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Birthday Party Planning Made Easy

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My daughter’s birthday is coming up quickly and she’s been full of ideas for the past six months about exactly what kind of birthday she wants. Aside from her request to set up a birthday tour starting at Chuck E. Cheese and ending at Kings Dominion, most of her ideas have been pretty reasonable and actually, quite helpful. For example, she’s already decided on a theme.

Birthday Party Plan

Have Your Child Choose A Theme

She’s a Hello Kitty fanatic (her entire bedroom is decorated in Hello Kitty from wall decals to the bedding) so it didn’t surprise me when she chose this as her theme. And despite the fact that Hello Kitty was all the rage when I was a kid a LONG time ago, she’s apparently still a hot commodity because I can find her EVERYWHERE. There are times I want my children to express and appreciate their individuality, but when it comes to trying to throw a theme-based party, I am delighted that they can be mainstream.

Shop Online For The Party

If you’re even an occasional visitor here, you’ll know that I’m pretty lazy. If there’s an easier way to do something, I’m all for it. Plus, I’m pretty selfish with my time because I actually like my family and enjoy spending time with them so I try to avoid activities that eat up my time (okay, except for blogging which I justify since I blog about my loved ones). So, imagine my delight when I realized I could shop for everything I needed to pull off a Hello Kitty extravaganza without even leaving my house!

At Party World, I found everything I needed for the party (aside from the guests and itemized list of gifts my daughter is pining for). For example, I not only found the piñata, but also the fillers, blindfolds and bats. And though I expected to find the standard party supply store items like plates, napkins, invitations, hats, and favor bags, I was tickled to also find a Hello Kitty game for the kids to play during the party and a Hello Kitty lantern garland to really class up the decor.  With a few clicks of the mouse, I finished half of the party prep work.

Checklist Of Items Needed For A Party

See? Here’s my checklist:

✓ Invitations

✓ Decorations

✓ Plates, Napkins, and Cups

 Entertainment:

✓ Game

 Craft

✓ Pinata

✓ Party Favors

 Menu

 Order Cake

 Buy and Wrap Present(s)

Picture Frame Craft Idea

For the craft, I think I am going to have the kids decorate their own picture frames. I’m torn between the nicer ceramic ones that might get broken and the foam ones that will be much safer and likely to survive, but less glamorous. I plan to take pictures of each child with the birthday girl as they arrive. While they are playing and eating, I’ll print the pictures on our printer and sneak them into the frames before the guests go home as an additional party favor.

Make-Your-Own Pizza Buffet

I like to make food the part of the entertainment so I’m planning on doing a make-your-own pizza buffet for the meal. Each child gets an individual-sized pizza crust and then can choose from the following:

  • Pizza sauce or barbecue sauce
  • Mozzarella cheese or cheddar cheese
  • Pepperoni
  • Bacon
  • Diced Chicken
  • Green Peppers
  • Tomatoes
  • Onion
  • Black Olives
  • Broccoli
  • Mushrooms
  • Pineapple

While they do the craft, the pizzas go in the oven. When the pizzas are done, I serve them along with a fruit tray and maybe some pretzels or chips.

End With Presents, Favor Bags And Cake

After the meal, my daughter will open her presents. Then, my daughter will hand out the favor bags as she thanks each guest for her gifts. Now the kids will have something to put their pinata treasures in so we’ll head out to do the pinata.

I plan to serve the cake afterwards just before the end of the party. Yes, I intentionally wait until I’m returning the kids to their parents to sugar them up. Mom and dad just got a three-hour break. They’re well rested and can handle it.

This is my PLAN. I try to follow this same basic timeline for all of our at-home birthday parties, but anyone who’s hosted a child’s birthday party knows that things always seem to go astray. As long as the kids have fun, it won’t matter if everything doesn’t go perfectly according to MY expectations. That’s a lesson learned the hard way after 15 years of throwing birthday parties for my kids!

11 thoughts on “Birthday Party Planning Made Easy”

  1. Pingback: Free Printable Birthday Party Checklist - WONDERMOM WANNABE
  2. Hi! I purchased frames at the Dollar Tree and in the pencil/pen/marker aisle they had really cute sheets of paper that had a sticky back already on. All I did was let the kids use my Scrapbooking punches to punch out what they wanted. They also had premade stickers and jewels to bedazzle the frames. With some puff paint and a few cheap flowers from the Dollar Tree, they were good to go! Love organizing and hosting parties of all kinds! Best of luck to everyone planning a party!

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  3. Sounds like a great, well organized party! Your daughter’s friends’ moms will have a lot to compete with! 🙂 I love the picture frame idea. The Dollar Store is a fabulous place to shop for inexpensive nicknacks. I have found the plastic $1 frames to work great for any age.

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  4. The mini pizza idea is fabulous! Love that!! I will definitely keep that in mind for future parties. So much fun, easy and tasty.

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  5. Sounds like you have it all planned out. I always like planning things a few weeks in advance so that I have time to purchase everything and make anything that we are making home-made. Hope she has a blast!

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  6. Hi Corinne – I love Hello Kitty! What a fun party. I love how you have it perfectly organized and also how you keep the cake until the end. Brilliant! Hugs, Holly

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  7. Hello Kitty is my favorite! I’ll be there to help you with the party. Although, it sounds like you’ve got it all handled and won’t need any help. Lucky girl, your daughter.

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  8. You are super organized! This is a great list and I am sure the party will go off perfectly. The Hello Kitty theme is a great one. My daughter was in love with Hello Kitty too.

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  9. I’m already planning my daughter’s 2nd birthday! Love the piñata idea, I’m sure my daughter would love it. Also will go and check out Party World for the supplies you mentioned.

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  10. Popsicle sticks make great photo frames. Cut card stock large enough for frame and photo. The girls can make frames with the popsicle sticks, pom poms, stickers, paint — whatever you want. Then use double sided tape to adhere photos of the friend and birthday girl inside.

    To strengthen the frames, glue popsicle sticks diagonally across the back (two side by side) to give it rigidity. Add a magnet or string hanger to the frames. EASY!

    Reply
    • That’s a great idea! I have tons of patterned and colored paper from my scrapbooking days. Love this! Thanks for sharing.

      Reply

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