What to do with ALL THESE KIDS?!

The Princess is turning four in less than 2 weeks, so we’re planning a birthday party. This is the first year we’re inviting “friends” of hers and good gracious, I’m pretty freaked out at the thought of all these pre-schoolers taking over my house (including The Princess, we’ve got five definite “yeses” at this point). I’ve got the cake planned (and a pretty cool unicorn cake-topper), Hubby has his mind set on having a pinata.

What else?

I’m hoping that there are people reading this who might be willing to share with a non-Martha-Stewart-type mom things to do to entertain kids at a birthday party.

HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP!

About sarah

Sarah is a book nerd, a music lover, an endorphin junkie, a coffee addict. Oh, and a goof ball. She writes, she tweets, and she sings off key.

Comments

  1. At my 5th b-day, my G-ma and great-aunt came to entertain all of us. By the end of the day, the other girls were asking if they could have my relatives at their parties too.

    I don’t remember all we did, but we played some simple games that got us up and moving. I do remember them reading or telling us a really fun story while we had a snack.

    You could do the “Let’s go on a bear hunt” thing and incorporate your own made-up adventures into it. (There’s a book using it, but it doesn’t have half the cool stuff my mom puts into hers)

    What about getting a couple mini-swimming pools (the cheap plastic kind), filling them with sand and some inexpensive toys (bubbles, bouncy balls, plastic rings, etc.), and having a treasure hunt or archaelogical dig?

    A craft project might be fun too. Something simple and washable…….foam door hangers or picture frames, planting a seed in a flower pot, water painting a picture of a unicorn or something, making a paper mobile of characters based upon Princess’ favorite story, etc. (for that you’d just need to find coloring book pictures and make enough copies to color, have some kids’ scissors, some yarn, a hole punch to put the yarn through the paper, and a coat hanger to tie everything to)

    Just some ideas…..whatever you end up doing, I hope you have a blast and that Princess and her friends enjoy the party. The pinata sounds really fun too.

  2. Katherine says

    I’m thrilled to hear you’re not hosting what we, around here, call a “birthday spectacular” – taking them someplace expensive, or renting bouncy castles, ponies, magicians, etc.

    I vote for the old-fashioned stuff – pin the tail on the donkey, musical chairs, playing dress-up, treasure hunt.

    Have fun with it and happy birthday to Princess!

  3. Do you have a theme? With a unicorn cake topper, it sounds like it might be a magical fairytale party.

    Little girls love to dress up and wear crowns, etc. You could let them decorate their own. I saw some foam crowns at Walmart that were around a dollar (more or less). Eliza decorated one for my mom for mother’s day. There are all sorts of shiny things they can stick on them…Walmart has tubs of sequiney shapes. Then you could take their picture wearing their crown and send them their picture in a thank-you note. (They’ll love wearing the crowns during the party.)

    There are also foam stickers for fairy tales in the crafts dept. which you could do like Katherines idea of “pin the tale on the donkey” except you could draw a mountain on a piece of butcher paper and have each little girl (blindfolded of course) try to put her castle on the top of the mountain. The one who comes closest wins a small prize. At the end be sure to draw a cloud under each castle floating in space, and some grass under those on the ground. Maybe some light beams or a rainbow around the one that wins. Or better yet let the kids draw on it.

    Another fun game for little ones is “hide in plain sight.” You take all the little girls out in the hall so they can’t see. Then somewhere in the room you hide ‘in plain sight’ something to go with the princess theme (a slipper, a toy frog wearing a crown, etc.), then the girls come in and the first to find it wins a prize. They’ll want to do this over and over. Make sure it’s not hidden under anything or where it can’t be seen. It must be out where they can see it. One way to make sure the same child doesn’t win over and over is to let the winner hide it the next time.

    With four year olds, the main thing is to keep them from hurting too badly if they don’t win. Nothing too competitive. I love inkling’s idea of planting a seed a la Jack in the Beanstalk. It’s the perfect time of year for that. A magic bean no less.

    I just had a thought about a ring toss around a unicorn’s horn. We made a horse for Andy’s Kentucky Derby race out of a sock and a flagpole, and I don’t think it would be hard to add a horn to it to let them throw a ring around the horn. I think it would be simple enough for them to do if they stand pretty close.

    The bear hunt inkling mentioned is one of my favorite songs. But change the bear to something like a dragon if you are theming it.

    You’re going to have fun, and Princess is going to have a ball (pun intended).

  4. Awesome ideas! I’m so excited now (and I don’t often get excited about the thought of organizing games and stuff for a herd of children! ; ) !!!).

    I’ll have to go checkin’ out Walmart for the crowns – there are two little boys coming, so I’ll have to find something “kingly” maybe?

    I love the idea of doing a craft they can take home with them – saves me from having to put together goody bags, plus, it occupies the kids!!!

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