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Party Time

1) Make a generic birthday party wreath to leave up the week of the party. Here is one Ginger made.

2) When purchasing party themed napkins and plates, only buy half as many as you need. Get half in the theme and the other half in a coordinating color. Then interchange them. I put 1 theme napkin/plate then one plain one. It still looks nice and save $$.

3) Instead of purchasing theme cups, which are usually to small and  flimsy. Buy a coordinating color and put party theme stickers. (For example, for a fire truck party, use Dalmatian and fire hydrant stickers on the glasses.)

4) Make your own piñata, Andi posted how to on the forum, make a simple piñata with  balloon, newspaper, flour and water, and then let your child paint on it.

       Fire Truck

       Barbie

       Clifford

       Carnival

       Luau

       Dragon Tales

       Bug Party

Fire Truck Birthday Party

There are many sources of inspiration for birthday party themes:  your child's interests or favorite characters, the season the birthday falls into, or party stores. My son loves fire trucks, so naturally we had a fireman's party for his 3rd birthday.  

We started out with matching fire truck invitations, tablecloths, napkins, and plates.  We added red spoons, forks, serving dishes, and plastic cups (which we also decorated with fireman themed stickers).  The birthday boy dressed as a fireman, complete with rubber boots and child-sized jacket, whistle, badge and flashlight.  We decorated with red helium-filled balloons and toy fire trucks, and I filled a fire truck piñata with red candy.  We had the party a lunch time and served grilled hotdogs, sausage and boudin, along with chips and dips and a red punch made of cherry limeade sherbet and Sprite.  I decorated a red velvet cake as a fire truck and served it with "dalmatian" (chocolate chip) ice cream.  Of course we wrapped his presents in fire truck wrapping paper.  As a grand finale we took a trip to our local fire station, where the kids were able to climb into and pretend to drive the fire trucks.  I filled treat bags with Big Red gum, party blowers, red "fire hose" Fruit by the Foot, pictures of a cartoon fire truck to be used as placemats or cut out as a puzzle, and candy from the piñata.  This party was fun to plan, and the kids (and grownups) had a great day!

Pictures from the party are down below, click the picture to see a larger view.

The fire truck cake was made using a sheet cake pan and a red velvet cake mix. Ginger drew and outline onto the cake it self with a toothpick. She then put the icing on with a decorating gun.  The windows were Kebler Chocolate Covered Graham cracker cookies, the wheels are pinwheel marshmallow cookies, the hose was made out of red licorice (you will need to put the licorice into the microwave for a few seconds for it to roll up into a hose). The latter and door handle were made out of pretzel sticks. Gum drops were used for the siren on the top of the truck and in the front. The horn was made using a Hershey's kiss and a small pretzel stick.

The candles were purchased at Albertsons.

Ginger put cute fire truck stickers on the cups.

Here are some of the decorations used around the house: a red fire truck ball, fire trucks, red balloons with Matthew's name on them and a piñata.

All food was served outside, this is a great idea to keep your house tidy and the children have pleanty of place to play. The table outside was setup with hot dog items then changed to dips, cake, ice cream and punch.

The treat bags contained a pack of Big Red gum, party blowers, red "fire hose" Fruit by the Foot, pictures of a cartoon fire truck to be used as placemats or cut out as a puzzle, and candy from the piñata.

Picture's from the fire station. 

Here is our 'fire man' birthday boy!!!! He had a great party and loved every minute.
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Barbie Party

For my daughter's 5th birthday, she wanted a Barbie- themed party.  I didn't want the decorations to be too commercial, like an ad for Mattel!  

We found a dainty little floral design (yellow, pink, light blue, and light green) for the table cloth and plates, and we bought coordinating pink napkins and spoons and light blue cups.  (That is much less expensive than buying everything in the matching pattern!)  

We also bought one pack of the matching napkins to cover the paper mache' piñata we made.  Jordan even painted over the flowers herself!  We filled it with bubblegum, taffy, and suckers.  Our helium balloons were all pastels with pastel ribbons.  

I made a "Barbie" doll cake from a kit I bought at Michael's.  It came with a dome-shaped pan for the skirt and a doll pick that sat on top.  We decorated with pink icing for the dress (over the half- doll, too) and tiny flower candies and edible glitter. 

Jordan chose "rainbow" ice cream (Neapolitan) to serve with the cake and a Starburst sherbet (with little bits of Starburst candy in it) to make the punch.  Just add Sprite!  

The girls wore Barbie party hats, and I set out a chest of dress-up clothes for the girls to play in.  

I took pictures of the results!  I put tiny Barbie picture frames (printed from Barbie.com) in the treat bags, along with sparkly birthday pencils with flower toppers, matching flower-shaped erasers, bracelets, and pastel party blowers.  

Jordan and I both loved the way everything turned out, and her guests especially enjoyed dressing up like Barbie!

Here are some pictures from the party, just click on them for a larger view:

Here is the cake from start to finish. It was very easy to decorate and really lets you run with your imagination. Ginger purchased a 'Barbie Decorating Kit'. It came with Barbie pink and eatable glitter along with two other colors.

These are the decorations on the table and around the house:

The treat bags had lots of goodies for the children. It included tiny Barbie picture frames (printed from Barbie.com) in the treat bags, along with sparkly birthday pencils with flower toppers, matching flower-shaped erasers, bracelets, glitter wand and pastel party blowers.

Check out the cute piñata that was hand made.

Here are the girls having fun playing dress up:

Here's the birthday girl all ready for her Barbie Party:

Last but not least, here's our 'clown' of the party:

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Clifford

My 3 year old daughter loves Clifford, so I thru her a Clifford party. Finding Clifford party items was not easy. I ordered the napkins, plates and party blowers from Birthday Express. In a magazine I found a Clifford Book Club, and ordered it, it came with a book, a large cardboard Clifford and a small Clifford dog, I used these as my decorations. I purchased red helium balloons and had them blown up at a local party store in town.

To make the cake I made a sheet cake and traced Clifford on it. For a game I used the cardboard Clifford to draw him, and made pin the tail on Clifford. As a party favor, I purchased mini chalk boards.

The party was at 4:00 in the afternoon, so I served cake, colorful rice crispy treats, crab dip and cream cheese with pick-a-pepper sauce on top, coffee and soft drinks.

My daughter had a great time at the party, it was a real success!

Here are some pictures:

The cake was very easy to make, I used Pillysberry Confetti flavored cake mix. Then used the cardboard Clifford to outline him on the cake.

The colorful rice crispy treats were a hit and easy to make. Put them in a springform pan, double the recipe on the rice crispy box and use 3 cups of Fruit Loops in the place of rice crispies. Cut into squares once they cool. Make sure and press them into the pan so that you will have nice thick squares.

Decorations around the house. The birthday girl had balloons put on her chair.

Party favor and a picture of it wrapped in tissue paper.

Pin the tail on Clifford. Each child had a tail with their name written on it.

Here's party girl, she had a lot of fun!
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Carnival Time

The ticket booth was made out of a refrigerator box and tickets were purchased at a party store. Each child had to have tickets to play the games, of course the tickets were free. If you won the game you got to pick from several prizes available. The prizes were just little cheap trinkets you could purchase in bulk. The last picture you see above is the overall set up of the party.

Poles were used to wrap painted paper around. There was one person working each booth and handing out the prizes. Each child was given a brown paper bag to hold their prizes.

Food was offered in 'caravel style', there was hot dogs wrapped in foil, bags of chips, nachos with cheese and cookies. They even had little ice cream cup, cup cakes.

Here is the individual set up of the various games that were offered, they included: a duck pond, fishing, tic-tac-toe toss, balloon darts, can toss, basketball throw and horse shoes. At the end of the party the children hit the piñata.
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Luau

For my daughter’s 6th birthday, we had a Hawaiian-themed party.  The food for this was simple – a fruit tray* with a sweet dip, a pineapple sherbet punch and tropical flavored kids’ drinks, tropical flavored popsicles, and Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza.
 

I made a cake shaped like a volcano with cinnamon-flavored candy lava coming out of the top. I used the pan from the Wilson Wonder Mold kit (the one that makes the doll cake) to bake the cake in the shape of a volcano.  (Lollipop lava:  1 cup sugar, ½ cup light Karo syrup, ¼ cup water, red food coloring, and I added cinnamon candy flavoring.  In a heavy saucepan, bring the sugar, syrup, and water to a boil.  Continue boiling until mixture reaches 295 degrees on a candy thermometer.  Remove from heat and stir in food coloring and flavoring if you’re using it.  Allow it to cool 1 to 2 minutes and pour in randomly shaped spews and puddles onto a foil-covered cookie sheet.  Let cool completely before removing from foil.)

We gave out leis and nametags I made with “Aloha!  My name is ___” at the door.  I found everyone’s name in Hawaiian at alohafriends.com.  I made “grass skirts” for the children out of drawstring trash bags with the bottoms cut off and cut into strips.  The kids learned a hula from a video called Hula For Children (checked out from the library).  I also made a mixed tape from CD’s checked out from the library for a tropical music theme – Jimmy Buffet, The Beach Boys, and Don Ho.  I put out a few hula hoops for the kids to play with in the yard.  I made a sign that read Happy Birthday, Jordan in Hawaiian:  “Hau ‘oli la Hanau, Iolakana!”

I used plastic champagne glasses from Party City that were shaped like mini-margarita glasses, topped with paper umbrellas.  Other decorations were tiki torches, inflatable palm trees, tiny bendable flamingos, brightly colored napkins, plates and spoons, and green plastic tablecloths that I cut into strips to look like grass skirts.  I also hung green crepe paper with burgundy colored balloons in bunches to look like palm trees with coconuts. 

Invitations were made simply using clip art and more Hawaiian terminology found at alohafriends.com.  I also put each child’s Hawaiian name on the invitation (along with their real name). 

For treat bags, I used brown lunch bags stamped with pineapples.  Inside I put tropical flavored Starburst, fruit shaped candy called Fun Fruits, Runts candy, colorful bracelets, and wrist and ankle leis, and a Hawaiian crossword and a Hawaiian maze printed from  tammyyee.com.   I folded the top of the bag over and fringed it to look like a grass skirt or tiki hut.

This is a really fun theme!  Enjoy.

*Our fruit tray included pineapple, coconut, strawberries, mango, kiwi, papaya, blueberries, cherries, grapes, raspberries, and star fruit.
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Dragon Tales Party

My four year old daughter loves Dragon Tales, so I gave it my best shot. There really is not much you can do for four year olds at a party, without them getting bored.  I did not want a lot of activities, especially since there were only two children going to the party. So I came up with one activity and served cake and a few appetizers. Other than trying to get creative, this was a simple party that did not take long to put together and was over in an hour! :)

I ordered my cake from the bakery, usually I make a cake, but the only suggestions I could find was to make a Dragon Berry cake, and I could not see the children being excited over berries on their cake. The bakery, did not have a design for Dragon Tales so she asked me to bring in a napkin. I thought it came out great, and my daughter loved it!!

I purchased my plates, napkins, and cups from KMart. Along with cake and chocolate ice cream I served a cream cheese dip with crackers, peanuts and Reeses peanut butter cups. I decorated the table with a white table cloth, twisted together green and yellow streamers to hang behind the table and had helium balloons.

My daughter greeted her guests at the door with party hats, dragon tales stickers, dragon badges (which I printed from DLTK-kids) and dragon tale party horns. The door was decorated with a Welcome to Dragonland sign that I found at  DLTK-kids and twisted streamers.

My daughter opened her presents then I served cake and ice cream. Afterwards the children played pin the tail on the donkey. (I really wanted to have pin the tail on the dragon, but I have no artistic ability.) From the DLTK site I printed out various pictures of the dragon tales characters and taped them around the party area, you can see one above the donkey.

When the children were leaving they were all handed a present, including the birthday girl, it was a pop balloon, which they all LOVED!! I purchased 4 in a bag from WalMart for only $1. They were a real HIT!


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Bug Bash

For my son's 4th birthday, we had a bug party.  The food was simple and turned out really cute.  I made a "dirt cake" with gummy worms crawling out of it.  I put it in a terra cotta flower pot (that I stamped with a caterpillar, a butterfly and a dragonfly) and topped it with flower-shaped sugar cookies with colorful sprinkles that I baked on cookie sticks.  I served the cake with a new garden spade, along with Neapolitan ice cream.  I put a small amount of the "cake" in a tiny terra cotta pot to hold a single frog-shaped candle.

  I made lime sherbet to serve with it.  Outside, we grilled hot dogs and served chips and dips.  I found really cute pepper and tomato shaped mustard and ketchup dispensers.

For decorations, I used a red checkered picnic blanket that had a border of picnic items and ants crawling around on it.  My tablecloths were plastic red checkered, and I put ant stickers crawling along in patterns around the food items I set out.  I hung hot dog and hamburger shaped table cloth weights on the corners.  The overall look was a picnic that was invaded by bugs!  My plates and cups were also the red checkered picnic sort, and I also added plain red ones, along with red napkins.  I put a different bug sticker on each cup.  I also scattered plastic bugs around the tables. 

I made an ant piñata using three different sized balloons, papier mached them, and attached them together and painted them black.  I used black pipe cleaners for the antennae and the legs, and I glued on big wiggly eyes.  I filled it with candy, bug stickers, and frog and flower shaped erasers.  I turned a piñata stick into a giant fly-swatter by cutting a piece of foam board into shape and attaching it with a pipe cleaner. 

I gave each child a butterfly-shaped butterfly net (bought at Dollar Tree) to go on a bug hunt.  They collected plastic bugs and butterflies and flower and vegetable seed packets that we had hidden around the back yard. 

We also did face-painting.  I purchased face paints and makeup sponges at Wal-Mart, along with a stencil that had butterflies, dragonflies, bumblebees, and ladybugs on it.

The invitations were ladybugs, and I wrote "BEE there for Matthew's 4th BUGday!"  The party was a big hit with all of the kids, especially the bug-day boy.


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Party Supplies and Favors -- They have everything you need for children parties, adult parties and tons of piñata's. You can even get mylar balloons.

Wilton -- Get any size or shape pan you need here, they have a great selection, plus many other cake decorating needs.