Tag: kids

Circus party theme

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Does your child love the circus? If so, why not have a children’s party theme based on the circus..

INVITATIONS;

Use white card and envelopes.  Use red cardboard paper to make a big top for the front of card.  Square base and canopied top.  Square base to be glued on sides and bottom, top to be left open to create a pocket for admit ticket.

DECORATIONS;

Keep decorations simple.  Use red/white crepe paper to make a canopy (big top) .  Hang paper clown faces from the ceiling.  Bright tableware can be placed around the cakes.  A lion cake and a clown cake for example.

GAMES;

Put felt tips, glitter, glue etc. around and lots of coloured card paper so kids can make their own circus/clown pictures.

A must would be to have a ‘face painter’ which can paint each kid’s face, take a picture and print each one off before the party ends and stick it in onto their party bags.

Another game could be throwing darts at different coloured balloons.  Whatever colour they pop, they get to pick from that “colour” toy pile. Each toy in different coloured bags so the kids know which one they will win from.

Then an elephant game where the kids have to hook a ring around their trunks. Each child puts on an elephant mask and tries to pick up hoops with the end of their nose.  Of course no themed children’s party is complete without the clown piñata.

PARTY BAGS;

No party is complete without party bags so fill them up with sweets, colouring pens, and candy floss bags.

 

Be like a movie star

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This party are for girls (or boys) that would just love to be in the movies, a great children’s party theme…

INVITATIONS:

For the invitation, buy some really good stationery, and cut it into a star shape. Then, punch holes in it about every inch or so and thread gold or silver ribbon through the holes. Then in calligraphy write “you are cordially invited to spend (date) at the Oscars. Please arrive at (address) at approximately (time). To make your final reservation, please reply to the home of (child’s name) at (number).

DECORATIONS:

On the front walkway, lay out some red felt made to look like the red carpet, and put sticks of wood about 1 foot away from each other along the sides, where you can tie gold, silver, and white balloons to. Inside, let some more balloons float.

ACTIVITIES:

The main activity of the party is to ‘make the movie’, but before that, get all the actresses ‘ready’ by sending them to the ‘spa’. You could have a different room in the house for different spa treats to do, one could be in the birthday girl’s bedroom and the spare room, could be home too the nail and hair salon.

Your Birthday girl’s bedroom could be a dressing room, where there could be all kinds of dress up clothes that the girls could choose from. After all the girls finished at the spa, make the movie. Before the party, write a simple script based on a movie, “the Princess Diaries”, where a normal teenage girl finds out she is a princess. Hand out these  scripts, and each girl will be giving a part and five minutes to look it over quickly. Then you can film it. Afterwards, show it to the girls on video and they will be really proud of their acting skills.

Then, you can hand out the Oscars. Cut trophies out beforehand of cardboard and paint them with each girl’s name on it. For the ceremony, you can have categories (depending on how many guests there are). Some of the categories were best script remembered, funniest costume, etc. Call each girl up individually to receive her award. Then nobody gets left out.

FOOD:

Have table settings that make it look like a posh restaurant. For each girl’s plate, a typed name card, a folded cloth napkin with a napkin ring, and real silverware instead of plastic.

PARTY BAGS

When the girls were watching a movie, make  copies of the video you made. Give these out to the guests along with a bottle of nail polish.

 

Kids love skateboarding

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How about a Children’s party theme all about skateboarding? If you kid is totally nuts about skateboarding why not throw him or her a party that he or she is obsessed about?

Invite:

Make Cut-outs of skateboards telling them to skate on over to “name” Birthday bash! You can ask  guests to bring  skateboards or rollerblades and safety equipment. When each child arrives they can get a large # for the back of their t-shirt and a score card that listed all the activities that they were going to be judged on.

Games:

You can put a ramp into your theme and your guests will get 2 chances to freestyle on the ramp, a few of the guests can be chosen as judges and they can hold up large numbers, their scores were wrote on their score cards, etc.

The second children’s activity can be a bean bag toss on the skateboards, the buckets will have points on them and they will have 2 chances to make it into the bucket of their choice, the scores would be put on the cards.

The 3rd children’s activity could be limbo (obviously skateboarding or roller skating under), each time the stick doesn’t drop they get 5 points, their totals would be also put on the score cards,

Food.

A skateboard shaped cake and sub sandwiches could be served for children’s party food ideas. When all the gifts and cake was done all of the kids can sit in a circle so they could have an award ceremony take pictures.

Your Birthday boy or girl can give awards and prizes out as winners names were called

Prizes:

Computer made certificates, ribbons, mini trophies, skate board keychains, ramps, grab bags. At the end of the award ceremony use fizzy drink to fizz up and celebrate (or for something less messy, use confetti) great fun!!!

 

Have a splashing day out

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Don’t let the British unpredictable weather dampen your days out as we’ve found just the thing to cheer the kids up in the form of an indoor waterpark! We’ve listed some of our favourites to keep up your sleeve for those grey days!

WaterWorld; Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire

A visit to this fantastic indoor tropical aqua park is a must during the school holidays and you’ll be guaranteed a splashing good time! Race your friends down the slides, swing on the lily pads and enjoy the wave machine. There is also an aqua disco held on a Friday night for all the family which includes use of the water rides and slides too!

The Rapids; Romsey, Hampshire

This fantastic leisure pool is a real hit with children and adults of all ages and offers plenty of fun. Ride the rapids, enjoy the flume and for the little ones there is a pirate ship to explore. There are also bubble seats and a huuuuge bucket which tips water so dodge it if you can!

Alton Towers Waterpark; Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire

Often forgotten about whilst everyone explores the theme park, the waterpark at Alton Towers is equally as incredible! With rides to keep the adrenaline junkies happy such as the Master Blaster Water Coaster, there is also plenty on offer for the little ones. So if your legs are feeling tired from walking around the theme park or you need to cool down, pay the water park a visit!

Sandcastle Waterpark; South Beach, Blackpool

This large indoor waterpark is one of Blackpool’s leading tourist attractions. Great for water babies of all ages you’ll find waterslides, fun pools, a wave machine, a lazy river, water shoots and much more. There are also a range of dining options so you can relax with a coffee whilst the children play.

Oasis Beach Pool; Bedford, Bedfordshire

Head to this tropical paradise which will keep the kids entertained for hours with two wild flumes, a wave machine, a mushroom fountain, a beach area and much more! And as we’re now enjoying the sunny weather a real highlight is the outdoor lazy river float ride!

Waterworld; Newquay, Cornwall

With something for all the family, this fully equipped indoor swimming pool is great for escaping the hot sunshine or even the rain clouds. With a tropical fun pool, a snake fountain, two flumes and so much more, you are guaranteed that the kids will have a great time! There’s even a 6 lane 25 metre swimming pool to practise your swimming techniques!

Splashdown; Poole, Dorset

This brilliant waterpark is great for all ages and abilities even the younger children! The daredevils of the family will love The Screamer which is basically a slide with a vertical drop, the Tennessee Twister, and Baron’s Revenge. Younger visitors can play in the Little Buccaneers SplashZone with a starter flume, play area and a toddler swimming pool.

The Leisure Pool at Leisure World; Colchester, Essex

For an action packed day out the Leisure Pool at Leisure World will provide the kids with exactly that! A real family friendly attraction, the little ones will absolutely love the water canons, bubbles, crazy river, tipping buckets and loads more! There’s also a 13 metre flume to zoom down, for those looking for something a bit more crazy!

Blue Lagoon Water Park; Narberth, Wales

Bring the kids along to Blue Lagoon where they will enjoy plenty of exciting rides, rapid rivers and flumes. The main feature is the large wave pool with a sloping beach area, however for a more relaxing experience there is a lazy river to just float around plus an outdoor hot tub. For the younger visitors, there is a special area called Nippers Cove which they can explore!

We hope these indoor water parks have given you some rainy day inspiration for keeping the kids entertained with some great children’s activities for all ages – whilst burning some energy! We suggest you sit back and grab a cuppa whilst the little ones are having fun!

 

Jurasic days out

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Get your little ones interested in Dinosaurs. Have fun with the whole family and explore dinosaurs galore at these brilliant dinosaur attractions across the country!

The Dinosaur Park; Tenby, Wales

Follow the trail and spot over 30 dinosaurs waiting for you – be sure to tiptoe past the spitting Dilophosaurus or you might get wet! The Information Centre is the place to learn some interesting dino facts plus you can also explore the indoor and outdoor adventure play areas!

Dino Park, Dumfries

Discover the giants who roamed the planet 150 million years ago! Dig for fossils, hear stories, find out facts and take a journey through a dinosaur mine!

The Dinosaur Museum; Dorchester, Dorset

Discover real fossils, dinosaur bones and life size models at this hands on museum. Are your little ones brave enough to touch the T-Rex?!

Dinosaurland Fossil Museum; Lyme Regis, Dorset

This museum is run by Palaeontologist Steve Davies and is a private collection. The museum contains over 10,000 specimens including some of the best fossils to be found on display. Top off your visit with a walk along the beach at Lyme Regis which is a fantastic place for children to search for fossils to take home!

West Midland Safari and Leisure Park

Little dinos will LOVE West Midland Safari Park’s latest addition… the amazing Land of the Living Dinosaurs! Come and see the UK’s largest collection of animatronic dinosaurs to learn all about these fascinating creatures. You’ll get to learn all about the Permian, Triassic, Jurassic and the Cretaceous periods… making this not only a fun but educational day out too! Plus, new is the latest dino addition, the Spinosaurus! Scientists believe it was the largest dinosaur to ever roam the earth so go along to the Land of the Living Dinosaurs to learn all about it!

The Lost Kingdom at Paultons Park; Romsey, Hampshire

Brand new to Paultons Park, The Lost Kingdom is a Jurassic adventure full of realistic dinosaurs in all shapes and sizes! You can even get up close to a ‘living’ animatronic dinosaur! There are also two exhilarating rollercoasters, a dinosaur adventure play area where you can dig for fossils, and a 4×4 jeep safari dinosaur expedition!

Torquay’s Dinosaur World; Torquay, Devon

With lots of hands on exhibits for you to touch (are you brave enough to grab the Triceratops by the horns?!) plus full sized and scale models of dinosaurs, this is a great place to learn about these prehistoric creatures and see incredible fossils.

 

Don’t do too much

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We are well aware of the pressures facing parents, and would like to tell you that those looking to create a memorable children’s party for their little one and should focus on simplicity and fun and try to ignore, where possible, the feeling that they have to compete with other parents as this can actually result in having an adverse effect on your children’s party!

Do remember that children love simplicity. Not to say the children’s entertainment shouldn’t be good or varied. It should definitely be good and varied. It needs to be engaging, fun and imaginative too. But parents should avoid the temptation to overload their kid’s party with too many activities at the same time as this will end up being over stimulating and confusing. We’ve seen it time and time again where parent book an entertainer, bouncy castle, popcorn machine, mascot, face painter, etc. all in one party that last just 2 hours.

Parents should choose no more than a handful of activities for the children and to make sure that there is plenty of time for the kids to enjoy all of it.

In the same way, parents that don’t plan enough children’s party activities or have any form of children’s entertainment at all, can often find that their children are completely underwhelmed, bored or worse become very restless and start running around and be difficult for parents to control. If there is no structure to the entertainment planned this can happen a lot, which is something all parents want to avoid.

A perfect party has a few fun party activities planned for different times, but parents should be prepared for their party ‘timetable’ to change slightly during the celebration so it can be adapted to suit the kid’s energy levels on the day and to accommodate any unforeseen events e.g. food running late.

 

Choosing the right entertainment

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There are loads of different options to choose from to make it a fun occasion but it’s important to choose what is right for your children’s party.

When planning a children’s party, one thing that will be firmly on your list of things to do is ‘hire the entertainer’. However, with so many different kinds of performers available, how do you go about choosing the perfect person to keep your little guests engaged for the duration of the event and to take the stress off you?

The Magician

A brilliant magician can really add a sense of wonder to your party. Watch as the kids are left amazed at the seemingly impossible tricks performed in front of their eyes and then encouraged to get involved in some of the magic themselves. It can be a lot of fun for families too, particularly seeing how baffled kids are by how the magic is done.

Science Parties

Science Parties are a relatively new but very exciting kind of children’s entertainment and something extremely varied and engaging for the kids and suitable for ages 4- 12. They are perfect if you are looking to mix fun and excitement with learning all about just how fantastic and fun science can be.

Kids get to watch really colourful and visual science demonstrations as well as fun experiments. Plus, science related games. This is another great option for parents as it’s very different from what you see at most parties. But we’d only recommend this if you know your kids are into science.

The Puppeteer

Puppet shows are great for children of all ages and have been part of our culture for thousands of years. They’re normally aimed at 3-7 year olds but can work for 2 years too. Even if the younger children don’t fully understand the storyline or the jokes, they can still enjoy the visual aspects and get involved with audience participation, which usually includes shouting things to the puppets and doing loads of funny actions.

Puppet shows can be the main event or form part of a huge mix of party activities. Either way, it goes down a treat and is often one of the things kids remember best.

 

Make your own party bags

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Every parent wants to be imaginative and give their little guests an amazing party bag. So why not let the kids make their own party bags at their children’s birthday party?

If you purchase some white paper party bags with handles which are perfect for the kids to draw and colour on with some colouring felt tips or pencils. Children can write their names and draw some great pictures or shapes, you could even use stencils. The coloured party bags have a special shiny coating which pens cannot be used on. Give the kids a choice of crafty bits to add to their bags e.g. fun stickers, peel and stick alphabet foam letters and shapes, die cut card shapes, trimmed fabric piece with fabric embellishments etc. –

 

Fold over the top of the colour party bags and hole punch. Thread some ribbon through and tie in a bow, makes a lovely finishing touch! You can theme your party bags to suit your children’s party theme e.g. Pirate Party, Princess Party, Fairy Party, Under The Sea Party.

 

You can fill your party bags with your handmade crafts from the party or why not fill a tub full of goodies and ask each little guest to put their hand into (in turn) to uncover a special treat to take home.

 

Getting the children involved in making their party bags makes them it a bit more special. The children are more inclined to cherish their bags when they get home, making the party even more fun.

 

Children love arts and crafts and will happily sit on a craft table for hours rather than running around a party venue trying to create their own fun and generally being a ‘bit silly’. Distraction is the key to a successful children’s party.

A great sleepover party

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Crafts, Makeup, 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 fun 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!

An activity birthday party

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Does your child love jewellery? Are you looking for a kids birthday activity party for the girls? How about some cool jewellery making, girls of all ages love designing and making their own fun bracelets, necklaces and key rings. A great way to get all the family involved too.

 

Just pick the bead mixes that you fancy and mix and match together. You will be amazed at the results from the children.

 

You could put out a fun choice of beads in different bowls on your party table for the kids to see, e.g. large wooden multi-coloured beads, alphabet beads, stripy beads, heart beads and lovely heart, star and flower silver charms. The kids will mix and fix to their hearts content. Add some simple knots here and there for an extra funky look. Little tip, give the kids a wooden peg each to put on one end of the cord whilst they are threading on beads so that they don’t drop and lose any.

 

Elastic cords work well with kids, they are easy to tie knots in, not like some cords which can be stiff. Fitting bracelets on children’s wrists is also easier with elastic cord. Make sure they double knot at the end.

 

We recommend the following quantities needed for children’s jewellery making:

  • Bracelet – 0.5m per child

  • Necklace – 1m per child

  • Key Rings – 0.5m per child

 

Beads are an idea for lots of craft activities, not just for jewellery making:

  • String up some alphabet beads on cord or ribbon and tie as a tassel on a book spine or as a bookmark

  • Decorate a photo frame with mixed colourful beads using PVA glue

  • Dangle some beads on a split ring for a Key Ring idea

  • Personalise your PE Kit Bag or Pencil Case by stitching on some alphabet beads

 

Most of all it will keep the children happy for hours and of course they will always have a keepsake to remind them of the workshop party.

 

Have a great children’s party!