Party ideas for 5 year old birthday

[goldilocks]

Does anyone have any creative ideas for a birthday party for a 5 year old? This can include food ideas, themes, anything!

Thanks in advance for posting!

[SusanJoy]

The most talked about activity at the last 4 year old birthday party we went to was a water balloon toss - the kids tossed small water balloons at the party girl's dad - their aim and strength wasn't that great so dad didn't get too wet. And he was a great sport about it all.

My soon to be 5 year old HAS to have that as an activity for her party this year. 'Course we live in SO. CA so we're assured of good weather almost all the time.....

Susan

[SusanJoy]

The most talked about activity at the last 4 year old birthday party we went to was a water balloon toss - the kids tossed small water balloons at the party girl's dad - their aim and strength wasn't that great so dad didn't get too wet. And he was a great sport about it all.

My soon to be 5 year old HAS to have that as an activity for her party this year. 'Course we live in SO. CA so we're assured of good weather almost all the time.....

Oh, I sound so smug about our weather - as three days of rain are about to hit!

Regardless of your weather - the other really fun thing we did with little kids Sunday school class was having an indoor snowball fight - wtih cotton balls! It was so funny to see kids heaving the cotton around - we eventually taped a few balls together with light-weight surgical tape. I've also heard of this done with marshmallows!

Happy planning!

Susan

[MrsReber]

I don't know how your weather is there, but my SIL is great with theme parties for her daughter. She had a "garden party" and made those cupcakes with the gummy worms sticking out of them. She made big flowers out of contstruction paper and decorated outside with them. Then she had some outside games for the kids, but I can't remember what they were right now. I think she was five or six at the time.

Another great idea she had was a Hawaiin Luau. She had games and gave each child a hula hoop with a little gift bag of candy. My brother was "bartender" and made pina colodas and strawberry colodas (minus the alcohol of course!!!) for the kids. My sister in law had a limbo contest and then she let the kids make necklaces with different beads and flowers she bought at a craft store. Most of the parents wound up staying for the party because it was so cute! She even went on line and looked up Hawaiian words so she could make signs for the backyard (Happy Birthday, Welcome friends, etc.) I think that was birthday number 6 or 7.

Last year (birthday number 8), they had a "disco party". That was pretty funny. My brother got some purple irridescent paper and lined the dining room walls. Then he hung some old records and discs from the cieling. They had a strobe light and he made one of those curtains- like a beaded curtain but with streamers.

Oh, and I can't forget the dress up party. There was a place that actually did this for kids! My neice invited about six of her friends and they went and had a tea party- complete with dress up! The girls could choose from different clothes that the place offered. They even dressed up my brother- all the little girls decorated him with jewelery and a hat. They have this on video! My brother was worried that my neice would tell her friends that her dad dressed up in women's clothes!

And, one other idea from my sister- she just had a bowling party for her 6 year old. Lots of bowling alleys do this now and they have bumper bowling so the ball doesn't always fall in the gutter! The places usually offer pizza for the kids (not like kids actually eat at birthday parties!) and I am pretty sure you bring your own cake.


Hope this helps you out some!

[This message has been edited by MrsReber (edited 01-26-2001).]

[lindrusso]

goldilocks - you mention that the birthday child is going to be 5, but is it a girl or a boy?? Could help weed out some themes that might not work http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif .

[maccmedia]

One thing we do every year is have a treasure hunt. One year when we had a pirate theme we had the treasure in a cooler with spaghetti we colored green to look like seaweed. Another year we got new dollar coins and had them in a little box that locked. They were lead to the key early on in the hunt then had to find the box. The kids love racing around the yard from clue to clue. Go to familyfun.com for lots of theme ideas for kids of all ages. It has some great ideas for cakes too. A good site for kids crafts to do at parties is makingfriends.com. It has great paper dolls with all kinds of theme clothes to cut out of paper or felt.
Good luck!

[goldilocks]

Thanks to all of you who have posted so far. The party is for a 5 year old boy, and it's for about 10 kids. The weather might be limiting as we are in the SF Bay Area. Any more ideas out there?

Thanks!

[MrsReber]

lindrusso- you raise a good point. I hardly think a five year old boy would want a tea party!

[gobluem82]

My son just turned 5 as well. Since I'm in snowy NY, we're limited to indoor parties. This year we're doing a morning pajama party. We're making sleepshirts with fabric paints and stampers. For games, we're going to play musical pillows instead of muscial chairs (hint: kids always hate being "out" for this game, so we play it so that no one is out, they just all have to cram themselves onto fewer and fewer pillows! They love it!)
For food, we're serving pancakes and fruit salad.

Other parties we're had: beach party (crank up the heat), and car party, where I've gotten big boxes and let the kids make cars out of them

I can also vouch for Family Fun's website, and there are several good party books authored by Meredith Brokaw and someone else who's name I can't remember that are probably at your library.

Hope this helps!

Alicia

[lindrusso]

goldilocks,

Well now that I know it's a boy, I can comment http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif ! One year I had a bug party for my son. We had a bug hunt. For the hunt I found some little plastic bug containers at the dollar store (the kinds you are supposed to keep the bug in - with holes at the top) and found bags of plastic bugs. I scattered them around the yard and the kids hunted for them. You said you'd probably be indoors, but you could adapt the hunt to inside as well. I found a caterpillar pinata as well. I find it hard to get the younger kids to actually play organized games, so the pinata and bug hunt seemed to work very well. Also, you can have the kids so something like decorate their own bag to use for gathering up the bugs - another activity to keep them occupied.

As for the cake, I did something really easy but fun. I made a sheet cake and iced it. Then I spread crumbled oreos on top for the "dirt". On top of the "dirt" I placed gummy bugs - worms, spiders, etc. You can also do this with cupcakes if you want to. I've also heard of cakes where the "dirt" and gummy worms are placed between the layers - so you see it as you slice into it.

Good luck!

[l2lnic]

You could throw a "backwards" party... (this is an idea from Parent's may 2000 issue) My oldest was too young for this on, but I thought it was cute... You write everything on the cake backwards... You do the same with the invites (be sure to tell the kids to wear thier shirts and pants backwards)... You challenge the kids to sing happy b-day backwards... You play what's missing (take a tray with odds and ends and let everyone look for a minute, remove the tray and take something away and see who guesses what you took) to play it backwards, you add something to the tray and they guess what is new... Play simon says backwards, do everything simon says in reverse...make backward id bracelets with alphabet beads....
You can also get lots of neat ideas from celebrateExpress.com They have lots of themed party ideas complete with party favors.
other ideas, treasure hunt complete with pirate hats they make themselves and you have an indoor scavenger hunt, treasure chest cake etc...