Planning birthday parties

It's birthday season in our household, and that means there's lots of planning to be done! I try to keep my planning as simple as possible.

A typical birthday party at our house is organized into stages (don't laugh, I'm a project manager and I believe a good GANTT chart can be your friend)

• Free play time until every one is here and settled in
• Organized activity (usually a craft of some sort)
• Outdoor games
• Cake!!! (I try to get everything lined up so cake is about 1/2 an hour before the end of the party.)
• Open gifts
• Free play again as kids get picked up
• Clean-up

My kids have such very clear ideas about what they want to do and they love the process of helping to orchestrate their big day. With Bjørn it's a jump house this year and not too many kids so they can all get in lots of jumping time. Maggie wants a spa-sleep-over party (I'm imagining avocado masks, manicures, a movie or two, and boatloads of pop-corn). Tor, to be honest, hasn't glommed on to the whole party thing yet as far as planning, but is VERY excited because he sees the giant smiles on M&B's faces when the subject comes up.

I started to break out a list of activities to share with you for throwing your kids' birthday parties, but I discovered that I was including just about every single project (seriously!) I've posted under Art & Crafts these past two years! Way too many to list out one by one, so you should really just poke around my site categories & find what inspires you  :-)

Comments

[Ziggity]

Well, if you are looking for some original craft projects and activities for a party, especially for the younger group, check out our terrific kids site, Ziggity Zoom. You will find lots to do online also.
http://www.ziggityzoom.com