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.

For school-aged children, there may be nothing like a Mad Scientist Party, especially as school gets underway and kids are back in science class. It will be a fun party theme that holds their attention, and could even be educational. If your child is interested in the wacky side of science, seriously consider this theme!

Invitations:
Using large size test tubes with a rubber stopper, print all of the party details on a small piece of paper that can be rolled up and placed into the test tube. On the outside of the tube, write in permanent marker, “Inside contains the Mad Scientist Secret Formula for Party Fun!” These will have to be hand-delivered or mailed in cushioned envelopes.

Decorations:
• At the entrance to the party, make a sign welcoming them to Dr. X’s Mad Lab!
• In the party room, make it look like a high tech lab using the colors of silver and black.
• Using black construction paper, cut out question marks, mathematical formulas, etc. and place around the party room.
• Have green slime on the tables and around the room.
• Fill different sizes of jars with colored water. Inside, place plastic eyeballs, hands, noses, plastic animals, etc.
• At the tables where the Mad Scientist experiments will happen, place face masks, magnifying glasses, test tubes, etc. to make the area look authentic.
• When the kids arrive, provide them with white coats, and have them create a nametag. Don’t just have them use their own names, but make up a mad scientist name, i.e. “Dr. Insanity.”

Activities: You can either have the kids do the activities together, or rotate throughout the party room to different lab stations to complete the different mad science activities.

Make Green Ooze! 3/4 cup cornstarch, 1/2 cup water. Mix together. Add green food coloring to look like Slime.

Static Electricity: (balloons, aluminum soda can) Blow up balloons and rub them in the kids’ hair to make it rise. Set soda can on a hard surface so it can roll. Use one of the rubbed balloons and move it closer to the can. Does it move the can? Will the rubbed balloon stick to a wall?

A Shocker: Need one per child: 1 penny, 1 lemon, 1 paper clip. Cut a slit 1/4 inch in to the lemon to fit the penny, then another for the paperclip, close to but not touching the penny. Let the kids touch their tongues to each of the metals.

Falling Coin: 1 glass, 1 index card, 1 coin. Place card over glass evenly. Place coin in center. Flick the card end with your finger to send it flying. What happens to the coin?

Suck an Egg into a Jar: 1 hard boiled egg, peeled and at room temperature,
1 narrow top jar (baby food jars work well), hot water. The egg will not fit into the jar on it’s own. Fill the jar with the hot water for 2-3 minutes. Pour this out and set the egg on the opening. The egg will end up inside the jar.

Osmotic Celery: Cut celery stalks and set them in glasses of tinted water. The stalks will absorb the color and then the kids can eat them!

OUTDOORS ACTIVITY:

Volcano Eruption: Make a volcano from a soda can, set on a tin pan, and form papier-mâché around it. Leave the hole in the top open. Dry and paint browns and greens. To make the volcano erupt, place baking soda in the can then pour in vinegar, tinted with food coloring.

Rocket launch: Fill a small plastic film canister with one teaspoon of water. Quickly add one Alka-Seltzer tablet, put the lid on, and place the canister on the floor with the lid side down. Wait about 10 seconds and then your rocket should fly into the air.

Games:

Atom Burst: Tie two balloons to each of the kids’ ankles. Have them run around trying to burst the atoms. The last kid with a “live atom” wins!

Mini-Molecules: Take very close-up pictures of everyday items around your home. During the party, have the kids use their magnifying glasses to figure out what they are.

Scientist Scramble: Muddle up the names of famous scientists, and have them work them out properly.

Menu:

Serve snacks in clear bowls and name them madly, i.e. electric chips, magnetic munchers, etc.
• Serve electric dogs, i.e. hot dogs.
• Serve green Kool-Aid. Place plastic critters and body parts into the punch for extra madness!

Goody Bags:
Send the kids home with a facemask, test tubes, green slime, goggles, magnifying glasses, magnets, etc. Alternatively, send them home with test tubes filled with candy like M&Ms.
Have a fab mad party!

ABCDEFG….

It’s that time of year when kids are heading back to school and learning their ABCs and 123s. Alphabet and initial parties offer a unique birthday party theme for you to throw your child. Many people like this theme for a first birthday party. As long as you have some older children attending, up to 4 years of age, these activities will be fun and engaging.

Invitations:
Cut out the initials of the birthday child and either make the cutout be the invitation and provide all details on the letter, or place the letter onto white card stock and inside provide all of the party details.

Use alphabet stamps to decorate the front of the invitation, perhaps spelling out the birthday child’s name.

If a first birthday party, take a picture of your child playing among alphabet blocks and put this on the front of the invitation.

Ask the kids to wear bold, bright colors to the party.

Decorations:

Pick several primary colors as the color scheme of the party and go to town. Purchase helium balloons in these colors and have them all around the party room. Spell out the name of the birthday child and the party guests on the balloons. If you don’t have enough balloons, you can use initials only. You can give the balloons away to the kids at the end of the party to take home.

For a table centerpiece, try and find big wooden ABC blocks and attach a few balloons to each of the wooden blocks.

Cut out the letters of the alphabet, as many as you can, and post them all over the party room. Teacher resource stores will also have the alphabet letters already pre-made and you will just have to cut them out.

Spell out alphabet signs to greet the guests when they arrive, i.e. “Elizabeth is Two! Hurray!”

Crafts:

Cut out letters of the alphabet and have the kids decorate them.

Have pre-cut foam in the shape of alphabets and have the kids stamp their names on big sheets of paper.

Provide kids with a white T-shirt with an iron-on alphabet letter for their initial. On the back of the shirt, have the kids make a handprint with wearable paint. This can be a part of the goodies they take home.

Use wood block ABC’s as stamps, and have the kids make art creations with them. They could also make birthday cards for the birthday child with these same stamps.

Have the kids make ID bracelets using alphabet beads.

Party Activities:

Hire a face painter to paint letters on the kids’ faces, and/or paint their names.

Hold a book exchange. Have the guests bring a favorite book of theirs to give to another party guest. Have the kids sit in a circle, and play music, and let the kids pass their books around the circle. When the music stops, this is the book they get to keep! You could do this several times before stopping.

Play charades, and have each kid act out a word that starts with a letter of the alphabet. So, if it is “B” ~ it could be for a bear ~ and the child can act out a bear and the other kids will have to figure out what he is.

Make little alphabet letters and stick them all over the house on things that begin with that letter, i.e. G is for glass, so stick a “G” on glass, and have the kids find all of the letters and shout out the letter and what it stands for.

Menu:

Serve any type of sandwich you like, and cut them out with alphabet shapes.

Serve alphabet cereal, little goldfish crackers, carrots, and fruit as additional snacks.

Serve gelatin cut out in alphabet shapes in a variety of flavors.

Bake sugar cookies and cut them out in different alphabet letters You can ice them yourself, put them into clear cellophane bags, and tie with a pretty ribbon as a goody item or have the kids decorate the cookies and enjoy eating them right at the party as another activity.

Serve Oreos on a Stick: place a Popsicle stick into an Oreo cookie, and dip the cookie into melted chocolate. Let it dry and then use an icing tube to write different letters on each one. This can also be a take-home goody, just wrap it in cellophane with a ribbon and add to the goody bag.

Make regular cupcakes and frost them. Top them off with the letters of the alphabet. Spell out the birthday kid’s name.

Goody Bags:

Find out each child’s name before the party, and decorate a brown paper bag using their initials. You can do this with markers and/or stickers. Inside the bag include alphabet stickers, iron-on patches with their initials, Alphabet coloring books with a small box of crayons, magnetic letters, a wooden block with their initials, etc.

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.