Your child’s birthday is a time to celebrate- its been another year of growth and hopefully good health. Inviting people to share in this special time is a way to foster relationships, it shouldn’t be about topping the last birthday party, held two weeks ago at another child’s house!. So changing the way one approaches planning a birthday party goes along way to ensuring a big success- with minimal stress – both for guests and hostess.
If you can look at planning a party as a chance to use your creativity, your enthusiasm will spread to your children, and hey can help in the planning process too. Plus with access to the internet and with so many professionals in the fields of party / food / entertainment business, there are abundant ways to make your child’s party go smoothly, despite a crowded flat of hyper party guests.
Setting up a party schedule a month or so ahead will help gaurantee that you have time to plan for caterers, entertainers, venue (if you plan to hold your son’s or daughter’s party away from home) etc. The first thing to do is to decide on a theme. Now, as a parent, you that children most often like what is popular at the moment as in right now! According to http://www.birthdayexpress.com/ – they list dozens of possible themes – some very popular character themes are Pokemon, Barbie, Thomas the Tank Engine, and mIckey mouse. Some popular themes not driven are Butterflies, basketball, construction and make-up.
Now that the theme has been chosen, it’s time to plan where to hold it – home or elsewhere. If you are going to hold the festivities at home, you need to consider if you want to prepare the food yourself, or have the event catered. There are a number of caterers in Jakarta to do the needful. So why fuss when you can have beautiful, delicious food delivered to your home, complete with tableware and wait staff if necessary.
What’s next
Okay, now the food is sorted out. It’s time to arrange the entertainment. We’ve put the entertainers into a separate section, party entertainers. So, after booking your magician, balloon twister, face painter, the food, it’s time to send out the invitations. This should be done at about 3 weeks before the big event. Something which has become popular recently is sending out virtual invitations, via the internet. Find out everyone’s e-mail address, and then select one of your own. There are other ways to send invitations as well. Just make sure there is the RSVP by date listed on the invitation.
Two weeks before the party you can call people to confirm if they are coming or not. Then the week before – and usually parties are held on the weekend since schooldays are too packed – you can remind them that the party is just next week.
Another important part of the invitation should be if parents are requested to stay, or for older kids, just need to drop off and collect their children at the end of the party. Careful wording will avoid hurt feelings.
Okay, the timing of the invitations has been mapped out, what’s next? Well, planning the birthday cake! If you are having the event catered, there may be a cake provided. However if you are doing it yourself, you need to go to your bakery at least three days ahead to order your cake, including size, flavour, decorations etc.
Final Details
Yes, everything has been accounted for – but what about the older guests? Don’t forget the parents who are participating in your six-year old’s birthday party. They should be provided with refreshments as well, since helping to keep a group sorted of 15 6 year-oldas is quite a job.
There are also party favors to be bought and given out. If you are having a theme party, it is relatively easy to to plan what to give. The party favors bag should be given as guests are litrally out of the door – you don’t want a group of kids on the floor, comparing notes – they will never leave. If you ae having an entertainer come, they often provide souvenirs/favors, so ask ahead.
PARTY GAMES
Although fun, you don’t have to settle for ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey’ or ‘Hide and Seek’ alone. Check out the following suggestion :
There’s a bug on my back – many variations of this game exist. For kids , put a picture of a bug on each child’s back. They have to ask other party guests Yes or No questions to try and figure out which critter they are. Qustions like “Do I have legs?”, “Can I fly?”, and “Am I multi-colored?”are just some examples.
Musical animal acts – taking musical chairs one step further. Set up the chairs as in musicl chairs, and when the person cannot sit down, they must pull the name of an animal out of the hat, and act it out, while everyone tries to guess the animal. Makes the game longer, and is much more imaginative.
Birthday cake hunt – like a treasure hunt, but done indoors. Divide the party guests into teams, and give them a set of instructions. On the way all teams will encounter party favors, so everyone gets something, and the team who finds the birthday cake first gets served first (after the guest of honor of course!)
Honey Bee guess – again, a variation, this time of the ‘how many beans in the jar?’ game. Fill ajar with yellow and black jelly beans, counting how many are in the jar. As the guests arrive, have them guess how many jelly beans are in he jar. The one who guesses closesest wins and gets o take the jar filled with the yummy candies home.
Balloon Relay Race – a good game for children before they become self consious around members of the opposite sex. Divide the guests into two, hopefully equal, teams. Line them up in a straight row and give the first person in each row a balloon. They must put the balloon between their knees, then turn and pass the balloon to the person behind them. There are no hands, only knee to knee. If the balloon falls to the ground, that team must start all over again. The team to successfully pass the balloon down the line wins.
