Birthday Party ?'s/opinions

lindeenwedding

I'll try to combine all my questions to not clog up the board with my birthday party planning owl/bird theme, colors pink/green.

1) Food. At first I considered doing themed food but I think I am going to ditch that otherwise the food will not go together, and I am trying to come up with stuff that wont be too time consuming. My family will be in town staying w/ us and the last 2 parties I've had they've busted their butts that whole weekend and then it felt like I just made them do all this work only to have Eric's family show up and it was like the party was just for them. I just need to figure out how to do things so they can enjoy the weekend as well. I know they love to help, but I feel bad. So I was thinking grilling chicken/burgers/hot dogs and doing a few sides, pasta/potato salad, veggies & dip, fruit & dip? I think there will be about 20-25 people.

2) Decorations. I am good here except for on the tables. I am doing a paint your own birdhouse station with these adorable mini birdhouse I bought and thought maybe I could do larger birdhouses for the tables, but what else? Also the larger birdhouse idea might get kind pricey.

3) Pinata. I ordered a pull string pinata to use mainly as a decoration, but I know people will assume that it is filled so what can I fill it with when most of the kids will be between 10-16 months, with them exception of 4 children ages 2,4,7,9? I figured if I do the typical pinata filler then everything will go to these older kids and I am not so sure the parents will want them having all that junk (3 of the kids are from the same family).

Thanks ladies!! I know I can count on my DW ladies as ours weddings show we love to plan a good party!

niuchick21

1) I like the grilling out idea, it seems to be the easiest and who doesnt love a good cook out?

2) If you're doing a create your own birdhouse, can you use those birdhouses for the centerpieces? Or maybe just order a few extra and paint them yourself and use them? I'm not sure how much they cost...

3)  Could you put some cheap little toys in there along with some candy?  I'm not sure how to make a pinata baby friendly, but at least it wouldn't be full of sugar for the older kids.  

funny bunny

Have you thought of what theme you want to do?

You can go with a bird theme or a garden theme(as you have the birdhouses)

If you do go with a garden theme, you  can make the food in different flower shapes.

You can also serve icecream / freezies and decorate with flower/bird little sugar confetti

Your salad bowl can have un-chopped chives all around the edges (looking like grass).

I like the rest of the food.

I don't know about what ppl fill pinatas with - I've never been to a pinata party just yet.. 

Ashleysred

1. If you grill, you're outside and birds live outside.  Totally theme friendly, I say.  Besides everyone loves BBQ.

2. Can you cut a hole in the top of the minibirdhouses and throw in some wild flowers for centerpeices?  Probably don't predecorate them, if you put flowers in them, unless you paint them all one color.

3. Can you fill it with less candy?  Or give the adults some candy too?  I like the toy idea but make sure they stand back, you don't want them to get hit in the head. 

ludyjanboltz

lindeenwedding:

1) Food. At first I considered doing themed food but I think I am going to ditch that otherwise the food will not go together, and I am trying to come up with stuff that wont be too time consuming. My family will be in town staying w/ us and the last 2 parties I've had they've busted their butts that whole weekend and then it felt like I just made them do all this work only to have Eric's family show up and it was like the party was just for them. I just need to figure out how to do things so they can enjoy the weekend as well. I know they love to help, but I feel bad. So I was thinking grilling chicken/burgers/hot dogs and doing a few sides, pasta/potato salad, veggies & dip, fruit & dip? I think there will be about 20-25 people. 

Because of all that is going on right now in my life I wanted to keep it super simple also.  I had originally planned on doing some grilling also, but it is just too darn hot here right now.  I ended up ordering sandwich and roll up plates and doing several sides.  It was really easy and everyone seemed to enjoy what there was.  I'll email you a pic of our food since I don't have it up on my blog yet.

2.  Decorations - I mostly just used fresh flowers.  Could you just do an arrangement and maybe hang either some small birds or small bird houses?  Or maybe a decorative branch with some of the same?

3.  Sorry, no ideas on this.

ludyjanboltz

lindeenwedding:

1) Food. At first I considered doing themed food but I think I am going to ditch that otherwise the food will not go together, and I am trying to come up with stuff that wont be too time consuming. My family will be in town staying w/ us and the last 2 parties I've had they've busted their butts that whole weekend and then it felt like I just made them do all this work only to have Eric's family show up and it was like the party was just for them. I just need to figure out how to do things so they can enjoy the weekend as well. I know they love to help, but I feel bad. So I was thinking grilling chicken/burgers/hot dogs and doing a few sides, pasta/potato salad, veggies & dip, fruit & dip? I think there will be about 20-25 people. 

Because of all that is going on right now in my life I wanted to keep it super simple also.  I had originally planned on doing some grilling also, but it is just too darn hot here right now.  I ended up ordering sandwich and roll up plates and doing several sides.  It was really easy and everyone seemed to enjoy what there was.  I'll email you a pic of our food since I don't have it up on my blog yet.

2.  Decorations - I mostly just used fresh flowers.  Could you just do an arrangement and maybe hang either some small birds or small bird houses?  Or maybe a decorative branch with some of the same?

3.  Sorry, no ideas on this.

 ETA:  Sorry about the double post.  Not sure how this happened.

lindeenwedding

Fanny, I love the garden ideas, and considered that theme, but I have enough going on with the birds/owls/birdhouses that adding anything to the theme will just confuse people.

Ashley love the flowers in the birdhouse idea, I will look into that. 

I was going to do toys and candy in the pinata but beyond the candy those pinata toys are junk and what parent wants a bunch of that crap lying around? I would really like to come up with some baby/toddler friendly toys because if the one family doesn't come (haven't RSVPed yet) that only leaves me with one 9 year old and 5-6 babies....  The only thing I could think of so far with that was rattles/nuks but those seem more like something you'd do for a shower and these babies will be 10-16 months. Maybe bubbles & crayons for starters?

Ashleysred

I love the bubble idea.  Can you go to the dollar store and see if they have minibubbles?  That might work better than the big size ones.  But I love bubbles and I wouldn't care of K left a party with bubbles.  Maybe they have other wands?  You know, besides the circle ones that come with the bubbles.  Maybe they have fun shapes???

aleikela

1.)  I have had all types of parties and cookouts are always my favorite

2.)  I am always a girl on a budget and if this was my party I would go to Hobby Lobby or a store like that and see if they have bags of pink and green feathers (to go with bird theme) and make feather bouquets.  You could probably find cute little vases at the dollar store to put the bouquets in.

3.)  Flavored Cheerios?  Lol!  And maybe goody bags for the older ones.

ludyjanboltz

How about small (as in teeny) books?  I've seen them somewhere, just can't think where right now.  They are about 2" X 2"

lindeenwedding

Thanks for sending those Shannon! I am thinking I will probably do fresh flowers since I can get them cheap at Costco and maybe getting more of the mini birdhouses and paint some up ahead of time and put 2-3 on each table with a vase of flowers.

ludyjanboltz

lindeenwedding:

Thanks for sending those Shannon! I am thinking I will probably do fresh flowers since I can get them cheap at Costco.

That's where mine were from!  And the sandwiches and roll ups. 

lindeenwedding

The mini books would be perfect!

Cheerios lol! Wouldn't that be funny!

AshNicole331

1. Grilling out will be perfect. Easy, good & cheap. We're doing italian brats, hamburgers & chicken. We'll likely also have stuff like chips & salsa, fruit platter, etc.

2. Love the birdhouse idea. You could also do tall sticks in a vase (I've seen cheap, tall ones at the dollar store before)...could even hang pictures of Alexa over the past year from the sticks? I know you mentioned you don't want to get too crazy with different themes but you could also fill a really cute watering can (I've seen adorable ones at Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Home Goods, etc.) and fill them with potting soil & flowers out the top. Still think the birdhouses would be really cute though

3. I'm at a loss here. Maybe hit up the dollar store and see what you can find.