Planning your child’s birthday party will be a blast. The party planning professor is here to help with many birthday party ideas. Popular kids’ party themes with free mom-created party ideas will make lots of smiles. Use our party games, party planning tips, easy to make birthday cakes and cupcakes and tips on how to save money and throw a cheap birthday party. Host a fun children’s birthday party at home or at any location. Let us help you celebrate with our birthday party ideas.

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*The ideas in this party post are courtesy of Carol from Lula Lola. A self proclaimed blogging dork. She loves to write, read other blogs, take pictures and generally share the insanity that’s happening around her. Please check out her site!*

For her son’s 7th birthday party, Carol planned a great event that was sure to entertain his first grade classmates, as well as some very special friends.

Carol is a scrapbooker, so in past year’s she has handmade invitations, (you know how Party Planning Professor LOVES crafty party planners,) but this year she decided to use Photoshop Elements to create the invites. Utilizing technology is a great way to still be crafty but also save on mess and possibly money.

She found the perfect picture of her little man; but it had Christmas stockings in the background and this just wouldn’t do for a birthday slated for March. So she put her Photoshop skills to the task.

She made sure that the background was made into a layer. Then using the magnetic lasso tool, outlined him. From the Selections drop down menu she chose Select Inverse, (Select>select inverse,) then hit delete. She was left with her little man removed from his surroundings.

Next she made a new file with 4×6 dimensions. Using some digital scrapbooking elements she created the amazing invitation you see below. Because she made it with the 4×6 dimensions she was able to print the invites inexpensively at Walgreens. Frugal Momma and super cute invites!

Stayed tuned for later this week as we find out Carol’s plans for the rest of the party!

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For a Taxi cab birthday menu we didn’t have to reach far for ideas. New York has taxi cab a plenty and nothing is more fitting like vendor food. Honestly, nothing can be as simple either. Hot dogs were a hit, served NYC style, hamburgers, and just for fun, we threw some roasted chestnuts, and soft pretzels.

Call me a cheater because I cheat when I can. We ordered a cake that looked like a scene from the Disney movie cars; but we told them to hold the Mater and Lightning McQueen and we replaced them with emergency vehicles and a taxi cab in the center. My son never knew that the cake was not hand crafted like Mom’s normally are and I had one less thing to worry about. This professor says….cheat when at all possible and if that means working with a store bought cake, then you have got it made. I promise I won’t tell.

Games were not that hard to plan. A taxi car birthday is completed with Red light/Green Light. For the adults I had the old show “Taxi” trivia set around the food items and we also painted box cars into taxi cabs. This was a great activity and when they were dry we held box car races. We even gave out speeding ticket violations and parents tried to get in the boxes and hail the taxi cab down to get taken for a ride. We all had a good time.

To finish a taxi cab arrived on schedule to make a trip around the block with each child and the birthday boy and his parent.

This party seemed a hard one a first but it was not that hard to pull off.

You can’t conclude a party with sending the kids home with a memento of their fun-filled day.

Goodie Bags included:

• Silly String (I am a terrible mom I know but they are fun and the cans were gone by the time the kids left the house)
• Taxi Cab Cookies bought from a local bakery prewrapped and decorated.
• A Taxi Car
• and of course a Jeff Hat (the ones that taxi cab drivers occasionally wear)

With a little imagination and ingenuity you can pull off almost any party theme your child requests! Just remember it’s the little details that often have the most lasting impression and if you’re going to have parents at the party as well try to get them in on the fun as well.

PARTY ON!

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I am way behind on party posts. I assume that is because I have been doing so much partying. (Is that possible)

I recently threw a birthday party styled to fit a NYC cab theme per my 3 year old’s request. It is, after all, his birthday. The whole situation perplexed me seeing that he had only been in a taxi cab only once before. That one time must have left an impression.

I searched high and low for decorations to fit a taxi cab and came to the conclusion that I was on my own with this one. But, I prevailed and yes……the party planning professor’s founder threw a smashing taxi cab decorated party.

Black table clothes were no hard find. In every party store there is an over the hill section so try your hardest to think out of the box. We also created a yellow overlay table cloth and as a center piece we improvised and created a center street down the length of our table. We decorated with yellow and black balloons.

Taxi cars were scattered about.

We were happy to see that the the 3 year old’s brother was able and WILLING to pitch in. We set him to cutting strips of paper. We wove these strips of paper to make checkered place mats. It was pretty impressive when the table came together. I was happy to see the day shaping up to be a success.

Instead of using taxi cab streamers we created black and yellow chain link streamers. I wish I could show you pictures but recently my computer crashed and all of my pictures from the last year were lost. I was devastated. My computer has recovered “technically” but I am still wounded. Please let this be a warning….back up your pictures. They are priceless. Of course we will remember the day forever and I just happened to share some on Facebook. so at least I have a shot or two saved from the many I lost.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about the menu and games we had. You won’t want to miss it!

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This is a guest post from Liz Muirhead, who blogs about health and fitness at Looking Good (for a mom). Liz is a thirty-something working mom of two wonderful kiddos, who got fed up with using her kids to explain her flab and found a way to get the best body of her life!

In this last installment of our “How to throw a Make-over birthday” series, Liz will go over exactly how she scheduled the party to go.

Activities:

When planning out our activities, I wanted to allow some time for guests to arrive, and also plan some activities for down time, when girls were not at a makeover station. And, since my experts weren’t going to stay for the whole party, I wanted to make sure we used their time well. So here’s a breakdown of how we spent our time:

• 2:00 – 2:30 Girls arrived. We passed out shirts, and the girls selected microphones and glasses. I turned on Taylor Swift, and they sang and danced together. Totally cute, and totally fun!
• 2:30 – 3:00 Facial time! I passed out headbands, and my mom and I mixed up clay mud masques from my own personal supply. We applied the masques with facial sponges, and the girls had fun laughing at each other and watching them dry. I had individual facial cloths, which the girls used to clean their faces when everyone was done. There was a lot more singing and dancing until our helpers arrived!
• 3:00 – 4:15 I passed out schedules to the girls, telling them which station to go to in which order. The girl doing hair was kept pretty busy, as most of the girls wanted a full head of curls. My mother did a few french braids and a bun, and I helped out with make-up. Eventually, our second student was done with make-up and able to help finish the hairdos. Of course, they all had their nails done. When a few girls finished before the rest, I turned on Disney Sing It for the Wii, and they did karaoke.
• 4:15 – 5:00 We have pizza and cake. A few girls were still finishing their hair, so we did the singing and cake in the dining room, where the hair station was set up. After the cake, my daughter opened her presents!

In the end, the party was a HUGE success. The girls went home looking and feeling gorgeous (without being overly made-up), with great keepsake favors (their shirts), and I was a hero to my daughter, who said it was the best party I’ve ever thrown her.

Total Cost: $209. That’s a savings of about $100 over the base Sweet and Sassy party, even before counting the money I would have spent on food ($50 at home). And, it was over an hour longer.

Can you throw a party like this? Absolutely! Now that I’ve done it, my advice is to seek out and book your guest helpers in advance, and raid your own product and supply stash to see what kind of make-over related activities you can add to your party without having to go shopping. It also might be fun to have a craft for some girls to do while others are getting their makeovers, if you don’t have something like karaoke to keep them busy.

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This is a guest post from Liz Muirhead, who blogs about health and fitness at Looking Good (for a mom). Liz is a thirty-something working mom of two wonderful kiddos, who got fed up with using her kids to explain her flab and found a way to get the best body of her life!

Expert Staff:

As I mentioned, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to handle everything on my own, and I didn’t want to call in favors from friends, so I went looking for people I could pay to help with the party. I called around to some of the local beauty schools, looking for students who might be interested in some extra income and practice. What I learned is that many schools can’t send their unlicensed students to go out unsupervised, even for a kids party such as this. So I talked to some people at a few local beauty supply stores and found out that they knew most of the students attending cosmetology school at our local high school in the afternoons. Why didn’t I think of that? Within minutes, I had a phone call from a High School Junior, Kelsey, who said she would love to help and would bring a friend. I promised them $25 each and hung up, relieved. Since there would be so many manicures to give, I didn’t want a student, but a real pro. So my mom asked her manicurist to come. As a favor, she agreed to do it for just $50 ($5 per manicure, as it turned out), even though her normal rate was higher. It was worth it. She brought her own nail dryer and was quick, friendly, and efficient!

Cost: $100 for 1-1.5 hours of three trained (or semi-trained) professionals with their own supplies. Well worth it!

Accessories:

To help make things a little more fun, I purchased some glittery sunglasses and blow-up microphones from the party store. I thought we’d crank up the music and the girls could sing and dance. This turned out to be money well spent, as I’ll explain below.

Cost: $15 for 12 sunglasses and 12 microphones

Next up: Activites!

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This is a guest post from Liz Muirhead, who blogs about health and fitness at Looking Good (for a mom). Liz is a thirty-something working mom of two wonderful kiddos, who got fed up with using her kids to explain her flab and found a way to get the best body of her life!

Favors

Favors are actually a pet peeve of mine. They seem like such a requirement, but most of the parents I know look for the first opportunity to throw away the junky “made in china” toys that come in most goody bags. Planning out the party, I knew we were going to be doing facials. I thought – why not buy shirts for the girls, that they can put on over their clothes to keep them clean during the facials. Then my mom stepped in and offered to use her embroidery machine to put each guest’s name on her shirt. I knew this would be the best favor ever – something useful and pretty! If I didn’t have access to an embroidery machine, the alternative would have been doing cute iron-on designs.

Cost: $44 for eleven matching pink shirts (supply your own awesome mom or friend with an embroidery machine)

Food:

I scheduled the party for afternoon, from 2pm until 5pm. I knew the girls would want some snacks but didn’t want to provide junk. So I bought some fresh fruit at the store, and made two large bowls of air-popped popcorn. I planned to serve a small meal of pizza around 4pm, and then finish up with ice cream cake (my daughter’s request) at 4:30pm, just before the party ended.

Cost: $10 for the fruit; $20 for 2 medium pizzas, delivered; $20 for an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins; $0 for the popcorn, since I used what I already had in my pantry

Next up: Staff and Accessories

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This is a guest post from Liz Muirhead, who blogs about health and fitness at Looking Good (for a mom). Liz is a thirty-something working mom of two wonderful kiddos, who got fed up with using her kids to explain her flab and found a way to get the best body of her life!

As a working mom, there are a lot of things I miss out on doing for my kids. So when it comes to throwing birthday parties, I tend to go a little overboard. This year, my daughter turned seven. She’d outgrown a lot of the themes we’d used in previous parties, and a character-based party just didn’t seem appropriate. (They grow up so quickly!) So after some strategy discussions, we settled on a makeover party. Since my daughter’s birthday falls in mid-January, and I’m always too crazed by Christmas to plan ahead, I had just two weeks to plan the party.

Possibility #1:

Although it’s really not my style, I considered outsourcing the party. There’s a cute salon for kids called “Sweet and Sassy” near our home, so I called them up to see what options were available. Here’s what I found out.

Their parties had several things in common:

• Party is 60 minutes for the makeover and 45 minutes in the “cake room,” for a total of 1 hr and 45 minutes.
• No cake or food is provided
• Guests receive a favor in the cost of the party; favors vary with the party type

The entry level party was just under $300, and the top level party was just under $400. As an extra, you could pay an additional $75 for a 20-minute limo ride, which would take place during the 45 minutes allotted for the “cake room.”

Well, the parties sounded great, but faced with the option of dropping up to $400 on a short party (under 2 hours) and still having to buy food, I thought I’d consider…

Possibility #2:

Do it myself! While much more my style, I knew I wouldn’t be able to single-handedly give makeovers to the 9-11 girls likely to attend the party. And while my mother went to cosmetology school back in the day, I knew I would still need more help. Here’s how the party broke down, how I ended up tackling each area, and what it all cost in the end.

Invitations

After searching around on the internet, I managed to find an awesome graphic (collage of fashion magazine covers) that I used as a background for invitations. Printing them out on my home computer was quick and easy, and they were able to go off to school the next day. I found many free downloadable invitations on the internet, but chose to use the background graphic instead.

Cost? Free!

Stay tuned for favors and food!

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My son, The one that had the Elmo Birthday Party last year is getting older.  It sucks.  I think with the aging of this one I am more hesitant to enjoy the birthday parties because it symbolizes that he is no longer a baby.  He is getting bigger and is now going to be the big THREE.  I am getting over it and realizing that it is still a reason to PART’AY!  I love it.  So, he wants a Taxi Cab party because we recently had a trip to New York City.

As normal step number one is always invitations.  So, here lies the invitations that Taxi Cab Birthday Guest will receive.  I had fun thinking up the little Taxicab poem.  Hope you enjoy.

Attn: (receivers name)

“Hail” the Cab and Race on Over,

(Birthday Boys name) the 2 year old is not headed to Dover.

Nope, the racetrack is not where his party will be….

But @ his house In a yellow taxi!

“Hail” the birthday boy for it’s his special day,

Don’t worry about the taxi meter this one you will not have to pay!

The party will start when the clock strikes 5,

The dinner and dessert will be sure to worth the “drive”!

RSVP: must be done to license plate 555-5555, the taxi driver

Who’s that you ask? Who else than the birthday boys mother.

Join us where there will be checkered cabs galore,

Honking horns, traffic jams, ice cream, cake and more!

Beep Beep,
(Birthday Boy’s) Taxi Company

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So probably the easiest part of a Wii Birthday Bash is the decorations. However, it will require you to break out the scissors and constructions paper!

Start off with picking the colors for your party. Let the birthday boy/girl choose for themselves. I suggest using at least 3 colors just to give you a variety. Now go out and get latex ballons, streamers, plates, napkins etc to match. Or if your child loves Super Mario Bros. you can find some great plates and napkins to use at Amazon.

Next do an image search on Google for characters from your child’s favorite Wii games. This can include characters from Super Mario Bros. or better yet you can create some Mii’s using the site I provided in the last post. Print them off and then hang them from streamers you’ve stretched around the room. *Hint: if you print out some Mii’s make sure to create a stencil out of one to use for a craft, details in the entertainment post.*

Remember that the center of the party is the Wii tournaments and the birthday boy/girl. The decorations need to add to the fun atmosphere and get your guest in the mood to play!

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