Parties that fit their personality are a hit
My children are all heavily involved in sports and school activities, so there’s always a reason to celebrate something. When my children were much younger, I would make elaborate plans for their birthday parties and celebration parties and go to great lengths to bring smiles to their little faces.
When the occasion hits, I go into my kids theme party supplies goody bag (or rather, trunk) and find ideas that I think will fit the child, the age and the theme that we’re trying to create. That may involve a mask, a costume, sports pinatas, streamers or table toppers. I try and find things that will fit their personality and match what they’ve asked for. For the kids, theme party supplies usually revolve around the food and drinks, but the most fun is in planning, decorating and creating!
On those special party occasions once I come up with a theme, I then engage my artistically creative instincts to find kids theme party supplies that will fit the atmosphere I’m trying to create. It can be a challenge since they’re all “grown up” big boys and girls. Even so, I still like to keep an element of innocence and imagination in the theme that will hopefully give them wonderful memories as they grow old and graceful.
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For their birthdays, I have one child whose birthday falls in one of the summer months and two whose birthdays fall in two winter moths. So, I am never short of creative ideas on things to do for their special days, whether it’s inside or outside. But what I do struggle with is a theme for their parties that lets me be mom and lets them be cool, phat, down, or whatever they’re calling it these days!
Here are some previous ideas that I’ve tried in the past for fun times:
1. Go Team!!
When my daughter made the cheerleader squad, we all had a big celebration for the girls and built a theme around cheering, of course. We got each of them cheerleader wigs with ribbons and ponytails, a full cheerleader outfit and had them to create a silly dance to show off to us parents. They had a lot of fun, especially with the wigs and giving “spirit!!”
2. Score for the Goalie
My son’s soccer team had an end-of-season celebration where we used soccer pinatas for them to hit. But, instead of filling the pinata with candy, we filled it with game tokens that they could all use at the local video gaming store. Imagine the frenzy! They loved it and it made the competition much more fun to see who could hit the pinata the hardest.
3. S-Man
For the pseudo Spider Man in our family, for his birthday we ordered a complete Spider Man costume that he got to wear all day long, including to bed. We went to his favorite local restaurant where we had pre-arranged for Spider Man to show up and have lunch with him. It was a total hit!! So instead of a full birthday party, Spider Man was the kids theme. Party supplies that were Spider Man related were brought in by us including plates and napkins, and just his family and the other restaurant patrons got to enjoy the fun!
4. An Incredible Family
For this past Halloween, my family dressed up as the The Incredibles and each of us fit every role exactly as it was in the movie. This was a bunch of fun to do, especially for my daughter who eerily DOES look and act like Violet in the movie. We all wore our costumes all evening as we went to each of our neighbor’s houses, being incredible, getting candy and goofing off.
5. Video Gaming
Another son who has a video game habit (see soccer pinata), had a birthday party complete with game rocker chairs, spillproof mega-sized tumblers and their own Wii remotes (rented from the local game store). How did it go? All I can say is that we didn’t see those twelve ten year olds for 3 solid hours!
6. ‘Tween Time
My now tween daughter who has (in her mind) outgrown Barbie and even (gasp!) Hannah Montana still loves to play and dabble in make-up. So for her last birthday, we had a makeup party where the girls had their own makeup station. To satisfy me for the kids theme, party supplies for the makeup had to include makeup that was light, fun and easy to remove. We held a contest to see who could put on the most natural-looking face.
The winner was rewarded with a prize of a gift certificate to the mall’s makeup counter to get their first “real” makeover done by a professional. Of course, ALL of the girls were winners, but none of them knew that when the contest began, including my daughter. They were motivated to use their best judgement, yet to look as natural as possible.
Planning parties of any kind with kids is so much fun. Watching their eyes light up, squeals, giggles and oooh’s and aaah’s never EVER gets boring. Neither does watching them grow up and watching their own imaginations spark, no matter how big they think they are. There will always be room for themes, costumes, fun and creativity. After all, they will always be our little boys and girls, right?