A Birthday Party Times Three

Chris and I were inspired by an article in Minnesota Parent magazine called The best $50 party.  The author described his simple idea of the goal of a kid's birthday party. 

"Keep the kids as occupied as possible for as long as possible. (Duh.) Use things you mostly have at hand. And build in a little friendly competition with interesting rules."

We pitched the idea to the kids, who loved it.  Apparently having "stations" of activities in their preschool class had been all the rage and suddenly our DIY birthday party with "stations" trumped the birthday party warehouse full of bouncy castles.

With Oliver weighing in on station ideas, Chris and I set to work planning the party. Because we decided to host a joint birthday party for all three boys since their birthdays fall within two weeks of each other, we had the challenge of finding easy activities that would appeal to three-year-olds, four-year-olds and six-year-olds (and their older and younger friends who'd be attending the party).  We also have a really small house, a guest list that included 20 kids (plus any parents who decided/needed to stick around) and Minnesota fall weather that doesn't necessarily guarantee the option of an outdoor party.

We decided on the following stations, some of which might not have been fully planned until late the night before the party, but hey, we got it done. 

• Lego invention contest (with the littlest ones tasked with building something "tall and awesome" out of Duplos)
• Mummy toilet paper game
• Paper airplane flying contest
• Treasure hunt

On the day of the party we lucked out not only with weather that was mostly sunny and 60 degrees, but also three 20-something-year-old helpers.  We had thought it was sweet that our au pair Celina wanted to attend the party on her day off, but were super impressed when she asked if she could help out.  Even though we were plenty grateful for her help, she then came back to us and asked if two of her au pair friends could help too.  One of them even brought a homemade cake!  They got right to work helping to decorate and then ran all ran all over the block hiding treasure hunt clues before the party started.

Once most of the guests arrived, I divided the kids into three teams based roughly on age.  The birthday boys were all on different teams with each of the au pairs as "captain".  I sent the teams to different sections of the house and gave them about 15 minutes to work on their Lego creations. 

Oliver's team with their final creation. 

They followed through with the direction to build something "tall and awesome."

The next activity on the agenda was the mummy toilet paper game.  The kids had 10 minutes to wrap their captains up in toilet paper to look like a mummy.  We went outside in the front yard for this activity and I'm sure we attracted a lot of attention from the neighbors!

The game was a loud, crazy good time and Celina, Alina and Regina were such great sports. 

We were supposed to do the paper airplane contest next, but I was worried about having enough time for the final activity, so I nixed the contest and went right to the treasure hunt.  It took the kids a clue or two to get into the rhythm of figuring out the clues, but with a few helpful hints from their captains, they were off and running.  As captain of Oliver's team full of six- and seven-year-olds, Celina got one heck of a work-out in during the treasure hunt. Those kids ran from clue to clue and barely gave Celina a chance to catch her breath.  

And they're off!

The final clue for each team sent everyone back to our front porch where they found their "treasure," which was a sack of 40-piece Lego sets, with one for each kid.  Those went over very well with the kids and gave us parents an alternative to providing the dreaded goodie bags. 

With all the kids back to our home base, we set picnic blankets out on the lawn and helped the kids bring dinner outside.  We had ordered pizzas and provided other munchies that did not require utensils.  We finished the party with a round of singing "Happy Birthday" and lots of cake. 

After the kids were tucked into bed that night, Chris insisted on the two of us drinking a celebratory beer.  The birthday party had been a success, but also a lot of work!  A lot of prep went into the party - writing out clues for the treasure hunt, baking and decorating a cake, cleaning the house and shopping for food and party supplies - and many people pitched in to pull it off.  Of course it was all worth it though.  Birthday parties with silly games, homemade cake and lots of friends and family are the kinds of memories I want to make for my kids.