Children's Party Activities

How I love a carousel, however, unless there is one in your area, you probably aren't going to be having one for your child's birthday. I'm not going to recommend going all out and hiring bouncing castles in your backyard, or petting zoos, clowns, and the like. I am all about simple fun that is achievable and memorable.

Do you realize how easy it is to make a maze out of haybales or cartons? Really easy and fun, if you are using cartons, you could get your children to paint them beforehand so you have a colourful and zany maze, it doesn't have to be too big, just enough to be interesting and don't forget to have something fun in the centre, perhaps a table of toffee apples, or cupcakes.

If you don't want to spend a small fortune booking a petting zoo, you could still use any connections you have in the local area, perhaps someone with a pet donkey, or a pony who will come to give rides for your guests.

Before eating, get the children to sit at the tables you have laid out to make their own party hats. If you have old christmas cracker crowns or pre cut your own crown designs, the children can apply pictures, ribbons, sequins, buttons, feathers, or stick on gems to their heart's content using simple paste. You might need another parent to help make this run smoothly but I think it is a good group activity as no one wins a prize, everyone gets to make their own hat that they can take home.

I bet you grew up with pin the tail on the donkey, pass the parcel, and musical chairs, so I don't need to explain them. I do find they can cause some squabbling, and not everyone can win.... so I like things like treasure hunts, where each child is only looking for their coloured counters or marbles, which are then cashed in for a set amount of booty - ie, no one child can get the lion share of treats, while others miss out, each child can only get a set amount. If one child is having trouble looking they can always ask for help, but not at the expense of their treasure, they still get all their treats.

You could try a caterpillar, snail, or frog race for a boys party (or girls if they are that way inclined) you only need to mark the number of lanes, you could do this with coloured yarn, texta, or paint depending on the race surface.

For girls you could perhaps have nail polish manicures (depending on age), or temporary hair colour sprays (ask other parents before the party if they mind their child having punky hair streaks for a day or two).

I still have the photo of the human pyramid we made for my 13th birthday, and of course, posing for photos is a must, and will use up a nice chunk of time.

I love bubbles, so you could let the kids go to town with bubble blowing out in the garden, another great photo opportunity.

If you have karaoke or playstation singstar, girls seem to like this a lot, and it is good, safe fun. Dance lessons are a good activity too, you could book a hip hop dance instructor for an hour, or buy an instructional dvd (if your living room is big enough).

Pinatas are easily made using crepe paper or you can buy premade ones at Spotlight, Kmart, and other stores. Of course the birthday child gets to crack it open but you can put the party favour bags for all the children inside, with their names printed on them, so no one misses out.

I hope these ideas have inspired you, I will likely have another post like this in the future as new trends come along. Some ideas are timeless though, and I like to encourage good, safe, simple, fun.

Love Starry

Mum's 70th Birthday

No, don't wish her a happy birthday, I am just remembering this day as it was the first family party I was solely responsible for planning and hostessing. It was in July of 2007.

A winter party.... that meant hot food, plenty of tea and coffee but with soft drink for the teenagers. I had to even out the oven temperature between contradictory recipe heat requirements and adjust the time to suit.... I like brain work so making the timetable for that was strangely fun. As was making the shopping lists.

The cake, well, I wanted mum to have a unique cake, not the traditional chocolate that we each have for our days, and not the fruitcake with orchid icing that marks a special birthday. Something that said it was a cake for my mother. This is what I did. I made two large sponge cakes and sliced them into four layers each (if you know what I mean). On a golden foil covered cake board I assembled my apricot cream sponges into one super cake(the layers of the two separate cakes pushed together). The bottom layer had apricot jam and cream applied. The next layer had just cream. The middle layer had jam, pieces of actual apricot, and then cream applied. Repeat until the top, which simply had clear glaze of apricot jam spread all over. Next I applied cream to the sides of the cake and piped cream across the top join where the two separate cakes met. On the morning of her party, I went out into her garden and snipped some fresh white camellias off her beautiful giant shrubs. They were perfect, not a speck or discolouration or water stain on any of them, they sat in the centre of the join in a lovely arrangement. I put a gold 70 from a cake decorating set, and applied golden star candles on toothpicks and one large candle 'happy birthday'.

I even had time to invent an activity at the last minute the morning of the party. I ran to the spare room and found a large white board of fairly stiff cardboard. Then I got lots of different coloured pieces of paper and on each one wrote a lovely memory or achievement from mum's life. For example meeting my father, the day they got married, getting her nursing qualifications, owning a show winning kitten, travelling in her youth with girlfriends etc And applied each paper memory on the board, then I blew up more balloons then one person should ever inflate by mouth unassisted. Each balloon was applied to the cardboard panel so that the whole thing was covered with no gaps (ribbon tied around balloon base then stickytaped onto the board). The concept was that mum had to remove the balloons one by one and read out the paper underneath for all the guests to hear. It was enjoyed by all, whether they shared the memory or were learning of the achievement for the first time, very bonding and enlightening and lots of laughs were had.

I made my first ever party hat for mum, a crown from a christmas cracker, with an aqua star glued on, with the numbers 70 from a cake set glued on, and some sparkly stick on gems, for her to wear while she blew out her birthday candles. I now make many a birthday crown, but that was the first, and she was very surprised.

So, that was my first family party, I remember it fondly, and it gives me the confidence for future party planning. I intend to post some more party activity ideas (mostly for children) down the track, and my idea for a 'no-tears' Easter egg hunt.... stay tuned. Love Starry