This is a party theme that is easy to put together, very budget friendly, and often a favorite of kids aged 2 to 3-years-old. Essentially, the party is all about the party child. Given that kids this age are learning and recognizing who they are, having a party that reflects them will be a lot of fun for this age. For you, it is super easy to put together!

Here are the tips:

1. Ask your guests to dress in the same outfit as your child will. Make it something simple like jeans and a blue T-shirt. When everyone walks in they will be dressed exactly as your kid.

2. Decorate with your child’s favorite colors using balloons, streamers, and tableware. If there is a favorite candy, have these scattered around the table as well. Print off pictures of your kid and have these hanging around the party room as well. You could also attach the pictures from streamers for additional fun decorations for when the guests arrive at your party.

3. Have several of your child’s favorite toys on a table and Play Dough for the kids to make replica creations of your kid’s favorite things.

4. Have the birthday kid lead the gang in a round of “Simon Says,” but use your child’s name instead of Simon.

5. Play “Pin the Nose on _ (Your child’s name.)” Print off a very large picture of your kid and hang it up. Cut out a big red nose and have them use this to try and pin the nose on.

6. What are some other fun games your child loves? Charades? Tag? Hide and Seek? Freeze? Mother May I? Red Light, Green Light? Whatever those favorite games are, if you have the room, play them.

7. Take pictures of each guest with your child, and place it into a frame to be taken home by the guests for the party favor. If you have a digital camera, these pictures can be printed off and placed in the frames. Alternatively, send the frames home and send the pictures with the thank you notes afterwards.
8. Have a cake with a picture of the birthday child on it. Make it his favorite cake and icing flavors.

9. Serve your child’s favorite foods, even if outlandish, like Fruity Pebbles, serve them up to keep with your theme. It will add fun to the party menu.

The point of the whole party is to celebrate the uniqueness of your child and to share this with everyone at the party. It is easy, budget-friendly, and because there is no one just like your kid, it will be very special!

Today, more and more parents are opting to request No Gifts on their kids’ party invitations. It often doesn’t work out very well, as some people adhere to the guideline while others ignore it altogether and bring a gift. The fact is people want to bring something to a child’s party, as a result, to get around embracing the concept of traditional gifts or no gifts at all; there are creative ideas that offer an in-between the two options:

1. Host a book exchange and organize it in a few different ways:
-Guests bring a wrapped gift and everyone takes one home.
-Some open the books on the spot; others wait until the kids have gone home.
2. Give your child an experience rather than a party. If you allow friends to be invited, let the experience be the celebration, not the stuff.
3. Hold an inexpensive gift exchange (under $10) so that every child receives a gift.
4. Request art supplies and donate them to a shelter.
5. Hobbit Practice - Better to Give than to Receive! Each child receives a gift, although they do not bring one.
6. Request a donation to a great organization like http://www.heifer.org/.
7. Contact a charity that is a favorite and ask for a Wish List, i.e. a list of stuff the organization really needs. As an example, the Humane Society may need leashes, collars, toys, etc. Request guests bring these items in lieu of birthday gifts to donate and make the wishes come true!
8. Whatever donations are brought to the party for a favorite charity, have the birthday child deliver the donations to his chosen charity.

This is a great round-up of ideas that are alternatives to traditional party gifts. Also, keep in mind, if you are concerned about the amount people will spend on a party gift for your child, it is appropriate to write in your invitation, Gifts under $__ would be appreciated. Putting a price limit guideline on the invitation can help to keep gift-giving budget friendly.

Happy Gifting ─ or not!

That silly, foolish day is almost here: that’s right, April Fool’s Day!! It’s the perfect day to play some tricks and jokes on your kids. You could do just one, several, or make a full day of slapstick fun. If you are interested in doing something special to kick off April, check out these quick and easy ideas:

1. Place a For Sale sign in your front yard. That will get your kids asking what’s going on, especially if it says “sold.”
2. Place Wet Paint signs on the walls of your home. I’ll bet your kids will just have to touch the walls and see if it’s for real!
3. Place No Trespassing signs on the toilet. What a way to wake up!
4. Place whoopee cushions or other fun gags at the breakfast table.
5. Place signs on the backs of your kids’ shirts in the morning (do this without them knowing by giving them gentle hugs). Have the signs say anything silly that is in good fun, such as, Flap your arms when I look at you, Hug me, and pat my head.
6. Make up word games, like Hang Man, that have no solutions.
7. Serve dinner for breakfast or vice versa.
8. Rearrange two rooms of furniture. Have the couch in the kitchen and the kitchen table in the family room.
9. Serve Oreo cookies as an after-school snack, but scrape off the cream and fill them with toothpaste. Minty fresh!
10. Reverse your spices. Put pepper in the salt shaker and salt in the pepper shaker.

Kids age 8 and older will appreciate the challenge of an April Fool’s Treasure Hunt. Take average clues that seem quite easy, and have your kids search for the obscure. When they figure out the first clue, it will lead to the next clue, which will lead to the next clue, and so on. Put together as many clues as you want. The last clue should lead the kids to a special treat for all of their efforts, such as a joke book.
Here are some sample clues:
1. I spout water and make everything clean (hose).
2. It’s just another way you can get to school (a wheelbarrow, if you have one or some other obscure form of transportation you have at your home).
3. I’ll keep you warm at night when it is cold (hot water bottle).
4. I see you compactly when you open me (Mom’s powder compact).
5. I’m thinner than string and can make everything squeaky clean (dental floss).
6. I keep things cool that are yum to eat (ice cooler/chest).
7. Play me to entertain you just in time (clock radio).
8. I go around and around all day long (dryer).
9. I welcome you and your guests home (front door mat/rug).
10. Stomp, run, and walk on me; I can take it and still grow (grass/front yard).
These clues will have your kids looking all over the place for these obscure things and places! You can either preface the hunt with the fact that the clues may seem easy, but are meant to be puzzling, or you can let your kids have the full challenge of figuring it out for themselves!
It doesn’t take much to mix up your April Fool’s Day and have some goofy fun! Enjoy the spirit of foolishness!

Spring is upon us! The kids are tired of being indoors, drinking hot cocoa, and watching the snow fall. The days are longer, the sun is shining brighter, there's a hint of spring flowers in the air, and snow is turning to rain; it's spring!

The vernal equinox is a wonderful time to plan some spring fun with your children. If you want to mark the entrance of spring this year, here are some resources and ideas to enjoy:

1. Plant flowers together! Head out to your local garden center, and let your kids pick out the flower bulbs they would like to plant. Have them not only plant the bulbs, but water them throughout spring and watch them grow!

2. Give your children a watercolor set and white construction paper, and have them paint their own spring masterpieces to hang around the house.

3. Enjoy bird watching! Birds are now migrating north, so it is the perfect time to head out to an open field and watch them. Of course, with it being spring, there are many opportunities to feed ducks, watch scampering squirrels, and take in the natural world coming to life.

4. When a rainy day pops up, pull on your galoshes and go splash in the puddles. Make it fun!

5. Enjoy playing Leap Frog!

6. Fly kites!

7. Play Frisbee. To make it even more interesting, play Frisbee Golf. Hang buckets from trees, and have the players toss the Frisbee into the buckets for points.

8. Purchase small terra cotta plant holders for the kids to decorate with tempera paint. They can paint bugs, butterflies, or anything else they like!

9. Gussy up lollipops to look like flowers. Using felt, googly eyes, heavy card stock, and a glue stick, create flower faces atop the lollipop. A sweet treat.

10. Make Paper Mache Eggs. Blow up small balloons and paper mache the balloon with liquid starch and newspaper strips. When the balloon is dry, stick a pin in and pop the balloon. Cut out a hole large enough for the goodies you will place inside. Fill your egg with the treats, and seal the flap with either paper mache or tape. Paint the eggs with tempura paint in a variety of spring colors, and have the kids write their names on their eggs with markers.

Have a great time celebrating spring with your kids and their friends this year. It will be a bloom'n good time!

A perfect outdoor winter venue for a party is an ice-skating rink! It is usually quite inexpensive to have a group skate, and facilities typically offer a party room to host the lunch/cake/presents. For kids age 6 and up, this is a very good idea. Planning this theme can take as little as 30 minutes as well. So, if you don’t have a lot of time and want to hold your party outside of your home, this may be a great idea for you.

If so, here are a few suggestions and points to keep in mind as you plan:

• Call the facility 4-6 weeks in advance in order to secure the party room.
• You may want to inquire if there is a skating instructor available to help the beginners learn to skate, and to teach a few moves to those kids who already know how to skate.
• Ask the facility if you are able to bring in themed party decorations for the party room. The colors, blue, silver, and white would be good choices for this theme, though any color scheme will work here. Balloons, streamers, and party ware are all easy decorations to bring the party room to life.
• In your party invitations, make sure to provide the details of the facility. Also, guests’ parents will assume that the host will be paying for the kids to skate. It is a good idea to make it clear on the invitation that the kids’ skating tickets will be taken care of.
• You will need to decide if you will also pay for skate rentals. If so, ask the parents to provide their kids’ shoe sizes to you when they RSVP. You can rent the skates upon your arrival and have them waiting for the kids when they arrive.
• If you want guests to pay for their own skate rental, note this plainly in the invitation. The invitation can be in the shape of a skate with all of the details included on it.
• The main activity of the party will be skating! So, there is very little need for you to plan additional activities or games. Let the kids get their skates on and enjoy the rink.
• When the kids arrive, provide them with nametags or something they can pin on themselves so you can easily identify which kids in the facility are attending your party. This can also be a party keepsake.
• When the kids become tired, have them take a break. Often, skating facilities provide pizza or some other party food that kids enjoy. If you’d like food, be sure to make this arrangement with the facility beforehand.
• If lunch will not be provided, handing out a bag filled with little treats, such as a bag of chips, piece of fruit, granola bar, popcorn ball, etc., may also be a good idea.
• For a party goody:Provide a little bag of skating stuff: a pair of gloves, hot cocoa mix, lip gloss (for chapped lips!), skating stickers, skating keychain, etc.
• Another idea is to send home decorated skate cookies placed into cellophane bag and tied with a ribbon.
• Make sure to take a snapshot of the kids on ice to include in your thank you notes.

Kids head to school on Valentine’s Day truly excited! Usually they have created a special Valentine’s Day box to capture Valentines from all of their classmates!

When I attended primary school, there was a rule that everyone had to give all of their classmates a Valentine to avoid hurt feelings. Yet, one year, I did not get a Valentine from somebody in my class and I was devastated. I remember making a big deal out of the situation and I think it even got my classmate in trouble. (OK, I admit I was pretty sensitive!)

To avoid hurt feelings and this classroom quandary, take the following steps:
• Definitely make a valentine box to hold all of those cards. This will be a fun craft project, and the kids will have a central place to capture all of those valentines.

• Ask your classroom teacher for a complete list of students so that you know the names of the kids in the class and can use this as a resource when filling out valentines with your kids at home.

One Tip: You don’t necessarily need to address the Valentines to particular names. If it is easier, count out enough cards for the number of kids in your child’s class, add one or two more just in case, and have your child sign his or her name on the cards. Your child can then drop them into the boxes without worrying about their classmates’ names. This works especially well with very young children.

If you aren’t a big fan of giving your children candy for Valentine’s, or your kids’ school has a policy against bringing candy to celebrate the day, here are some fun alternatives to the traditional Valentine chocolate:

• Movie gift certificates
• Heart notepads, pencils, and erasers
• Strawberry lip gloss
• Bubble bath
• Heart bracelets and necklaces
• Stuffed animals
• Red yo-yos
• Heart photo frames
• Red bouncy balls
• Red jump ropes
• Silver lockets
• Hair ribbons
• Favorite DVDs
• Heart stickers and/or rubber stamps with red ink
• Red crayons, markers, and glitter glue with an activity book
• Ice cream cone gift certificates

The list of ideas can go on and on. Anything pink or red will do, especially if it’s in the shape of a heart. These are excellent gifts to give to your children besides a box of chocolate this holiday!

Looking for a fun activity to keep the kids busy during your Valentine’s party, or to ignite your kids’ enthusiasm in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day? Why not organize a Valentine’s Day treasure hunt!

Check out these creative clues surrounding all things Valentine for inspiration:

• Red Rose: Red and perfect, smells pretty too.
• Heart: Shaped like two swans’ necks paired together, it’s brimming with joy always and forever.
• Valentine: I may be red or pink, come in an envelope or a box, never mind it’s what this day is all about!
• Chocolate: Whether milk or dark, filled with caramel, nougat, or cream, I am a part of every Valentine dream!
• Candy Hearts: Whether pink, green, or blue, and with a hard crunch or two, share these with your friends to learn their feelings true.
• Candle: Strike a match and watch me flicker, quickly I alight and shine forth light.
• Stuffed Bear: Soft and plush, darling to hold, I am all yours.
• Poem: A few lines here and there, but my words will pack a punch and leave you with no more than a care.
• Cupid: I shoot my arrow with a bow to your heart to make it grow!

What’s all red and rosy? Your kids’ enchantment at your upcoming Valentine’s party, of course! It is mid-winter and having something bright and cheerful to look forward to is sure to excite your kids.

Here’s a sweet tip! If you are mailing your guests’ Valentine’s Day party invitations, you may want to use the Loveland, Colorado Valentine Re-Mailing Program.

Just bundle up your pre-addressed, pre-stamped party invitations (or even your valentines) and send them off to Loveland, Colorado for the official Loveland stamp!

This is a popular practice this time of year, and if you plan ahead, a lot of fun for your party guests!

It is that time of year again, and everyone is gearing up for the big game. In anticipation of Super Bowl Sunday, it’s a great time to throw a party and include the kids! They may or may not understand football, but they certainly understand the fun and excitement of the big game. And, oh boy, if you are lucky enough to have a football-crazy boy with a late January or early February birthday, half your planning is done for you!

To decorate, throw football confetti on the party table and around the room. If you have any football “stuff” in your home, such as jerseys, knee pads, shoulder pads or other memorabilia, put it out as well.

Arrange your party area and furniture to accommodate all of your guests. This is an especially good time to set up a separate kids’ area if possible. You can decorate the kids’ table with a football tablecloth and a balloon tied to each chair, perhaps in the color scheme of the teams playing, or the team you are favoring!

When your guests arrive, hand out a safety pin for each person to wear and make “football” the quiet word. When someone says “football,” the person who catches him collects his safety pin. The person who has the most safety pins at the end of the game wins!

Assign a party referee—an older kid may love to play this role. Have him wear a referee shirt and throw a yellow flag for the following offenses:

• Party Foul: Double dipping anything!
• Holding: Holding on to food for too long!
• Illegal use of hands or language

Have the kids make their own paper footballs. Buy brown construction paper, black markers and finger paint kits for decorating their balls. Play a round of football Pictionary and definitely include the kids. Some of the words teams may want to draw include cheerleaders, penalty, helmet, pass, bleachers, fans, safety and touchdown.

Have the kids break open a football piñata. You can fill it with trading cards, whistles, bubble gum, stickers, etc. for goodies to take home.

If you have two TVs in your home, arrange one for non-football viewing. Even kids with good attention spans can find the pre- and post-game shows and all the hoopla of the big game a liitle long.

Serve a great party food menu and make sure to rename each item to fit the party’s theme:

• Nachos (Touchdown Tortillas),
• Hot Dogs (Holding Hot Dogs),
• Munchies (Defense Doodles)

Other foods to serve include a large pot of chili with breadsticks, veggie platters with dips, cheese platters with crackers and relish side dish, etc.

For dessert, make a batch of brownies and cut them out with football-shaped cookie cutters.

Here’s to the best team winning and the kids really whooping it up for the big game!

It’s winter outside and many people are actually snowed in and/or digging out from the snow. Your kids may be developing cabin fever, and are looking forward to not only spring blooming, but summer break. You can give them a little taste of the fun to come this summer by throwing their winter birthday at the local indoor swimming pool. It can either be at a hotel, YMCA or local gym that has an indoor pool and rent it out for kids’ parties. It should be pretty easy to find a place to hold your event, and easy to put together!

In your invitation, have the party guests bring their swimsuits, a change of clothes, flip flops and a towel. The entire party will be taken with the kids swimming and playing together in the pool. Hopefully, you will dive right in as well, or have a few parents who are interested in getting in as well, so they can lead some games too:

1. Marco Polo

2. Hold a Rubber Duck Race. Give each child a rubber duck and have them use their noses to move it to the other side of the pool. First one there wins!

3. Play Shark! The birthday kid starts off as the shark and must tag the fish, i.e. the rest of the kids. As they are tagged, they also become sharks. Game is over when the pool is full of sharks!

4. Who can make the biggest splash? Make sure to follow pool rules however!
5. Place floating toys all throughout the pool, and divide the kids into two teams. Blow a whistle and see which team can gather the most floaters in a two minute time frame.

6. Have the kids swim through rings, i.e. hula hoops

7. Play Water volleyball

Besides swimming, make sure to have fun pool party food and drinks on hand:

1. Juice boxes and small water bottles would be ideas

2. Fish Chow, combine popcorn, raisins, gummy fish, Goldfish crackers, and chocolate chips. Yummy snack.

3. Serve small sandwiches cut into little fish shapes and filled with all sorts of fillings.

4. Ordering pizza would be an easy option for this party too.

5. Have fruits cut up and placed on skewer sticks and yogurt dips available for dipping.

6. Serve Blue Jell-O with gummy fish inside the Jell-O.

And finally, send the kids home with a taste of summer: beach balls!
It will certainly be an easy party to pull together and the kids will have loads of fun swimming and playing in the pool during the entire party; only taking a break for party food and cake. Easy and fun!

If your little one is soon to turn one and it is cold and wintry outside, a perfect theme for your party may be a fabulous Winter One-derland! If it is December, January, or February and you are sure to be throwing an indoor party, here are some ideas to pull this theme together. It will work well if older children will be attending the party. Otherwise, if you want to host a Winter Wonderland party, just drop the play on the words and you have a great party for many ages!

For your invitation, cut out an array of mittens, snowballs, scarves and snowflakes in your party colors and place all of the pertinent information on the cut outs. Use cookie cutters as guides; they can pull double duty later for craft projects or treats.

Another invitation idea is to paint Styrofoam balls with your party colors, for snowballs, and attach a tag with the party details. These invitations will need to be hand-delivered.
For the decorations, use white for one color, for snow of course, and pair it with another color you would like to use as well. Since you are emphasizing the winter time frame, if you go with a 1st Birthday theme, you may want to keep it on the generic side.

• Hang snowflakes from your ceiling at different lengths.
• Decorate the party walls with big snow people that you cut out from large cardboard and other wintry items, i.e. mittens, hats, scarves, etc.
• Cover your furniture with white sheets
• Place Styrofoam packing peanuts around the party room for the snow
• Create the look of a frozen lake by placing clear plastic bags on the floor.
• Place a sign stating, Danger: Thin Ice!
• Hang twinkly lights all over the party room.
• Make snowmen out of balloons; taping three different sizes of balloons together and decorating their faces with markers.

Craft Ideas: Make Snowmen

You will need:
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 cup water
• 2 Tbs. Veg. Oil
• 1 Tbs. Cream of tartar
• 1/3 cup silver glitter
• 1/4 cup white powdered tempera paint.

Mix all ingredients together. Cook over medium heat, stirring until ball is formed. Knead dough until cool. Provide bowls with bits of cloth, paper, beads, pipe cleaners, felt, etc. Have the guests sculpt their own snow dough snowman and decorate it.

Make Snow Globes: Use baby food jars and fill the jars almost to the top with water and stir in a few drops of glycerin and 1/2 a teaspoon of glitter and star and moon confetti. The glycerin increases the density of the water and causes the glitter to fall slowly. This is a great party goody for the kids to take home!

For Activities:
Hopefully, you will have snow and your party guests can make snow angels, build real snow people, go sledding, go on a winter nature hike and/or simply play in the winter wonderland!

Have a Race to the Pole.

Set up different stations in the party room and have the kids complete a different task at several “places” as they make their way to the North Pole. As example, go to Klondike, where the kids wrap up yarn into a coil, which they take to Greenland, where they dress in heavy winter clothes, to go to the Arctic Circle, where they map their progress by drawing a circle with a compass, and finally reaching the North Pole.

Play Hot Snow Ball as you would “Hot Potato.”

Have a Blizzard. Blow up a large amount of white balloons, e.g. the snow, and provide small fans to the two teams. The purpose is to fan as many of the balloons to their designated goal areas in the room. First team to get the majority of balloons in the designated area wins!

Hide icicles of various lengths around the party area. Have the two teams hunt for as many as many as possible and then, as a team, piece them together. The team to form the longest icicle wins!

For the Menu:
Make Snowman Pizza, using cheese, olives, and other veggies for the toppings!
Make Snowman Pancakes using different sizes of pancakes and have the kids decorate them with chocolate chips.
Pigs in a Blanket, to keep the piggies warm!
Ice Chips: Use any type of chips with a dip
Snowman Crackers: use cream cheese and veggies to decorate.
Make a batch of sugar cookies and cut them out into different winter shapes and have the kids decorate with sprinkles, candy, and frosting.
Serve mud and snow, hot chocolate with whipped cream
Serve little donuts rolled in powdered sugar, mini snowballs.
Serve a Polar Ice Cap. You will need: Blue Kool-Aid, ginger ale, vanilla ice cream, clear glasses, and straws. Refrigerate the Kool-Aid and ginger ale. Fill a glass almost halfway with the blue Kool-Aid. Add ginger ale almost to the top of the glass. Drop in one big snowball (scoop of vanilla ice cream), and enjoy with a straw!
Send home the Snow Globes as the favor!

Holiday meals are a time for the entire family to gather around for a leisurely meal together. It can often go on for quite awhile, leaving young children antsy in their seats. This meal is notoriously known for having a kids’ table where the children sit on their own with one adult, rather than at the grown up’s table.
Whether the children sit at a special designated table for them or are sitting with everyone, having a few activities planned that will keep kids busy and entertained during the meal will go a long way toward keeping everyone happy. Find inspiration for easy fun that is sure to keep your kids happy during your special holiday meal here.

1. Fun Drinks. Set out special colored glasses, plastic would work well, and outfit them with fun straws, umbrellas, fruit, and ice cubes with holiday gummies frozen inside. The kids will be delighted with the fun drinks. They can even make them up before dinner and also make re-fills too.

2. Crayons. Place holiday colored crayons on the table with plain white napkins at the kids’ place settings. Ask the kids to draw their favorite holiday scene on their napkins for added decoration and fun.

3. Trivia. Have a ready-made holiday trivia game made-up. This works especially well with older kids, but you can also ask very simple questions to include the little ones too. As an example, if this is a Thanksgiving meal, create a series of questions around the history of the holiday, traditions, etc. to keep them guessing.

4. Your Little Helpers. Include your kids in preparing one of the holiday dishes, even little kids can help bake cookies. When you are ready to serve, engage the children in talking about how they made the dish and have them help serve it as well.

5. Charades. Children often have a hard time sitting still at the dinner table for long periods of time. If a long meal, have them take mini-breaks from the table. If you see your child fidgeting, ask them to get up, and do a charade for the rest of the guests, i.e. a turkey for Thanksgiving or a reindeer for Christmas. After they are done, they can be seated again. This quickly breaks their monotony, but also will help keep them at the table.

6. Place Cards. Have the kids create place cards for the guests to easily find their seats at the dinner table. The kids can create these cards using heavy stock paper and fancy glitter glue to spell out the names.

7. Storytelling. At some point during the meal, allow the children to tell the story of the holiday in their own words. See how much they remember about the pilgrims or the Christmas story or Santa’s origins. Alternatively, allow children to read a special holiday tale from a favorite book to everyone gathered.

8. A Chorus Line. Although singing is usually seen as rude at the dinner table, children often have learned special songs at school for the holidays. Allow them to get up and sing a chorus of favorite tunes. Invite everyone to sing together.

9. Clean Up. There is always plenty to clean up after a holiday meal. With kids ready to get up and leave the table, provide them with the task of helping clear the plates from the table. It makes it easier on you and keeps the kids industrious.

10. Card Sharks. As the kids rush to finish their dessert, have several different card decks on their table that they can have fun playing as everyone else finishes their meal as well. Games like Old Maid, Go Fish, and Concentration are all good choices.

The holiday meal is an annual tradition. Make sure to include some activities for the kids to enjoy it too!