Birthday Party Essentials
We can all relate to that feeling when it’s time to start planning the details of your little ones birthday, Between work and extracurricular activities finding the time to plan a party can be over whelming. Well no worries take a deep breath and focus on one aspect of the planning at a time. There are a few very important details every party needs. Theme, Invitations, Food and the activities guest will do. Focusing on the details of each aspect separately will make the planning smoother and less stressful.
To help you out there are a few things to make life easier and the party less stressful picking a theme isn’t necessary for a successful party but it is helpful. Having a theme makes choosing a cake, the food, decorations and activities that much easier. Now a days a lot of companies do themed bundles where you will get everything you need in one package like the balloons, plates and decoration. Party City and Oriental Trading are good places to start. To make it easy pick a theme from their favorite movie or favorite book to activity they love playing. Like boys Avengers or football are a popular choice and girls Frozen or gymnastics is a must have! Knowing the theme as early as possible is going to make the other planning activities easier like invitations.
Once you decide the theme of the party the invitation will be easy to choose. Many of the popular themes kids would love will come with pre-made invitations you can purchase them form target or Walmart however if you pick a more unique theme say an Ice cream social there may not be invitations that are already pre-made. Doing an invitation with the colors of your theme work too! Microsoft Word has some invitations templates you could use and still personalize them to match the theme. On the topic of invitations one of the major questions always asked is How far in advance do I send out invitations. A rule of thumb to go by is no more than 4 weeks and no less than 2 weeks. This is because if you send the invites out to soon you run the risk of the invite being misplaced or the guest forgetting the party. If you wait too long then you run the risk of your guest already being busy! If you don’t want to be stressed don’t wait until last minute to send invites! You need to have ample time for RSVP’s so you know how much food or favors to have on hand.
Choosing the food you offer at your party doesn’t have to be complicated! A couple things to always keep in mind when picking the food is that are parents staying? Make sure to stay away from common allergy foods like peanuts, the time of the party, and the length of the party. Firstly kids are not going to be picky they are more interested in playing then the food that will be served so doing something simple like Pizza or Hotdogs is just fine, If you are hosting a party where the parents are staying then you will want to have other options for the parents, Doing an easy salad with some pizza or chicken wings to a fruit tray or veggie tray can satisfy the needs of the parents staying. Having the food buffet style will make it easier on you as the host as your attention will be more focused on the children and the party as a whole. The other element to consider is the time of day your having the party if it is during the common meal hours serving meal foods is common curtsy since most people will be hungry. If your party is in between meal times and is not going to be long enough that it extends into meal times doing snack like food is okay. Serving popcorn or fruit or some trail mix are all ways to sustain them until the end of the party where they will leave and go eat. Now you got the theme, the invitations and the food decided next is the activities.
Once again having a theme will make this decision easier. Playing games associated with a theme can be fun. Here at Flips we incorporate themes in our Gym play. Our Prearranged themes we have our Carnival, Minute to Win it and Dance party that bring all the fun and laughs to the children. If your theme is different let say Avengers or Frozen we take the common known games like freeze tag or sharks and whales and rename them to fit the themes. Example with Frozen theme we use Elsa as the individuals it in freeze tag, and have them use their ice powers to freeze town’s people. Then Ana’s who comes around and unfreezes them with love so they can run free again. Any game and any theme can be tweaked to each other to tie the activities into the theme.
Planning a party can be stressful but take a deep breath and break it down step by step. If you’re planning a party with Us here at Flips our Birthday Coordinator can help you with all the decision to make it less stressful on you!
