Birthday Party Games Lady Blog

The ‘New Economy’ has gotten you to figure out how much a Starbuck’s a day adds to your expenses. It’s time to do the same kind of accounting for the next kids’ birthday party at your house.

During our decade of extravagance, we’ve gotten used to doing all sorts of things in extravagant and unnecessary ways- like those expensive coffees. And the retail world has certainly encouraged us. And just like one little cup of coffee impacts our budgets, so do all the little items we’ve come to think are essential to a successful kids birthday party. They’re not essential, many aren’t even important, and all can be done cheaply and easily.

Where is it written that a birthday party invitation has to be a quarterfold 5×4” card? That costs maybe $10 to purchase readymade? This is just one of those things the retailers, in this case the invitation purveyors, have made us think is necessary. Kids, on the other hand, prefer things that are big. Look at their drawings and other art work that they create; they’re rarely small. Which means that a full page invitation from your computer in a business sized envelope will work just fine with this audience. So you can create your own invitation, completely custom tailored to your party, easily and without owning any card creation software that spits out those quarterfold cards.

And it’s easy to do. Clip art is readily available on the web, and your Microsoft Word program gives you access to their online clip art library as well. Word also lets you play with your fonts and your colors to create an attractive and exciting invitation for your party. Word will also let you format to print on your envelope, eliminating the time consuming task of hand addressing everything. Add more (or the same) clip art to your envelope, and your invitation is enticing even before it’s opened!

With just these tools your invitation will be as unique as your party and as special as your child, at almost zero expense. If you want to get some ideas about how to tailor your invitation to your party’s theme, and create that excitement about your child’s party, take a look at any of the invitations at the Birthday Party Games Lady website- there are pictures of each on the individual party pages.

Customers routinely report a huge level of anticipation created by these invitations. That anticipation and excitement is stimulated by the challenge each one presents to the guests. Here’s what I mean: instead of “Come to our Pirate Party”, your invitation could say “Come Swashbuckle with Us and Show us your Stuff!” You needn’t be a creative genius to come up with this stuff.

I don’t, however, recommend saving your pennies by sending email invitations. First of all, the younger the kids the less likely they are to be tuned in to email yet. But more importantly, kids don’t know that most everything we parents get in the mail is somebody’s request for payment, and they want to get mail just like we do. Old fashioned, yes, but it’s the truth. So let them get your invitation in the mail and have something in hand to show their folks and feel good about.

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It’s hard to keep pace with the changes as our kids grow up. And annual events like their birthday party can be particularly challenging: old habits die hard. What worked and was important when they were 4 isn’t really what’s going to work when they’re 6 or 8.

Pre-schoolers don’t really yet know the ropes and often depend on situational cues to know what to do. So- those party hats and noise makers help them to act appropriately at a birthday party and get them on the road to having fun. But by the time they’re in 2nd grade or so, they no longer need these cues: they’re old hands at birthday parties. So- you don’t need to spend your money on this stuff any more. Save it for what’s important.

And what’s important to the fun of a birthday party is the experience. Experience is an active word. Absorbing the surroundings like decorations and a pretty birthday table is passive. We all know that kids are all about active, not passive.

It’s your games and activities that create the birthday experience, so these should always be the focus of your party planning and your party expense.

Recognize that your elementary school child may not really know what kind of ‘experience’ they want for their birthday party. Just due to their youth, you may hear “I want a (fill in the blank) birthday party this year- either because they just went to a (fill in the blank) party and had fun, or that’s what they’re into this week, or they can’t think of anything else to tell you. In all likelihood, your child is really looking to you to come up with the good ideas that make the party fun, so don’t just accept what you hear from them. Remember how many times you’ve heard “I don’t want to” and then they had a blast doing whatever it was? Birthday parties are no exception.

The word ‘experience’ also connotes something out of the ordinary, not the same as every day. Without denying the importance of play for our kids, it’s not an experience worthy of a celebration. They need your guidance and planned activities to have an ‘experience’.

But it doesn’t take all that much, and certainly not more than you can provide, to give elementary school age kids a fun birthday party experience. One of the best tricks to doing this is activities that require them to use those brains! Or have them do a familiar thing in a new way. Challenge them- to create something, to solve something, to work together on something. You can get ideas about how this can be done, or grab your whole party, with any of the Birthday Party Games Lady party packages.

To just pick one example, see how the Harry Potter party games take old, familiar games and makes them new and challenging, creating a venue where the kids’ imaginations can let them ‘be’ Harry Potter for a few hours and come away with a real birthday party experience.

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I have very few decent pictures of my kids’ birthday parties. I’m camera challenged and never planned it out right to get enough photos so that at least some of them would be good for memories. It’s too late for me. BUT NOT FOR YOU!

A professional photographer from down under has written a wonderful blog post full of tips for taking great birthday party pictures. The idea I like the most is designating a photographer- someone with no real party duties other than to shoot a ton of pictures. That way- you’re bound to get a good number of wonderful photos. There are lots of other great tips about where to shoot from, angles and other technical tips, but none overly technical. If you want good party photos, take a read.

And while you’ve got the camera, and hopefully the designated photographer, put it all to use toward your party favor. Kids love pictures of themselves, especially candid shots, and they make a great take home. Far better than the usual ‘goody bag’. When the shots are taken, enlist another parent or older sibling to print out the best one of each child at the party on glossy photo paper, slip them in to your pre-made paper frames, and they’ll be ready by the end of the party.

You’ll find a downloadable paper frame in the Birthday Favors section on the Birthday Party Games Lady website.

And if these party photography tips give you enough good pictures, make a memory book from them to commemorate the celebration.

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