Kid's Birthday Party Ideas

Here at our house, the princess parties have been some of the favorite parties we've had. In fact, we've had several of them over the course of the years of my daughters' youth because we could do themes within the princess theme and make the party unique in it's own right. Some theme within a theme princess party ideas:

* Princess dress up party
* Princess tea party
* Princess Spa party
* Princess teddy bear party
* Princess sleepover party
* Princess ice cream party
* Princess craft party
* Princess picnic party
* Princess dance party

Get the idea? All it takes is a princess (i.e. your birthday girl), some pink tulle, a crown and a bunch of lovely little birthday guests dressed the same.

Check out my princess party book for some great ideas, menus and lots of details on how to make your princess birthday party the best party ever!

There's a reason so many kids are lined up at carnivals and fairs waiting to get their faces painted with a design... kids love face painting.

So why not add a face painting activity to your next birthday party? The thing about this activity is that it's easy, it's fun, it's relatively inexpensive and it really can fit into any other theme you're doing.

Basic designs are simple - butterflies, flowers, hearts, etc. But you can get more elaborate too.

I found a great book on easy face painting that will help you in really making some great designs - you could probably even hire yourself out to other birthday parties you'll be so good.

CLICK HERE for more information on the book. And let me know what you think.

Here are some quick ideas for making the party "beary" fun!

Invitation ideas
Buy some inexpensive rubber stamps with bear images and let your little one make homemade invitations. Or cut a piece of cardstock into the shape of a bear and write your invitation on that. Free clipart can be found for this purpose in many places on the Internet.

Decoration ideas
When kids think of bears they usually think of honey and bees, so a big hit for decorations is LOTS of yellow and black balloons and streamers. Decorate with ... Teddy Bears!

Menu ideas
Here's a cute way to turn Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches into a beary fun treat!
Spread your peanut butter and jelly onto eight whole-wheat hamburger buns. Now here's where the fun begins. Cut four of the eight buns in half. On a large tray, arrange the buns into a shape of a teddy bear. For the tummy, put one whole bun and surround that with 4 half buns. Another whole bun becomes the head/face, with two half buns on the topsides of the head for the ears. Two whole buns become the legs and the final two half buns turn out off of the body to make arms. Garnish the face/head bun with raisin eyes and a strawberry slice mouth and you've got a bear! Use a separate tray for additional sandwiches and watch for all the smiles! Mix some honey and yogurt together for a great dip for cut fruit and your menu is complete!

Bear Party - Activities and craft ideas
Use paper plates to make paper bear masks. Bead a bear collar (necklace). Take a picture with all the kids and their own bears and decorate a simple scrapbook page to honor the occasion. Decorate teddy bear cookies with colored icing and various decorations.

Bear Party - Game ideas
Pin the honey pot on the teddy bear - if you have an artist in the family, draw a large teddy bear on poster board and cut out honey pots. Blindfold each child individually and see if they can put the honey pot into the teddy bear's hand.

Hot Teddy Bear - like hot potato only pass the teddy bear to the music. When the music stops, the person with the teddy bear is out.

Toss the honey pot - draw a large bear head with an open mouth on poster board and lay it on the floor. Using yellow beanbags as the "honey" each child throws the bag to see if it will land in the bear's mouth.

Take home gift ideas
Purchase yellow lunch bags (available at party stores) and decorate with bee stickers. Fill with gummy bears, teddy grahams, miniature stuffed teddy bears and fun bear jewelry.

My kids were grown before Dora became popular so I was glad to find this article by Kara about having a fun Dora party. Enjoy and THANKS KARA!

Dora the Explorer is a popular character with little girls. It's no wonder so many are demanding Dora be the feature of their next birthday party. Here are tips to help in your planning.

Dora's color theme isn't as easy as others, but over all you'll want to have mostly pink. Since most little girls love the color pink, this shouldn't be a problem.

Orange and purple are two other color options as well, since Dora wears a purple shirt with orange shorts. Also, "Backpack" is purple while "Boots the Monkey" wears red boots. Pink, orange, and purple should be your main colors though.

Be sure you have the following in a Dora theme, or the above mentioned colors:

- Cake
If you are making your own cake, finding a topper shouldn't be too hard. Just take a trip down the toy aisle and find a small Dora toy.

- Ice Cream
This can be basic, but as an extra treat you can offer Dora ice cream which features the face of Dora (yes this can be found at the store sometimes!)

- Plastic Forks and Spoons
Be sure you have them on hand. Utensils don't have to follow the theme. But if you need to buy them anyway, check for a colors in pink or purple.

- Plates and Napkins
These should feature Dora, and you can order them online if you can't find it. If all else fails or you are pressed for time, grab some that follow the color scheme.

- Decorations
This is pretty open, but try to find streamers and balloons in pink and purple. Most stores sell balloons in packs of one or two colors.

- Invitations
If your daughter is inviting friends, this is a must. Grab invitations which feature Dora, Boots, and other characters. Save one behind for your scrapbook if need be!

Remember this party if for your daughter, so be sure to get her involved!

Kara Kelso is the mother of two, and owner of www.Idea-Queen.com . For more birthday party ideas, visit:

http://www.idea-queen.com/childrens-birthday-parties.html

Article Source: http://www.ladypens.com

I loved the idea of the "make your own stuffed animal" birthday party from the start. All I had to do was send out the invitations, make some pizza, order the cake, make sure the house was clean and hire the animal stuffing lady to come and take care of keeping the kids happy during the first part of the party!

It was great! The kids arrived (miraculously all were on time) and the Stuffed animal gang arrived about the same time too. We sent all the kids and the stuffers down into the basement. The moms and I stayed upstairs and had coffee and chatted for a bit and then headed down to watch the fun.

The kids were having a blast. The ladies from the animal stuffing party were helping the kids choose from their selection of animals. My girl picked a gorgeous white tiger and her cousin picked an adorable teddy bear with a pink heart nose. The kids couldn't have gone wrong with any of the animal choices. They were beautiful and super quality too.

The fun started when they put all that stuffing in the middle of the floor and the kids started putting inside their animal of choice. That took a while and a few of the moms who stayed wanted to help which seemed fine too.

Then when they were all done stuffing and creating, the kids got a star to put inside. The helpers closed up the animals and then it was time to decorate the animal tshirts. Just adorable. The kids sat at the table so quietly making the perfect tshirt for their animal. I'm not sure but they might have had just as much fun doing that as the stuffing was. They put the tshirts on and we got a big group picture of the kids with their new animal friends.

Then it was time for pizza and cake and opening presents. The time just flew and my girl said it was "the best birthday ever".

I thought so too!

To book your own party like this visit Noah's Ark Animal Workshop today!

I stumbled upon THIS BLOG this morning and it was an excellent post about having an environmentally aware birthday party - even though that wasn't the theme of the party. It's a good read and a great kid's birthday party idea!

Here's another good blog post on a green birthday party. Click HERE to read it.

Birthdays A joyous occasion to be celebrated every year There's a reason kids love birthdays and it's not just because they get lots of presents. Ok, yeah, maybe it is but there's more to it than that. Most of the birthday gifts are forgotten a few months, if not days, after the big event and yet the memories of the birthday parties can last a lifetime.

Centering your birthday party on a theme is a great way to create those lifetime memories. And it is a wonderful way to make your party planning easier, too. So what kind of parties make for the this was the best party of my life comments from your kids?

* Princess Parties - If you've got girls, you know the word princess was one of the first words in their vocabulary. Princess parties are not only delightful, they're extremely popular and because of that it's pretty easy to find great decor, tableware, crafts and activities to make it easy. Just think PINK and you'll be halfway there Don't limit yourself to just the popular Disney Princesses though - keep the theme more broad and make YOUR princess the star of the show.

* Dinosaur Party - Better balance this article out with a very popular theme for the boys - the Dinosaur party. Think green, brown, big and noisy and you've got the making of a great party revolving around all things Dino The thing that makes this party so easy is you can use a lot of kraft grocery bags and other recyclables to really turn your house around for the party. Use them to cut out rocks and footprints and more. Use some green streamers for the jungle effect. Make dirt cake as the birthday cake and hide green M&Ms inside as the dinosaur eggs. See how fun this is?

* Teddy Bear Party - I can't imagine any party that's easier to put together than a Teddy Bear party. Have the kids bring their favorite teddy or hire a make your own teddy bear entertainer to keep the kids occupied and then the guests will have a great take home gift too. A teddy shaped cake is very easy to make with a couple of round cake pans or you can make it even easier and frost a 9x13 cake and decorate it with either gummy bears or teddy grahams. Enhance the theme with either a tea party or a teddy bear fashion show - or have one of the activities be where the kids make clothes for their animals.

* Carnival Party - A carnival party is a great theme particularly for an outdoor, mid-summer party. Borrow some tables from the neighbors or your local church and set up a variety of stations for food, activities, crafts and games. Involve the moms and dads of the guests to monitor the various tables or hire some neighborhood teens for the afternoon to help keep things under control. Have the kids trade tickets for food or activities and earn more tickets for winning at some of the tables. If you're planning for an outdoor party, have a rain date set just in case.

* Tea Party - The nice thing about a tea party is that you can make it as simple or as elaborate as you like, depending on the time you have and the personality of your child. From a simple pretend tea with milk and cookies to an all out English High tea with scones, Devonshire cream, dipped strawberries and delicious hot tea (the real thing), a tea party is a great transition party for a young girl who doesn't want to do a more childish theme. Have Dad dress up in his best suit and play butler as he serves all the tea guests at the party. This is a theme that would go well combined with a Princess party or the teddy bear party too.

* Sports Party - Have a child that just can't get enough sports? Then center his birthday party on them too Either focus on the birthday child's favorite or make it a combo party with various sports highlighted. Or take the current sport of the season and make the party all about that sport. The easy thing about sports parties is that you can find great take home gifts and crafts so easily and inexpensively and you can really spend much of the time of the party actually participating in some aspect of the sport. Obviously this would be a great party for someone who doesn't really want to do a party at home - take all the kids out to the bowling alley, batting cages or driving range, then out for ice cream and voila... a great party

* 50's Sock Hop Party - This is a super easy party to put together because much of the party is centered on the music and the way the kids dress. Encourage the gals to wear poodle skirts and they guys to wear jeans and white t-shirts with, of course, both in bobbie socks and saddle shoes (if you can find them) or keds. Have a little make up station for the girls to put on a little lipstick, throw some blown up balloons on the floor in the living room, turn on the music and let the hopping begin Root beer floats or make your own sundaes (one with a candle for the birthday child) are easy food for this party.

So make the most of your child's birthday party this year by centering the events of the day on a theme. You'll find it to be stress free, fun and something that your child will remember long into his adult years.