Fourth birthday party game ideas

(your sig goes wonderfully here, ehBeth :-))

Hour and a half total, prolly only time for one activity. Princess cookies would be way cool though.

hmmmm

the cookies and the wands could be decorated at the same time, even using the same sparkles and stuff - then you grab the cookies - podge 'em and put ribbons through a hole in their head (pre-made with a straw just as they come out of the oven) - and give them to their moms/dads to take home as a tree decoration - combo party favour and memory for parents

podge is great - the girls can use it as glue to put the beads and sparkles on - and then used as a top coat - and according to the jar i just happen to have sitting beside me - NON-TOXIC ! (and long-lasting - mrs. hamburger has a heart cookie dough wreath i made her about 20 years ago - podged - and still in good condition)

OK... what's podge?

(Somebody had to ask.)

Mod-Podge is a brand name for a type of product used in crafts. It functions as a glue, and as a top-coat. Comes in gloss and matte finishes.

Podging is basically lazy-gal's decoupage.

OK, so I'm a freak. I'm having fun, but I'm a freak. (Maybe that should be I'm having fun because I'm a freak?)

The teacup situation was really bothering me. I'd invited four girls with the expectation that one or two wouldn't be able to make it -- one in fact said nope, couldn't come, so was planning on four girls total. Have a tea set with 4 teacups, wasn't sure if I wanted to risk it's safety though.

Then the fifth girl (well her mom) said oh actually I can come yesterday. So five total.

So, I both wasn't sure if I wanted to risk my tea set, and that set didn't have enough cups. Get a special one for sozlet, the rest of the girls use the existing teacups? Maybe.

Decided to go to Goodwill and see what there was to see. Can I just say I love love love Goodwill? There are some Goodwills that have fancy-pants managers who look things up in antiques pricing books and display things and stuff. There are other Goodwills that just get things, stick a tag on 'em, and put 'em out in a jumble. Those are the ones I like. :-)

So my local Goodwill is that kind, and there was an aisle full of teacups. Just cups -- the saucers were all down a ways with plates. So I proceeded to try to winnow out tea sets, at least 5 cups with 5 saucers.

I originally planned to get a bunch of different ones, all vaguely floral, but had a heckuva time finding the matching saucers for those. Then kept noticing a certain teacup, nicely shaped, with silver detailing. We're going to have a lot of silver in this party, silver wands, etc. Found 6 of 'em, yay! And then after a LOT of rummaging, found the 6 matching saucers way over yonder and under plenty.

So, a lot of work, but got a set of five fine china cups and saucers, really very nice, 25 cents each. Woo-hoo!!!

THEN, on the way out, remember how I said I'd gotten party favors at Target's $1 spot? Well evidently when Target is done with one round of $1 spot merchandise, it donates to Goodwill. So they had bins and bins and bins full of Target stuff, $1 for 10 of 'em! TEN!! So I got some cool little mirrors covered with Chinese brocade. 10 CENTS each!

So, feeling cheap and happy. :-)

Oh and also got a teapot at goodwill, old and floral, will put flowers in it for centerpiece.

(I may be having more fun planning than sozlet will have at the party...)

Nice going! I love finding good stuff through rummaging. Good luck and let us know how the party goes.

Hooray for soz and Goodwill !

I love Goodwill. I worked in the rehab department of the local one for the very best part of a decade. I got hooked on the stories.

Every Goodwill has a different personality and different connections. "Mine" is near the Roots factory. After the factory outlet sale is done, their stuff goes to Goodwill. Score !!!!

So, it went pretty well! I had way too many contingency plans, of course, but that's better than not enough. (And thanks again for giving me so many great ideas.)

Had things decorated with lots of flowers, real and silk, linen tablecloth on the table, butterfly stickers on the walls, etc. (The stickers are actual photographs of butterflies, they're cool.)

Had all the dress-up clothes laid out in sozlet's room. Kids arrived and went upstairs to dress up -- two had costumes and added jewelry and such, one wasn't wearing a costume at all and started from scratch, one decided she wanted to wear one of our costumes rather than the one she came in. Also shoe-swapping and headgear-swapping. Ended up a bunch of be-winged, sparkly, mostly pink cuties.

Then they came down, took their places at the table, and made the magic wands. That went well, the glue didn't dry fast enough for the energetic waving around that happened as soon as they were finished, but oh well.

Then snack, tea and berries.

Then I used the present-within-a-present idea. I remembered I had some gold (paper) nesting boxes, worked great. They liked that a lot, all came away with something (jewelry, mostly).

Then while I got cake ready (time went fast!) they played several rounds of "girl, girl, fairy", an idea I had for a variation of "duck, duck, goose." That was probably the biggest hit.

Then cake and singing and present-opening. Sozlet surveyed all the gifts and said, "Which one is for me?" I said "all of them!" and she looked confused and said, "no, which one do I open?" I said "all of them!!" and her eyes got very, very big.

Then handed out the goodie bags:

- Pink sparkly wine bag with pink tassels ($1, Target)
- Chinese brocade-covered mini handled mirror (10 cents, Target via Goodwill)
- Little white plush unicorn with pink hooves, tail, and mane ($1, Target)
- Cool sparkly butterfly-on-a-spring magnet ($1.25, The Book Loft)
- Pink-foil-covered raspberry flavored chocolates (dunno how much each, $1.50 or so for a bag.)
- Gold coin chocolates. (Same.)

Then send-off of two girls, and her two best friends from pre-school stayed a while to open presents (like, get them out of packaging) and play with them.

Exhausting (some last-minute breathless assembly of table that would be used, which had to be taken apart to get out of the basement, etc.) but overall, went well, and happy with what E.G. called the "something from nothing" aspect. About 50% of it was stuff I already had, the rest was cheeeeap.

Whew!

Thanks again!

Sozobe--

As I type, five other mothers in Ohio are wondering how they can keep up the standards you've set! Congratulations!

Here's one of the magic wands:

sozobe--

You must have wished for an Official Magic Wand when the Sozlet was so sick--star, streamers, glorious handle and Power.

There is a mother in Oregon who wishes she could come up with something half so clever and fun!

What a wonderful party.

Wow! Fantastic ideas. Any for a train party?
Hi everyone.
I was searching the net looking for ideas for my son's 4th birthday party and I found a link to this discussion. The wand is beautiful and the ideas were so original.
My son is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine so we are having that as a theme again this year and I'm looking for fresh ideas. I'll probaby invite around 12 children, all but 3 are his age. Those 3 are younger.
I've thought about doing a follow the leader (engine) game. Playing the game where you hide a small present tied with string and then wind the string around the room and give each child an end and let them find the toy to keep. I loved the decoupage cookie idea. I'm going to look for train shaped cookie cutters. I also really liked wrapping the presents on top of each other and passing them around to each child. I think that will go well for my group. I will have some free time where they can play with toy trains, color, etc.
Also, I'm something of an amateur photographer so I try to take individual portraits of each child to send with the thank you notes.
Ideas
Thanks!

Oooh. Michaels has a train shaped cake pan, if you're into baking your own.

Thomas Cake.
Oh, I'm not that brave. I think it would look like my 3 year old did it. Ha Ha Ha Thanks for the suggestion!

What about "Hunt the Thimble" using train noises? The closer the hunter gets to the thimble (or other small object--perhaps 4 year olds could look for a toy train) the louder the train noises.

Hi Mookie!

The train follow-the-leader sounds good.

Barney has a song and activity about trains that my kid wanted to duplicate, I don't remember enough about it to look it up. Will think more.

I looked it up and found this, seems like it could be a cool activity, just need to save various food boxes for a while:

http://pbskids.org/barney/pareduc/educators/lesson701.html

Maybe you could put on a conductor's hat and get a train whistle and "conduct" the activities.

I like "hunt the thimble" with train noises.

You could sing train songs, like "I've been workin' on the railroad."

Do boys like glitter as much as girls? Seems like it might be fun to have some of that magic gold dust on hand. Can hand out little packets of it, and... (I know enough about Thomas to know the magic gold dust exists but not enough to make suggestions on what to do with it that's Thomas-like.)

What do you have by way of trains and paraphernalia? A lot of what we ended up doing was dictated by what we already had. For example, if you have a largish automated train, maybe set that up somewhere and put the goodie bags in it so the kids take one as it goes by.

I'll keep thinking! Seems like there's a lot of potential.

One thing my daughter's preschool teacher told us is to have approximately as many kids as years the birthday is celebrating. So, 4 years, 4 kids, etc. We had 5 kids total, and I saw the wisdom of what she was saying. It was fine, but it was a bit borderline, and I could see how more kids could push it over the edge.

Oh, I think we have that Barney video.
I'll have to look for it.
I love the idea of a train pulling the treat bags! We have tons of trains and track, but most are smallish. I do have one larger one that might work for that. I'll have to check out the coal car. Ohhhhhhhhh. Or maybe if it's not big enough for that, I could put candy or something from the snack table in it. In fact, I could use trains to hold the plasticware/napkins, etc. This is great! I'm starting to think of new ideas.
I was thinking of trying to find fools gold for the treat bags or maybe even gold coins. I love glitter, but I'm holding the party at my church and glitter is impossible to get out of carpet.
The party will be in a large L shaped room. Last year I had the food and tables set up in one room and activities in the other. There is a large house facade in the "activities" room with windows that could be used for a puppet show or something else.
I would love to have fewer children, but I'm not sure how to go about not inviting everyone. Most of my friends that I have grown up with have kids the same age and we've been doing these parties for what will be 4 years now. And there are siblings that always come, so I've just counted them in this year. I've cut the list down some, but I don't know how to cut it further without causing hurt feelings. Also, now that my son goes to dayschool he has asked to invite a few of his classmates.
Thanks for all the suggestions!