Tag: fun

Rainy day indoor activities

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On a sunny day, children can play outside or go to the park but when it’s raining, everything seems grim and dull. Wet weather in the school holidays can drive parents crazy, especially for those on a budget and for many that mean’s a day in the house.  How you keep the kids entertained without spending a fortune?

Cupcake Creations

Doing a spot of cookery with kids is great fun and they will enjoy serving up their creations to the rest of the family.  If you aren’t the most confident home baker, then most supermarkets sell bun making or cupcake making kits that need just a little water and an egg.  The kids get to do most of the work with a little supervision and will love arranging the decorations on the icing once they are cooked. 

Cooking, Creating and Painting

As well as edible projects, you can also make salt dough in the kitchen.  This uses 2 cups of plain flour, 1 cup of salt and up to 1 cup of water to make dough that can then be cut with shaped cutters or just by hand.  It is baked in the oven at a low heat for around three hours and can be then be painted with acrylic paint, varnished and glittered.  This activity is great for making decorations or beads to then be strung together. 

Make a Den

There aren’t many kids who don’t love the idea of having a den in the house and a rainy day is a great opportunity to do this.  Get some kitchen chairs together, hang bedding and blankets over them and secure everything with clothing pegs.  The kids can then play inside with their favourite toys and games and will probably be very difficult to get out come bedtime! 

All Children like a Good Treasure Hunt

With a little preparation, a treasure hunt around the house is a great children’s activity idea and will be great fun, with a little treat as the treasure.  Set up clues that have them thinking things through without being too difficult and send them up and down stairs as much as possible – a bit of hidden exercise while in the house.

You could even integrate a little learning into the treasure hunt, ask them a mathematical problem or how to spell a word. 

Marble Runs

Creating marble runs is a brilliant way to get the kids thinking.  Stockpile old toilet roll holders, margarine tubs and anything else they can put together to make a run for their marbles.  It won’t be long before they are becoming ever more inventive and trying to guess where the marble will go.  Just watch out they don’t end up under your feet!

Party Invitations made easy

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The invitations to any party are very important. This is one of the first things you should do when planning a children’s birthday party. So here are some great top tips for how to go about your invites.

Ready Made Options –
This is perhaps the perfect time to point out that you can get some great templates on the website for anyone that is stuck for ideas. Many of them can be printed off for free. 

Don’t Hang Around –

It’s important that you give your guests plenty of time to respond to your invites and so you need to get them out in good time before the event. Depending on when your party is, (busy times such as bank holidays and Christmas may need longer) about a month before the occasion is probably best. This should give most people enough time to reply and will also mean the date is firmly in their diary should anything else come up.
Consider Going Straight to the Parents –  
Although it’s exciting for a child to receive an invitation to their friend’s party, children can often forget to pass these onto their parents. You may therefore want to hand the invitations directly to the relevant adults so that you get a swift RSVP. Alternatively, you could get your child to hand them out to their friends but do then check with the parents of the children, that they know about it, in case the invite never made it home. Another option is asking the teacher of your child’s class to put them in the children’s book bags.
Have A Crafty Day –   
If you would prefer to create your own invites rather than use the ones on our We party’s website, then why not have a craft day in order to do this. Set out everything you need to make your child’s own invitations and then work on them together. Kids find this very exciting. This way they can have a bigger say in their party and they can show off their arts and craft skills to all their friends.
Try to Include Everyone – 
When inviting children to the party, it’s often hard to know who should get an invite. The amount of guests that can come will obviously depend on the size of the venue and the budget you have for the party, but where possible it’s a good idea to not leave anyone out and simply invite the whole class at school. If you don’t then some children (and parents) are bound to get upset. Some schools actually ask that you do invite the whole class if you are giving out invites on the school grounds, so it’s an idea to check what the school policy is with this. 
Check All the Information Is Correct –  
Before you send out the invites check that all the information on them is correct. This sounds obvious, but the last thing you want is for people to show up an hour early because you put the wrong time on the invites. Make sure you have included the address of the venue, what time the party starts and finishes, what day and date it is on and whether there is any specific dress code in line with your party theme. You may also want to add that parents are welcome to stay for the duration of the party if you decide you are happy for them to do so. We’d actually suggest they don’t stay (if the children are old enough) because the background noise made by parents charting can actually mean kids can’t hear the entertainer as well and it has an adverse effect on the children’s party. Of course it’s understandable that you may want parents to stay but we’d suggest that if they do, you have a separate room for them to be in.

A Circus theme or Clown Party idea

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PARTY INVITATIONS;

We used cheap white card and envelope.  Used red cardboard paper to make a big top for the front of card.  Square base and canopied top.  Square base to be glued on sides and bottom, top to be left open to create a pocket for admit ticket. 

PARTY DECORATIONS;

We kept decorations simple.  Used red/white crepe paper to make a canopy (big top) in the kitchen.  Hung paper clown faces (which were homemade) from the ceiling.   Bright tableware was placed around the cakes.  A lion cake and a clown cake were centre of the table.

PARTY GAMES;

We thought it would be nice for the children to have an ‘arty’ party so we put felt tips, glitter, glue etc. around and lots of coloured card paper so they could make their own circus/clown pictures. 

We also had a ‘face painter’ which painted each child’s face, we took a picture and printed each one off before the party ended and stuck it in onto their party bags.

Another children’s party game we played was each child took turns throwing darts at different coloured balloons.  Whatever colour you popped, got to pick from that “colour” toy pile. Each toy was in different coloured bags so the children knew which one they had won from. 

We then had an elephant game where you have to hook a ring around their trunks. Each child puts on an elephant mask and tries to pick up hoops with the end of their nose.  Of course no party is complete without the clown piñata.  

PARTY BAGS;

No party is complete without party bags so we filled them up with candy, crafts, prizes, and cotton candy bags.

 

Movie star parties

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This party are for girls (or boys) that would just love to be in the movies…

INVITATIONS:

For the invitation, buy some really good stationary, and cut it into a star shape. Then, punch holes in it about every inch or so and thread gold or silver ribbon through the holes. Then in calligraphy write “you are cordially invited to spend (date) at the Oscars. Please arrive at (address) at approximately (time). To make your final reservation, please reply to the home of (child’s name) at (number).

DECORATIONS:

On the front walkway, we laid out some red felt made to look like the red carpet, and stuck sticks of wood about 1 foot away from each other along the sides, where I tied gold, silver, and white balloons to. Inside, I let some more balloons float.

ACTIVITIES:

The main activity of the party was Making the movie, but before that, we got all the actresses ‘ready’ by sending them to the ‘spa’. Throughout the house, there was a different station, and one was in the birthday girl’s bedroom. The first station, the spare room, was home to the nail and hair salon. In here we had some friends dressing the girl’s hair with pins and clips and my other friend did the nails. The other station, in the downstairs office, was makeup.

The last station, in the birthday girl’s bedroom was the dressing station, here, there were all kinds of dress up clothes that the girls could choose from. After all the girls finished at the spa, we made the movie. Before the party, we had written a simple script based on the movie, “the Princess Diaries”, where a normal teenage girl finds out she is a princess. We handed out these 3 page scripts, and each girl was given a part and five minutes to look it over quickly. Then we filmed it. Afterwards, we showed it to the girls on video and they were very proud.

Then, last but not least, we handed out the actual Oscars. Before hand, we had cut trophies out of cardboard and painted them with each girl’s name on it. For the ceremony, we had 10 categories (there were ten girls). Some of the categories were best script remembered, funniest costume, etc. We called each girl up individually to receive her award. (since we didn’t know what category each girl was going to win, when the girls came up, we wrote it with a pen on the back). After this, we had dinner at our homemade restaurant and then, to make the girls sleepy after the excitement, we showed them a copy of the proper Oscars, which featured all their favourite actors and actresses.

KIDS PARTY FOOD:

In the dining room, we had table settings that made it look like a posh restaurant. For each girl’s plate, we had a typed name card, a folded cloth napkin with a napkin ring, and we even had real silverware instead of plastic. We served chicken, rice, soup, and a chocolate cake that looked like an Oscar award. 
PARTY BAGS

When the girls were watching the movie, we made 10 copies of the video we made. We gave these out to the guests along with a bottle of nail polish.

Ice-skating party ideas

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My daughter is just celebrated her ninth birthday, and we were also moving at the same time so we needed something that wouldn’t require too much children’s birthday party planning, money, and most importantly – a house! That is when my daughter asked if we would be able to do an ice skating party. Of course, I thought this would be a great idea since it was not our home, so we wouldn’t need to clean up or plan much.  So, the next day I called up the local skating rink and they told me I could rent a party room for 3 hours for only £80. This was great!  

Then, my daughter and I picked up some nice stationary from a hobby craft shop and wrote all the information down on a piece of it – one for each guest (we invited 12). 

The day of the party, we went to the rink early to set up the tables and decorations, and to rent the skates (we had called everyone in advance and asked what shoe size they were). The skates were complimentary with the party room.    

An hour later, almost all of the guests had arrived so they got their skates on and met up with one of the rink instructors who would be leading the party. For about an hour, she showed them tricks and they played a variety of skating games.   

Later, they were called to lunch were they were given their choice of pizza, hot dog, or chicken nuggets. We also laid out hot chocolate so they could come back from skating to get some whenever they wanted.

When they finished lunch, they went back to skating and there was disco lights and music playing! They skated to cool music and light show for about 30 minutes, when they got tired and decided to come back in and open gifts. Before they knew it, it was time to go.  

They were each given their goodie bags which were supplied by the rink. They were a plastic bag with an ice skate on it, an ice skate keychain, sweets, ice skating pencil, and other traditional party bag treats.  

This party was great – they had fun, there was no clean up, it was extremely inexpensive, and it required about 30 minutes of planning!

Skateboard Party

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This was done for a 9-year-old boy’s birthday who was made about skateboards. There were girls and boys.  The theme was Skateboard Olympics. 

Invite: 

Cut-outs of skateboards telling them to skate on over to “name” 9th Birthday bash! I asked them to bring their skateboards or rollerblades and safety equipment. As each child arrived they got a large # for the back of their shirt and a score card that listed all the activities that they were going to be judged on. 

Games: 

There was a ramp and as they were called they got 2 chanced to freestyle on the ramp, a few of the guests were chosen as judges and they held up large numbers, their scores were wrote on their score cards, etc.  

The 2nd was a bean bag toss on the skateboards, the buckets had points on them and they got 2 chances to make it in to the bucket of their choice, the scores were put on their cards, 

3rd activity was skateboard limbo, the each time the stick dropped they got 5 points, their totals were put on the score cards, 

4th was Skateboard trick, again we used the judges and score cards. After all of that was done they were totalled them up while they were hitting the skateboard piñata.  

They played balloon pop (kids used their heads and a needle) they picked a balloon 1-20 and that’s the one they had to pop. The balloons were filled with, water, flour, confetti, skateboard cut-outs that had on the back what they won, etc. It was a lot of fun! 

A skateboard shaped cake and sub sandwiches. After the gifts and cake was done they had all of the kids sit in a circle so they could have an award ceremony and pictures. The birthday boy gave award & prizes out as their names were called, and they took their picture with the Birthday boy.

Prizes:

Computer made certificates, ribbons, mini trophies, skate board keychains, ramps, grab bags, etc. at the end of the award ceremony the Birthday boy tossed confetti on everyone it was great.

Easter party ideas

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Easter is a time to celebrate the renewal of life with flowers, eggs, rabbits and chicks as you and your family celebrate Easter!  Easter commemorates Jesus’ resurrection and the coming of the Spring season when flowers begin to bloom and baby animals are born.  What better way to embrace this special time of year than with an Easter party? 

Easter Decorations – Decorating for Easter can be lots of fun! You can keep things simple by incorporating traditional baskets around the house filled with eggs, toy animals and spring flowers. Or if you enjoy getting a little more creative, try hanging colourful eggs from a tree, making flowers form tissue paper or even creating an Easter centrepiece by surrounding a candle with decorative grass and tiny blue robin’s eggs.  There are countless other ways to get into the spirit of the Easter holiday just by using materials found around the house and tapping into your artistic side. 

Easter Egg Colouring- There is a basket full of fun activities to choose from in preparation for Easter that you and your friends and family can enjoy.  The first and most popular one that comes to mind is egg decorating. It is amazing how many fun things you and your kids can do with eggs that include dyeing, painting and decorating with everything from glitter and stickers, to stencils and tissue paper. In addition, newspaper or string Papier-Mache can be handy materials to create model eggs, bunnies or chicks which can be painted spring colours after they dry. These children’s party activities and many others are a great way to welcome the Easter bunny and embrace the coming of the Spring season.  

Easter Egg hunt and games – There is only one way the children can know for sure that the Easter bunny has come to visit their home: when there are eggs hidden in the garden to snatch up and collect in their baskets! Not only is the “Easter Egg Hunt” the most traditional children’s party game of the Easter holiday, but it also allows for a variety of ways to play it.  You can have the children in your family collect eggs that they have painted, or plastic ones which you can fill with yummy snacks, chocolate or candy for a sweet surprise. But besides the egg hunt, there are countless other games you and your family can enjoy such as a bunny hop race or Spring art contest to celebrate Easter Sunday. 

Easter egg snacks and treats- All those blissful games and activities wouldn’t be the same without a smorgasbord of savoury Easter dishes and sweet treats to fuel the festivities.  In fact, when most people think of Easter, chocolate bunnies, jelly beans and cream-filled eggs easily come to mind! The Lamb roast is an easy choice for a traditional Easter feast, as well as spring vegetables and new potatoes and of course a simnal cake.

Horror Movie Party

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This is quite simple and inexpensive, the only thing you parents have to do is put up with the screams of some of the kids, and definitely DON’T turn the lights on!!

This teenager was struggling for a great idea for her 14th birthday party, and she was looking at all the themed parties, but she wanted it to be a little bit different; so she decided to use the Blair witch project as the theme.  

We know what you’re thinking, and that’s why Blair witch? Well if your teenager is into creepy thriller movies then it’s great to base the party around that.  

So anyway to have this party you will need a big tent to sleep in to create the mood of the film, you can invite as many people as you want depending on the size of the tent.  

Now you have to decorate it with creepy things, which were in the movie such as; the doll made from sticks, the stones and all the other weird decorations you can think of.  

You can also ask your mates to come dressed as a character from their favourite horror film or even from Blair witch.  

Now lastly the movies and food; you can order in pizza or have party food the choice is yours, and don’t forget the popcorn for the movies.  

Now pick your horror movies and the scene has been set.   

The girl hasn’t had her party yet but we are sure it will be great and her mates will think so too, and if you decide to go with this party theme, you will never forget this party.

Ahoy me Harties!!!

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Shiver me timbers! Ahoy ye hearties and avast thy chase for a booty of pirate party ideas are right here on this site which marks the X. For all sea dog pirates who are searching for party idea treasures for their young swashbuckler, look no further. For here lies the Pirate Party Ideas shared by parents from around the world!

Are you ready to transform your home into a family fun Caribbean port and your garden into a pirate ship? Pirate parties only come once in a lifetime and you want to make it one that your little pirate will remember forever.

Invitations.

Pirate party invitations can be a treasure map, a treasure chest, or a Jolly Roger flag with a skull and crossbones.  Just be sure to make them really special by using a fancy font, or calligraphy.  Be sure to give the start time, end time, date and location of your pirate adventure.

Decorations

Set the mood for your party with great decorations like a Jolly Roger flag flying on a ship’s mast, some old wooden signs pointing to the Caribbean or a banner over the drive saying “landlubber beware”.  Cover the party table in black or red and accent with streamers, balloons and confetti.  If you’re really ambitious you can create a pirate ship out of some large appliance boxes for a special play area just for the party

Pirate Games.

What pirate party is complete without some pirate games like a treasure hunt?  Games like walk the plank, pin the eye-patch on the pirate, or a cannonball toss, add excitement to the party and provide a time for everyone to interact

Costumes.

A pirate party just isn’t the same without all the pirates dressed in their buccaneer outfits.  Being shipwrecked and marooned at the party really requires the right outfit and the magic of pirate costumes makes the party special.

Snacks and Drinks

Don’t forget snacks and drinks for all of your buccaneer guests.   Certainly snacks and drinks that prevent scurvy are always top of the list, but sometimes it’s best to incorporate some healthy vegetable snacks while providing a pirate dip.

Have fun!!!

Budget Activities for the Kids

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The school summer break can be a logistical nightmare for parents – from juggling child care to trying to book your own holiday, it can be hard to spend as much quality family time as you’d like.

The May bank holiday, therefore, is a great opportunity to get everyone together for some old-fashioned fun – and that doesn’t mean having to spend a fortune on expensive days out. From sensory treasure hunts to making dens, here are are some budget activities the kids will love.

Go On a Sensory Treasure Hunt

Small children love picking things up and touching them, so a sensory treasure hunt is guaranteed to go down well. Plus, it’s a great way to help them learn about the world around them! Draw up a list of things for them to find, such as ‘a tree with shiny leaves’, ‘something that’s been warmed by the sun’ and ‘a brightly coloured flower’.

Make a Den

Every child loves making dens to hide away from the grown-ups in. Provide them with old sheets, blankets and chairs that they can drape over garden furniture (or indoor furniture if the weather takes a turn for the worst!). You could even get creative and help them make a ‘no grown-ups allowed’ sign for the entrance.

Stage a Spring Olympics

If you’ve got a big enough garden or a nearby park, a Spring Olympics can be lots of fun. Split your children’s friends into groups of twos and threes, and ask them to pick a country to represent out of a hat. You can then set up ‘events’ such as a relay race and discus, which would involve throwing a Frisbee as far they can.

Set up an Obstacle Course 

You can easily set up an obstacle course in the garden with items you already own, such as ropes, a wooden ladder (laid flat on the ground) and hoola hoops. Not only will the course test the kid’s agility, it will keep them entertained for hours!

 Set up a Lemonade Stand

Setting up a lemonade stand is a classic summer activity for older children – plus, it will teach them a little bit about business too. Help them make the refreshing drink by following a lemonade recipe and get creative setting up the stall in the back garden. Then all you have to do is invite everyone round to sample their creation!