Outdoor party games:

 I'm a summer birthday myself & so is my younger daughter. I must say we have it pretty easy when it comes to planning a summer party. There is so much more you can do outdoors than we can in (mainly because we are in an apartment)


Water Balloon fight:
Fill up a ton of water balloons and store them in an extra cooler the day before the party (that or get up really early and while drinking coffee start filling them up) It might be good if you have a lot of people coming to have two coolers reserved for the balloons. When it's time for the fight, go over whatever rules necessary & let the kids run wild. This is also fun is any of the kids have a water gun.

Red light, green light
Object: To be the first kid to the "traffic light"
All the children stand at one end of the backyard (this really only works if you're outdoors ;) ) and the "Traffic light" (the person chosen to yell "Red light or green light") is all the way at the other end. The person who is the traffic light turns their back on the group of children and yells, "Green light!" The children run toward them, but be careful. If the traffic light turns around  and yells "Red light!"all the children must freeze. Anyone who keeps moving or falls must go back to the starting line.  The first person to reach the traffic light wins.

Relay race:
Hopefully you have an even number of children, or a very nice adult to play on someone's team. Split the kids up into either groups of two or  just two large groups. Choose an object (like a baton) that must be passed from player to player. With team mates standing on opposite ends of the field they must run to the opposite side to hand the baton to their teammate who must run back to the opposite side. If you're using more than one teammate on each team the group whose players finish first win.

Three legged race:
I would only play this game only with older children. Set the kids up into groups of two. Have them stand next to each other & tie their legs that are next to each other together. Have the groups walk together to the starting line (this was they have an idea of how to start walking in the first place) The first group to get to the finish line wins.

Sack race:
You'll need either real sacks or pillow cases you do not care about for this game. Distribute a sack to each person playing at the starting line. The players must hop their way to the finish line. First person there wins.

Scavenger hunt:
This is more aimed toward older kids ( although my best friend and I did this to my husband for his 21st birthday when he knew what he was getting for his gift). First decide how many places you want the hunter to go. This will help you come up with the clever rhymes to send them on their search. Make sure you number the envelopes and write in small letters where it is supposed to go  (not where they are supposed to go. Where you want to put the envelope). 
Before the party place the envelopes in the correct spots & when it's time hand the first envelope to the kids.

Treasure Map:
An alternative to the scavenger hunt is just making a map of the backyard (or where the party is being held) have them walk 10 steps (you can mix it up by making them do Kangaroo hops to the swing set, or walk backwards 5 steps to the sofa)

Planning a Birthday Party

My daughter is turning six in November- it's amazing to think that she has been around that long.

We don't exactly have the space to house a party in our apartment, but I refuse to drop $250 on a party at MyGym (again).  My favorite words on the invitation: Drop off. Meaning as long as you can handle just catering to the children you will have more space and less money to spend on feeding adults as well. I've noticed over the years that children behave better when their parents are not around.
So our apartment it is. 780 square feet, 8 adults and 10 kids. Am I crazy? yes. by My husband is going to help me push our furniture against the walls. Anything that will fit into our  bedroom will be hidden in there with the door closed. If you're lucky maybe you have a friend who will let you borrow their backyard.

Hannah chose Lemon Meringue (no not the pie) from Strawberry shortcake as the theme of her party. Since they don't make anything that is actually of Lemon Meringue for the party, I got creative. Since we are doing the party indoors, there is limited space for us.

First I came up with party games that you regularly play at parties with kids and decided how was I going to change them to go with the theme. (Example: Hot potato /hot lemon or for our Snow White theme it was  a poisoned apple)

Pin the Tail on the Donkey. / Pin the Lemon to Lemon Meringue
If you can draw, this works great for you. If not, hopefully you have a printer. Decided which character you want to use (We've done: Pin the boots on Boots the Monkey from Dora, Pin the Bow on Minnie, Pin the bow on Snow White, Pin the Rose to Belle, Pin the Lightening Bolt to Bolt, add a wart to the Witch, etc..) Start off with a poster board you buy at Target ($1.50) and free hand draw the character onto the poster. If that is not in your talents, google the name of the character you want to use. Find a good photo and copy it into paint on your computer. With the picture still selected, stretch the photo out to make it bigger.
When you feel it's big enough go to file, print preview. If the image does not come up on four pages it is not big enough for you to print off and tape together to use. Keep stretching the image until it is.

Notice in the picture below in the  "print preview" Lemons head is on two piece of papers- that's how I know it will be a good size.

There is also an option under "page set up" to have it adjust to"100% normal size" That should help you enlarge it faster.

Once you have either drawn or printed off the picture (glue it to the board if you're printing), color the picture the appropriate colors.  If you printed the picture off, it's probably a good idea to go over the picture with a sharpie to make it more defined. Chose something on the character that the children can "pin" to the board (in this case the girls will be pinning Lemons' Lemon hair clip to her hair). These can be made by tracing the original drawing of the picture (lemon) and making copies.

Check out my other Blogs for more party games to play:

Classic games to play
Outdoor party games

Getting Started 10/13/2011

I've never been one to "blog" about anything. After helping another mom with a costume idea for their daughter, she suggested making a blog to help others.

Before you even start making your project, it's very important that you have all the items to make the projects. I've done that with baking before and half way though I couldn't finish my pumpkin bread. A sad moment in my house.

I will stress heavily about using coupons ( I mean it's like money people!) Before you go out, check your Sunday paper or go online to Michaels.com or JoAnn.com  and print off your coupon. They even have coupons for Partycity.com. If you're buying online one of my favorite places to look is retailmenot.com. They help you find promo codes to get discounts on your purchases. (I should have been paid for all this advertisement)

So make a list and like the jolly fat man in red suit check it twice- Let's go make crafts.