How To Plan A Child's Birthday Party

Photo by Victoria Rodriguez on Unsplash

{This is a collaborative post}

It always initially seems like a great idea to plan your child’s birthday party – and then you start to appreciate the scale of the challenge and the amount of work that you have in front of you! If you are starting to feel a little overwhelmed, the following blog post is going to help you out with some of the essentials in planning your child’s dream party!

Set Your Budget

Unless you set a budget right at the early stages, it is more than likely that your costs are going to start spiralling out of control. So, divide the party into different areas such as food, venue, entertainment and so on. Remember, the bigger the guest list, the more likely it is that you are going to rack up some steep bills. If you have a limited budget, this is the time when you can start to think about how to stretch it as far as possible. Check out Bustle for how to throw a party on a budget.

Involve Your Child

Unless your child is very young or you are planning a party that is a complete surprise, it makes sense that you involve your son or daughter in the planning stages. This way, they are much more likely to get exactly the kind of party that they want. For example, you may decide to have a themed party. A popular option at the moment is based on superheroes, so perhaps you could ask what your child’s favourite superhero movie is. With younger children, it's likely you'll need to help them out with inspiration.

How to Make a Pre-Teen Party a Success

    Photo by Amy Shamblen on Unsplash

{This is a collaborative post}

Planning the perfect party can be a headache for any parent. Kids can be changeable at the best of times, and what they loved last month might not be what they like today. If you want to deliver the kind of amazing experience that your kid deserves, you might need a bit of help.

Planning a party for a preteen can be even more challenging because it’s often difficult for parents and guardians to find the balance between delivering the grown-up teenage experience that kids crave, and still catering to their younger tendencies. So, how do you make sure you impress your pre-teen with your party planning? These tips will help.

1.  Get the Right Gift

The great thing about pre-teens is that even if you mess up the entire party experience, they’re likely to forgive you as long as you get them the right present. The problem with this is that it can be notoriously tricky to figure out what your kids are going to enjoy. To avoid any mistakes, make sure that you keep an eye on your child for gift clues, for a couple of weeks leading up to the big day. You can also check out gift ideas sites like UKGifts.co.uk for inspiration relevant to their interests.

Ask for hints on the kind of presents that your child would like – most of the time, they won’t mind helping you out. You can also do some hunting online for some of the most popular items in the industry right now. Preteens generally like to keep up with what’s trending.

2.  Pick the Perfect Food

Another thing that can save just about any preteen party is the right food. Now probably isn’t the time for you to go all-in on your healthy eating strategy and try to get your kids to eat as many veggies as possible. Unless your child is one of the very few that actually likes eating healthy foods, ditch anything green and nutritious and replace it with the items you know your kids love.

Crisps, biscuits, candies, and home-made cakes always go down a treat. It might also be worth mixing up some mocktails for your kids too, to make them feel more grown-up. Placing fancy drinks into cocktail glasses can really class up a party. 

Birthday Party Fun at Go Ape (Moors Valley, Dorset/ Hampshire)

It was my twins 10th birthday last week and they enjoyed an evening out with my husband and I but due to school and all sorts of end of term commitments there wasn't a big fun birthday adventure. So to rectify this gaping hole Go Ape stepped forward with a Tree Top Junior adventure for the girls and their brother to enjoy whilst we were on holiday in Dorset.

We tried out Go Ape at Bedgebury in Kent back in April and all three of them loved it, so they were super keen to go back and had we been home rather than on holiday I'd have happily booked a Go Ape party for the girls and some of their friends.

Do you enjoy Kids Party Planning?

My girls have been to a couple of parties just recently and I have realised that we are only 3 months away from their fifth birthday and and as such I need to get on and book something. I have heard from many mothers about the competitive games that go on once your own children are at school and you have to try and compete in the Olympic sport of party planning.

To date I have managed to avoid getting involved with this big circus.  We do not have a vast amount of disposable income to spend on parties for our children and I am not really interested in being regarded as the Alpha mummy, the one whose kids are the leaders in all areas of school and extra curricular life.

The thought of planning a party for 50 kids with paid entertainment, bought in catering, personalised invitations, extensive goodie bags, professional cake, balloon modelling, face painting, individually designed and wrapped cupcakes to take away and anything else that is now considered trendy and the norm for a 'good' kids party scares the living daylights out of me.