Are you ready for your kid’s birthday party? If you are like many parents, they don’t even know if they are ready.

Being ready for your child’s birthday party is important. The best way you can be sure to be ready is to start planning early and stick to your plan. Kids can help you with your plans but don’t plan on them being much help. The party is too exciting for a child to stay focused.

Four hours before the birthday party
On the day of the party you will want to make sure the house is ready. Start decorating 4 or 5 hours before the party. Locate all of the supplies for your games and crafts. Make sure you have enough punch and other snacks to go along with your cake. Set up a few extra places just in case someone else shows up. You should check the list and see who hasn’t RSVP yet and if you have their number call and see if they are able to show up. Not only the more the merrier but you will want to be ready for the crowd.

Three hours before the birthday party
Set the tables with napkins, glasses, and forks/spoons. The plates can be set in a stack near the cake so they are available when you are serving. You can make place cards if you want assigned seats. These can include party favors that the children can take home. If you have any last minute dishes you need to whip up now is the time to make sure they are ready.

Two hours before the birthday party
It is time to put clean up and get ready for the party. By this time you already have the decorations up and the games set up. The cake is ready and food is ready. You need to dress yourself for the party.

If possible, add balloon outside your house so that it makes it easier for your guests to find your place. I know of parents who actually tie balloons from the main road all the way to their house.

Do have a gifts table near the entrance so that when your kid receives the present they can put it on the table. This table can also serve as a place to put your party bags so that when the guests leave they can take the party bags.

One hour before the birthday party
Dress the kids, including the birthday boy or girl, and make sure everyone’s hair is combed and faces are washed. You should have an activity set up so you can start the party as soon as guests show up. The first activity should be a simple quiet activity to keep everyone’s attention while keeping them together in one area, like coloring. As guests show up you will want one person assigned to get the door.

You may need to assign someone the phone as well, especially if your home is difficult to find.

Enjoy the party!

Birthday parties with a mixture of ages, especially with young kids are challenging for parents. One of the ways I have found to deal with this situation to make sure everyone has fun is to team younger kids and older kids together.

Outdoor birthday party games

Where the weather permits, it will be a great idea to play games outdoor. Your backyard or the park are some of the great outdoor locations for games.

Treasure Hunts
Treasure hunts are really fun because they are friendly at the same time competitive in nature. You hide your “treasures” before the hunt, obviously. One of the ways we have found that kids really get a kick out of is having them find naturally occurring items. For instance, give them a list of a torn leaf, roley poley bug, round rock and a feather and see who can find all of the items first.

Another way to play the game ‘intellectually’ is to have them find “treasures of knowledge”. Give each player a list of questions and a time limit to see who can get more of the answers or make it unlimited and the first to complete the list wins. These questions can be simple observation (ie: how many windows are in our home) to getting to know each other (ie: what is the name of the person to your right).

Red Rover
Ok, this might sound like an old game but the kids love to play red rover. I use this as a game in-between other games. The kids can play this to keep each other occupied while I am getting the next game set up. It gets some of the wiggles out of the littler kids and keeps the bigger kids from getting bored.

Make two human chains and stand opposite of each other. Then one team says in unison, “Red Rover, Red Rover send (insert kid’s name) right over.” They pick one of the people on the other sides name who they think will not be able to break through. Then they will run and try to break through your arm but you don’t want them too because you get to keep them if they don’t break through. When you have all the people from the other team in your team you win.

Indoor birthday party games

These are some of the games that you can play in the house.

Crowns/party hats
You will need party hats to go with your noise makers. Construction paper, glue, tape, glitter and a pair of scissors is all you need to make party hats or crowns for everyone. You can have the kids color the hats and even glue beads and flitter to them then you can take the tape, roll the paper up to make a circular band (to go around the kid’s head) and tape together in the back. If you want to make hats instead of crowns you should roll so that they hats are pointy like a snow cone cup. Elastic or yarn can be stapled to the sides so that the hat can be held on.

Noise Maker Craft
Once you have colored your pages the kids can use them to build a craft. We like to make noisy crafts if we are working with mostly young kids. Take two Styrofoam plates and a few beans; glue the plates together so that they are facing each other with the beans between them. Decorate with the colored pages, or other colored bits of beans, pasta, beads, paper or even glue and glitter. These can be used to make noise during the party.

Coloring contest
One of the simplest and most ‘hands-off game’ is to conduct a coloring contest. A coloring contest is a great game because it does take up time. Kids of all ages can color and then an appointed official (a mom or an older kid) can judge the art work.

Just last Sunday, I have a couple of parties and I didn’t realised that one of my parties is from a repeated client.

One of the guests has used me THREE times already. Obviously, she must have recommended my company to this host.

Then the kids arrived, I do see a couple of familiar faces… Oh, they must be from the other party! Yup, kids and parents of the same social group.

Well, it seems like it’s going to be another “I know this!” kind of response from the kids. As I perform mainly puppets, the birthday girl already knows the name of my puppets that are coming out.

Personally, while I thought that it is OK, I always feel that I should always check if the client is a repeated or referred client so that I can change a couple of my puppet materials. For this partucular party, I managed to bring out some of my older jokes and other ad-libs so while the puppets is repeated, my performance script is different. (Of course, what do you expect from a performer with more than 7 years of experience???)

Anyway, the show went perfect, as usual!

It is important to understand that as your child reaches their second or third birthday, they are more than likely still be dependent upon their mother and not understand the full meaning of birthday party games. Your child will certainly be happy playing alongside others of his/her age group, but he/she may snatch toys, make other children cry without realizing why and even bite and kick. Although this can be quite embarrassing, it is normal behavior for a child of this age. Therefore it is vitally important that the correct party planning and birthday party game is selected.

An ideal birthday party game for children of this age would be something simple, but with prizes at the end for their best efforts.

Be sure of how many children are attending the birthday party. Purchase small gifts, enough so that each child receives two gifts each. Wrap the gifts in pretty paper and number each one. Cut out stars from cardboard and paint these also. Number them with corresponding numbers that are on the gifts, also place a small piece of magnetic tape on each star. Prepare some sticks, enough so that each child has one stick each, chop sticks or confetti sticks would work well, and place a small piece of magnetic take on the end of each one.

When choosing the gifts for the birthday party game, remember that things that will stimulate their imagination would be best. Things like Play dough, coloring books and pencils, child reading books etc are the best.

Take a bag of poly fiber and place it on the floor to represent a cloud and then place the stars on the bed of poly fiber. Each child has two turns each to catch a star. The number on the stars will correspond with the numbers on the gifts, therefore that child wins those two gifts. Be sure that the children are fully supervised and ensure that they do only have two turns each. Children do not understand rules too well, so it is important to make them understand when they have had their turn.

It is important to play the birthday party game early on in the day, as many children of this age are still customary to having an afternoon sleep. Also keep the birthday party quite short. Children will start to get bored after a certain period of time.

Fill in the gaps with short birthday party games such as ring o’roses, Simon says or dancing to music, which are great fun and pass the time. After all of their excitement, you could consider reading them a short story to calm them down before they go back to their own homes.

It is a strange thing. Last Sunday I did a birthday party for a 4 years old girl and I think she is either a very negative girl or it’s just a vocabulary problem.

Every question that I ask, she always answer “No!”:
“Do you like this puppet?” “No!”
“Do you want to come up?” “No!”
“Do you like this balloon?” “No!”
“Do you like this birthday cake?” “No!”

Then I got a little smart…
“Do you like daddy?” “No!”
“Do you like mummy?” “Yes!”

Finally, I got her to say “Yes!”….

It’s kind of fun, but it’s one of the strangest thing I had faced.

I have just finished 4 parties today and it has been great.

- One German family who used my services for the 2nd time.
- One Chinese family where the members of the family have that ‘high-class’ look.
- One Chinese family who used my services for the 2nd time too.
- One Indian family and I gave out a lot of namecards! Interestingly, this is one party that has NO decorations at all!

Yup, not even a single decorations!

Well, if you are one who is into pure fun & entertainment and not the outer appearance, that’s actually pretty good.

When shopping for birthday party supplies you will find the best deals by shopping with the large wholesalers and warehouses’ that will stretch your dollar.

Number One Party Supplies in Sun City California stores all the required birthday party supplies and birthday party favors, including decorations snacks and candy, or centerpieces for the birthday party table. You must visit through the week although; they are only open to the public Monday to Friday until 5 pm.

You might also try Crystals Craft in Bellflower, or Glow Magic in San Mateo also in California. A Star Jumps is also located in San Fernando California.

Californians may also save the lawn by renting a dance floor from California Portable Dance Floor Co. Inc in Camarillo.

If you are in Pennsylvania Bev’s Party Fun is on Grafton rd, Blairsville.

New York has some amazing party supplies out to grab your party favors from. You could try Party Points on Staten Island. Or perhaps Party Fair for favors and supplies in Brooklyn. Party Fair is ideal offering personalized ribbon and invitations or chair and table hire.

Utah is not forgotten for great party supply bargains with Piece Of Cake Party in Layton Hills Mall, Layton.

Florida has a wealth of choices with T -n -T’s Party creations on Metro Drive, Boynton Beach, and 4 Ever Party in Clearwater. Celebrations Nationwide is located in Winter Garden also in Florida.

Texans may get their party favors and birthday supplies from Party Biz in Converse. Perhaps you are looking for some way to entertain the kids with something from Scotts and Biggens Bounce About. For the balloon lovers in Texas Instant Balloon Stands is full of great party ideas, try a balloon sculpture for something really different and fun.

The Party manager 1793 is with 1800 Party Shop in 8980 east E F Avenue, Richland Miami.

If you in Vancouver and looking for a party with a theme, you could try Theme -Parties -In -A -Box in Powhatan.

Princess parties are perhaps the easiest children’s birthday party to decorate for and truly the perfect choice for a girl’s birthday party. The central table decoration could be a plastic play crown or tiara. Plastic tiaras also make ideal place holders when attaching a guest’s name. In fact dressing up the table for a princess party is made easy with the use of plastic wine glasses, (for the cordial of course), and plastic picnic ware produced to represent crystal. This might be the only children’s birthday party where a white or lace table cloth might be recommended. Sprinkle lots of glitter and bright shiny confetti shapes on the tales and tie big satin bows around the backs of the chairs. The chair of the birthday girl should be regal looking like a throne.

Reinforcing your princess party theme can start as early as sending the invitations. Make some princess theme birthday party invitations yourself or find some already made out n the shape of crowns.

On the day of the princess birthday party be sure to greet the guests in royal form, “Announcing the arrival of Lady Sara, or Master James”. All royal castles must have a King and Queen, i.e. mum and dad, and a court jester, the big brother. Get the whole family to dress up and enjoy the day and play the party games too.

Let the party begin with a few princes birthday party games. It is not pass the parcel, its pass the silver slipper. Before the little girls birthday party spray paint a large high healed shoe silver, place the party favors inside the shoes separated by layers of tissue paper in different colors. It is not pin the tail on the donkey, its place the crown on the princess. For a nice quiet birthday party game you could “pass the royal message”, i.e. Chinese whispers with a royal task to perform the last receiver. And don’t forget a game of “enchanted statues” a little like a game called red light green light, with the sound of a bell or the stop of the music every one stops still, anyone found moving after the cue is out.

When deciding on a theme like the princess theme for a little girls’ birthday party it is important to remember that your little princess may be suffering from a little over indulgence at the end of the day, but your little girl is just like any other. At worse she might need reminding that a perfect princess always has beautiful manners.

Planning a party can be stressful for parents, but there is so much help available. Be sure to ask a friend or two to help, don’t be shy about this, I’m sure you will be the first to volunteer when the glass slipper is on the other foot.

Balloons might be fantastic and they are usually considered standard kids birthday party decorating accessories. However balloons are not for everybody. In fact globophobia, the fear of balloons is a very real condition. Not to mention some people just don’t like balloons for no other reason than they JUST don’t like balloons.

Don’t dismiss globophobia , this can be a very life suppressing problem, imagine never attending a kids birthday party for fear of the natural presence of balloons. Well really balloons are a little bit freaky it’s just not right to find bright seemingly solid object floating in the air.

Even without the condition of globophobia, balloons can still be scary. The sudden loud noise they make when they pop is quite terrifying for many. The room suddenly goes quiet and jumps, the heart stops. This is not good at all for someone who might have a heart condition and very painful for someone wearing a hearing aide.

Parents of toddlers may also be concerned of the dangers a balloon might present at a kids birthday. A teething baby will bight down on anything that has their attention, certainly that bright soft ball has their attention. Perhaps a piece of the breaking balloon could catch in the babies’ moth. Babies will taste everything. An already broken balloon looks like something that might be yummy to try.

Balloons are NOT the only way to decorate a kid’s birthday party. There are many new and amazing ways to dress up the house or yard for a party.

Yard art or lawn decorations are an ideal decorating idea without having to use balloons. You can buy these ready made, commissions some to create some new ones in your theme, or even very easily make these yourself using heavy cardboard or light craft board.

Try some dinner plate sized smiley faces, or some cartoon barn yard characters, anything bright and colorful. If you have a kids birthday party theme, have some made in your theme.

Marking smiley faces on paper plates is the easiest way to go, but if you’re keen making your own yard art from the start is far easier than you might imagine. Draw or trace a few easy cartoon type images onto light craft board or heavy cardboard, paint them in and cut them out, then attach them to walls or stake them into the ground. When looking for great pictures try a few clip art images found on the internet or even pictures found in children color in books give great results.

Streamers at a kid’s birthday party are always popular. Unravel rolls and roll of streamers in all colors and simply scatter them everywhere. It’s best to have these in cut into strips of between 1 and 2 ft to lessen the chance of someone tripping over them. Hang them over everything from the ceiling fan and in trees. Don’t worry if some fall to the ground the disorganized color is what makes this work.

Bright color cellophane and tissue paper also looks amazing. To put this to use grab some wire coat hangers or shape come craft wire out to create shapes of squares, stars, circle, and even random blobs. Hang them around or plant then in pot plants and the lawn.

If you’re really feeling crafty you could make a few paper mache balloons a starting a few weeks ahead. You don’t need to make these thick and heavy; just a few layers of paper will do, and finish it off with some bright colored paint.

If your really looking to add some sparkle to your kids birthday party decorating don’t forget your boxes of Christmas decorations, a few pieces of tinsel wrapped around a tree truly livens up a party yard. Some plastic stars, or bright colored tree decorations, anything bright and shiny will do.

Beach balls are also an ideal way to brighten and decorate a room or yard for a kid’s birthday party. They are cheap and reusable. Simply blow them up and leave them everywhere.

Decorating a kids birthday party without balloons is not so difficult when just trying a little imagination, think bright and colorful and your half way there.

Its true creating your own birthday party invitation really is so much fun, and something you could do together with the birthday kid. If you’re not very crafty don’t feel like there is nothing to do but to buy some readymade invitations from the local store, there are so many birthday party invitation ideas on the internet you could enjoy finding these together.

If the birthday party you are planning has a particular theme, simply surfing the internet is sure to bring up a fan site or two. If your theme is a popular kids birthday party theme you will find that many of these sites even have birthday party templates ready for you to fill in and print. But certainly these sites will have clip art pictures that you may be offered for sharing and including on the invitations you can put together.

While looking on the internet for birthday party invitations you will very likely find some template software that will guide you step by step through the process. Template software gives you the best of both words, it is as easy to use as readymade invitations that you really get to create yourself.

With or without software templates making your own invitations is not such a difficult task. You could use MS Word, or even just your rich text editor found in all windows operating systems. Simply choosing large bright text and using a few of the clip art images you found on the internet makes for great looking presentations.

Certainly lots of colored cardboard, glitter and clue and having an old fashioned craft night in makes for beautiful, and personal treasured birthday party invitations.

The most important thing of your invitations is the information. Start with a nice big heading announcing the birthday party and be sure to include the theme of the party if you want to have your birthday party with a fun party theme. Pick a nice large bright font for this, but try to keep yellow for highlighting only, yellow is a little hard on the eyes. Then move on to the birthday invitation details.

. Whose party is it- First things first announce the name of the birthday boy or girl. Be a little bit creative “You are invited to Ben’s special day.”, “Sally would love you to come to her 5th Birthday Party.”

. How old- It makes so much easier for the parents of your child’s party guests when they are selecting cards and gifts.
. When- when putting in the date it’s a good idea to include the date in long form, i.e. Saturday 3rd June simply writing 3/4/07 may get confused with the 4th of March.

. Where- be clear, especially if the party is not at your house. This would be a great place to include a few easy directions using the school or a common known landmark as the starting point. Parents love maps, perhaps you could find one on the internet to include stapled on the back or just as a slip included in the envelope. If only needing a few streets you could even include the short map in a small area in the body of birthday invitation.
. What time- be sure to include both the start time and the end time. You seriously don’t want tired party kids still there long after the other kids have gone home.

. Theme- If you are having a theme, your birthday party invitation should reinforce this and perhaps include a couple of dress up ideas

. RSVP- For your own sake please remember to ask for an RSVP, there is nothing in the word more stressful in trying to plan a party not knowing how many kids you might be expecting. Including a special RSVP slip in with the birthday party invitation is a nice polite reminder to parents that you would really love to know as soon as possible.

. If you have any other information you would like consider writing it on the invitation instead of having to remember to tell everyone. If you would like parents to stay with their children, it’s not impolite to say so. If you would prefer parents just to leave their kids in your care due to room restrictions you are far better to say something here than go through the stress of having to entertain the parents while trying to host a kid’s birthday party. If you have a large space and lots of patience you might feel good about suggesting close age siblings may also be welcome.

Remember when sending out your birthday party invitations to keep a list of who has received theirs and check them off as they reply. Also most important, be sure to make up a couple more than you think you will need. Without fail you will have forgotten some poor kid, it’s just in the rules it seems.