Tips for children's parties - Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting Club

Annabel's top tips form for children's parties

Top tips for children's parties
An original handmade invitation will set the scene for a very special party.. one idea is to print out a cute photograph of the birthday girl or boy as a baby and write on the front something like ‘Guess Who’s Having A Party’ and add the party details on the back. If there is a theme to the party choose a matching invitation eg: a wooden spoon with a label giving the party details for a cooking party or draw a football shirt with the age of your child on the back and the party details on the front for a football party.

Parental involvement means far more to your child than spending money on a lavish party. For example if you are having a football party how about letting the dad’s play against the boys at the end or even pitch the dads against eachother – I think you will be surprised at how competitive they are..

Forward planning and organisation is the secret to success. You can freeze some of the food like cookies and cakes in advance, if you want an outdoor party make sure there is a contingency plan for an indoor venue for the children if it rains. Remember to buy film for your camera and make sure you have spare batteries. Keep a first aid kit on hand.

Don’t make the party too long. Better that they leave wanting more .

Put the savoury food on the table first and don’t lay out the sweet food until they have had time to eat the sandwiches etc…

Its fun to organise parties with a theme. One option is a cooking party where – horror of horrors – no food is prepared in advance and it is up to the children to make their own tea. Children will have enormous fun rolling out dough, cutting out cookies, baking fairy cakes and making milkshakes. Yes its messy and you need a team of willing helpers but boy is it worth it to see their little faces beaming with pride at their new found culinary skills. Other fun themes are a sports party where the children play fun games like Dressing Up Races, Wheelbarrow, Egg and Spoon or Three Legged Races or a Make Over Party where the girls are made up and have their photos taken and in between the bussing supermodels also have a chance to make jewellery and play party games.

Keep an eye on the children and make sure that no one gets left out – some children are shy and don’t mix as well as others so try and help them out by arranging for them to sit next to a friend at tea or make sure they are part of a team.

You can put together a spectacular Birthday Cake without any baking. Simply buy Swiss Rolls and a selection of biscuits and sweets to create a fantastic chocolate train cake – even the track is edible see www.annabelkarmel.com for my No Bake train Cake.

Here are some fun party games for your child to play . Have a lucky dip for prizes…there are lots more ideas for indoor and outdoor party games for all ages in my book The Complete Party Planner. I have images of these in action…

Sucking smartis
Have a bowl of Smarties on a table and a small empty bowl for each child . The object of the game is to get as many Smarties as possible from the large bowl to the individual bowl by sucking them on to the end of the straw picking them up using the suction and then letting them drop into the bowl. The one who gets the most Smarties in their bowl in two minutes is the winner.

The egyptian mummy

Divide the children into teams and one ‘mummy’ must be chosen from each team (they should be about the same size) and given a roll of toilet paper. The mummies then stand facing their team with their legs together and arms by their sides. On ‘Go’ the first in each team runs up to their mummy and starts to bandage with the toilet paper, starting at the feet and working upwards. After about 30 seconds, the second player in each team runs up and takes over and so on. If the paper tears, it must be tucked neatly into the folds before starting again. The winning team is the one that most successfully covers the mummy in a given time…

Most of all HAVE FUN….