The Big 6th Birthday Party
This was the girls’ first "big" friend party. Last year they each invited a couple of classmates for a low key party. This year there were many more invitee's, with 25 total kids invited. That may sound like a lot, but when you've got two kids inviting friends from three classes... it adds up quick! The day of the party we had 17 kids having fun and laughing their tails off.
We also hired a clown/magician for some of the entertainment. Just as we were deliberating on what to do for the girls’ party, we happened to be talking to some friends of a friend who very highly recommended "Rainbow Trout". Her highlights, as witnessed at another twin party, included incredible face painting, a hilarious magic show, and balloon sculptures. This got enthusiastic applause from the soon to be birthday girls. She also provided a bean bag toss game with prizes. Man were they stoked!
Suddenly our previous plan A became our plan B and Rainbow Trout was booked. It may sound over the top to hire a clown. I didn't ever see myself as the parent who held big birthday bashes with over the top entertainment. But I'll tell ya, she was incredible and pretty inexpensive... especially when you start comparing it to hosting parties at other activity type centers. She was well worth it!
Our second planned activity was cake decorating. The girls have been so interested in cake decorating since Carie took her class this past winter. So we were on a mission to pull this off. Then recently the girls attended a birthday party at Doodle Cakes where they got to decorate cakes. All the party guests seemingly had a great time and the girls were still interested in doing that at their party... with a twist. We weren't going to pay the money they were asking to host a party there. No way, no how.
Carie had most of the supplies she needed. We bought the cake rounds and boxes inexpensively. We even found a place where we could buy a case of 5" round cakes! I was willing to make them, but not one at a time! So a box of 48 cakes later, we were in business and ready to roll. Carie made all the frosting, assembled the base of the cakes, and colored the frosting to the meet the girls’ requests. The kids went to town experimenting with the different decorator tips and had a great time making their own masterpieces. One parent later reported that her son was so excited that they weren't allowed to look at it he was ready to show it off to everyone.
We opted to skip the birthday present opening in favor of keeping the kids engaged and having fun. It worked awesome for us! It totally removed the potential for chaos at the party.
When we sent out the invites we included a little note to the parents. The note talked about our approach to the party and how each girl had their own guests with the intent that parents didn't at all feel obligated to purchase multiple gifts. We were also up front about the plan to not open gifts during the party. I hope no one was offended! Both Abby & Ellie fully knew what to expect as we walked through the plan in advance. The girls' are following up with thank you notes to each friend so they know that their gift was appreciated.
We also hired a clown/magician for some of the entertainment. Just as we were deliberating on what to do for the girls’ party, we happened to be talking to some friends of a friend who very highly recommended "Rainbow Trout". Her highlights, as witnessed at another twin party, included incredible face painting, a hilarious magic show, and balloon sculptures. This got enthusiastic applause from the soon to be birthday girls. She also provided a bean bag toss game with prizes. Man were they stoked!
Suddenly our previous plan A became our plan B and Rainbow Trout was booked. It may sound over the top to hire a clown. I didn't ever see myself as the parent who held big birthday bashes with over the top entertainment. But I'll tell ya, she was incredible and pretty inexpensive... especially when you start comparing it to hosting parties at other activity type centers. She was well worth it!
Our second planned activity was cake decorating. The girls have been so interested in cake decorating since Carie took her class this past winter. So we were on a mission to pull this off. Then recently the girls attended a birthday party at Doodle Cakes where they got to decorate cakes. All the party guests seemingly had a great time and the girls were still interested in doing that at their party... with a twist. We weren't going to pay the money they were asking to host a party there. No way, no how.
Carie had most of the supplies she needed. We bought the cake rounds and boxes inexpensively. We even found a place where we could buy a case of 5" round cakes! I was willing to make them, but not one at a time! So a box of 48 cakes later, we were in business and ready to roll. Carie made all the frosting, assembled the base of the cakes, and colored the frosting to the meet the girls’ requests. The kids went to town experimenting with the different decorator tips and had a great time making their own masterpieces. One parent later reported that her son was so excited that they weren't allowed to look at it he was ready to show it off to everyone.
We opted to skip the birthday present opening in favor of keeping the kids engaged and having fun. It worked awesome for us! It totally removed the potential for chaos at the party.
When we sent out the invites we included a little note to the parents. The note talked about our approach to the party and how each girl had their own guests with the intent that parents didn't at all feel obligated to purchase multiple gifts. We were also up front about the plan to not open gifts during the party. I hope no one was offended! Both Abby & Ellie fully knew what to expect as we walked through the plan in advance. The girls' are following up with thank you notes to each friend so they know that their gift was appreciated.
posted by Sonya at 9:27 PM
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