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Another party post: ideas for an at-home joint party for 3 & 5 yo girls?
The kids' birthday parties have thus far been at our house.
The one exception was last year, when DS was a (colicky) newborn, and we decided an at-home party for the girls was out of the question. So we did a My Gym party when they turned 2 and 4. (We are going to do joint parties with my two February girls for as long as we can get away with it). At that party last year it was basically DD #1's preschool class with DD #2 sort of tagging along. It was very fun, a little $$, but I thought very much worth it.
Now the girls are turning 3 and 5 in February. Now that they are both in preschool, they both have separate friends. I'm open to doing a party at a place again, but I kind of like the idea of going back to at-home. So I'm brainstorming.
We live in a small rambler with a finished basement that is the TV/playroom. No separate dining room. Small, eat in kitchen.
I'm thinking that the most we could handle would be maaaaybe ten total preschoolers? That would include the birthday girls, so they could each invite four friends. That will be a little difficult for DD #1 who has more than four "good" friends at school, and I'm not sure DD #2 has that many that she would consider what she calls "favorite" friends.
We have really good friends who live behind us, who have a 5 and 3 year old so they would take up two of the invitee slots, so really each girl could invite three friends.
OK, so let's say ten to twelve kids. The thing about our house is that while I could put a leaf in the kitchen table, move a sideboard, and squeeze ten chairs around it, I feel like the party would consist of kids arriving, playing downstairs maybe, and then coming back upstairs for what - a craft maybe - at the table? - then cake at the table? Then that would be about it.
We have a great deck on the back but weather in this area in February is SO unpredictable, one year (the year of the girls' 1 and 3 year old joint party) there was a huge snowstorm and a bunch of people didn't make it. So I don't feel like I can plan on outside activities.
Then there's the question of a theme. They both like Disney Princesses so I could fall back on that, but it would be fun to think of something a little different. Winter related maybe? Valentine related? The party could be any weekend in Feb. so we could try to do it before V-day and do that?
Anyway, just any brainstorms that you creative ladies have would be appreciated. I'm still not totally against having it at a place, but just thought maybe I could come up with at-home ideas to bounce of DH.
Thanks!
Wife, Musician, Fed, WW-er, and Mom of three little kids - not necessarily in that order.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Another party post: ideas for an at-home joint party for 3 & 5 yo girls?
Have you succumbed to Pinterest yet? It's been really helpful in planning DS's 1st birthday party. If you want an invite, I'll email it to your gmail account. What time of day are you looking at? Will you be serving lunch or just cake? '
I think if you go with a princess theme you should have all the girls make a princess wand or that dunce cap that princess's wear and then build up the details in the decorations. I would do it after about a 45 minutes of free play, followed by the craft and then let the princess's have their royal tea or cake. I can't speak for the 5 year olds but I know my three year old is always just happy playing with someone else's toys so if you skip the craft, they will still think it's a fun giant play date. Will there be only girls at the party by the way? If there are boys, they can decorate a knight's shield.
Oh, a good transition activity between free play and the craft might be to read a princess story. Like "Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots" or "The Very Fairy Princess" or even "Alice the Fairy" That will calm the kids down and refocus them on the craft.
The Dollar Tree used to have (I hope they still do) the horse heads on a stick, that would make a great party favor with some festive ribbon tied around it. Ours gets a lot of play from DD. There are some great princess castle cake out there (many involve square cakes and ice cream cones to make the turrets (ideas here: https://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/castle-cake.html). It might be fun to ask all the girls to come in a princess dress to round out the theme.
I think in terms of space, you will be fine. We have friends who live in a small ranch in Kensington and they just had a birthday party with 50+ folks and it never felt overly crowded. Having an upstairs and downstairs space really helped. If you have 12 kids, I assume that means you will have nearly that many additional adults so 25 folks should still be more than comfortable . Can you set your basement up with play stations? so there is some movement and organization. Like legos in this corner, play food and kitchen along this wall, baby dolls and animals over there...
For me I would skip the obvious Disney associations and bring it back to more dress up and imaginative play. I think it will allow you to be more creative as well as the girls.
I love the idea of a valentine's party - so cute with all the red hearts! How about some kind of game or activity for downstairs? A pinata with the pull cords, a simon says type game, make it into a dance party at one point, pin the heart onto the person (or some other themed pinning game with scotch tape). That would make it more organized and then a craft and cake sounds great.
Here is a blog post I pinned about classic kid party games - https://onecharmingparty.com/2011/09/15/classic-party-games/
I think having a few games will make it more organized for the kids although open playtime with someone else's toys is always a fave, then the craft will kind of calm things down before cake time.
You could decorate with the little heart candies or give them away in the as prizes.
You could make cupcakes and the craft would be to decorate your own (maybe a little messy with the 3yo's)
I'll keep thinking.....
Party planning and recipes are pretty much all I use it for!