Thursday, November 16, 2017

Birthday Party Planning


These two goofballs will be FOUR next month! I'm a little sad, nostalgic, overwhelmed... at the thought of them being four. I mean, that is only ONE year away from them turning FIVE!!! And that just seems too old for my babies to be. It's such a total cliche, but they are growing up too fast! They aren't allowed to be big kids already! No. Just, no.

Aaanyyyywayyyyyy, so now I'm in the midst of planning their birthday party. I'm not a party planner. I don't come up with fancy themes. I don't label food to match said fancy theme. In fact, we had their first birthday without a theme AT ALL! *Gasp* For their second birthday, we had an Elmo birthday candle, Elmo plates and napkins, and there wasn't a single other kid at their party. Last year, I got inspired and actually did go a little overboard with the whole Dinosaur/Princess theme, and even gave out goodie bags to all the kids in attendance, but that's not something I want to do every year.

Yet, somehow, here I am planning a big birthday bash. We went round and round, tossing out different ideas for their birthday party. What I REALLY wanted to do was have it at the local fire station, but I found out that they only do tours and that wasn't quite what I had in mind. We considered renting out a bouncy house place, but it's pretty expensive and would limit who we could invite to the party. We thought about having it at our house, but our new place isn't set up to accommodate everyone either. If we did just family and didn't invite friends, we'd probably be okay, but we'd really like to invite all their little friends.

We settled on renting the local community center. And now we are inviting their entire preschool class!! Oy. It's a lot, but since we are doing it at the community center, there will be room and we figured, why not? So now I have to come up with activities to keep a bunch of preschoolers entertained. Double oy.

We are doing a Christmas themed birthday party. Tony didn't like that idea at all, saying he thought we needed to keep Christmas and their birthday separate. I completely understand, considering I'm the one that REALLY hoped they wouldn't be born on the 24th or 25th just so they would have their own special day. Their birthday ended up being on December 23rd, in case you didn't know that already. However, I see nothing wrong with having a Christmas themed birthday party! What is the difference between that and the two Halloween/costume parties we went to in October? It's not a CHRISTMAS party, just the "theme." Tony has finally come around on the idea, or at the very least, has backed off his objections and is rolling with it. A very good thing, because as I stated earlier, I am not a party planner! Plan A at the fire station was nixed, and if he didn't agree to the Christmas theme.... the thought of coming up with a Plan C made me want to hurl myself off a bridge! Not really, but you get the idea.

As of right now, we've got the venue booked, invitations done, and their birthday t-shirts ordered (by my good friend at Double Blessings Designs; she is amazing). I will order a Costco Cake and make finger foods, and so far the activities include cookie decorating and pin the carrot nose on the snowman. I just need to come up with a few more activities/games/crafts for the kids to do. Suggestions are welcome!

19 comments:

  1. Olivia is getting a Costco cake too just like last year. I love them! I'm terrible at suggestions because I'm so not a party planner, even less for little kids. What about a pin the tail on the donkey, or is that not cool anymore?

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    1. They’ve had a Costco cake every year so far! Lol. I think it’s the best. Pin the carrot nose on the snowman = pin the tail on the donkey, just a snowman instead of a donkey! 😊

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  2. My friend had a craft station at her daughter's party. She bought a bunch of paper, Halloween (fall birthday) stickers, crayons, and other crafty supplies and let the kids make whatever they wanted. I think she caught a 50% off sale at Michael's. Anyway, the kids loved it.

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    1. I was thinking about doing a craft table, but was thinking I’d have to do something more specific. I love the idea of just putting all the supplies out and letting them just make whatever they want! So much easier!

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  3. Lots of ideas for crafts with a Christmas theme. I did a kids Christmas party at the office one year and we made reindeer food Ziploc bags. It's pretty easy and the kids have fun mixing them up. Parents may not love you but hey! You use oatmeal and sugar glitter would work and throw it in a Ziploc. https://www.kidspot.com.au/kitchen/recipes/magic-reindeer-food-2885

    Or you could get a bunch of cheap Christmas balls at a dollar store and fill them with glitter and put the kids names on them.

    You can also make reindeer hand prints of the kids if you want to get into painting. Look them up on Pinterest - you just need the paint and some googly eyes and a red pom-pom for the nose.

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    1. Thank you for the suggestions! Pinterest is definitely helpful for things like this :)

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  4. I think the Costco cake and then letting the kids decorate the tree cakes would take a lot of time up. (I do want the tins back) With help the popsicle snowman decoration might work. I'll let you know how long it takes us this week-end. But so much can be done with painted hand prints and agree pinterest would be a great source of quick ideas. I don't know how long your party is but just letting them play together (red light/green light, balloons to toss around or just free play) after the snowman game and cake or cookie decorating would be plenty I would think. You guys will come up with a great plan and the kids will ENJOY it no matter what which is all that matters!! Love and hugs, Aunt D

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    1. Very CUTE picture by the way and so appropriate for this blog!!!

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    2. The popsicle stick snowmans are more than I want to take on for a birthday party! Fun craft with just a few kids though, for sure. I agree that balloons are always good for entertaining kids!

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  5. I did a December birthday party for my daughter and we decorated foam ornaments-from Hobby Lobby. I also found additional foam ornaments/foam stickers at the dollar store! You could also print out free coloring pages online that are Christmas themed and have a coloring station.

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    1. Sorry-this was not written by a man, my husband was logged in I guess!! ;)

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    2. I definitely plan on hitting up the dollar store! I think the coloring station is a great idea. Very easy and simple!

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  6. Four! Time flies by so fast. I bet all the kids will LOVE a Christmas theme party. We made fingerprint Christmas trees lately with a printed tree picture. You use multicoloured ink padsand put ‘lights’ on the tree with coloured fingerprints. I have a tree template I could email if you are interested : )

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    1. Right!? Who doesn't love a Christmas themed party? I think the fingerpaint Christmas trees could be a fun idea. I'd love to get your template if you don't mind sending it to me. Even if I don't end up doing that at the party, it's something that would be fun to do with just my kids as a craft at home! Thank you so much!

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    2. Hi Amber, I’ve emailed you a few to choose from : ) Let me know if you don’t receive them and I’ll resend.

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  7. So...you won’t like my comment but having my birthday so close to Christmas, I hated with a passion having my birthday mixed with Christmas as a child. I hated the “here’s your birthday/Christmas present.” I hated the birthday present wrapped in Christmas paper. I hated it all. BUT...I’m also not one to talk since my son, your nephew was one of those Halloween parties. But that is what he wanted too. And I think that Ayden and Rylee will love it. Having a craft station set up would be super fun. You could cut out foam, felt, or even just construction paper trees and have them decorate it with pretties like we did the pumpkins for Nathanial. You could have a build a snowman craft. Or even get the plastic clear bulbs and a bunch of pretties that kids can fill a bulb ornament. Lots of fun ideas.
    -Sis

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    1. *Gasp!* You can comment on my post!!?!? Yay!

      Now, as for your comment about mixing Christmas and their birthday... I get it. That’s why it was so important for me to have their own day. However, we aren’t combining birthday/Christmas gifts or wrapping birthday gifts in Christmas paper. We are just doing Christmas theme crafts and decorations, and I do think Ayden and Rylee will love it, and so will the other kids. I don’t think it’s bad to do it for one year.

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