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You can find theme party supplies through our party store or our affiliates, Shindigz and Birthday Express!
PARTY PLANNING TIPS
1) Choose a theme that you and your child are excited about.
2) Decide on a guest list.
3) Keep the party short and sweet. We recommend 2-3 hours at the most.
4) Select a menu for the party based on theme, number of guests, and time of day.
5) Create an outline or basic flow for the party from start from finish. Plan an activity every 15 minutes, but be prepared to be flexible.
6) Be creative in your decorations from start to finish. Decorate the house from top to bottom.
7) Never underestimate the power of a child seeing their name in print. Personalizing items for a birthday is a way to make your child feel special.
8) Let your child know how special they are on their birthday. It only comes once a year, and you are creating memories that will last a lifetime!
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 Visit our party store!
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Spring/ Butterfly Party
Location- Outside in a garden or park
Activities- "Pin the body on the butterfly", decorate butterfly shaped sugar cookies, caterpillar treasure hunt, release live butterflies (www.butterflyfriends.com), make pipe cleaner and tissue paper flowers, make antennas as party hats, cake walk (children walk around numbered butterfly stakes stuck in the ground), give butterfly bucks at games to redeem at "Butterfly Store"
Food- butterfly and flower shaped tea sandwiches, caterpillar cupcakes, frozen ice cream butterflies
Butterfly Party Supplies by ShindigZ.com
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Bowling Party
Location- bowling alley
Decorations- balloons with three dots to resemble a bowling alley, bowling pins as centerpieces
Activities- kids sign bowling pin instead of guest book, everyone takes turns rolling the ball between the birthday childs legs, glow in the dark bowling
Food- bowling ball and pin cake, use bowling themed candles on the cake
Favors- plastic trophies
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Glamour Girl/ Diva/ Dress-up Party
Invitations- star shaped, paste pictures of models on a catwalk, or boarder of purses, shoes and makeup
Decorations- posters and pictures of supermodels
Food- serve food after fashion show (to avoid messing up there outfits of course!) star shaped sandwiches, star shaped sandwiches, and platters of crackers and cheese, vegetables, and fruit, serve punch mixed with sprite in champagne flutes
Activities- have kids hair & makeup done,set up three stations (one for clothes, one for makeup, and one for hair), recruit family members and friends to help at these stations, photo shoot,take before and after pictures, once dressed up girls can put on a fashion show that can be videotaped and copies can be sent out to relatives and guests, decorate keepsake photo frames, decorate tiaras, if a sleepover, watch movies such as Princess Diaries and Model Behavior, use pictures to make scrapbooks, have girls autograph each others books, maybe add in karaoke
Favors- novelty purses filled with hair supplies, lip gloss, candy makeup
Other- Send modeling "profile cards" of each guest as thank you notes
Birthday Party Supplies by ShindigZ.com
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Gymnastics/ Olympics Party
Location- gymnastics facility, local track or park
Invitations- paper towels rolls and construction paper to look like Olympic torches w/ invite rolled up inside, hand deliver, make invites on gold medals
Decorations- red, white, and blue, sign that reads "Welcome Athletes"
Food- use Olympic ring symbol on cake, "Make Your Own" sundaes, food from each country (nachos from Mexico, pizza from Italy, hotdogs or hamburgers from the U.S., etc.), serve on trays with corresponding flags sticking out of it
Activities- make ribbons on a stick, hire a professional gymnastics instructor, get book: Gymnastics Fun & Games by Eric Malmberg, have olympics competition, guests pick a country to represent and make a flag for that country, frisbee throw, sack race, tug of war, egg on a spoon, obstacle course, basketball throws, award metals for each competition
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Tropical/ Luau Party
Location- hold at a beach or beside a pool
Invitations- airplane tickets that say "Good for one round trip to (your name) Island. Good for (# of hours) stay at Birthday Express Resort at (your address). Bring your towel and swimsuit. Thank you for choosing (your last name) Airways.", or invites in the shape of bathing suit or beach ball, or invite rolled up in a bottle with sand at the bottom and hand delivered,written on deflated beach balls or beach theme stationery
Food- punch with pineapples, tuna salad, macaroni shells and cheese, oyster crackers, volcano cake, ice with fruit frozen inside, goldfish crackers, drinks served with little umbrellas, fruit basket carved out of a watermellon, fruity slushes, BBQ, cake shaped like a beach ball, sandcastle or sea shell
Decorations- tiki style table covers, straw place mats, metal bins wrapped with raffia skirt filled with ice and beverages, bowls filled with dand and shells as centerpieces of fill bowls with water and goldfish (guests can take these home also), vines (cut strips of brown paper bags, twist and add green leaves)potted trees or make trees from cardboard tubing at carpet store and green construction paper leaves, drape beach towels everywhere, extra large surfboards, put a canopy for shade, tiki torches, inflatable palm trees, beach balls, fish net, large plastic fish
Activities- give guests leis upon arrival, make leis, "Pass the Coconut" (whoever has the coconut when the music stops is out), limbo, water balloon toss, sand art craft, hula hoop contest, swimming, sandbox filled with shovels and buckets and sand castle molds, sand castle buildig contest, "Slip-n-slide", "Pin the coconut on the palm tree, beach volley ball, beach ball shaped pinata, "Pin the leaf on the palm tree", make layered sand art bottles (use pixie stix candy instead for "sand")
Favors- beach novelties as prizes for games
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Under the Sea/ Aquatics Party
Location- Hold at an aquarium or swimming pool
Invitiations- fish shaped, "You are o'fish-ally invited to (name)'s birthday party!"
Decroations- blue streamers & fish hanging from the ceiling to look like an aquarium,
Food- cake in the shape of a fish or mermaid (cakefinder.com), blue punch with ice cubes with gummy fish frozen inside, treasure chest (decorated ice chest) for ice and beverages, serve food out of pails and fish shaped trays
Activities- fishing (items with codes on the bottom that correspond with certain prizes), "Pin the fin on the fish", "Dolphin rign toss", fish pinata,treasure chest filled with water balloons decorate fish shaped sugar cookies, make fish out of paper plates and pre-cut fins& tails
Birthday Party Supplies by ShindigZ.com
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Princess Party
Invitations- castle shaped, tiara shaped
Decor- create front of castle in your house or backyard, use lavendar and purple color scheme to represent royalty, hang stars from ceiling, castle turret top across doorways, make one room the ballroom, use christmas lights as fairy lights, decorate a chair as a "throne" for the birthday girl to open presents
Food- "Royal buffet", wrap napkins around plastic utensils and tie with garland for an elegant look, castle cake (recipe at www.shindigz.com)
Activities- decorate tiara headpiece, or princess cone hat with scarf vale at the top, make wands, dress-up in princess costumess and take picture by castle, decorate picture frames, "Slay the Dragon" (a pinata), make beaded necklaces and bracelets, have make-overs, "Pin the star on the wand", read princess stories like Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast, put on a play or puppet show
Birthday Party Supplies by ShindigZ.com
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Karaoke/ Rock Star Party
Invitations- Shaped like cd's, "The beat will go on at (name)(age) birthday party" and then party info, pick up guest in a limo, make invites like concert tickets saying "Admit One" and then party info,or invite saying "You are cordially invited to (name)'s Hollywood Premiere of the Rising Celebrities" and then party info
Decorations- colored lights, disco balls, set up stage in house or in backyard, spot lights, set up "bar" with pop and punch, pop star posters, hang metallic skirting on the wall behind stage to look like curtains, inflatable guitars, keyboards, and saxophones, hang old cd's and stars from the ceiling
Food- serve snack foods, pizza
Activities- put on a karaoke show and videotape it, have guests lip-sync to their favorite songs, musical chairs, cake walk, draw songs from a hat for each person to sing, dance contest, use pictures of guests to make VIP badges, take trip to local recording studio, "Name That Tune"
Favors- custom made cd with the birhday child's favorite songs, autograph book, music themed toys, toy awards (have each kid give a grammy speech as they recieve their award)
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Safari/ Survivor Party
Invitations- put CBS "Survivor" logo on invite
Location- backyard camp out, local park or zoo
Decorations- safari print balloons, potted trees or make trees (see luau theme), "Toss the ring on the rhino", crepe paper vines, play nature cd's as background music, inflatable animals, turn lights down low to give a realistic effect, tiki torches, camouflage tarp
Food- purchase little ice cream cups instead of dishing out ice cream, alligator shaped cake, snake cake (buy two ring shaped cake from store, cut each in half, arrange so that they form a curvy snake, trim each end to make head and tail, ice and decorate with cand for eye and licorice for tongue), roasted marshmallows and smores, roasted hot dogs
Activites- scavenger hunt, hide safari type erasers around the yar, bring in a reptile trainer, reptile shaped pinata, animal charades, make animal masks or cups that can be later filled with candy and taken home as favors, make binoculars from two toilet paper rolls glued together and then decorate, tell stories around a fake campfire, "Pin the trunk on the elephant" or the tail on the monkey, "Tarzan Says" (make animal sounds and getures), make clay animals, make animal puppets with small paper bags, separate kids into tribes like "Survivor" and have friendly competitions
Favors- jungle toys, erasers, pencils, little compasses, plastic animals, call it a "Survivor Kit"
Birthday Party Supplies by ShindigZ.com
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Sports Party
Location- at sports facility or park
Invites- make like a ticket to the game, encourage guests to wear jersey of their favorite player, picture of child in a sports uniform
Decorations- decorate in favorite teams colors or red, white, and blue, sport theme mylar balloons and coordinating latex balloons
Food- typical arena snack foods, cake decorated in sport theme (any local bakery can do this), serve food on sport related trays, Gatorade for beverages, roasted peanuts, serve drinks in sport themed water bottles, sugar cookies frosted to look like a baseball, football, basketball, etc.
Activities- divide children into teams, scavenger hunt for sport related items, musical chairs or cake walk to to sport themed music, watch sport themed movies, hand out tickets as guests arrive to play each game or use tickets to redeem prizes, make shirts with name and number on the back, decorate plastice visors, set up stations with diffferent sport games at each one
Favors- small sport toys, stickers, pencils, ref whistles, sport cards, personalized water bottles
Birthday Party Supplies by ShindigZ.com
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Tea Party
Invitations- on teapot shaped cards, add a bag of tea
Decorations- floral tablecoth to match tea set, pastel colored streamers, light candles, use place cards on the table, flower arrangements inside of old teapots as centerpieces, construction paper flowers on the walls
Food- finger sandwiches, crackers and cheese, a selection of pastries, fancy cake, iced tea, tiny tea set to top the cake, have relatives play as butlers, scatter flower petals on table, serve food in silver or chrystal platters
Activities- decorate terra cotta pots, make-overs, pour candle wax in tea cups and decorate outside of cup, decorate straw hats, dress-up, take pictures in feather boas, musical chairs, face painting
Favors- beauty items in small novelty purses
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Teddy Bear Party
Invitations- Use words from "Teddy Bear's Picnic", ask guest to bring their favorite teddy bear
Decorations- red and white checkered tablecloth, hold picnic outdoors, if indoors then put giant clouds, flowers, trees, and birds on the walls, also put up a white picket fence, place plenty of teddy bears around the room
Food- picnic foods, cake in the shape of a bear, teddy bear shaped sandwiches, assortment of salads
Activities- make bear ears to wear as party hats, "bear bingo", "toss the bee into the honey pot", "pin the nose on the bear", "bear hunt", read story "Going on a Bear Hunt", paint wooden cut-out bears, paint paw prints on each of the guests faces, make bear necklaces, place bear stickers on the bottom of plates and cups and award priizes to those with the numbers
Favors- teddy grahams, gummy bears, books about bears, put favors in small baskets |
Cowboy/ Western Party
Invitations- "wanted" posters, scroll looking paper, or burn edges to give authentic western look
Decorations- bales of hay, pitch a tent, old lanterns on the tables, old washtub to hold ice and beverages
Food- BBQ, chicken and sides from KFC, roasted hot dogs, baked beans and chips, cake in the shape of a cowboy boot or bull's head
Activities- greet guests with a cowboy hat and bandana, decorate cowboy themed sugar cookies, take pictures of each child and put in "wanted" picture frames, cowboy themed pinata, "pin the hat" on a large blown up picture of the birthday child, horseshoes, decorate paper cowboy boots with glitter, glue, stickers, rhinestones, etc., hayrides, "musical cowboy boots" (like cake walk, only children stand on numbered cowboy boots), rent a pony for the children to ride
Favors- harmonica, plastic cowboys, sheriff badges, water guns, plastic snakes, animal crackers |
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