Ready for Autumn? The air is crisp in the mornings and at night, the summer’s bounty is about to be harvested, and it is a time to enjoy the season with your children and family. Here’s to a celebration of the traditional season of fall. If your child is having a party in September or October, this is an excellent theme.

This is a great party to do either at your home or at an outside venue, such as a local farm. So, take a look around and see if there are any local farms in your area that allow for parties. If you hold your party at such a location, the hayride and picking of apples and pumpkins will be great activities.

Invitations:
Cut out leaf shapes or autumn harvest shapes and place them on card stock and include all of the information on the inside of your card.

Decorations:
Orange, brown, and yellow are great colors for this theme. Purchase party and table ware in these colors. Alternatively, you can use leaf patterns.
Use mini pumpkins for your table centerpiece.
Tall cornhusks and bales of hay would add another decorative touch to the party.

Crafts: 

Paint/Decorate mini-pumpkins and have the kids can take these home. 

Make Scarecrow Candy Necklaces. Using straw, have the kids string round candies with holes in the center to make their necklaces.
Sponge paint placemats with leaf shapes.

Games/Activities: 

Bob for apples. 

Have a Pumpkin Roll Contest. Divide the kids into two teams and provide a pumpkin to each team. Have the kids roll it to one end and back and pass it along to the next person. 

Throw a Hula Hoop around a large pumpkin.
If you have bales of hay, have the kids jump over the bales of hay as an obstacle relay race.
String up donuts and tie the kids’ arms behind their backs. Have them eat the donuts off of the line without using their hands.
Hold a scavenger hunt outdoors. If at night, hand out glow sticks for the kids to search for the loot.
Fill a large cardboard box with leaves and place toys in the leaves. Have the kids put their hands inside the box and pick out a toy.
Play Hot Pumpkin, like Hot Potato. 


Menu:
BBQ is always good for this type of a party; spice it up with spare ribs. 

Chili is also an excellent option. Have all of the fixn’s so that people can enjoy topping it off. 

Serve corn bread muffins.
Make Rice Krispie Treats and add orange food coloring to them. Stick them on a Popsicle stick for a treat.
Serve Apple Cider. As an added treat, place caramels on fancy sticks and have the kids stir it into their apple cider for Hot Caramelized Apple Cider.
Make caramel apples.
Make sugar cookies cut out into autumn shapes. Have the kids decorate the cookies with frosting and candies.
Make a batch of cupcakes and ice them with orange frosting and little black, orange, and white sprinkles. The kids can always do the decorating.

Goody Bags:
Purchase little plastic pumpkins, which are so popular as trick or treat bags this time of year. Fill it with all things “fall” - caramel apple cider packets with a cinnamon stick, little themed notebooks, pencils, erasers, pumpkin candy, and candy corn packets.

If you are looking for a fun, inexpensive party to organize for your two to three-year-old child, you can take the simple game of Hide & Seek and build a complete set of party activities around the idea. This will be loads of fun and low-key. Parties really can be so simple for kids this age. Take a look at the Hide & Seek fun to be had:

1. Play Hide & Go Seek ~ the classic game, of course.
2. If adults will be attending the party, reverse it and have the kids look for their parents.
3. Provide toddler-sized boxes that are either pre-decorated by you or that the toddlers can decorate themselves.

What a great craft activity! Have them use markers, crayons, etc. to make their own “Jack In the Box.” (This can also be the take home goody from the party!)

4. Play Jack In The Box. Have the kids climb into the box, and duck down so as not to be seen. Play music, and let the kids pop up just as a Jack In The Box would do.
5. Hide a Piñata that the kids must find in order to enjoy the fun.
6. Organize a treasure hunt for chocolate gold coins.
7. Make a mock tent using a large cardboard box and a sheet. Let each child hide in the tent and pop out surprising the others. You can ask them to pop out using their imagination and become a lion, a dog, a cat, etc.
8. Give them boxes of Cracker Jacks to enjoy finding their prizes.
9. Hide candy treats in a batch of cupcakes. The kids will discover the surprise as they enjoy their cakes.
10. Play “I Spy.”
11. Read books that have flaps to reveal hidden pictures.
12. Have the kids make creations using Play Dough. Hide some small prizes in each little Play Dough jar for the kids to discover.

There will be plenty of surprises and prizes for the kids to find and take home at this party. This is very low-cost, high fun party for the toddlers. Amazing how a classic game can give a party full of kids a great afternoon.

Last summer, I bought my niece, who is almost 3, the Candy Land board game. She LOVES it! I was especially surprised that she loved for me to read to her the Candy Land story inside the box about all of the characters on the board. This is probably her first real game, like it was for most of us, and she loved having a player and moving it along the board. The concept of moving forwards and backwards was interesting for her, and she adores the game.

Often, a great idea for a thematic kids’ party is to look around and see what your kid’s favorite games, toys, and stuffed animals, are, and build a party theme around them. Candy Land would make a truly fun and darling party theme for kids under age of 5.

Here are some ideas to bring your Candy Land party to life:

-For your invitation, buy large lollipops and attach a bright colored card with a satin ribbon. On the card, provide all of the party details and hand-deliver them. If you don’t want to deliver sweets, draw a large lollipop and attach a pipe cleaner for a stem. On the lollipop, provide the party details.

-For party decorations, use your child’s favorite primary colors for the balloons, streamers, and tableware. Mix and match colors. For the table centerpiece, have a large colorful bucket filled Cheerios, and stick in large lollipops. If it is a beautiful day, make your own Candy Land path to your front door with different colors on each place. (If it is bad weather, put the Candy Land path around your party area.)

-One of the best ways to organize this party is to have the guests visit each area of Candy Land, where they will do a game or activity. As you reach each station, read out the infamous description on the box before you do your activity.

-As you start off, place a rainbow of balloons together for the kids to walk underneath as they begin their journey. Given it is the start of the game, have a rainbow taste test. Blindfold the kids and have them taste a variety of things, such as white sugar, lemon juice or lemon drops, orange carrots, etc. The taste test can be anything you want to put out, but make sure it utilizes those bright, primary colors. With the kids blindfolded, it will be a real surprise!

-For Gum Drop Pass, have a big jar full of gum drops, and let the kids take turns guessing how many gum drops are inside!

-For Mr. Mint, have the kids enjoy a relay race using a spoon and a peppermint. Divide the kids into two teams and have them race back and forth to see which team can finish first without dropping the peppermint!

-For the Licorice Castle, have the kids make licorice bracelets. Use thin black and red licorice for the bracelet and let the kids string on colorful Cheerios for edible bracelets. Yum!

-For Grandma Nut, make sure the kids have no peanut butter allergies, and if they can, give each child a spoonful of peanut butter and see who can finish it first.

-For Gloppy, have the kids finger paint their own masterpiece with chocolate. They will love this, but be prepared for a mess!

-For Queen Frostine, have a crowning ceremony for the birthday girl, if you are celebrating for a little girl, and provide her with a cape and a crown! If the party is for a little boy, crown him King of Candy Land! Give out fun Ring Pops during the crowning event!

Other fun ideas:

-Let the kids make their own Candy Land house using graham crackers and frosting as glue. Provide all sorts of candies for the kids to decorate their homes with.

Play the Candy Land game! (Gather enough games from neighbors and friends so everyone can play at the same time.)

Make a large circle of Candy Land pieces, and let the kids walk around on the game “board” set to music. When you stop the music, call out a color and the child on the color is out. Play until only one child remains.

-Play King Candy Says like you would play Simon Says

-Play Licorice, Licorice, Lollipop like Duck, Duck, Goose

-Play Queen Frostine May I? like Mother May I? (Let the birthday child be queen or the king.)

-Have the kids decorate giant gingerbread boys with frosting and candies.

For your menu, make sandwiches, cookies, and Jell-O Jigglers cut out into candy cane and gingerbread man shapes. Also, rainbow-colored goldfish, carrot sticks, pudding cups and chocolate milk. Serve peppermint ice cream at this party! A batch of cupcakes topped in a rainbow of colored candies colors would be so fun too.

For favors, the possibilities are endless: the kids can take home candy, of course, or a bright box of crayons and a Candy Land coloring book or printable pages.

Having multiples means there are a lot of things you have to do in twos or threes. However, one of the advantages of having twins, triplets, quads or quints is that you can throw one birthday party for the set. While this saves you some hassle and simplifies things a bit, it is still important that each child is treated specially on their birthday. Fortunately, there are several ways you can make a joint birthday party a special event for each of your multiples.

Separate Birthday Cakes
To ensure that each of your multiples has a unique birthday experience provide each one with their own cake. You don't have to buy two or three luxury, character cakes for the birthday party if you don't want to, after all a cake per child can add up to a lot of cake. Instead, you can make a personal-size character cake for each child and then have a larger party cake for the guests. This way, each multiple will get to blow out the candles on their own cake and pick the design and character that they want for their cake.

Separate Guest Lists
While it is likely that your multiples will have some of the same friends that they will want to invite to their birthday parties, if you are having a sleepover or a small party with only a few special guests, each multiple will likely invite their best friend(s) from school. If this is the case, you can provide each multiple's guest with a special colored t-shirt that corresponds to the color of shirt worn by the birthday boy or girl that invited them. You can then use this color team philosophy to play party games.

Special Presents
While many parents of multiples give their multiples the same gift on their birthday, it is important that you make each child's gift unique in some way. For example, you may buy each the same type of shirt, but each child gets that design in a different color. Try to consider the preferences of each child in the gift selection process. When they get older, you can provide them with a gift card to their favorite store and allow them to shop for what they want. You can even make the shopping experience part of the birthday celebration fun.