My boy's first birthday is right around the corner and I need some fun ideas that won't break the bank. I rented a gazebo at a local park, I'm planing on doing a bbq and pinata. There is also a playground right next to the location. I need to keep 30+ adults and children between 1-9 yrs old entertained. Any ideas for activities will be greatly appreciated.
A sack race is always fun, go to like the farmers market or even norman brothers and get a bunch of potatoe sacks, (they throw them away) and do a race, the older kids love it.
Hi A.!
Mamasource Mommies are so smart and creative! I agree with the mommy on water activities. How about toss the water balloons? Or toss raw eggs? (Played with partners) An egg race? (Where you carry RAW eggs on a spoon and see who can go to and from a certain point the fastest without breaking the egg) Relay races! Set up different "stations" and the first team to complete all stations (maybe four or five) wins. Have a bat spin area, three legged competition, maybe incorporate the egg race into this one. #2.Have two teams (INCLUDE the adults!) Each team has an empty bucket sitting with their last (anchor) person. Make sure the teams are even. Then the first person also has a bucket but filled with water. They take a plastic cup (WITH two or three HOLES in it!!) and pass the cup OVER THEIR HEADS to the person behind them until they get it to the anchor person with the bucket. Whoever fills up their bucket the fastest (to a certain line) WINS! Adults LOVE these games too because they usually think they're the best and want to PROVE it!! LOL! Since it is your one year old's birthday, how about taking some of his bottles tying them to a string and then hanging them from something and see who can suck down the juice (or whatever) the fastest without using their hands. There's a game we played in college where you have to pass an orange (or tennis ball) from neck to neck. You could do this with the 6 years to adult. NO HANDS!! Have two teams and see who can do it the fastest. Have a shaving cream fight (Bring Their Own!!!) NO MENTHOL!! Then have them go on a slip and slide. They'll already be slippery from the shaving cream and it will make it more fun! Edible crafts for sure!!! How fun!!! Use big marshmallows, candy, pretzels, graham crackers, icing (use vanilla and color different batches with food coloring), M&M's, licorice ropes (the skinny kind). Search the internet for edible crafts you'll find a ton of stuff. Have some sort of radio out there just for atmosphere. Make sure if you are going to use any of these ideas to stress to your parents that they need to bring their swimsuits, towels for the kids AND themselves and maybe you could even have them bring the side dishes? You provide the meat, chicken, etc. and they could bring baked beans, pasta salad, potato salad, cole slaw, macaroni and cheese, bread dips, bags of chips, etc. That would surely cut down on your expense. My friends/family have NEVER minded bringing something to an outside birthday party. Usually they like to *show off* their favorite recipe!! Most all of these ideas are inexpensive! Eggs, water balloons, stuff other people bring and stuff you already have at home. PLEASE get back to us and tell us what you will be doing/what you did! Good Luck and HAVE FUN!!!
I don't have many ideas but one is to plan the party after lunch and before dinner so you don't have to spend so much on food. Maybe between 2-5pm.More ideas are to assign a friend to help with games for the older kids with the playground there it should be simple to entertain them...don't stress, enjoy your baby's day and remember if you deligate a little you will enjoy more moments with him. You will be amazed how people want to help especially when you ask in advance for them to be "in charge" of something, ie: drinks, picture taking, games, decorating.
Good luck and have fun.
my son just had a bday and I went to a teachers supply store (us toys in Apopk is a good one) they have tons of little things for really cheep. I got about12 foam gliders for 2.22. the kids and grownups had a blast making them and flying them.
one of my friend's had a party at a park and what she did was go to the dollar store and buy little toy's that you would put in goodie bag's for party's and did a treasure hunt around the park for the children. She printed out hand written treasure map's for the adult's so they could help thier kid's look for the item's on the list. It involved both the adult's and kid's and they had a blast. One year instead of buying a slip and slide someone else i know bought some visquine (at home depot)
and used that, it works just as well and used a plastic toddler pool at the end filled with water so it was even more of a splash. another idea is at the craft store you can get a big container of bead's and some fishing line and have the adult's and children make bracelet's and necklace's it's very inexpensive and an activity that will use alot of their time and keep them busy. Water balloon's are fun as well.
If you want some other idea's i alway's go to www.birthdayexpress.com for my son's birthday party's
they have pull string pinata's which are alot easier for smaller children and i recycle them every year so it save's money because you dont have to break them open, the bottom just fall's out. I definately agree with the bounce house
if you don't like that idea maybe a clown with face painting would be fun with balloon animal's
Pinky the clown is awesome and she's very sweet and good with children she's in the phone book. One more idea is to get a Big roll of Paper and tape it or roll it on the floor and get watercolor paint and cheap sponge's or paint brushes for each child and let them paint all over it, I did this for my son's party and afterward's he took it and hung it in his room because he was proud all his friend's colored pictures for him.
or You could even get little ceramic's the kid's could paint those, these go over very well too.
Oh almost forgot one year I had the kid's make treasure boxes out of popsicle sticks and took sea shell's from the beach to decorate the top's (rag shop has boxes of stick's for 3.00)
these are so easy to make and the parent's have a blast doing them with their children for the girl's they can be jewlery boxes.
As far as food I agree with the other mom's do the early lunch idea and for the kid's drink's i always get a big punch bowl with Punch ,icecream sorbet inside instead of ice or if you dont want to use icecream ,the night before freeze a round block of hawiiaan punch(or any fruit punch) and frozen fruit (fruit cocktail work's best)together and put that in the punch bowl with the warm bottle's of juice. This will keep it cold for hour's and everyone love's the fruit chunk's when it melts
Good luck and let us know how it went.. enjoy this and dont stress =)
J.
DOLLAR TREE it has tons of cheap kid crafts and party supplies!!!
Also Party Max has a bounce house for as low as $69 its just a generic castle one but it works to entertain the children for hours...
as someone mentioned before do it between meal times that way you just put out chips , crackers, a fruit/veggie dish (make it yourself its a lot cheaper dollar tree has the platters then go get the veggies & fruit somewhere like bjs) and if you can go to bjs to get the motts juice boxes they're like 40 for $9 or something like that...
A.,
In that age range, you can't go wrong with water activities. The park might have water spickets near the pavilion, you could hook up a slip & slide, get some water blaster guns and do water balloons. It is warming up so much. You could also hook up sprinklers. You could have an easter egg hunt if the birthday is before easter. The kids will be happy with the park alone. Frisbees and footballs seem to work well (I have a 5 year old boy almost 6 and a 12 month old girl). Bring sand toys for the little ones. The grown ups don't need to be entertained, they will socialize and be happy with that. I have always found that having too much planned structured activity doesn't work well because the kids are too difficult to round up. Good luck!
Ok this is what another mom I know did.
She went to Wal mart, bought the bouncy thing and a buck of water toy thigys, used them, and took them back.
In my opinion, silly string is the best thing EVER for birthday parties!
Hope this helps
For several of my kids' parties, I had the kids make an edible "craft" that went with the theme. Peanut butter makes an OK glue, but there may be allergies, so I stick with marshmellow fluff, which is wayyyyyyy sticky. We made cars one year- Nutter Butter cookie with mini oreo wheels... Lions another year- twinkie body, pretzels for the maine, raisin eyes and nose...
Spiders- Ritz crackers with pretzel legs and raisin eyes...
Use your imagination--- keeps kids busy and gives them a snack to eat. If you have a theme, let us know and we can help you even more.
Also, I have thrown tons of parties at a park with a playground. Other than a pinata and the food craft, I planned nothing else. Kids+playground=hours of fun.
Don't feel you need to entertain the adults, but you should feed them. If you have the money for it, the Publix platter of chicken fingers is always a big hit for all ages.
DEfinetely get a bounce house, it is worth the money and it entertains the kids for a long time.....also take some games and make little bags with candies and all...go to Party City, it is inexpensive....get candieis and treats there....
HTH....
I.
http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/
you can go to michaels & buy things to decorate- a big tub of sticker-backed foam shapes and then whatever to stick them on- like foam visors to decorate w/ animals or whatever...I say to pick a theme and go from there...
hello, i would call Butterfly dreams, Theme parties for kids, she has great ideas for birthday parties.
she is on this website with great reviews.
her no is ###-###-#### good luck
