Category: Ideas

Budding archaeologists

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If your child is into ancient History, then maybe an Egyptian party would be just the thing;

You could ask your guests to come dressed as an Egyptian (not only would it be great fun but also very educational)

There could be lots of crafty making (seeing as the Egyptians love to build things) why not have a Pyramid building competition which cardboard recycling could be put to very good use. All you need it glue, glitter pens and the children’s imagination to build an amazing Pyramid!!  

PARTY GAMES & ACTIVITIES;

Mummy wrap game;

Divide the children into 3 teams and had them wrap one person as a mummy. Best wrap in 5 minutes’ win.  You will need lots of toilet tissue, try and buy the more expensive stuff as the cheap tissue will rip easily.

Next game is a scavenger hunt. Divided into teams and gave them hieroglyphic clues which they had to translate. There are a lot of websites that give ways to translate hieroglyphics, but not all of them use the same letter-to-hieroglyphic translations.  Tell the children that archaeologists weren’t always given complete information!

The first clue led them to an archaeological dig site (the sand box). They had to dig up a ring, necklace, gold coins, and their next clue. Use one of the pyramids to give instructions — particularly, one item per person; I wanted everyone to get one of each.

The second clue took them to buckets that they had no idea what was inside.  There were all sorts of horrible feeling things inside for example, Jelly, baked beans and custard and they had to dig deep to get their clues!!

The third clue took them to the Nile River. Planks were laid out in the garden and pretend water was underneath them.  The idea is that they balanced and didn’t fall. At the end of the Nile was a crocodile’s nest. They had to get the eggs from the crocodile’s nest for their next clue. 

Final stop was Tutankhamun’s tomb, for their prize there were sweets and prizes all stuffed into a treasure chest 

KIDS PARTY FOOD;

Sandwiches and crisps were laid out and ice cream scooped into bowls, so just had to bring it out from the freezer.  Oh and of course a Pyramid Cake!!!

Kitty Cat Party

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Is your child ‘Cat crazy?’  It could be anything from Hello Kitty or the cute furry things themselves. Why not create your very own cat party for your child?  Here are a few ideas that other people have done and we hope you are inspired to follow:

For the party invitations you can always find pretty stationary with cats on them, you can write invitations on these and will be a lovely keepsake for anyone loving cats.

When your guests arrive why not face paint the guests as cats? You could paint a nose and whiskers and also think about headband ears made of felt and glitter, or get your guests to make a pair?

Now, what about games? You could play ‘pin the tail on the cat?’ or as cat’s love string you could create a sting maze. Attach a toilet paper tube to both end of 7 pieces (for approx. 14 guests) of string or wool, on one end, the tube has a picture of a cat, the other tube has a picture of a mouse. Maze them around the room, underneath chairs, tables and benches and each child has to find who is on the other end of their string.

For crafty children’s party ideas you could buy a set of paper white plates with black card, pipe cleaners for whiskers and googly eyes, guess what these are going to be make into? Yes, you have guessed it, cat faces!!! 

For food, make it fun with little sandwiches cut into goldfish shapes.  If you are feeling adventurous food bowls could be decorated with cat ears and whiskers!!  And don’t forget to serve milk!!

For the cake, you could obviously buy your own, but why not make a cake similar to your child’s favourite kitty? Hello Kitty is a favourite, but if he or she has her own special cat why not model the cake around this? 

Party Bags can be filled with chocolate cats or mice and cute cat stickers and anything you like that involves cats. This is sure to be a success and at a reasonable price too.

Ice-skating party ideas

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My daughter is just celebrated her ninth birthday, and we were also moving at the same time so we needed something that wouldn’t require too much children’s birthday party planning, money, and most importantly – a house! That is when my daughter asked if we would be able to do an ice skating party. Of course, I thought this would be a great idea since it was not our home, so we wouldn’t need to clean up or plan much.  So, the next day I called up the local skating rink and they told me I could rent a party room for 3 hours for only £80. This was great!  

Then, my daughter and I picked up some nice stationary from a hobby craft shop and wrote all the information down on a piece of it – one for each guest (we invited 12). 

The day of the party, we went to the rink early to set up the tables and decorations, and to rent the skates (we had called everyone in advance and asked what shoe size they were). The skates were complimentary with the party room.    

An hour later, almost all of the guests had arrived so they got their skates on and met up with one of the rink instructors who would be leading the party. For about an hour, she showed them tricks and they played a variety of skating games.   

Later, they were called to lunch were they were given their choice of pizza, hot dog, or chicken nuggets. We also laid out hot chocolate so they could come back from skating to get some whenever they wanted.

When they finished lunch, they went back to skating and there was disco lights and music playing! They skated to cool music and light show for about 30 minutes, when they got tired and decided to come back in and open gifts. Before they knew it, it was time to go.  

They were each given their goodie bags which were supplied by the rink. They were a plastic bag with an ice skate on it, an ice skate keychain, sweets, ice skating pencil, and other traditional party bag treats.  

This party was great – they had fun, there was no clean up, it was extremely inexpensive, and it required about 30 minutes of planning!

Mad about Mario

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This particular boy loves Nintendo, especially Mario, so for his 9th birthday party he had a Mario themed Birthday party.   

Mario desktop wallpaper on Nintendo’s website which was used to make invitations. On the front with the picture it said It’s a Mario Party and Josh is turning 9 won’t you join us and have a good time?”. On the back was a map to out place as well as all the party info. 

It was an outdoor party so for decorations there hung blue plastic tablecloths along the fence and placed cut-outs of Mario goombahs coin blocks and hills that was drawn on poster board. 

Music was downloaded from the games which was copied to CD and was played in the background. When the children arrived they were given a fake moustache. They were also given red visors with the letter M painted on it (like Mario’s hat) which was really handy since it was so sunny outside.  

After all the children had arrived they played a balloon pop game. There were also stuck gold plastic coins or pictures of goombas and other villains in balloons and inflated them. The children had so much fun popping the balloons! The children with the most coins won a little Mario toy that was bought.

The next game was Mario Party musical “chairs”. Instead of chairs they put a picture of each character on a piece of construction paper and put them on the ground in a circle. 

Next the children decorated their own Mario sun catchers. There was a piece of masking tape on the back that could write each children name on so we could tell them apart when the paint dried.   

For the cake it was covered on a sheet cake in green icing and put a Mario figurine on top. To make it look like a scene from the game then added mini marshmallows for clouds mini chocolate bars for blocks a gummy mushroom and premade cake letters that said “Joshua 009” like the score keeper on the game. 

After cake the gifts were opened and the children got to take turns playing Mario Party 5 on two of the GameCube’s or Super Mario Brothers on the NES that was set up around the house.  

Hire a Limo for a teen party

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The birthday diary of a teenage girl….

Three girls, 2 boys. We got picked up on a Friday night in a Limo supplied from my dad. We all rode around for a half hour making lots of memories by taking pictures. After that we rode to our favourite place to hang out a big shopping centre complete with restaurants, movie theatre, and tons of shops.

We went to dinner at TGI Fridays We enjoyed the 50’s feel of the restaurant.

We had burgers, fries, and milkshakes. At 6 o’clock the waiters and waitresses all danced to the song “stayin alive” We all enjoyed and started singing along. After this we all went to the mall. We all shopped and hung out at the mall. This is where they used their money.

Then after this we went and caught a movie. We all laughed through the movie. After this we went outside to and ice-cream parlour where we had ice cream and I opened presents. I also handed out the gift bags.

For the boys they had sweets and these really cool sport pens. I had trouble finding things so I also gave them these cool posters of skateboarders and skate board keychains. For my girlfriends, they all got sweets, lip gloss, nail polish, eyeshadow, keychains, a bracelet, a necklace, and I bought us all matching shirts that said “Best friends”.

After the boy’s parents arrived my Mum took my 3 friends and I home to sleep over. When we got home we talked, read magazines, did each other’s make up and painted each other’s nails. Each girl used the stuff provided in her gift bag to do her makeup and nails. I bought them in special colours for each girl.

I had the best teenage Birthday ever and my Mum and Dad are just brilliant at organising and they also gave me my privacy.”

DIY Monster Party Ideas

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Thanks to hit films such as Monster’s Inc., ‘monsters’ has become one of the most popular children’s party themes.

Aside from being a guaranteed hit with kids, the theme is also one of the easiest to pull off – a dash of colour here and some googly eyes there are often all it takes to give your food or décor a monster makeover!

From multiple-eyed marshmallow pops to Monster’s Inc. inspired balloons, here are some of our favourite ideas.

Monster Marshmallow Pops

Monster marshmallow pops are completely adorable – plus, they’re easy to create, even for young children, making them the perfect pre or during-party activity. Simply dip marshmallows into melted, coloured chocolate, before dipping in sprinkles and adding edible eyeballs.

“Mike” Inspired Monster Balloons

Looking for a simple yet effective decoration idea for your monster party? Inspired by Mike Wazowski from the Monster’s Inc. franchise, these one-eyed balloons are guaranteed to be popular with the kids.

“Sully” Inspired Cupcakes

Mike’s partner in crime, Sully, is also a popular and instantly recognisable character from the Monster’s Inc. franchise. These Sully-inspired cupcakes will be a great addition to any monster themed party, and simply require some creativity with icing and fondant.

Get the Kids Involved in the Décor

Getting the kids involved in the party decorations is a lovely touch. Let them loose on any signs or banners and challenge them to draw the scariest monsters they can. You could also ask all of the guests to bring their best monster drawings to the party and create a ‘Monster Gallery’. Hand out prizes for categories such as “funniest monster”, “most creative monster” and “scariest monster”. 

Gooey Monster Eyeball Cookies

These cookies are another fun and super-simple way to give your party food a monster makeover. To get the ‘look’, you’ll simply need some food colouring and edible eyeballs.

A monster party theme is guaranteed to be popular with the kids – plus, you can create really effective food and décor, without having to spend lots of time or money!

Make sure the kids remember the day with some themed party bags.

Budget Activities for the Kids

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The school summer break can be a logistical nightmare for parents – from juggling child care to trying to book your own holiday, it can be hard to spend as much quality family time as you’d like.

The May bank holiday, therefore, is a great opportunity to get everyone together for some old-fashioned fun – and that doesn’t mean having to spend a fortune on expensive days out. From sensory treasure hunts to making dens, here are are some budget activities the kids will love.

Go On a Sensory Treasure Hunt

Small children love picking things up and touching them, so a sensory treasure hunt is guaranteed to go down well. Plus, it’s a great way to help them learn about the world around them! Draw up a list of things for them to find, such as ‘a tree with shiny leaves’, ‘something that’s been warmed by the sun’ and ‘a brightly coloured flower’.

Make a Den

Every child loves making dens to hide away from the grown-ups in. Provide them with old sheets, blankets and chairs that they can drape over garden furniture (or indoor furniture if the weather takes a turn for the worst!). You could even get creative and help them make a ‘no grown-ups allowed’ sign for the entrance.

Stage a Spring Olympics

If you’ve got a big enough garden or a nearby park, a Spring Olympics can be lots of fun. Split your children’s friends into groups of twos and threes, and ask them to pick a country to represent out of a hat. You can then set up ‘events’ such as a relay race and discus, which would involve throwing a Frisbee as far they can.

Set up an Obstacle Course 

You can easily set up an obstacle course in the garden with items you already own, such as ropes, a wooden ladder (laid flat on the ground) and hoola hoops. Not only will the course test the kid’s agility, it will keep them entertained for hours!

 Set up a Lemonade Stand

Setting up a lemonade stand is a classic summer activity for older children – plus, it will teach them a little bit about business too. Help them make the refreshing drink by following a lemonade recipe and get creative setting up the stall in the back garden. Then all you have to do is invite everyone round to sample their creation!

Teenage Party Ideas

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Ask any parent what the trickiest age for kids is and they’ll often reply ‘teenager’. Not quite grown-up, not quite children, throwing a party for your early teens or tweenagers, (as 10-12 year olds are sometimes known), can be tricky.

The important thing is to get the balance right between a children’s party and something a little more grown-up. Here are our tips to help you get it right.

Themes

Rock Star Party

A rock star themed party is a great way to bridge the gap between child and teenager. Ask the kids to come dressed as their favourite diva or guitar hero, or alternatively, a glam rock theme can be a big hit.

Essential Activities

Air guitar competitions and karaoke, of course.

Party Bags

Any self-respecting rock star has an impressive array of tattoos.

Spa Party

For many (not all) girls, it’s their tweenage or early teenage years when they first develop an interest in fashion and beauty. If this is something your child is interested in, a spa party could be the ideal theme.

Create a calm, clean and relaxing environment, with plenty of towels, seating, easy access to a bathroom and different ‘stations’ for activities. You could also play relaxing music and provide healthy snacks, such as fruit smoothies.

Essential Activities

Facemasks with cucumber slices for the eyes, foot spas, manicures and makeovers.

Party Bags

Fill your spa party pack with lots of girly pampering products, face masks, lip balm or bath bombes.

Cinema Party

What could be better than a party including all of your favourite films? Get all of the children invited to suggest an age-appropriate film, and then vote on the ones they want to watch. All you need to do is provide a comfy seating area and plenty of cinema-themed snacks, such as popcorn, hot dogs, nachos and mixed sweets.

Activities

Film watching! You could also play a movie trivia quiz and movie-themed Pictionary.

Pizza Party

The great thing about teenagers and tweens is that they’ve reached an age where they can do more complex activities – still under supervision, of course. Throwing a pizza party is great fun and it results in lots of yummy home-made snacks.

Get the guests to form teams and design their fantasy pizza, using any toppings they like. Once all the pizzas are cooked, get everyone to try each other’s – whichever team’s pizza is voted the most delicious, wins.

Activities

A pizza making competition! You could also put together a quiz on Italy – the homeland of the pizza, or try blindfold pizza tasting to see who can guess the toppings.

General Tips

– Give them some space – early teens and tweens are at an age where they’re going to want some privacy when they spend time with their friends. Make sure you’re nearby and available if there’s a problem, and pop in every now and again to make sure things are OK.

– Don’t treat them like children – OK, so they’re not grown-ups and still require a certain level of supervision, but suggesting children’s games such as musical statues probably isn’t going to go down well.

– Get an extra pair of eyes – monitoring a teen/tween party without making them feel babied is a balancing act. Make sure you have someone to help you – if you know a trustworthy older teen, they could be a great asset.

With the right theme and some tactful supervision, you can get the balance right at your teen/tween party.

Throw a festival party

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It’s officially festival season and people all over the country have been enjoying music, camping and spending time with friends. Despite the inevitable downpours of rain and quagmires of mud, thousands of us love every second of festivals like Reading and Glastonbury each year.

So, why should the kids miss out? Throwing a music festival themed children’s party this summer is sure to make you a hit with your child and their friends. Here are some great ideas.

Invitations

You can have lots of fun making your festival themed invitations.

Tickets

A great invitation idea is to base the design on festival tickets. Although this style is commonly used for weddings, it could be easily adapted for a children’s party – all you’ll need is some coloured card and clever usage of Word.

Flyers 

Alternatively, you could go for a flyer-style invitation – this is basically a mini poster advertising the date and time of your ‘festival’. A fun idea is to include a list of the activities you’ll be offering (e.g. bouncy castle, karaoke) under the heading ‘line-up’. 

Fancy Dress 

What music festival would be complete without some attending rock stars? Get all of the kids to dress up in their best rock attire. Alternatively, you can draw up a list of iconic musical decades, such as the 60s, 70s and 80s, and ask the kids to dress in the style of the era – provide them with pictures for inspiration.

Decorations

Creating a music festival in your garden isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Divide the space into signed areas such as ‘campsite’, ‘main stage’, ‘dance tent’, and ‘refreshments’. Borrow some friend’s tents to create the camping area and set up a barbecue in the refreshments area.

String flags and bunting around the garden and hang national flags from a number of countries in front of the ‘main stage’. 

Activities

You’re spoilt for choice when it comes to festival themed activities.

Making Flower Crowns

Make sure you supervise this activity – ensuring each child works one-on-one with an adult is a good idea.

Making classic festival flower crowns is a lovely activity for older children, and will provide girls with a memento to take home with them. They are surprisingly easy to make – all you’ll need is floral wire, floral tape, fabric flowers and glue.

Parties on a budget

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Kids parties can be hugely expensive. With growing pressures to keep up with the Jone’s, kid’s parties can be a big stress if you’re on a budget. 

The good news is that you don’t have to spend a fortune to give the kids a good time. In fact, we’d even say the kids will quite possibly have more fun if you don’t!

When it comes to parties, kids love simplicity! They don’t need loads of different things to have a good time. It’s amusing to see, that often the more lavish a party is, the less the children enjoy it. Quite simply because there are too many activities competing for the kids’ attention: a bouncy castle in one corner, entertainer in the other, then a face painter, a mascot thrown in for good measure and why not a popcorn machine? Sounds amazing but it’s too much!

Kids will become frantic and not be able to concentrate on very much for very long and it’s usually a big stress and panic to squeeze it all in to the 2 hrs.

But having less does not mean doing away with the fun. Far from it. 

The first thing is to decide what you want to do for your kid’s party. Give your child a few options and ask what they think they might like.

Themed children’s parties have loads of mileage and give you a lot of room for creativity at very low cost.

Costumes- You can have a lot of fun making your kids costume and it will cost you nothing. e.g. a pirate costume -get out the scissors and snip away at an old white shirt and tatty old pair of school shirts/ trousers, and a nice red scarf around the head.

Or what about fairy wings cut out from card board and covered in pink wrapping paper and sprinkled with a bit of glue and glitter. These give just a few ideas of how to make costumes from very little. 

Party Invites – if you are computer savvy and have a bit of creative flair you could do your own cool invites on the computer, of just do an Internet search for party invites and download free templates available. 

Make your own Cake – the sky is the limit when it comes to cake ideas.

Decorations – balloons are very cheap and usually all you need to create a super party atmosphere. Just have lots of them!!! You could also make your own colourful paper chains, or get some reasonably priced party decorations from any online party store.

Entertainment – every party needs some sort of entertainment. You could of course do the entertainment yourself but you’d need to be confident you could lead a group of kids through sufficiently fun activities for 2 hours. If you can’t then this is something you might want to budget for. if you are hiring a Children’s entertainer then this is likely to be where most of the cost of your party will go, but you needn’t spend a fortune – if you went for a week day after school, then entertainers are far more likely to give better deals as weekdays are not as busy as weekends. or a morning slot like 11 am – 1 pm. 

Food – parents can work tirelessly in the kitchen to create the most amazing party food but you’ll be surprised how little kids can eat at parties so do remember this before buying loads or going to loads of trouble. If you want to keep it cheap and simple, sandwiches and crisps and a few finger foods like sweets and small fruit like strawberries, grapes etc. is perfect. Finger food is always best. But if the creative guru in you can’t resist to try and dazzle and amaze, then you can be super creative and theme your food in so many different ways whilst still sticking to your budget. 

Party bags often go in the bin or get left lying around the minute kids get home if they’re just cheap toys, so you might want to settle for a piece of cake and a small but decent quality toy. Or maybe give kids a small pocket sized children’s story book. This has become increasingly popular and kids are far more likely to keep them. You can pick them up in shops for about 50p – £1 each.