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Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief has been turned into a movie and will be in theaters soon. My 11-year old son loves the books and nagged me to start reading them as well. I read the first one to do him a favor and the other books for my own pleasure. I am now finishing up the last book: The Last Olympian. I’ll be honest. I love to read and there are some great kid’s books out there.
Books make great kids birthday party themes, more so than movies, because they allow for more imagination. The kids (or young adult) books I have been reading and have developed birthday parties around are Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Harry Potter and The Magic Tree House Series. These are all great books and fun parties.
The Harry Potter birthday party has been around for a while and is called Wizard Academy, because the kids get accepted to Hogwarts, just like Harry. The classes lend themselves to great activities, with Potions being my favorite. Check out the fun Potions we put together at birthday parties. A little messy for sure, but that is part of the fun. Don’t worry; we always clean up after ourselves. This party is loved by boys and girls from 7 and up.
Percy Jackson Birthday Party Theme
The new Percy Jackson and the Olympians birthday party has a Camp Halfblood theme, with lots of the activities to keep the campers busy. We have to play most of the games outside. After all, it is hard to play “Capture the Flag” indoors, isn’t it? Blue food takes center stage and of course the party has a little ocean tinge as well, since Percy is the son of Poseidon. This party is geared toward kids 8 and up, although I think it will work best for boys that are a little older. This is a tough crowd to pick a birthday party theme for anyway, so this may be perfect for you if you have a 9 or 10 year old boy.
In the Magic Tree House series, Jack and Annie travel in a magic tree house to historical and mythical events throughout time. The enchantress Morgan Le Fay and Merlin the Magician send them on missions to save stories, Camelot, and people from impending doom. My 5-year old daughter is a big fan and I think I have read about 20 of the books to her already. At birthday parties, we’ll take the kids on a mission to retrieve a special item, cast rhyming spells and travel home in time for cake. This birthday party theme is great for kids from 5-7.
Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and the Magic Tree House are really great books that are also fun birthday party themes. What are your favorite kid’s books? Do your kids have a favorite that might be great for a birthday party? Let me know in the comments and I would love to develop a fun theme around it.
With my daughter’s 5th birthday coming up next week, we have been talking about her birthday party quite a bit over the last couple of months. She wanted another Princess Party, since she loves to dress up and I guess last year’s Princess Party was a big hit. Now when it comes to my own kids, I like to experiment a bit and not do the same party over and over again. With a bit of a compromise, for her 5th birthday party, we settled on a Princess Tea Party, or as we put it in the invitation, a Royal Tea Party.
The princess dresses are still there and yes, they’ll get to play with make up as well. But instead of making wands, we’ll make pretty necklaces that the princesses will wear to the royal tea. This is also a great time to work on their etiquette and good manners. We can only hope that their good manners will last longer than the tea party. The table will be beautiful with lots of gorgeous dishes, table linens and flowers.
I love tea parties, because they are very versatile. You can adapt them to just about any theme your little girl wants. Here are 3 more tea party themes:
Teddy Bear Tea Party
Teddy Bear Tea Party
The girls build their own teddy bears at the party and then take their new friend to tea. Set little place settings for the teddy bears and let the girls pretend that they are having tea and crumpets. Use small teddy bear cookie cutters to cut out mini sandwiches for both girls and bears.
Garden Tea Party
This is a great tea party to have outdoors in a gazebo or under a canopy. Incorporate the birthday party girl’s favorite items: lady bugs, butterflies, or flowers. Let the guests decorate straw hats with pretty ribbons, flowers, ladybugs and butterflies and then they can wear their fancy hats to the tea party. Don’t forget to have a floral centerpiece on the tea table and decorate the cake with butter cream roses.
Fairy Tea Party
Fairies love tea, it’s true. The girls can dress up as fairies with their skirts and wings, and make wands as a take-home craft. Have lots of glitter (fairy dust) ready to glue to the wands and to sprinkle over the table. The fairies will fly over to the tea party, and eat their butterfly shaped sandwiches.
It is easy to adapt your tea party to the theme your daughter wants. Have you ever thrown a themed tea party? Share your tea party themes and tea party success with us in the comments.
Photo by Amber S. Wallace Photography, North Carolina
If thinking about your child’s next birthday party has you breaking out in a cold sweat, help is close at hand. Daphne Bousquet, the owner of Oh What Fun Events, a kids’ birthday party planning service, has written a new e-book that makes planning that kids party a little easier.
The title of the e-book, “101 Kids Birthday Party Tips: Save Time, Money and Your Sanity” says it all. The e-book is designed to help busy parents stay on track, which in turn will help them save time and money.
“Parents want to make their children’s birthdays special and parties create wonderful memories, both for the child and the parents,” says Bousquet. “I wanted to use my experience to make it less stressful for parents to plan a great birthday party and still save time and money. I think that is something we can all use more of.”
Chockfull of tips that help busy parents streamline the party planning process, staying organized before the party and on track during the party, “101 Kids Birthday Party Tips” is sure to reduce the high stress levels that normally come with planning a kid’s birthday party.
Bousquet shares a few of the tips from the book:
Save time with a party box.
Create a box with all your party supplies. Things to have in it are paper plates, napkins, candles, matches, balloons, streamers, happy birthday banners, decorations from years past that are still in good shape. You can stock up on paper goods in different colors when there is a sale. When it is time to throw the party, take inventory and add what you still need. You won’t be looking all over the house for things you may have and you won’t buy things that already have, but you had forgotten about.
Save money by scheduling a weekday party
Everyone wants to have their birthday party on the weekend. Parents are not working, it is easier to get kids to the party; you know the reasons. It is also the cause that weekend parties are more expensive. There are only so many hours in a weekend and only so many parties to be hosted. If you can host the party on let’s say a Wednesday afternoon, many planners and birthday locations will give you a discount. After all that is a time where they do not normally make money. To make it easier for your guests’ parents, you could offer to pick them up from school and take them directly to the party. You could also schedule an early evening party and include dinner.
Save your sanity by enlisting help
If you did not hire a hostess/planner, ask a friend or relative to help out. Most of us qualify for the title of Supermom. We do it all, encourage, nurture, homework helper, first aid giver, chauffeur, full-time job, cook, clean, you name it, we do it. But hosting a birthday party with the planning, entertaining of the kids, getting all the details ready and running around during the party? That is crazy! You have to give yourself a break. This is simply not something you can do all yourself. So if you did not hire a planner, (which is what I of course recommend) be sure to enlist help. Ask a friend to be in charge of setting up the birthday cake and lighting the candles. Have someone in charge of drinks for the adults. Hire your child’s favorite babysitter to help you entertain the kids. Just don’t do it all yourself. Your sanity will thank you.
Wondering what kids party food to serve at your kids party? It is not a requirement to serve food at a kids’ birthday party, unless you are having the party at lunch or dinner time. If you do serve food, just keep it simple. Remember, this is not a gourmet crowd.
If you are not having the party during lunch or dinner hours, it is fine to just have cake. You can add some munchies like chips or ice cream with the cake if you want, but again, it is not required. As parties should be short, 2-3 hours max, the focus should be on the games and activities, not on the kids party food. You should have plenty of drinks available to avoid dehydration, especially if you are doing games and activities that involve running, jumping and dancing.
Here are 3 steps that keep your lunch time celebration easy and fun, and several menus for some great kids party food.
Step 1 – Do You Need Lunch?
Determine if you need to serve lunch. If your kids birthday party time falls anywhere between 11am and 12:30pm, you’ll want to serve food. Many kids are used to eating around 11am or 11:30am, so if your party starts or concludes at that time, be prepared. You also don’t want to send the kids hyped up on sugar and cake and have their parents try to feed them lunch after the party.
Step 2 – What To Feed The Kids?
If you are having the party during lunch or dinner hours, be sure to keep the food simple. Think about what your kids like. It may just be hot dogs, chips and apple sauce cups. Your child’s birthday party is not the place to experiment and serve new foods. Prepare kids party foods that are easy to handle by little fingers and don’t need any utensils. Have some fruit available, but don’t sweat the nutritional value of your offerings.
Here are some effortless menus that are loved by kids, yet easy to make for the party host.
Make kids sized finger sandwiches with peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese, cream cheese and cucumbers or anything else that strikes your fancy. The key is to slice off the crust and cut the sandwiches into small triangles. You can also use cookie cutters to make them the shape of your party theme.
Bagel bites are loved by kids and with good reason. What is not to love about mini bagels covered in melted cheese? Stock up on some boxes of these frozen wonders, pop them in the oven and they’re ready to go in no time.
Roll cheese sticks that are cut in half lengthwise in ham or turkey. It looks fancy, but it is easy to grab for little hands and kids love them.
Mini corn dogs or cocktail wieners are also a great choice for kid parties. Anything that is easy to grab and does not necessarily need a plate and utensils are a good option.
Pair any of these menus with baby carrots and thin celery sticks served with ranch dip and small bags of chips. You can also use fruit chunks such as apple slices, strawberries, grapes or orange wedges served with vanilla yogurt for dipping and small bags of goldfish. Don’t forget to serve juice boxes with 100% juice and small bottles of water. With the birthday cake coming up, hyped up kids don’t need any extra sugar. Their parents will thank you.
Step 3 – The All Important Birthday Cake
Consider a cupcake birthday cake. These birthday cakes pull apart, because they are made with cupcakes. They come in many themes and are very affordable, because you can determine how many cupcakes you need. It is also much easier to serve and you can have a variety of flavors all in one cake.
Kids birthday party food should be simple. If you are not having the party during lunch or dinner, stick with cake and perhaps ice cream. The 3 simple steps will help you determine whether you need to serve lunch, what to serve for lunch and how to serve the all important birthday cake. Choose one of these menus for some easy kids birthday party food. Simple is better in this case. After all, you are not serving a gourmet crowd! Save the elaborate menus and for your adult friends and family and make the kids birthday party food easy on yourself.
This is a great Christmas activity from Clementine Art. You can make a festive star garland to hang in front of a window or to decorate your child’s room for the holidays. Clementine Art features art products such as crayons, markers and play dough that are completely non-toxic and are made with all natural ingredients. They are available online or at your local Whole Foods.
Thanksgiving is upon us and as everyone here in the US is buying their turkeys and planning their menus, there is one more thing that needs to be planned. How to entertain the kids!
If you are expecting a house full of guests tomorrow with a bunch of kids, this blogpost will come right on time. Here are some fun things for the kids to do, while you are in the kitchen preparing the turkey or socializing with the family.
First thing to do is to prepare a craft table for the kids. At this table, put out Thanksgiving coloring pages, plenty of crayons and markers, construction paper in orange, brown, yellow, black and white, scissors and glue sticks.
THANKSGIVING COLORING PAGES
There are a ton of different Thanksgiving themed coloring pages on the web for you to print out. Here is a nice collection.
TURKEY NAPKIN RINGS
Supplies: Toilet paper rolls, construction paper, scissors and glue. Wrap and glue a rectangular piece of colored paper around a toilet paper roll. Cut in 4 equal rings. Trace handprints onto construction paper. Create turkeys out of the hand prints, by drawing a beak and eyes on the thumb and feet on the bottom. Decorate the turkey’s feathers (fingers). Glue onto the toilet paper rings and your napkin rings are ready!
MAKE A PILGRIM BONNET
Why not dress up for Thanksgiving in your own pilgrim bonnet! Easy to make in any size, so that it fits your child - or the doll collection!
Supplies: A3 sheet of thick white paper/ thin card, glue stick, white ribbon, sticky tape (or strong glue)
Instructions:
Fold a strip about 2 inches wide along the length of the card, to form the front brim of your bonnet. Fold the card in half, with the fold on the outside. Fold the back of your bonnet over about ½ and inch and glue to secure. Tape or glue two pieces of ribbon to the front of your bonnet.
MAKE A PILGRIM HAT
To make a pilgrim hat for you to wear, bend a black piece of construction paper around into a pilgrim hat shape and tape it closed in place. Next take a black piece of construction paper and cut it into an oval hat shape and attach the top of the hat to the bottom. Add a tin foil buckle to the front and your hat is ready to go!
THANKSGIVING RIDDLES
You’ll be the toast of the table with these Thanksgiving riddles to entertain the kids (and some grown ups!)
What kind of key has legs, but can’t open doors? (Turkey)
Why didn’t the turkey finish his dessert? (Because he was stuffed!)
Why did the turkey cross the road? (Because it was the chicken’s day off)
Why did the pilgrim cross the road? (He was chasing the turkey)
If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? (Pilgrims)
ACTIVITY PLACEMAT
Restaurants know that an activity placemat keeps kids entertained and less likely to act up. Keep your kids entertained at the kids table with the Thanksgiving Activity Placemat from Family Fun.
Daphne Bousquet, CMP is a birthday party entrepreneur and author of 101 Kids Birthday Party Tips: Save Time, Money and Your Sanity. Her Oh What Fun Events brings fun themed kids birthday parties to homes in the Metro Atlanta area. As Certified Meeting Professional she has extensive experience in planning events, from large festivals to small intimate gatherings. A Mom of 2, she takes the stress out of planning birthday parties for busy moms.
My 101 Kids Birthday Party Tips eBook is finally finished and I am so excited about it! I bet you looked forward all year to your birthday when you were a kid. Just as your kids look forward to their birthdays all year now.
Birthdays are such momentous occasions for kids and parents that they warrant a special celebration: the KIDS BIRTHDAY PARTY.
This eBook is designed to help you plan a great birthday party that will create lifelong memories for your children. These kids birthday party tips come from my 20+ years as an event planner, and my experiences working with kids.
With chapters like the Guest List, Themes, Games and Activities, Take It Easy On Yourself and Planning the Party, you’ll have concrete advice for what to do and what not to do to have a birthday party your kids will love.
101 Kids Birthday Party Tips also answers the burning questions:
– Should my child open the gifts at the party?
– Do we really need to give out goody bags?
– Is it necessary to send a Thank You note?
– What is the best time of day to have a party?
The book even includes reminders for those last minute items we tend to forget in the flurry of planning activities.
Some of these tips are no-brainers, while others may provide an AHA moment. In any case, following these tips can save you time, money and even your sanity. Because the one thing I have learned through the years, you MUST be at least a little crazy to be an event planner.
Daphne Bousquet, CMP is a birthday party entrepreneur and author of 101 Kids Birthday Party Tips: Save Time, Money and Your Sanity. Her Oh What Fun Events brings fun themed kids birthday parties to homes in the Metro Atlanta area. As Certified Meeting Professional she has extensive experience in planning events, from large festivals to small intimate gatherings. A Mom of 2, she takes the stress out of planning birthday parties for busy moms.
How old is too old for a kids birthday party? That is the question I have been thinking about in the last few weeks. My son turned 11 last week and has always enjoyed the birthday parties I have planned for him. Although it was harder to come up with a creative party theme for 11 year old boys, I thought I had some good ones.
One of my 101 kids birthday party tips is to involve your child in planning the party and picking the theme, so I ran the themes I came up with by him. My choices were Percy Jackson and the Olympians/ Camp Halfblood or a James Bond/Spy Academy party. My son is an avid reader of the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordon and made me read the books as well. With the movie coming out in February, I thought it would be a fun party.
Strangely enough, he thought the James Bond party would be ok, but he wasn’t overly enthusiastic about it. Now I love planning birthday parties, but I am not crazy enough to plan a party for my son without his full cooperation. I started thinking that he might feel to old for a party.
Since my son is not one to share his feelings readily, I had to do much prodding to find out what he really wanted. With only a few days to spare before his birthday and many suggestions later, I hit upon a solution: Take a few of his friends to the movies. Another one of the series he is reading, “Cirque du Freak, the Vampire’s Assistant” has a movie out, and that was where he wanted to take his friends. 10 and 11 year old boys pretty well can entertain themselves, so it was the easiest party I had ever done.
Cirque du Freak Party
To keep in with the vampire theme, I put together some vampire inspired goody bags, complete with vampire teeth and Madam Octa gummy spiders. The boys came over for pizza and Make Your Own Ice Cream Sundays. To get them in the vampire mood, I had an informal taste test of what kind of blood they liked better, vampire or human. I served them their “blood” from glass pitchers containing tomato juice and V-8 and the boys were suitably grossed out.
I am kind of sad it is the end of the kids birthday party era for my son. Thankfully I still have a 4 year old daughter that loves her birthday parties and I get to plan lots of birthday parties for my clients. By the way, if you have a child that would like to have a Spy Academy or Percy Jackson birthday party, please hire me. I have lots of great ideas just waiting to be implemented…
Daphne Bousquet, CMP is a birthday party entrepreneur whose Oh What Fun Events brings fun themed kids birthday parties to homes in the Metro Atlanta area. As Certified Meeting Professional she has extensive experience in planning events, from large festivals to small intimate gatherings. A Mom of 2, she takes the stress out of planning birthday parties for busy moms.
With Halloween coming up fast, I figured I’d share my favorite Halloween party games for kids with you. I last did these with a bunch of hard to please 10 year old boys, and they had a blast!
Halloween Party Games
Slime Relay
For this game, you first have to make the slime. Although I have a slime recipe on my Harry Potter Potions post, this one is much more eco-friendly. That is important, as the kids will be spilling most of this slime on the ground. Note: make sure you do this game outside!
Use 1 part water, tinted with food coloring, (I use green and yellow for a nice yucky color) and 4 parts corn starch. Swirl it around in a cauldron, until it has the right consistency. It should look liquid, but have a smooth, thick texture, that oozes when you touch it. You may have to mix it with your hands to get it just right. Make this slime right before you use it; it will turn hard after sitting for about a half hour.
Divide the kids into 2 teams. Place 2 cauldrons with slime on one side, and 2 empty cauldrons about 20 yards away. The object of the game is to transfer the slime as fast as possible, from the filled cauldron to the empty cauldron. This is difficult, since the slime will seem solid, but changes to liquid when you hold it! At the start sign, the kids run one by one, relay style, with as much slime as they can carry in their hands to the empty cauldron.
Expect the kids and your backyard to get messy.
The Mummy Wrap
Divide the kids in teams of 2 and give each team a roll of white crepe paper. While the music plays, one team member has to mummify the other by wrapping them with the crepe paper. They should leave the head unwrapped and the arms separately. When the mummy is complete, they hop to the finish line, trying not to break the wrapping.
Have fun and have a great Halloween with your favorite ghouls and goblins!
Daphne Bousquet, CMP is a birthday party entrepreneur whose Oh What Fun Events brings fun themed kids birthday parties to homes in the Metro Atlanta area. As Certified Meeting Professional she has extensive experience in planning events, from large festivals to small intimate gatherings. A Mom of 2, she takes the stress out of planning birthday parties for busy moms.
Well, it has been 30 days and this is my 30th post. The 30 day blogging challenge has been a great experience, forcing me to post on a consistent basis. The weekends were rough, as I try to spend them with my family. Between soccer games for my 2 kids, one of which I actually coach and their other activities, no time is left to write and post. Especially since I tried to schedule a post for the weekend and completely lost it altogether. I guess it’s floating in Wordpress Purgatory.
Not posting on the weekends meant I kept falling behind. Of course, the competitor that I am, I wanted to complete the challenge, so this is my 5th post in the last hour. Quite impressive, if I say so myself!
More posts meant I spent less time focusing on keywords, yet my traffic went up by quite a bit. For a new blogger like myself that is quite exciting. So thank you, Sandra Martini, for issuing the challenge and making me learn more about clients, myself, and my business.
Daphne Bousquet, CMP is a birthday party entrepreneur whose Oh What Fun Events brings fun kid’s birthday party themes to homes in the Metro Atlanta area.
As a Certified Meeting Professional she has extensive experience in planning events, from large festivals to small intimate gatherings. A Mom of 2, she takes the stress out of planning birthday parties for busy moms.
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101 Kids Birthday Party Tips
101 Kids Birthday Party Tips: Save Time, Money and Your Sanity has great tips that help you plan your party, keep you organized and stay on track at your kids birthday party.
With chapters like the Guest List, Themes, Games and Activities, Take It Easy On Yourself and Planning the Party, you’ll have concrete advice for what to do and what not to do to have a birthday party your kids will love.
