscramble and decode mixed up messages to figure out the target sentence which was "Are you ready for cake?". They were!

Goodie bags included princess and prince stickers, sparkly pencils and notepads, bracelets for the girls and bouncy balls for the boys, gummy candies, and various other candies and chocolates.

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.