Old fashion birthday party ideas

Thinking Linkat - I will see what I can come up with. I quit the whole big birthday party thing a couple of years ago...it's exhausting. And costly. We did ours mostly outside and I have boys...whole other dynamic!

Hi Linkat,

you could go online to the Disney site and print out your daughter's favorite
Disney characters and hang them on the wall. Make paper garlands yourself
and hang them, dto. for "happy birthday" signs. This way, your daughters could be part of the birthday preparations.

As for games: we used to hang a clothes line and decorated it with lots of
candies, fastened with clothes pins. The kids (one by one) are blind folded
and have to reach the candies.

Get some big round paper plates, crayons, wool, and have the kids draw
a portrait of each other.

There is always the musical chair game - take pillows instead of chairs.

I would have it outside, but it is in a few weeks and who knows how cold it will be. And she wants some of the boys too so that adds another dynamic.

Curious any reason why pillows instead? It actually would be easier for us with chairs are there are tons of chairs in the clubhouse (no pillows - I'd have to scout some up from the house and lug them over).

What about a dress up party Linkat? Find old baseball caps and sports coats, dresses and boas...put it all in a basket in the middle of the kids while they are in a circle. You could find some things dirt cheap at a thrift store. Have some music and let them pass a ball around like hot potato. When the music stops whoever is holding the ball has to go put on something in the bag...you could limit it to 2 or 3 things. Let them keep them on. When you are done let them have a fashion show. Make an aisle or somehing out of paper that says her name all over it - have a curtain that has her name on it like in New York during fashion week. Have fun music so that when they walked down they could be silly -

I read that somewhere and it sounded fun...especially for younger boys and girls...the little boys are still too young to think it is silly.

Find an old curtain for the fashion show and use butcher paper for the runway...let the kids color it the way they want to before you start the game.

One thing we did that was a huge hit was a gem hunt, like from Webkinz online. We made it with:

- Plastic easter eggs
- Plaster (if you have the right kind of paint you don't need this step)
- Paint
- Foam board
- Plastic "jewels" -- easy to find at Michael's or someplace like that.

Take apart easter eggs. We covered the outside of each half with strips of plaster first to make them look rougher and "rockier" -- that's not necessary.

Paint the foam board and the outside of the easter egg halves with mottled gray until they look "rocky." (We cut the foam board into an organic shape, kinda kidney-bean-ish, also not necessary.)

Put the easter egg halves on the foam board, round side up.

Put "gems" under about 1/3 of the easter eggs. If you want, you can make a sign with fancy names and post their worth. Put in more of the lower-value ones and only one or two of the high-value ones.

Make about one gem per kid. They get to keep trying (put the board on a small table and go around) until they get a gem. Once they get a gem, they're out/ just watch.

Another easy one (and also with plastic easter eggs) was a "Magical Charm Forest" hunt. I made "pixie pods" by decorating more plastic easter eggs (with glitter glue, just squiggles, no paint). (You could also just get pearly/ iridescent plastic easter eggs and save a step.) Then I put some prizes in them (Webkinz charms, candy, bookmarks, etc.).

Then hide them all over the place, like an easter egg hunt.

I imposed a limit -- like, two eggs each -- because some of the bigger kids would run around like maniacs and grab everything.

That's fun Soz - my boys would have loved that.

I thought of pillows in case you don't have enough chairs, that's all.

Nice - sounds like too much work for me, but I could always do a slightly different version.

Oh - duh - I thought it was so they wouldn't beat on each with the chairs or something.

Traditional games for an old-fashioned party! Like musical chairs, eggs on spoon race, scavenger hunt, etc.. Good old multi-colored balloons are always a welcome sight to any party. They could even be all the decoration you need!