AIRPLANE PARTY IDEAS

AIRPLANE INVITATION IDEAS:

• Use a standard pastel color card stock and type up an official looking “boarding pass”. All of the wording can be customized to the party details like Joey’s Airlines as header and passenger name, flight #, seat #, flight time (party start), and departure time (party end). You can even take it farther with lines like: Passengers are allowed 2 carry-on parents if desired, Please confirm your flight with Joey Airlines by calling 555-5555, your ticket is non-transferable, and your flight will depart at Joey 3 Terminal at 5555 Elm St., etc.

• Find an easy line art airplane on the Internet, and place a photo of your child cut out and looking out the airplane window. On the back you can place party info.

• Cut out a cloud shape out of white card stock. Find in your local scrapbook section an airplane die-cut to place on the cloud. Put in the clouds, Take off with Bobby on a high-flying birthday party! On the back of the cloud, write in all of party details in a “ticket” format.

• If you do not have a lot of guests to invite, you could handwrite or type out the party info on a piece of paper and then fold into a paper airplane and drop into your guest’s mailboxes.

AIRPLANE DECORATION IDEAS:

• Section off your party area with signs labeling different terminal areas. Terminal 3 – outside on lawn or inside when guests arrive. Check in – punching a hole in ticket stub, name tags, etc. Baggage Claim – where guests place their gifts.

• Tie off 5-6 clumps of balloons in different areas around the ceiling of your home to look like clouds. Add large airplane cut-outs made from poster board throughout the clouds.

• Use your child’s toy airplanes with helium balloons tied to them as centerpieces for the table.

AIRPLANE GAME IDEAS:

• You can find inexpensive toy gliders from various party supply stores. The guests can decorate their own glider and put together and have challenges to see whose glider can fly the furthest.

• Fill a child’s wading pool with cotton balls, packing peanuts, or white tissue paper and hide small toy airplanes that the kids can search for.

• Search for small airplanes or die cut airplanes around the house to see who can collect the most.

• Have an old-fashioned paper plane challenge.

• Give awards to:

* Pre-bake (or buy) sugar cookies shaped with an airplane cookie-cutter and have the kids have fun with decorating their plane.

* You can usually find at the dollar store those little plastic parachute men. Give one to each guest, find a drop off (banister or porch) and see if the guests can drop them down into a bucket or bowl. Whoever has the best aim and is most consistent will receive a prize.

AIRPLANE FAVOR IDEAS:

• Fun toy gliders that they can take home and decorate on their own (or decorate as an activity during the party that they could take home)

• Book on how to assemble the perfect paper airplane

• Flashlight to practice the guests air-traffic control skills

• Plastic parachute men (often found at dollar stores)

• Airplane pens, pencils, key chains, stickers, coloring sheets, stamps and anything else with an airplane theme.
 

ARMY PARTY IDEAS

ARMY PARTY INVITATION IDEAS:

• Put a picture of Uncle Sam on a sheet of paper with the words, Uncle Sam wants YOU to come to Mason’s 5th Birthday party!! On the back of the invite, put You’ve been drafted! Report to Camp Smith for Roll Call and Duties. List party details.

• For time of party, remember to use military time!

• Have kids dress in their camouflage or army fatigues. Or you can have everyone wear white t-shirts.

• Make a Top Secret Invitation in an official looking 9x12 envelope addressed to Authorized Personnel Only-Guest Name. The invitation should include A Mission to complete – Report to Private Smith’s house to celebrate his 8th birthday. Top Secret.

ARMY PARTY DECORATION IDEAS:

• Have a sign on the front lawn or at the front of your house that reads Welcome to Camp Smith. Report here for roll call and party duties. You could offer sunglasses, camo hats, and/or fake dog tags. You could also face paint with camo paint on the guests.

• Set up a tattoo station – where each guest receives an American Flag Tattoo.

• Decorate your main room with artificial vines and use the plants that you have around the house to create a rainforest atmosphere.

• Try your local army-navy supply store with great bargains like canteens, dog-tags, camo nets, and medals of honor

• Have a sign set up where the guest will eat that reads Chow Hall or Mess Hall

ARMY PARTY GAME IDEAS:

• Play tug-of-war over a kiddie pool filled with water

• Set up an obstacle course for the kids in the backyard. Some ideas are: race across monkey bars, up and down the slide, jumping over logs and obstructions, crawl through boxes, climb a rope or fence, balance across a board over kiddie pool, and a quick feet through tire run. Make sure the dad (aka Major Pain) conducts the course!

• Set up small GI Joe men and have target practice with water guns

• Have a water balloon war

• Give the kids army names to go by during the party: Cougar, Tank, Sarge, Viper, Spider, Maverick, and Goose

• Play a game of Seargeant Says with kids. The losers have to do push-ups.

ARMY PARTY FAVOR IDEAS:

• Take pictures of the guests in front of an American Flag with all of their army gear on and then print and send with their thank you notes and include I survived Camp Smith (replace with your last name)

• Check out your local ARMY recruitment office and ask for any supplies they might have like pencils, pens, bags, etc.

• Give the guest at the end of the party a Certificate of Completion of Boot Camp

BABY DOLL PARTY IDEAS

BABY DOLL INVITATION IDEAS:

• Use a baby shower invitation and turn it into a baby doll party invite

• Take a picture of your little girl with all of her baby dolls and use that as the front of your invitation

BABY DOLL DECORATION IDEAS:

• Set up a play area for the mommies and the babies – using a play pen, high chair, swing, and a blanket with baby toys on it – so the girls can play during free time

• Use baby confetti scattered on the table

• Use baby dolls as centerpieces

• Have clotheslines set up with baby doll clothes pinned on the line

BABY DOLL GAME IDEAS:

• Have a stroller race with the baby doll and mommy – 2 stroller races at a time

• Have a diaper the baby race – see who can wipe, powder and diaper their doll the fastest

• Guess how many M&M’s are in a baby bottle

• Play a game of diaper toss by using a metal pail labeled as “Diaper Pail” and having the kids throw bean bags into the pail • play a game of Pin the Pacifier on the Baby (played like pin the tail on the donkey)

• Let the girls bead their own necklaces for themselves and their baby doll

BABY DOLL FAVOR IDEAS:

• Give away baby bottles with candies inside

• With pink satin ribbon, use as a necklace and a plastic pink pacifier (found in a baby shower section)

• Put a bracelet for baby doll and guest into a pink sachet bag – fill with confetti (from baby shower section)

BARBIE PARTY IDEAS

BARBIE PARTY INVITATION IDEAS:

• Have the guests bring their favorite Barbie

• Have the guests dress up like their favorite Barbie (i.e. Beach Barbie, High-Fashion Barbie, Princess Barbie, etc)

• Take a picture of the birthday girl all dressed up with her favorite Barbie with party details

BARBIE PARTY DECORATION IDEAS:

• Have all your childs barbies and accessories out so that the guests can play with them

• Lots of pastel colored balloons, glitter and sparkles all over tables

• Use flowers and fake butterflies as accents around the central party area

BARBIE PARTY GAME IDEAS:

• Have a friend or hire someone to dress up as Barbie – she can help with doing fingernails or makeup. If you can’t arrange for a Barbie to come, you can have a CD recorded of a “Barbie” that comes in the mail as a Happy Birthday to the birthday girl. You can play it at the party.

• Play a Barbie movie in the background

• Have a vanity or make-up station with purple, pink & glittery make-up so the guests can look like Barbie

• Hire someone or ask a friend to do all of the girls hair – the girls can take turn fixing their Barbie’s hair

• Play Barbie Says – your Barbie or the hostess could do “Barbie says” and all of the girls have to follow Barbie commands with their own Barbies

• Decorate Barbie t-shirts or dresses with sparkly gems or beads – give out awards for most creative, dressiest, sparkliest, etc

BARBIE PARTY FAVOR IDEAS:

• Take a pic of your Barbie and the guest and send the pic with their thank-you notes

• Give Barbies, Barbie fruit snacks, Barbie clothes, Barbie hair items, or Barbie bubblebath

BARNYARD PARTY IDEAS

BARNYARD INVITATION IDEAS:

• Have all guests dress up in their overalls

• Buy artificial sunflowers and take the center out and replace with a picture of your child and glue to a fun farm cardstock from your local scrapbook store. “Old Mac’Kenzie had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!!!

• Cut an invite in the shape of a barn and have the doors open to read all of the party info.

BARNYARD DECORATION IDEAS:

• Set out some bales of hay for everyone to sit on

• Use red/white checked tablecloths

• Have metal buckets of sunflower seeds out for snacks

• Use your child’s farm stuffed animals with balloons tied to them as centerpieces

• Put the presents in a big wagon full of hay

• Make a scarecrow

BARNYARD GAME IDEAS:

• Have a “prize in a haystack” game – hide lots of toys in a big pile of hay and let the kids have fun hunting for the treasures

• Hire a local petting zoo with all of the baby farm animals so the kids can pet and play with them

• Hire a clown that does farm balloon animals and face paint

• Use a small area, like under a kitchen table as a “coral” for little pigs. You can make the pigs out of pink balloons with a nose drawn on the front and a curled ribbon for the tail. Play a game where all the kids try to herd all of the pigs from one room to another and time them to see who is the fastest.

• Have a stick-horse race

BARNYARD FAVOR IDEAS:

• Paint black spots on white lunch sacks (cow print) and fill with lots of goodies – fold the top down and punch 2 holes in the top and tie off with red raffia with a small cowbell tied to it

• Give out bandannas and/or cowboy hats – it is cute for pictures

• Take a picture of each child with a real cow or a stuffed cow animal and send with the each thank you note.

BEACH PARTY IDEAS

BEACH PARTY INVITATION IDEAS:

• Out of card stock or scrapbook paper, form a beach ball out of cut colored paper. Have party info on the front of ball. “Splish, Splash, It’s Braden’s Beach Bash”

• Buy glass bottles, put some sand and small shells inside and an old faded piece of paper with invite info hand written on it – then seal with a cork

• Mail a real beach ball with the party info written on ball with marker

BEACH PARTY DECORATION IDEAS:

• Serve chips or nuts in beach buckets with shovels

• Decorate your yard with tiki torches

• Use blue tablecloths on your tables to look like water. Also place nets and shells as table decorations. Grass skirts are also really cute around the base of the table

• Place sand and half-buried sea shells with tea light candles on the table

• Play background beach music

• Set up a snowcone machine

• Create your atmosphere! Set up beach umbrellas with chairs along with beach tents, beach balls, towels and beach toys

• Set up signs around your yard: Lifeguard on duty, Totally Tubular, Beware of Sharks!, Surf’s Up!, and Hang Loose!

BEACH PARTY GAME IDEAS:

• Set up different sizes of kiddie pools, fun sprinklers, slip-n-slides, and a sand box

• Have a sand pail full of ice cubes with the same amount on each end of the pool. Have a relay race on each time where each kid has to jump in and retrieve one ice cube from the bottom of the pool – whoever retrieves all of the ice the fastest wins or who retrieves the most within a time limit

• Set up different kinds of kiddie pools filled with different things: sand with sand buckets and shovels (could even hide sea shells in the sand so they can find them), bubbles with wands and blowers for the kids to have fun with, one with water balloons, and of course some full of water for the kids to wade in

• Have a hula hoop contest

• Play a game of Limbo

• Play a game of volleyball!

BEACH PARTY FAVOR IDEAS:

• Fill a beach bucket full of sand toys, sunscreen, sunglasses, and candy

• Use tie-dye canvas bags full of candy

• Buy sunscreen for all guests and custom make labels, "Thank you for coming to Braden's party!"

CHEERLEADING PARTY IDEAS

CHEERLEADING PARTY INVITATION IDEAS:

• Mail out real megaphones with party info taped onto the side – or you could cut out a paper megaphone with party details on back

• On the front of invitation – put “Give me a A, Give me a V, Give me a A! (or whatever the birthday girl’s name is) What’s that spell?? And then on the inside write the name of the birthday girl – put confetti in the card to!

• You can create a pom-pom effect on an invitation by using strips of curling ribbon coming out of a small hole through the front of an invitation with “Let’s Party!” and party details on the back

CHEERLEADING PARTY DECORATION IDEAS:

• Decorate your table with pom-poms or hang from chandeliers

• Use red, white and blue as your colors or you can use your local high school colors

• Hang pennants around the girls “cheer” area

• Hang signs that say “GO TEAM” or “GO, FIGHT, WIN”

• Decorate the driveway or walkway with sidewalk chalk – draw megaphones and pom-poms and write – Go Team!

• Set up a concession stand serving concession type foods

CHEERLEADING PARTY GAME IDEAS:

• Provide t-shirts with glitter and paints for the girls to create their own spirit t-shirts, along with ribbons to tie up the sleeves – and if you want to go all out, provide knit shorts with the word CHEER across the back!

• Have a hairdresser and make-up artist come and do the girls hair and make-up – or if the girls are old enough, let them do it to each other – provide fun hair accessories, body glitter and nail polish to get ready for their cheer performance!

• Ask your local high school if you could hire a cheerleader to come and teach a cheer routine to the group of girls that they could perform to the parents at the end of the party.

• Let the girls make different mounts and pyramids and take pictures of them (you can find different formations on the internet for the girls to try)

• Decorate a journal or diary with puff paint, glitter and plastic jewels that the girls can write well-wishes to each other inside – or they can write words to cheers so they can practice what they learn at home

• Hire someone to do face-painting for the girls

• Craft idea – let the girls decorate their own cup with cheerleader motif (nice, sturdy, plastic)

CHEERLEADING PARTY FAVOR IDEAS:

• Send out thank you’s with a group picture of girls doing a cheer or their pyramid formation!

• Pom-poms

• Mini mega-phones

• Ribbons for hair

• Mini pom-poms for tennis-shoes

• Decorated water bottles or gym bags

CIRCUS PARTY IDEAS

CIRCUS PARTY IDEAS CIRCUS PARTY INVITATION IDEAS:

• If you have a little girl, dress her in a cute leotard with her arms up in the air – have as the front of your invitation with Welcome to Sarah’s Big Top Party with party details inside. You could do the same with a boy but dress him as a little clown.

• Go to your local scrapbook store and pick up primary colored card stock and cut and glue it into the shape of a big tent. You can fold the doors to the tent in so that the guest can open them up to see all party details inside. Treat the party details like an invitation to the circus. Welcome to Kaitlynn’s Party at the Big Top! In town for one day only (date) at the Ford Family Circus (address) RSVP to the RingMaster! (phone number)

• Include pretend money or tickets with your invitation for the kids to use for food and fun at your party

CIRCUS PARTY DECORATION IDEAS:

• Welcome your guests with a big sign Welcome to the Big Top!!

• Find a local rental facility and rent snow-cone machines, popcorn machines and/or cotton candy machines.

• Rent a circus themed bounce house from your local vendor

• Tons of balloons!

• Have your main area of your party to be set up as a Center Ring with a large tent. You can decorate it more with primary-colored pennant flags, streamers and balloons.

• Set up a corner of your room full of circus themed stuff animals with a big sign in front that says Don’t feed the animals!!

CIRCUS PARTY GAME IDEAS:

• Set up a face painting booth to help with little clown faces

• Have a baby pool full of rubber duckies floating with a few that have stars at the bottom. Have the kids pick which duck they think has the star at the bottom.

• Play pin the nose on the clown

• Do a “tightrope walk” by having the guests walk a skinny board over a child’s wading pool or simply putting a piece of masking tape on the ground and having the kids walk the line without stepping off

• Have fun circus music playing at the party so the children can dance around – a bubble machine makes the mood even more fun

• Hire a clown to come and do tricks and make fun balloons for the kids

• Let the kids do tricks like the animals do at the circus – hold up a hula-hoop and let the kids jump through the hoop - making it harder for the big kids

CIRCUS PARTY FAVOR IDEAS:

• With your thank you note, include a picture of the guest with the words We had fun clowning around!!

• Buy primary colored party hats that are pointed and hot glue pom-poms to the tips of them for clown hats

• Red sponge nose, box of circus animal cookies and giant sunglasses

• Use small popcorn boxes with red stripes and fill with goodies

• Give out bags of peanuts or cotton candy

DRESS-UP PARTY IDEAS

DRESS UP PARTY INVITATION IDEAS:

• Cut a star out of card stock and line the edges with glitter – have party info in the center of the star

• Send a fun plastic ring with a big jewel on it into a small jewelry gift box with confetti and tissue, along with the part details inside. “Your Invited Dahling!!”

• Take a sheet of cardstock and place a scrapbook sticker or a clip art picture of a shoe from your computer and add a piece of marabou feather to the toe of the shoe – place party info on the blank space of card stock DECORATION IDEAS:

• Have “Beauty” music playing in the background

• Decorate with lots of tulle and bows, draped around the ceiling and the table and chairs

• Drape garlands of pearls (found in a ribbon department at your local craft store) around the tables and vanity stations

• Have out a full-length mirror so the girls can see how pretty they look

DRESS UP PARTY GAME IDEAS:

• Hire or ask friends to help with different “stations” at the party: hair style, make-up, nails, & dress-up

• Have a runway show. Ask the girls throughout the party different questions like, “where is their favorite place to shop” or “what is their favorite movie” or “who is their favorite person in the world” then during the runway show, announce each girl with their answers to the questions – it is so cute – especially with little bitty girls. Decorate the runway with glitter and set up chairs for parents all around – you could even set up lights

• Have a trunk out full of lots of dress-up fun!! Some ideas are: fur, feather boas, fun hats, wraps, big sunglasses, long gloves, fake nails, jewels,

• Buy, cheap wide brim straw hats and buy jewels, faux flowers, and ribbons to decorate with and have the girls decorate their own hats

DRESS UP PARTY FAVOR IDEAS:

• Buy dress-up shoes, plastic jewelry, sunglasses, or hair accessories

• Buy small purses and fill with brush, comb, mirror, candy lipstick, candy necklaces and a sucker engagement ring

• Buy make-up bags with lip-gloss, body sparkles, nail polish and eye shadow

• If you have access to a color picture printer or a local 1-hour photo developer, designate someone to sneak out to print all pics taken of the girls in all of their dress-up clothes. Print enough pics that each girl can have a picture of everyone at the party. Buy the girls small mini-scrapbooks and have everyone have fun decorating their own scrapbook and each girl can autograph all the other girls books as a keepsake

FAIRY PARTY IDEAS

FAIRY PARTY INVITATION IDEAS:

• Place a little glitter in the envelope for whimsy-fun!

• Make a flower invitation and have the petals folded down into a circle so when you open it – it is like a flower that is blooming and have all of the party info at the center of the circle

• Use a picture of your little girl dressed in her best fairy outfit as the front of your invite

FAIRY PARTY DECORATION IDEAS:

• Decorate your party area with large butterflies scattered about

• Make a toad stool (red/white polka-dot top with white base) – would be a great picture spot

• Hang ribbon and butterflies from the trees

• Decorate the yard with the metal/plastic flowers that stick into the ground and spin with the direction of the wind

• Weave flowers and ribbons through a metal garden arch

• Sprinkle “fairy dust” on the food – or the let the kids do their own using pink sprinkles

• You can make your own fairy wings by using nylon hose and wire hangers shaped into a wing – you can make one for all kids and even use as decorations on the backs of chairs

• As centerpieces to your table, fill a terra cotta pot with M&M’s and make flower pens to put into pots by attaching a silk flower to the top of pen by using green floral tape wrapping around the entire pens – the kids can pick their flowers out of the pots at the end of the party

• Cut small stars all the same size and glue a star to the tip of a wooden skewer – paint skewer and paint stars and cover with spray glitter so the kids can use as fairy wands

FAIRY PARTY GAME IDEAS:

• Have the kids make their own flower hair wreaths by using silk flower leis and cutting and retying off to fit to the child’s head

• Have a flower pot toss by arranging 3-5 flower pots and having the kids toss bean bags into them

• Spray the girls hair with hairspray glitter and put glitter (fairy dust) on their eyelids and cheeks

• Print fairy coloring pages and let kids color with glitter crayola crayons

• Have a face painter – and maybe even a foot painter since fairies are usually barefoot

FAIRY PARTY FAVOR IDEAS:

• Pixie sticks and butterfly crackers

• Buy small wooden picture frames and hot glue little flowers on it – could be used for place settings with the child’s name inside or use as favors that they can put their pictures from party in

• Fill an organza sachet bag with glitter (fairy dust) and fill with glitter lip gloss, body glitter, and glitter nail polish

• Personalize tiny notebooks with a fun label with the childs name on it – Karli’s Fairy Nice Notebook and include fairy stamps and stickers and a fairy pen

• Send out thank you cards that say “Thank you Fairy Much”!!