We are an in-home birthday party kind of family. Not only because it costs less, but because it is actually what my kids want. This year I asked Big C what kind of birthday party she wanted and the only thing she was specific about was that she didn't want to have 'birthday' cake, otherwise she was perfectly happy to have her friends over.
WELL THIS OVER THE TOP MOM SAYS - NO WAY!
So I 'helped' her get excited about a Painting Party, knowing that it would be messier than our previous Fancy Nancy or Under the Sea themes, but remembering that organized activities make a huge difference when it comes to preventing running and screaming. Here is how it all went down.
Invitations
Unless you invite the whole class, my kid's school doesn't want birthday party invitations making their way to the classroom. That means I can send a quick e-mail to all the Moms about 2 weeks in advance. I never waste time putting together a fancy invitation, it's the least important part of the party. This year, although I reeeaaally wanted to, we didn't invite kids simply because she went to their party last year (I don't ever want anyone to feel left out!) We gave her a max number and she made a list of her friends. She wasn't even worried about some of the kids feeling left out. "I'll just say my Mom said 8!" Once we received a few declines, we added friends to the list. In total we had 10 kids. Entirely manageable for a couple hours (with a couple bottles of wine.)
FoodI have a fully stocked pantry so I didn't have to run out and do an entirely separate grocery shop for the party. Outside of a fruit tray and a couple extra vegetables, the only additional grocery items I bought were pocketless pitas which I used for pizza crusts and a tube of pepperoni. Our grocery bill was approximately $35.
We served:
Personal pepperoni pizzas (I made 12 in about 20 minutes - we had loads of leftovers), a fruit tray (honeydew, cantaloupe, pineapple, red grapes) and various veggies with ranch dip (cucumbers, snap peas, carrots.) To drink, they were offered iced tea or milk. Shocking how many chose milk!!
Activities
Besides gift opening, we had 3 other activities planned. The major project was a piece of art that was to be part of their take-home gift. I had some awesome friends 'donate' old shirts for smocks and they each filled their own dollar store canvas with water color. Through a series of unfortunate events, I only use Crayola color supplies at my house, so annoyingly the paints were the most expensive part of this party at about $40. But cost aside, I now have a year's supply of water colors for my daycare craft cupboard. After the $1 canvases were full of water and paint, we drizzled glitter glue all over them and sprinkled them with table salt. The results were pretty darn cool. Here's the pin: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/539798705311834899/
When it was time to clean up, the kids scooted downstairs for some freeze tag, more accurately ran and screamed and 7-year-old-flirted with BD, and I set up for the next activity, more accurately put up a piece of poster board and took a few sips of wine.
The second game involved the kids drawing a portrait of Big C while they were blind folded. THERE WAS SO MUCH LAUGHTER. I had written 12 special things about Big C on draw slips and each kid took a turn adding them to the portrait. "Big C has long eyelashes," "Big C has pink stripes on her dress," "Big C has a freckle above her lip." They had a ton of fun. The poster board cost me $3, because naturally, I needed the one with the glitter frame.
The whole time my kick-ass sister was helping out, so for a little while, she ran the 3rd activity which was the Photo Booth. It was basically a basket full of silly costume accessories, an over-sized picture frame and a collection of dollar store table cloths as the back drop. I then used the table cloths for mess preventives at daycare for all of our holiday crafts. A GENIUS $8.
Two hours went very quickly with those three things alone and before we knew it, it was time for gifts and cake. LB and I set the table up for cake while Big C opened her gifts and BD tried to maintain a bit of order in determining who gave what. One mom gave a #7 sparkler with her gift and I was SOOOOO happy, because to be honest, we would have had to use tea lights!
The Cake
I usually go all 'Buddy Valastro' on the cake because I looooooove to midnight bake, but recently Big C has decided that she doesn't like 'birthday cake' and we were kind of going with a rainbow theme. So I kept it simple with an ooey gooey brownie and an icing technique I like to call 'DON'T FAIL ME NOW PINTEREST!' Visit my board http://www.pinterest.com/nochocolate4u/midnight-baking-with-wine/ for more decorating tips enhanced with vodka paralyzers.The Goodie Bags
I don't know about you guys, but I am tired of my kids bringing home POS plastic toys and candy that I'm never going to let them eat anyways, and quite frankly the environment is tired of it too. So I put in a bit of extra effort (aka - I crafted while watching a couple episodes of How I Met Your Mother) and pushed out a few cutsie, usable gifts that cost me a grand total of...wait for it...$3.00 each. They also took home their art projects.
You guys, this was so easy and SO fun. 10 kids, 3 hours, >$150. Not. too. shabby! Pinterest really does make my world a better place!
S
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