Tag: Birthday

Party Themes Both Boys and Girls Will Love

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Throwing a children’s party for your little ones should be an enjoyable experience. However, it can be surprisingly stressful, raising questions such as ‘should I invite the whole class?’ and ‘how can I pick a theme that everyone will enjoy?” Many small children will have both boys and girls as friends, and, of course, if you do decide to invite the whole class (often the most diplomatic solution) it will usually be a mix-gendered group. With many common party themes, such as princesses or pirates, being gendered, it can be difficult to decide on a theme that will please everyone.

To give you a helping hand, here are three of our most popular unisex themes. 

Sea Life

Ever since Finding Nemo splashed onto our cinema screens in 2003 (has it really been that long?!) kids have been fascinated by the colourful characters in our oceans. This party theme provides plenty of opportunity for creativity and is suitable for all ages.

Fancy Dress

Ask all of the children to come dressed as a sea creature – whether that is whales, sharks or fish. It may be helpful to theme the fancy dress on Finding Nemo, so that each child can come as their favourite character.

The outfits don’t have to be overcomplicated. For example, you can create a great clown fish costume by pairing an orange t-shirt and tights, attaching fins made from orange painted cardboard and getting creative with face paint. Alternatively, you can try this great fish face painting ideas.

Decorations

To create your underwater kingdom, try hanging tissue paper streamers from the walls in different shades of blue and green. Buy seashells online or from craft stores (or pop down to the beach if there’s one close by!) and dot them around the room.

A fun activity to do with the kids is making fish streamers – cut out fish and starfish shapes from coloured card, and then stick them to streamers of blue tissue paper to hang around the room.

Games: Going Fishing

This game requires a little preparation but is well worth it.

–  Before the party, make a fishing rod by tying one end of a length of string to a magnet and the other to a pole.

–  Cut out fish and at least one paper octopus from coloured card, and attach a paper clip to each one.

– Place all of the fish in a large container and blindfold each child when it’s their turn to ‘fish’. Whoever manages to ‘catch’ the octopus gets a prize.

Party Bag Fillers

For an ocean theme, beach buckets are the perfect containers for party bag fillers.      

Tea Party Ideas

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All little ladies dream of having a tea party, dressing up and sitting down at a beautiful table with china cups and flowery table accents. So get ready to put on your fancy dress and a tea party hat. Here are some ideas you need to throw a beautiful children’s Tea Party;

Transform your home or garden into a family fun pastel coloured tea party getaway. Serve tea, lemonade or punch along with dainty finger sandwiches and fruit. Your little Tea Party guests will be over the moon.

Invitations.

Tea party invitations can be a tea cup, a tea party hat or just a beautiful tea party designed card. Just be sure to make them really special by using a fancy font and graphics that support the theme. Be sure to give the start time, end time, date and location of the Tea Party.

Decorations.

Set the mood for your party with great decorations like a garland archway and play some beautiful music. Cover the party table with a flowery tablecloth and a beautiful centrepiece. Create a beautiful tea party setting for your guests to enjoy the finger sandwiches and tea.

Party Games.

Sometimes the memories are even more special when guests get to take home the artwork that they’ve created themselves at the party. Whether they decorate tea party hats, tiara, or a special decorative item, it will be something special that helps them remember and share their event with others.

Costumes.

A tea party just isn’t the same without all the guests dressed with some fancy tea party dresses. If you are throwing a kids tea party, be sure to include a hat or tiara!

Drinks and Snacks.

Don’t forget the snacks and drinks for all of your tea party guests. Tiny finger food snacks and sweet flavoured tea drinks or lemonade are always top of the list. But it’s also fun to have some sweet pastries and fruit.

The cake.

A tea cup cake is always popular with those who like to bake. For those who prefer a simple and less complicated treat, individual cupcakes and ice cream in individual cupcake liners can reduce the mess of serving treats under pressure.

4 Party Themes

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The chances are that your child and their invited guests will already be pretty excited about the prospect of a party, but if you really want to get them looking forward to the day itself then adding a theme could do the trick. A themed birthday party gives the kids a chance to dress up whilst also giving you a great topic for which to base your decorations, food and entertainment around.
Pirates and Princesses;

This has to be one of the most popular children’s party themes and always goes down well with the little ones. It’s so easy to pull off as well and you can make it as minimal or as full on as you like. Pirates can either turn up fully decked out in attire or with a simple eye patch. The girls will also be really excited about being able to don their favourite dresses, adorn themselves with a tiara and greet their royal subjects!

When it comes to food you can also integrate your theme here too. Mini pizzas could become ‘Cinderella’s carriage wheels’ and fish fingers could become ‘pirate planks’ that lily-livered sailors have to walk.

Space

Space is a great theme for both boys and girls as it really allows the children to let their imagination run away with them. Will they come dressed as a strange alien from the planet Zog, or will they arrive in a spacesuit ready for their latest adventure into the unknown voids of the galaxy. You could even ask half of your guests to dress as aliens and the other half as astronauts and then use these teams within your entertainment.

Food could include various twists on party classics, such as ‘asteroids’ instead of meatballs and ‘moon rocks’ in place of chicken nuggets. The venue could also be decorated to look like a strange planet with stars, moons and spaceships on the ceiling.

Circus

Having a circus themed kids party can be a great way to give the children a chance to learn a few new skills whilst they are having fun. They could have a go at learning to juggle, or fooling around like their favourite clown. The circus is not just about the guy with the red nose and big shoes though, and so the children have plenty of options when it comes to fancy dress. There’s the ring announcer, the gymnasts, the lion tamer and the strong man; to name just a few.

At the circus, tomatoes can easily be renamed as ‘clown’s noses’ (you might even persuade a child to eat one when they would otherwise turn their nose away to a vegetable!) and similarly, cheese puffs can be transformed into ‘juggling balls’. To really add that finishing touch, why not turn your venue into a Big Top with some multi-coloured fabric.

Wizards and Witches

This theme has always been a firm favourite, particularly at Halloween, but has grown in popularity since the rise of a certain boy wizard. Your little guests can dress as their favourite character from the film franchise or as a wizard or witch from their own imagination. The beauty with this theme is that it doesn’t take much to transform an ordinary child into a wizarding genius; just a hat and wand in most case.

The Benefits of Drama

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When it comes to birthdays, every child loves to have a party! Drama parties are becoming more and more popular with kids because not only is it a huge amount of fun, it is also incredibly creative and stimulates kids’ imaginations and takes them to wonderful worlds of make believe. Drama classes are known for having fantastic benefits to children and the same is true for drama parties, as they incorporate the same key elements that help with children’s development! So your kids can have fun whilst developing their core personal skills at the same time, such as confidence, social interaction, imagination, coordination and communication.

There have been many studies to show that engagement with theatre and the arts promotes creative thinking and even improves academic performance. This is a great way to help your kid’s with their school work by the way; not only will they not feel like they’re learning, they’ll be having fun – Party fun!!!!

Creative skills don’t just help with confidence and communication, but also with problem solving and innovation. It is no secret that kids learn and develop whilst having fun along the way.

Children’s party entertainers offer a huge range of themed drama parties from around the world, to fairies, jungle, magician’s castle and more… A drama party could be just the ticket to get their creative juices flowing and we offer a variety of themes to suit your child’s interests. They can be based around your kid’s favourite character like Peter Pan or Robin Hood, or maybe they would prefer to be transported to Hawaii or even go ‘Under the Sea’.

Children’s entertainers come in full costume, and incorporate a mix of hugely imaginative games and activities linked to your theme, intertwining a super cool adventure story along the way where the kids are actually inside the story!!!

Plan a Treasure Hunt

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Give your child an adventure from your own home with an exciting treasure hunt! It’s a great way to get them exploring and using their imagination, with lots of treats and games thrown in! They require a little preparation to plan the perfect clues, but they’re a great addition to any children’s birthday party and it will all be worth it when you see their little faces light up every time they find a clue or prize!

Planning the Clues

You could just have a free-for-all like a traditional Easter egg hunt, where there are no clues and the kids just explore the house and garden for small hidden sweets or prizes, but we think it’s more fun when the kids get together in teams to work together and solve a puzzle. Then the excitement can really build whilst they work their way to the grand finale!

You can make riddles and rhymes to point them in the right direction of the next clue, and you can vary the difficulty of the clues depending on the age group of the party. Perhaps you could try a word game where each location has a riddle with the first letter of each answer spelling the location of the final treasure.

Themes

Basing your treasure hunt around a theme all adds to the fun and gives the adult planners some inspiration for coming up with the clues and prizes! Here are some examples of how you can incorporate a theme, or take a look at the themes of our children’s parties here for more ideas.

Pirates

A pirate theme is a classic where the kids have to find clues to take them to the final treasure chest, which is full of treats, party food, and more games to play. You could try making a map on tea stained paper of all of the clue locations and then they have to work out the final location from the clues.

Fairies

Make a list of clues to find lots of fairy friendly items and whoever collects all of the items first wins a prize, with runner up prizes for the rest of the kiddies. Some things they could look for are little toy fairies, flowers, fairy dust, leap frogs and magic bracelets.

Magic

Have the magician conjure the first clue to unveil the treasure hunt and then get the kids to find the pieces of their own magician outfits. They could find magic wands, top hats, capes and toy rabbits. The winner is the first person to get dressed!

Science

Split the kids up and get them to look for different ingredients and when they’re all found they can form part of a science experiment! Or you could use food ingredients which get stirred together to bake a cake or make some cookies which the kids can eat later on in the party!

Girls just want to have fun

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Invite your friends for an extra cool sleepover girls birthday party!

Crafts, Make-Up, DVDs, Midnight Feasts, Birthday Cake, Sleeping Bag Races – what more can a birthday girl ask for? The girls are coming round for a sleepover! Girls just love to make things with their friends. Get creative and make something really special like a funky t-shirt or some cool jewellery:

T-shirt painting is always a popular kids crafts activity and a great idea for a sleepover. Give them a blank white t-shirt and a bunch of fabric pens and paints, some sparkly bits and pieces to stick on and see what new fashion they can design. They can really let their imagination go wild with fabric painting.

Having a ‘girlie night in’ means only one thing- time to get your nails painted, create cool hairstyles, have fun putting on each other’s make-up and get all dressed up ready to show off your artistic expression ‘ designed by yourself’ new T-Shirt.

Roll out the cat walk, load the music, flick on the spot lights and have your very own
fashion show!! Catch it all on camera for some great memories.

Time for Dinner:

Why not make your own Pizza? The kids will really enjoy making the pizza dough (most supermarkets have an easy packet pizza base mix that takes 5 mins to mix up) and then add lots of great toppings e.g. tomato, ham, pepper, pineapple, pepperoni, olives and lots of cheese. Children love to eat their own homemade dinner.

Chocolate Fountain Dessert:

How about the kids cutting up lots of different fruits and dipping them in some scrummy melted chocolate!!

Get cosy:

Grab your sleeping bags and pillows, get comfy in your pj’s or onesies and settle down in front of the TV to watch a great movie for a little quiet time and don’t forget your popcorn!

Have a great party!

Star Wars parties

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Long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Star Wars came to life. Today, Star Wars is still every bit as popular as it was in the last century. Several generations love the saga and there are so many fun ways to throw a successful Star Wars celebration that even Darth Vader will be jealous of!

Planning & Invitations

From the classic rectangle invitation with eye-catching graphics to a light saber replica made from paper, there are many different styles of invitations to choose from. Another great idea is using your DIY skills and some downloads to achieve a completely custom look.

Star Wars party Invitation Ideas

Unique, homemade invitations can really get you in the party mood! If you have the time, here are a few Star Wars invitation ideas to consider:

Cut a piece of white cardstock into the shape of a lightsabre. Use markers to colour the handle grey and the beam blue or green. Write your party details in silver marker on the beam. Alternatively, fold a piece of cardstock in half, cut out two small lightsabres and cross them together in the middle of the card. On the front of the card, write, “You are Invited to a Galaxy Far, Far Away…” Write your party details inside.

Print out movie stills from the birthday child’s favourite Star Wars movie. Write your party details on the back.
Punch a hole in the corner of a card-style invitation and attach it to a Star Wars Mask that your guests can wear to the party.
Make a simple black helmet to resemble Darth Vader’s helmet out of black construction paper. Write your party details in gold pen.

Include creative wording for your party details, such as:

In a galaxy not too far, far away,

Michael is having his 5th birthday!

So fly your spaceship at the speed of light,

To the celebration of our Jedi Knight!

Decorating & Food Ideas

Star Wars Party Decoration Ideas
Aside from sticking to the basic Star Wars colour palette of royal blue, black, white and grey, you can take your children’s party to another level with the details. Choose a couple of accent colours, such as the green, red and blue associated with lightsabres to add a pop of colour to the party. From a cupcake tower centrepiece to a sweet buffet you can definitely make a huge visual impact with your decorations.

Ship A Hoy

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A Pirate Party may at first seem a pretty ordinary one, but it can actually be as diverse as any children’s celebration idea. Here are a few ways you can turn a Pirate Party into an event perfectly suited to your child.

Storytelling

Here’s an easy one. Bring in a children’s entertainer dressed in a pirate’s costume or gets some costumes yourself and gather the children around for Storytime! You can read to them from any variety of books, or you can invent a story yourself! The more you get into it, (best pirate voices please) the more the kids will get into it, so lose your inhibitions and have fun!

Adventure

This is storytelling taken to the next level! Instead of simply telling a story, make the story come to life! Hire some actors to play roles and make the birthday boy/girl the hero! Or have an adventure course tailored to the ages of the children. Of course the adventure course needs to be ‘Pirate themed’. When they complete the course they are able to put some treasure in a box.  The most treasure each team puts in their treasure box wins a special prize!!

Movie Marathon

If you’re looking for a slower pace to celebrate with pirates, consider a projector in the garden. Then, put on a marathon of Pirates of the Caribbean movies (or, any of a variety of pirate-themed films). With some snacks and cake, watching movies on a big screen is a great time!

We hope we’ve given you some thoughtful ways to have a Pirate Party. We hope your little buccaneers have the time of their lives!

3yr old Birthday Party ideas

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At the age of 3, little girls are walking, talking and steadily developing their own personalities. When planning a party for 3-year-olds, keep their interests and cognitive abilities in mind. For example, while it would be appropriate to plan a children’s birthday party around the birthday girl’s favourite Cbeebies character.

Many little girls are into princesses, so consider throwing a fun princess party for the 3-year-old girl in your life. Ask the guests to dress in princess costumes or have costumes on hand for them to change into when they arrive. You could also give each girl a tiara as she arrives at the party. Play games with a princess theme, such as Pin the Tiara on the Princess, serve a cake shaped like a princess’s tiara and screen a movie that has a princess as a main character. The little girls will enjoy feeling like they are princesses for a day.

Bouncy Castle Party
● Although some people might think that little girls are delicate, they still like to play. Consider throwing a bouncy castle party for the 3-year-old in your life. Hire bouncy castles from a local party supplier. The little girls will be able to jump on the castle all afternoon and have fun being active.
Water and Sand

● When you are throwing a birthday party for a 3-year-old girl in the summertime, consider planning it outdoors to take advantage of the warm weather. Purchase several children’s pools and set them up in your garden. Fill several pools with water and some with sand. Ask the party guests to dress in their bathing suits and let them play in the sand and water. Place some water toys in the pools, such as floating ducks, and some buckets and spades in the sand pools. The children can move back and forth between the water and sand to feel like they are spending a day at the beach.

Arts and Crafts

● Many little girls enjoy creating things, so consider throwing an arts and crafts party for the 3-year-old girl. Plan a few arts and crafts activities that all the little girls will be able to handle. For example, pass out small clay pots and let the girls paint them with designs of their choice. Once the pots are dry, help them plant flowers in their pots. You could also give each little girl a T-shirt and help her decorate the shirt with paints, beads, sequins and other embellishments. Fun for all the family to enjoy.

Birthday Parties for 13yr olds

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Children’s Birthday parties are fun at any age, but selecting a theme for a tween can present an interesting challenge. Children this age are no longer interested in “little kid” stuff, and yet they still might enjoy some young activities like going to the zoo and watching cartoons. Planning a 13-year-old’s birthday party should include age-appropriate things that are enjoyable and fun to do.

Sleepover Parties; Having friends sleep over is a fun way to spend a birthday, and you can help make the night extra special by selecting activities that you know your 13-year-old child is going to love. Make it a movie night by renting films. For snacks, order pizza, or cheeseburgers and hot dogs. You could also make a sundae bar for the kids to dress up their ice cream treats with a variety of sauces, sprinkles and other toppings. Other activities may include board games and rounds of karaoke.

Roller disco Parties; Roller disco parties can accommodate both large and small groups. Many rinks offer special birthday party packages that include group discounts for pizza, drinks and skate rental. Many skating birthday parties also feature games on skates, like a limbo contest and a variation of musical chairs in which participants must skate to a particular area of the rink when the music stops playing. For those who do not like to skate, many rinks also have an arcade. These parties allow your birthday kid to skate and socialize with friends in a fun and safe environment.

Shopping Centre Scavenger Hunt; For a 13-year-old girl’s party, choose activities that you know she and her friends would enjoy. For example, you can set up a scavenger hunt at a local shopping centre. Some items to include on the hunt list might be a picture of a woman in red heels, a receipt for one pound and a stranger’s autograph. Make sure each team has an adult supervisor as a safety precaution.

Sports Parties; If your 13-year-old likes to play sports, consider centering the theme around a favoured sport. You can take the group to a party at a local sports centre. There, your child and friends will be able to play basketball, tennis and other indoor sports. Some sports centres also include a pool. Another sports theme involves taking your tween and a friend to watch their favourite team play. These fun sports event is sure to be something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.