6YO and 3YO birthdays coming

[CulinaryJen]

I need ideas for party favors and games for my two sons' future birthdays. One will be 6 and the other will be 3.



I am planning on having the parties here at home, being the most additional children coming here would be 7.

My older son will want a Star Wars party, plus his birthday is near Halloween.

[ajrsmom]

Hi Jen! Are you planning one party for both of them? Do you want a combo Halloween/Star Wars party or only one or the other?

Are you planning on playing games? Serving food? Costumes?



My sons BD is right before Halloween so I can give some tips for that too.


Let me know and I'll see what I can come up with.

[CulinaryJen]

Hi!

I am planning on throwing them separate parties.

6YO: I was thinking of combining the Star Wars / Halloween party, and have them come in costumes.

I would like to play games, or organize some sort of craft. Something!

My 3YO would be a separate event. As crazy as this may sound, he won't be 3 until January 8th...but with school starting, my other son's birthday and the holidays...I don't want to leave it for the last minute, if you know what I mean!

[VicRae]

Hi Jen,

Just some ideas for you. Since you are online. You could find a website with some Star War graphics and copy them and use them to print your invitations, then maybe if you just use the outlines of the graphics print up some color sheets and use brown paper lunch bags or sacks and run them through the printer to make goody bags for the guests.
Since you may have time and if you are crafty you could make a pinata in the shape of a Fightership, and fill with candies of blue, black, brown, green or gray colors. Or you could make confetti popcorn and add a small toy in a baggie. Make enough for each child to get a bag. This way there will be no hard feelings.


Confetti Popcorn:

Popcorn which you have pre-popped as usual, set aside. About enough to fill a large four quart pan.
Mix the following in a 2-Quart saucepan to cook:
2 Cups White Sugar
1/2 Cup Water
2 Tablespoons Butter
Food Coloring- any color you want to make it.
Cook and stir with a wooden spoon, until mixture is at softball stage, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat add food coloringinto syrup. Stir real good and pour over popcorn and mix with woden spoon until all popcorn is well covered. Pour out onto a tray to cool and dry. Can be bagged into sandwich bags and add candies or toys. Also can be eaten out of a bowl as a sweet snack.


You can make two or three batches each of different colors and have a camoflouge mix.

**********************

If you could get some posters of the new movie coming out use them as prizes or decorations. Try your local movie theather's.

As a craft maybe they could color their goody bags to take home.

You could make Paper Flyers and have a contest to see whose will fly further or swing a hoop and see how many times they can throw them through the hoop.


Hope this helps with the 6yr old.
Vicky

Will think of ideas with the 3 yr old.

[Jamieb4]

I LOVE almost Halloween birthdays! My oldest was born on 10/25.

The kids seem to love dressing up, trying to bite apples hung from a string (as opposed to bobbing in water), making masks from paper plates and trying to toss home-made bean bags into a bowl or jar (you could disguise the jar to look like some Empire target, and the bean bags could be proton missiles).

Then, there's pin the *** on the ***. Could be "tail" and "donkey", or "helmet" on "Vader", the kids will love it!

I learned early that about 3 games/party are all they can handle, they'd rather play with each other (kids age = number at party, so five guests plus party guy for oldest's party).

Instead of guest bags, I make party poppers for the kids. It's different, and fun, and a blast at the table. I use empty toilet paper rolls, cut a tissue paper crown for each, put in some silly joke (like "What do you call a hot dog and a root beer on Hallowe'en? Frank and Stein!) (a different one for each, obviously), a balloon, a lolly, and a small prize. Then I wrap the whole thing in theme wrapping paper, tie the ends in curling ribbon and fray the ends of the paper with scissors. Kids that age don't mind that there's no loud popper inside, although you can usually get a string popper left over from the 4th if you hurry and you really want one (I don't use them at all for kids).

I also keep the party short so there's no possibility of boredom, no longer than an hour and a half.

For someone who's three, I still give family parties. I don't start with "friend" parties until "real" school. That way, there's no hurt feelings if there's a classroom full of pre-schoolers who might be left out, and neither you nor the child is overwhelmed by a too-large party of small people. If he really wants his "own party", and there's a way to do it, just "invite" his brother and set up a special, brothers-only game time. Maybe make it a livingroom sleep over, with a family special meal (maybe Mr. 3 loves Mac'n Cheese? Pizza? Chicken?) followed by Candyland or Twister (OK, I LOVE to watch a 3 year old try to play Twister...), cake 'n ice cream, gifts and party bags or poppers, and a special movie and sleeping bags on the living room floor.

Well, guess I'm long winded! Anyway, there's my thoughts. Hope it's somewhat helpful!

Jamie

[VicRae]

Hi Jen.

With your 3 yo maybe you could have a couple playmates over for a small playdate instead of a big party about a week before your other party. Or have a couple friends over and have a picnic inside instead of outside incase the weather is bad. Setup a small tent and let them pretend that they are camping. Even have them bring a sleeping bag and pillow and a favorite stuffed animal to nap with if you want them to stay awhile. Invitations: A tent shape or baseball cap shape. Print the information on the backside of the shapes.

Party favors: Could be a baseball cap or sunvisor with their name on the front.

For food:
You could make peanut butter sandwiches and cut in animal shapes. With some raisens. Make some green or purple kool-aid and call it bug juice.

Games & Activities:

You could make playdough and they could make animal cookies or build and sculp anything they wanted to and have a small prize for each one.

Treasure Hunting!
Take some dry rice in a bowl/bucket/box. Purchase some gummy worms or bugs/ candies as long as it edible, and mix into the rice.
Give them each a paper cup and see who can find the most gummies in a minute or two. Then give the one who finds the most a small prize.

Going Fishing!

Have some small branches and tie a string onto the end of eah and tie magnets on the end of the string. Cut out some fish shapes out of construction paper and put numbers on each fish, then put paperclips on each one. Then have the boys see how many they can catch off the floor. And the one with the most points could win a bag of goldfish crackers.


Prizes could be snackbag size of snacks or small cars or toys. And possibly small can of vennia sausages and porkin' beans.

Hope this gives you some ideas to use, mix and match any ideas you want to use.

Have fun.
Vicky

[sandieluvsbears]

Vicky, please dont take this the wrong way, but how many little kids want a can of sausage and beans as a prize??

I dont know if you have had the parties yet or not Jen, but my dd was just telling me about a cute bday party my 2 gd's went to, it just so happened it was this little kids bday and his dogs Bday,lol, so they combined it, and all the kids that had animals got to dress them up and bring them to the party for a pet parade (only do this if the party is outside)they had a little barbecue with hamb. hot dogs, chips etc., and the pet and the child (oh I forgot to mention) the kids dressed up too only if they wanted to,got a prize for best costume, also there was a prize for the "best" behaved dog, or cat, there was even a hamster (in his cage there).