Every year, your birthday rolls round and for kids, it’s their favourite time of the year, a time for fun and festivity however this festive feeling can lead to stress, overload and confusion which is never good for party planning. Keeping things simple and well planned will help both you and the birthday child remain happy and stress-free.
The thought of have 30 screaming kids at a party could be terrifying which is exactly why we have come up with some ideas on how to keep the kids occupied and enjoying themselves:
- Painting – depending on your budget you could let them paint anything from a piece of paper (print a few templates of animals / barbies / cars / your party theme) or porcelain plates (this is great as a take home gift too) or even a canvas (they can keep this and hang it on the wall always remembering the fun they had)
- Sweet Jewellery – firstly you’ll need string (you can pre-cut these to specific lengths for both bracelets and necklaces) + paper plates so each child can keep their chosen sweets and string together (let the kids write their names and draw pictures on the paper plates once they finish for some extra fun) some well suited sweets for this activity would be the hard candy with holes in them or even the Jelly candy with holes in them
- Cupcake / Sweet or Cookie decorating – Simply have plain cupcakes / cookies and sweets available for each kid. Have a variety of toppings (icing makes a great edible glue) include pretty and sparkly decorations, such as the silver balls, for young girls, and ‘gross’ ones, such as Gummi eyeballs, for little boys, have a mixture of sweet, sour, soft + hard candy so the kids a huge variety. Use different bowls to separate the sweets and place the icing in piping bags so it’s easy for the kids to squeeze out + this saves it from going hard & reduces mess. Kids love being creative but give them some guidance by designing 1 or 2 as samples, this will show them exactly what to do. Decorating can be messy but fun. Just make sure there are various colors that the kids can choose from and always have extra in case someone messes up
- Pizza Making – This one is for kids of all ages (even adults love it). Depending on your budget, you could hire in a team who specialises in pizza parties (this takes a lot of time, effort and pressure off of your shoulders) – they set up, prepare, show the kids how to make their own pizzas and then cook the pizzas too, the kids stay occupied for long and they get fed at the same time) you can also let the kids decorate their own chefs hats / aprons for some extra entertainment. If your budget doesn’t allow – ask some of the moms to give you a hand and open up your kitchen to a “pizza party”, you should have various toppings (keep it simple though), lots of cheese, tomato base and a couple of cooking sheets available. You should be able to fit about 10 small pizzas into the oven by using two trays on different racks. Let the kids engage in some pizza making skills, and see who likes what toppings. Make sure you have a few bottles of juice available for the kids while they’re cooking For older kids, the less intrusive you are, the more fun it will seem for them.
- Chocolate Moulds – Use chocolate moulds for the kids to pour melted chocolate in and let set – once the chocolate has set the kids can paint the chocolate / stick on little sweet decorations / dust with edible glitter and then wrap them up to take home as gifts – allow each element of this to be creative (let them decorate the wrapping with ribbon / edible glitter / stickers)
Keep the party fun. Don’t expect perfection, while we 100% believe in being prepared and organised – the main thing is that the kids have fun so be ready for the ones who express disappointment in their own creation and give a bit of encouragement. Many children feel that they must create something at least as good-looking as their peers, or they are somehow lacking. While we know that this isn’t true, make sure that you help those who feel stuck, and give them some praise and encouragement so every child has a great time.
Don’t forget to take pictures and have everyone sign a party guest poster for your child (let them add fingerprints or hand prints to remember the party) younger ones might want some help in creating one, but older kids might want to take this idea and create their own poster, or none at all. The point is to have fun and create a safe environment where they can do this.
Image credit:
https://www.pinterest.com/explore/kids-paint-party/