So my daughter is off to a “red carpet” themed party today and a “Build a Bear” party at the weekend, this will be the fifth party this month!
In the past the kids have been invited to a wide range of birthday celebrations including; bowling, animal handling, football, cinema and good old in the house with jelly, ice cream and pass the parcel parties.
Of course we’ve hosted our fair share ourselves the most recent being a soft play venue and a science museum trip. Every couple of years though I suffer some sort of amnesia or perhaps I have just deliberately blocked out the memories because despite the sausage rolls squished into the carpets, the groups of screeching kids hyperactive on a mixture of haribro and adrenalin and the hours spent planning and preparing I decide it will be a good idea to have a house party!
Not just any old house party though, much as I know you can’t go wrong with musical chairs and chocolate fingers, I just can’t help myself, I love a “theme”, so here are my top 3 themed parties and how we did them.
1. Dinosaur party
This party is perfect for little boys who love their t-rex’s and pterodactyl’s and is really just a twist on a normal kids party.
Guests were greeted with a few well placed dino paw prints leading to the front door and more strategically placed cut out dino foot prints inside were the clues for our dinosaur egg hunt. Foil wrapped eggs were decorated with spots and hidden around the house for hungry dino hunters to find. The house was festooned with our plastic prehistoric pals and the games were dino themed takes on party classics including musical dinosaurs (just in case rather than dancing the kids act out being dinosaurs until the music stops) and pin the tail on the dinosaur.
We had a best dino roar competition (remember the headache pills for later) and loads of dino delights to eat. A dinosaur shaped cutter made fun sandwiches, to have along with Bernard Matthew Turkey Dinosaurs, topped of with plenty of dinosaur sweeties courtesy of The Natural Confectionary Co (just to limit those e-number a little bit) and of course a dino cake for a roaring good time!
2. Popstar Party
What little girl could resist a red carpet (ok burnt orange) and bubbly reception, with an old carpet off cut and some plastic champagne flutes and lemonade that’s just what we did for this popstar party.
After arrival the girls were let loose with more feather boa’s,
sparkly sunglasses and bling than you’d find in a Lady Gaga convention.
Fruit juice cocktails complete with fresh fruit and umbrellas set the scene, and a melted chocolate fondue along with fruit and marshmallows for dipping made for a sweet and sticky treat.
After that it was time to get the singing underway with a selection of Singstar games for the Playstation the girls were in their element, air guitars were played and a game of pass the microphone was had and the girls posed for pictures with a life size poster of their heroine Jessie J.
The best bit about this party? Possibly the cake which was so simple but effective,
a plain shop bought cake topped with a customised rice cake topper bought from ebay but honestly? the fact that mum got to dress up too and even take on some red highlights for the day, who said parties were for kids?
3. Sonic and Mario party (here we go)
My son and his friends love all things Mario or Sonic so it seemed like the perfect party theme.
Any fan of Mario will hopefully recognise this as a mystery block and that’s exactly what it was, my cardboard box, decorated with a brick effect was filled with shredded paper and pocket money toys to be used as a lucky dip during rounds of games. Note to parents everywhere though seven year old boys find it hilarious to strew shredded paper as far and wide as possible, 2 years on and I’m still finding bits down the sofa!
A Mario Kart tournament was set up with the boys taking turns on the Wii and cheering each other on, then it was time to head to the garden to play Sonic Rings!
This consisted of tying chocolate dough rings to my laundry dryer (or whirligig as we like to say) and getting the boys to eat them hands free, queue mass hysterics and some messy little boys, once we were cleaned up it was back inside for Mario cake and more of Sonics rings in the form of hula hoops, cored apple slices and party ring biscuits.
The star of the show was the hand painted pin the moustache on Mario game made by the kids more artistic parent!
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed these, I’d love to hear about other party themes or ideas people have tried, but don’t forget my no 1 tip for home parties – always make sure you have wine in for the adults for after, you’ll need it!
Note: This article was first published on Mental Parentals
Not In The Parenting Manual 