For those of you who have the option of choosing between indoor or outdoor parties, there are a few things you may want to consider. If weather permits, outdoors is the best place to let loose a bunch of party-hungry kids. Fresh air is good for everyone and cleaning up is usually much easier.
If you have a backyard, you’re all set. But, for those of us who don’t have the luxury of a backyard or don’t want to forsake our backyards, you can hold your out door parties for free at a local park, lake or beach, etc. These days, there are lots of places that offer to host children’s parties. And (for a fee), many of these places can provide everything – all you need to do is show up. Make sure you settle the exact details and know exactly what to expect. For outdoor parties, venues can include zoos, farms, water parks, theme parks, miniature golf, batting cages, nature centers, etc.
Indoor party venues provide you with a great option for indoor parties that aren’t actually held in your house. Some of these include restaurants (Chuck E. Cheese’s, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Burger King.), bowling alleys, ice rinks, roller rinks, movie theaters, craft shops, laser tag arenas, Gymboree, museums.
Sometimes, taking the kids to such venues is a great way to diversify, however, because of the cost involved, you may have to cut down on the number of kids that are invited.
Fire Truck birthday party ideas and photos by: Sandra from Berryville, VA My son’s 3rd birthday theme was a firefighter’s party. We started with specialty themed firefighter invitations that I bought off eBay. I printed them at home. Next I purchased a bunch of firefighter themed goodies from eBay and Oriental trading. I also ordered … Read more
Last summer, for my son Leo’s 3rd Birthday, he asked for a Beatles Yellow Submarine Party. He was crazy obsessed with the movie, their music, our Beatles Rockband game and he just couldn’t get enough of them. He knew all their names and the instruments they played and he made sure that every person at … Read more
For my oldest daughter’s sixth birthday party we expanded on this concept which we had done on a much smaller scale in the past. She chose a Candyland party theme so we ran with that. We try to limit the number of gifts our children get and focus more on teaching them the value of … Read more
First birthday ideas and photos by: Elad from Israel There are already a bunch of great 1st birthday ideas on this site. For our latest first birthday for Noa, I came up with a few new first birthday ideas while planning the party. 1st birthday parties are a challenge, primarily because the guests are usually … Read more
After watching Kung Fu Panda 2, my daughter was very excited about having a KungFu Panda party. Keeping her happy and working within our very limited budget gave us a very homemade yet exciting party for her friends from school. It also gave us lots of fun “projects” for the week leading up to the … Read more
Carnival party ideas and photos by: Heather from East China, MI For my son’s third birthday we had a carnival party theme. I mixed ideas that I got from this site with my own. Invitations: I printed 3 to a page on red cardstock and cut the corner to look like an oversized ticket that … Read more
Football birthday party ideas and photos by: Jeffere from Frisco, TX Here’s another idea from this cool website – a flag football party! (If you want to see the same children a year earlier, here’s my army birthday party write-up.) The boys arrived and all tossed the football in the front yard together. Then, I … Read more
My son was turning 6 and he always loved Space Shuttles and planets. At the same time, we saw in the news that NASA’s space shuttle launch on July 8 was the beginning of NASA’s last space mission; it was the last launch of the Atlantis. We thought what a great way to celebrate with … Read more
Cars birthday party ideas and photos by: Min from Brigham City, UT I created the invite for the Cars party from a picture I had on my computer and the simple art software I had. The party was in our backyard and for all our family so I had to make it fun for a … Read more
Garden party ideas and photos by: Sandra from Peoria, IL My son wanted a garden party for his 7th birthday. We found no help at any of our local stores, so we went out on our own. We made the party invitations – postcard style. The background was a photo of the grass in our … Read more
A couple of months before my son turned 2 we decided to do a Firefighter theme! I usually choose my kids theme’s based on what they like at the time and the cake. When I was little, the only birthday I remember was my fourth. My mom bought me a Cinderella cake. It had the … Read more
Castle Birthday party ideas and photos by: Wendy from Sacramento, CA For the Castle Birthday Party I made three particle board castle walls as you can see in the pictures. Each wall was made up of individual bricks of Styrofoam I cut to size (I used a paper stencil I made). The bricks were varying … Read more
Hawaiian Luau party ideas and photos by: Laura from Southhampton, NJ The Luau party was planned far in advance so we could make sure everything turned out without any last minute chaos. The Hawaiian Luau Party theme has always been one of Ashleys favorites, she wanted to be able to play pool games. Her party … Read more