Over the weekend, we hosted 12 other children to celebrate my daughter’s 8th birthday.
14 kids altogether.
14 kids…and my husband and I lived to tell about it. Although, we didn’t move from the couch that evening…but we did survive.
I was a little nervous about entertaining 14 kids, ages ranging mostly from 5-8 years old, with a couple of toddlers sprinkled in.
Birthday parties have gotten a little out of hand for us in the past. A few years ago, a Monkey Joe’s opened up near our home. If you haven’t heard of Monkey Joe’s, it’s a play center with wall-to-wall inflatable slides and obstacle courses. It is super fun for the kids and we let each of our girls have one birthday party there, but this year we are curtailing those type of expenses, so the parties are at home.
But now, my husband and I had the tough job of making the at home birthday party as super fun and memorable as a Monkey Joe’s party. And have I ever mentioned that I’m not a super fun, creative person?
So my daughter and I brainstormed. She wanted a costume party–she loves that her birthday is close to Halloween. She wanted a dance party. And she had a long list of friends that she wanted to invite.
So this is what we came up with:
The kids would paint small pumpkins to take home. They would also make caramel apples to take home. My husband would make a fun, kid-friendly play list for everyone to dance to and if the weather was nice, the kids could play flash light tag outside.
For the food, the kids ate pizza and drank apple cider. I also served these cute fruit pumpkins and ghosts. I found the idea on Pinterest, but it’s not linked to a site, just an image, so I don’t know the original source. We peeled clementines and stuck a green Mike & Ike candy for the pumpkin stem. I used black writing gel icing for the ghost faces. The Halloween fruit was a BIG hit with the kids…and the other moms.
My daughter saw this spider cake at Giant while she was grocery shopping with me. It was a cute cake that was completely out of my skill set, so I spent the $12.99 and bought the cake.
The party was a complete success. The weather cooperated, so the kids could play outside. They also danced around our house to the Monster Mash and Michael Jackson’s Thriller. In the end they gathered around my daughter as she opened up some presents. My husband and I gave her a Speedo backpack for her swim team. She was quite delighted.
Good times were had by all and my daughter had the memorable and super fun birthday party I was hoping for!
Tell us about your child’s last birthday party? How did you make it super fun and memorable? Let us know in the comments.
