Other Baby Birthday Party Ideas

Books Of Hope And Dreams
Guests take a piece of paper and write down their hopes and dreams for the child’s future, whether it be to make it simply to the next birthday or dreams of becoming a professional athlete or brain surgeon. The idea is that on the next birthday, the box can either be opened, read, and have a new one started, or it can be left alone and added to. Then many years down the road it can be opened and shared when he/she is old enough to understand.

Fall 1st Birthday
Purchase Anne Geddes plain note cards (the one with the pumpkin). Print on paper for inside. “Our Little Pun’kin is turning ONE!”
Cake: Pumpkin cake made in a bundt pan. Frosted orange and decorated with autumn foliage (artificial) in the center. Mini bundt cakes for children with tootsie roll for stem. Serve with pecan praline ice cream.
Activity: Go to the pumpkin patch and choose your pumpkins. Have a pumpkin carving contest.

Little Princess Birthday Party

Cake and Foods
Make a star shaped Peanut Butter & Jelly (make sure the guests aren’t allergic!), egg salad, & bologna/cheese sandwiches, star shaped cookies with pink, yellow and white frosting, star shaped yellow Jell-O jigglers (make a big cookie sheet of jello jiggler and cut out once set) The children can decorate their cookies with icing and sprinkles as a food activity. Glue small images (from coloring pages or clipart) onto toothpicks and let it dry. Stick in the top of cupcakes for an instant theme party treat! Hollow out a pumpkin and fill with dip for veggies. You cna make kisses for the princess (Hershey’s kisses) and coated apples for the kids.

Decorations:
Pink and Purple streamers and balloons would work well with the princess theme. Make a cardboard Castle decoration in the center of a table. You could also make (non-drinkable) magic birthday potion/poison. By taking fairy dust (baking powder), dragon tears (vinegar) and ‘moat’ water – when mixed this foams and bubbles up. Get an old chest and filled it with dress up clothes. Look for long mirror use for them to gaze into the Mirror on the Wall.

Goodie Bags
Make a “Fairy Princess” party and the absolute hit in the treat bag was Fairy Princess Dust. A fine glitter (adult glitter for t-shirts etc, can be bought at the craft store). The glitter was in a pretty little bottle and the kids were given strict instructions to only use outdoors. Tie it into Disney, you could say it’s Fairy Godmother Dust (the kind used to give Cinderella her fancy outfit and pumpkin coach) little bubbles that have a label on them little wands for the girls candy kiss castles as a party favor. Use a baby food jars and filled them with kisses, wrapped construction paper around them and drew a door on, painted the lid silver and glued 3 kisses on top.

Dora the Explorer Birthday Party

Invitations:
Print the ones off of the NickJr. website. Also print some coloring pages from the website and color it with your kids for decorations. Then glue them onto pieces of cardboard and hung with ribbon.

Cake and Foods
Follow a Mexican theme and served cheese quesadillas, tacos, Tostitos with nacho dip, “wraps” (tortillas with veggies, chicken), and also sandwiches are cut into stars and squares for the little kids.

Decorations:
Put a streamer with colors pink, orange and purple. Balloons with the same color. You can buy dora the explorer party hats, paper plate, cups, and table cover.

Goodie Bags
There are dora goodie bag treats available in the stores. Like a dora bracelet and mini dora and boots dolls.

Games and Activities:

Maracas
Make maracas using empty cans filled with beans. The kids can decorate them with paint, stickers and streamers, punch the holes in the tops and bottoms and insert wooden dowels for the handles.

Backpack
Play, “What’s in Backpack?” just purchase little trinket toys and placed them inside the backpack and each child had to guess what they were feeling, then got to keep their prize.

Treasure Hunt
Then make a treasure hunt with a map color it free hand. Make some Green streamers hanging from a pole between 2 trees as a jungle, a wooden plank over a tarp as the icky sticky swamp and finally the sandbox as Treasure Island. Inside the sandbox were backpacks that you can make using plain purple treat bags, with fun foam cutouts to look like backpack’s face filled with things like whistles, compasses, magnifying glasses, necklaces and gold coins. These were the kids’ treat bags. The kids ranged in age from 2 to 10 and everyone will have a great time.

Teletubbies Birthday Party

Invitations:
Go to http://www.pbs.org/parents/birthdays/teletubbies/ and print out some nice Teletubbies invitations.
Complete the invitations with a red or purple Teletubbie with your child’s face and attach it to the cards with a cord.

Cake
You can have cupcakes decorated to look like each teletubby using pipe cleaners, colored food coloring, and M&Ms.
If you like to bake, make frost cakes with blue, purple and yellow. Spread icing on pointed ice cream cones for decoration.

Foods
Use English muffin with cheese and eyes cut out as Teletubby toast. Serve vanilla pudding (Tubby custard) colored pink, red or purple.
Tinky Winky Sundaes: Buy blueberry and blackberry-flavored yogurt or a purple ice cream. Then place layers of purple grapes (or blueberries) and yogurt in bowls or clear cups.

Decorations:
Tape footprint cutouts leading to your party area, so the guests know where to go.
Use streamers and balloons colored in red, green, purple, yellow.
Have blue helium balloons float around the ceiling to represent the sky. Hang Teletubbies posters on the wall. Draw sun, clouds and rainbows on poster board, and hang these pictures on the walls.

Goodie Bags
Buy inexpensive colored lunch bags in Teletubbie colors from a party store.
Get stuffed teletubbie toys tied with balloons which the guests can take home. Or you can have teletubbie plastic tumblers filled with candies (or stickers, coloring notepads etc.).

Games and Activities:

Hot Po
Play Teletubbies birthday party version of the classic “Hot Potato” game. However, instead of passing potato, the kids get a chance to pass Po plush doll (or other toy).

Big Hugs
Teletubbies love hugs, and everybody gets hugs in this game!
Write guest names on separate slips of paper and put them in a hat. Seat everyone in a circle and have them pass around the hat while music plays. When the music stops, the child holding the hat must pull out a name and give that person a hug. (Adults can help young children to read the names.) Continue until everyone has had at least 2 hugs.

Pin the Hat on Dipsy
Enlarge a picture of Dipsy. Make cutouts of the hat using cardstock or construction paper.

What’s in Tinky Winky’s purse
Fill a big red purse or gift bag with different items such as a whistle, a bouncy ball, a pair of sunglasses, etc. Let the kids take turns putting just their hands in the bag and try to guess what the object is by just feeling with their hands.

Try a water baloon toss for an all out fun

Barney Birthday Party

Invitations:
You can go to barney.com and print out nice colored invitations with pictures.

Cake
With white icing mixed with red and blue food coloring you could create a great purple cake. Or you can buy some cupcakes to save time (and money).

Foods
Barney cupcakes, dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets, French fries, purple juices.

Decorations:
Purple, green and yellow streamers and balloons. Print our Barney themes coloring pages, or look at Dollar stores for some nice decorations to go with the theme.

Goodie Bags
Buy cupcake wrappers in the Barney theme at a local party supply store. You can also get clear and colored goody bags at a place like that or even at WalMart.
Have a Polaroid picture taken of each child with Barney and put this in their goody bag.

Games:

Entertainer
Hire a Barney costumed entertainer who can play with the kids.

Barney Piсata
Purple, green and yellow dino egg hunt using “Barney bags” in purple, green and yellow for guests to use to hold collected eggs.

Pin The Tail On Barney
Trace a Barney figure on construction paper and then color it making a tail for each child. You can also get a Barney color book and maybe give one child a page and they have to color it blind folded and who does the best at staying in lines gets a prize.

Have a Mini Scavenger Hunt for the kids.

Winnie The Pooh Birthday Party

Invitations:
Join Pooh and me for a party!
Where: 100 acre woods located at ‘address’
Day:
Time:
RSVP:

Foods
Crackers, vegetable sticks and dips, peanut butter and jelly or baloney and cheese sandwiches, honey. Serve food on flowery plates.

Cake
Chocolate Cake with Winnie the Pooh face on it. Decorate with white icing, Winnie the Pooh candles, and border it with blue, yellow and red cupcakes.

Decorations:
Pictures of Pooh and friends from 100 acre woods; blue, yellow and purple baloons; helium balloons with Winnie the pooh party theme; honey pots (miniature clay pots with “Hunny” painted on).

Goodie Bags
Jars with “Hunny” painted on that contain: Winnie the Pooh note pads, stickers, white-and-blue filled candy, gummy bears, granola bars.

Games:

Pin the Tail on Eyore
Draw Eyeore on a large drawing paper and blindfold the kids …

Winnie Dress Up Game
Winnie costumes, Eyore costumes (try bargain childresn clothing stores or Wallmart). Let the kids play and “act out” the various gang members.

Honey Pot Search:
Use the kids goodie bags or have baby bottles filled with applesauce, gummy bears, or small chocolate bars.
The one who finds the most will receive a special Winnie plush toy (or a POoh video).

Honey Pot Treasures
A variation of the honey pot search for those who have large backyards with trees. Make honey pots and and hide them in the hundred acres wood.

Guess the Bees in the Honey Pot
Fill up a jar with yellow and black jelly beans. The kids have to guess how many bees are in the honey pot. The winner will keep the jelly beans.

Finish with a Pooh birthday party video.

First Birthday Party

nvitations:
Can be printed to look like newspaper headlines.
” ______ Just Turned One”
Example: “Althea Just Turned One!!! “

Or you can make invitations by printing it on acid-free scrapbook paper Print on them a little story of his/her past year: One year ago on March 03, 2003 a little angel blessed our lives. We named her Althea Frances, in the past year she has learned so much, how to drink from a cup, feed herself, crawl and almost walk, talk, laugh, and love. Now she is calling on all her favorite friends and family to help celebrate a wonderful past year and a big kick off for the next. Your presence is requested at the very first birthday party for Thea.
Where:
When:

Decorations:
Balloons, streamers, baby books, photo albums and photos of the birthday child. For a special reminder of the day, make an album celebrating baby’s 1st year. The front could be set up like a news magazine. Include newspaper items from the day he was born.

Foods
Tasty finger foods and a special cake with a huge number one candle on it.

Favors For Guests
Make small frames from cardboard and let your party guests decorate the frames with baby-themed wrapping paper, contact paper, or stickers. Then pass out photos from the past year of each guest with your baby, and let them place the photo inside the frame for a keepsake.

Games:

Baby’s Memory Book
Invite all of your party guests to write a memory of your baby’s first year. Take a picture of each guest at the party with your child, and combine the words and photos to create a simple but memorable birthday present – a baby scrapbook!

Baby Guessing Game
Make up questions from the baby’s milestones the ask trivia questions such as:
How much did the baby weigh at birth?
What time was she born?
When did the baby first sleep through the night?
What was her first word?
When did he first crawl? Walk?
Who’s her doctor? and so on …
The person who can guess right gets a prize.

Housewarming Parties

Housewarming parties are great for many reasons. It could be a way of welcoming a homeowner to his or her new home. It could be a way for the homeowner to meet and get to know the new neighbors. But most importantly, it is a way of celebrating moving into a new house and starting a new life in it.

In housewarming parties, the main focus of the party is the house itself. It is a way of showing off the interior of the house and its features to those who may be curious about it. There is no need to plan parlor games or activities to amuse your guests. There is no need to prepare a menu for a sit-down meal. You do not even need to decorate or even to finish unpacking your things. All you need to do is to let your guests roam about freely in your house for the day. They will be too busy meeting your other guests and marveling about the beauty of your new house to even want to participate in games. Besides, games will only take their minds away from the house, and the purpose of a housewarming party is to show off the house.

Housewarming parties are casual affairs that are very easy to prepare. Just send out an invitation to your friends and family. Make sure that you include a map and detailed directions on how to get to your new place along with your invitation so that your guests will not get lost along the way. For your new neighbors, it would be best for you to go door to door so you can introduce yourself and personally issue the invitation to your housewarming party.

You do not have to decorate your house for your housewarming party, and it is not necessary for you to complete your unpacking. However, it would be to your best interest if you clean your house before the day of your housewarming party. You certainly would not want your neighbors to get the idea of you being a slob or what. Also, a touch of fresh flowers here and there would help create a homey atmosphere.

Feeding your guests should not be that much of a problem. Just prepare a set of dishes that your guests would be comfortable eating while walking around. Finger foods, naturally, are the best choice, along with a selection of beverages that your guests can choose from. Examples of finger foods are breadsticks, cookies, macaroons, snowbars, deviled eggs, and such. You can also serve alcoholic drinks if you want, or you can stick to soft drinks or lemonade.

Since you will be letting your guests tour the house during your housewarming party, you can do a little pretend game and act like you are a realtor or a guide at a museum. You can give your guests a little guided tour of the house. Or if you think that would be too much of a hassle for you, especially if you are going to open your house for an entire day, you can just create a floor map of the house that will serve as a guide for your guests.

Pool Party

Just had a lovely pool installed in your backyard? The best way to celebrate this new feature of your house – and to brag about the new pool to friends, family and neighbors – is to host a pool party.

Pool parties are often held during the summer, which is not surprising because most people are looking for excuses to cool down from the heat on that season. Since your guests will be looking for something to drive the heat away, you have to make sure that your pool party will be a cool place to be, at least for that designated time. You do not have to worry, though. With a little preparation, your pool party can become the talk of the neighborhood for the next few weeks.

Pool Party Invitations

No one is going to show up at your party if you do not invite people. Calling people or sending them emails to invite them may not be enough and your invites may forget. Thus, you have to be creative about your invitations – make them so your potential guests will not forget about your party.

One idea would be to print out your invitations on small blue sheets of paper. Do not forget to include the time and date of your party in your invitation, and always ask for an RSVP. Roll these sheets of paper and then insert them in small bottles. For an added measure of fun, put in some confetti or sand inside the bottle as well.

Decor and Props

While the main attraction that your party shall have is none other than your pool, doing a little decorating helps too. You can set up a few tiki lamps around the pool, especially when your party is going to last through the night. You can also arrange small tables covered each with a tablecloth with a summery pattern and topped with a flower arrangement of sunflowers, yellow daisies or yellow roses.

Make sure that there are enough chairs for your guests to sit in. You may have to designate a specific room in your house to be used as a changing room. Floats, beach balls and water guns may also be handy to have around during the party.

Music

Parties must have music. You do not have to hire a DJ for your pool party. You can just burn two or three CDs with summery tracks, like the songs of the Beach Boys. If you think the Beach Boys is a little overused already, you can go for reggae or any other current dance hits. Be careful to match your music with the average age of your guests, though. Your music should be something that everyone will enjoy listening to and put them in a partying mood.

Food and Drinks

What is a party without food and drinks? The worst thing that can happen to a party is for guests to go hungry and thirsty. Since your party is going to be a pool party, it would not require a sit-down meal. So, finger foods and cocktail dishes would do. Kebabs, tortillas with salsa, small sandwiches, salads, shrimp cocktails, chicken and beef wraps, and fruit tarts would do well for your menu.

As for drinks, you would not go wrong with serving daiquiris, piсa coladas, margaritas and beer. Keep some sodas and fruit juices as well for those who do not want to drink alcohol.

Party Favors

So your guests would remember your party for weeks to come, you have to give out party favors as parting gifts. Your party favors can be anything that can fit with a beach theme, such as little bottles of cologne or sunscreen lotion, shell paperweights, shell jewelry or accessories for women, and other such items.

Luau Party Ideas

n summertime everyone takes the covers off of their barbecue grills and fires up some steaks, burgers, and hotdogs to celebrate in the sunshine. You, on the other hand, might want to do something a little more special. So why not have a luau-themed party right in your backyard? It will give everyone a chance to dress up and have a lot of fun.
Here are a few tricks to make your summer luau complete.

Decorations

* Put up tiki torches around the party venue. Alternatively, you can string up some lanterns with tropical and festive designs to add some color and place some on the ground as well. Make sure you use citronella candles to keep the bugs away.
* You can set up a hammock a short distance away from where all the action is taking place.
* The buffet table can be decorated with grass table skirting.
* For each table, have a centerpiece made up of candles and flowers.
* Get plates with tropical patterns.
* You can rent a little dock or a pier to place at the entrance to your backyard with a big sign welcoming people to the luau. It also makes a perfect spot for pictures. You can position this makeshift pier near the swimming pool as well, if you have one.
* Float a couple of beach balls in your pool.

Music

* You can play some summery pop tunes, or go classic with The Beach Boys.
* Go traditional with some Hawaiian or tropical music with plenty of steel drums and ukuleles.

Food

* For a family party, go easy on the alcoholic beverages and stick with fruit cocktails. You can’t go wrong with mai tais, piсa coladas, and banana daiquiris. You can also serve lots of fresh fruit shakes, iced tea, and lemonade.
* Don’t skimp on the fruit. Have a fruit platter with mandarin oranges, orange slices, pineapple cubes, chopped bananas, grapes, and apples. You can also use these in a big fruit salad.
* For your meats, you can grill some kebabs and roast some chickens as well.
* Don’t forget the seafood. You can prepare some shrimp cocktails, grill salmon, and serve crabs and lobsters.

Outfits

* Have the men come in Hawaiian shirts with bright prints and short while the women can put on grass skirts over their shorts.
* You could also make artificial leis for everyone to wear.

FUN

* Give little kids a chance to have fun and set up a small play area for them. This can have a small inflatable pool and a sandbox where they can build sandcastles.
* Start a conga line.
* A limbo contest will definitely get everyone going.
* You can hire a hula dance instructor for a couple of hours to give some quick and fun lessons to your willing guests.