It's Birthday Season!

In the middle of all the back-to-school and work hullabaloo, my kids have reminded me (quite forcefully!) that birthday season is here. The boys celebrate in September, and Maggie's is in October. As I started to write this post (last week!) the olders were busy making invitations for Bjørn & Tor's party (very loudly) ... because of my wacky week, I ended up sending email invites.

I find party planning a heck-of-a-lot easier when there's a theme or primary activity. It helps keep me focused. Another thing I do (don't laugh) is sketch out a schedule for the party that usually looks something like this:

• Free play time until every one is here and settled in
• Organized activity (usually a craft of some sort)
• Outdoor games
• Cake!!!
• Open gifts
• Clean-up

I try to get everything lined up so cake is about 1/2 an hour before the end of the party.

The boys' party will be at a local park where the kids can run around and burn off their cake-fueled energy. I'm thinking I'll have to refer to some of my more outdoorsy-type activity books for inspiration this time around. My latest purchase, A Boy's Treasury of Things-to-do might have just the thing I'm looking for. I'm thinking kites ... but that might be just a bit too ambitious...

I really like sending kids home with something they've had a hand in creating. One thing I do know for certain is that this time around I'm going to have a hard time beating last year's party favor of hand-painted t-shirts!

I'd love to hear your party ideas! Any suggestions?

Comments

[melissa]

on the t-shirt vein, I read somewhere about getting colored cotton tees, stencils of some sort (leaves, mostly), and some weak bleach water (less than 10% bleach) to spray around the object/stencil and well, here, it's on make

[melissa]

shoot, that didn't work, but it's on Make zine's archives.

[Melissa Garrett]

Your party planning sounds a lot like mine - lists, themed activities, crafts . . .

Instead of one big cake, why not make cupcakes and let the guests frost and decorate? That'll hold their attention for awhile. Also, I purchased foam visors, cut outs, and puffy paints one year and let the kids craft those. It was a REALLY inexpensive idea ;-)