Ideas for games for a birthday party? Son turning 1, but we will have children...anywhere from age 1 to possibly 9. It will be outdoors. Our party falls in October and the list is up to 60 adults and countless children. NERVOUS!
Thank you ladies. Well, I would give my son's birthday a B rating. I do wish I would have taken more pictures prior to the party of just my children and husband. It was overwhelming, even though I did have help from family and friends. We rented the moon jump and I definetly needed to have rotated the younger children from the older ones. For the next one, I will have to plan more adequately.
I felt stressed out!
C.,
This advice comes from a mother of a 9,7,5, and 7 month old! This has always been an issue for us as well,jumping balloon works best for all! It's hard to organize something for all ages.
check out familyfun.com it has tons of b-day party ideas. It's hard to get games that work for all of those age ranges, but a treasure hunt is always a hit, duck duck goose is fun for the young ones and to make it fair with the older ones playing any kind of running game you could make the older kids tie their legs together like a 3 legged race. Pinatas are easy and loved. One of the best games we ever played at a b-day party was making a mummy by dividing into teams and giving each team a roll of toilet paper to wrap one of the members up in. The team done fastest wins. Good Luck! Another great thing is to have a moon bounce. Don't know if it's in the budget, but I think you can rent them for about $60. If you get one though, you may have to have older kid time and younger as the older kids will probably get rough. One of the best kid parties I went to just had typical relay race / egg toss kinds of games and it was really fun.
My son's birthday is also this month. One thing that we are doing this year is decorating little pumpkins. You can use washable markers or fingerpaints and stickers. This is something that everyone can do for the 1 year olds to the older kids. Also remember that your son's attention span is still short, so its probably not a good idea to have a long party. hope that helps
Here are some games that we have tried and liked:
Tie a balloon to one ankle of each child. At the blow of a whistle or "ready, set, go", the children are to try to stomp and pop each other's balloons. The winner is the last one left with a balloon unpopped.
Have a hula hoop contest and see who can hula hoop the longest. We went in groups of two, with the winner staying to challenge the next one, and so on, until there was only one left at the end.
An alternative or in addition to the pinata is to fill many balloons with candy, blow them up, and scatter them all over the floor. Let the children go around stomping, sitting on them or otherwise popping them to get to the candy. You will need to provide cups or sacks for them to keep their loot once they get it.
When I need ideas for parties, I usually go to my favorite search engine such as google.com, and type in keywords such as "party games for kids", and you will be very surprised by what you find. I have to plan lots of parties because I have two children and an entire girl scout unit to myself. LOL!
Have a Great Day!
L. Santiago
For my step sons birthday which was on the 28th of October. we did a halloween theme.
We had bobbing for apples and even my then ten month old loved that one. We had cookie and pumpkin decorating contest. We also got a frame with a border and a pitcure of the birthday boy in the middle and had everybody sighn it! We also made ghost with black paper and white paint on everybodys foot. Face painting and a jumper is awsome too!
Best of luck!!!!!!!!!!
Depends on the theme of the birthday party. Jumping things are always great and kids of all ages can use them. Also a sandbox and you can set it to a theme. For pirates you can bury "treasure" for dinosaurs you can bury those plastic ones. Little kids get excited when they find a toy that they dug up. You can just put anything plastic in them and when they are done with that then you jsut get the sand toys out. I have a girl and we did a bug theme when she was little and we hid plastic bugs which are really easy to find right now with halloween coming. Good luck! just remember they don't have a great attention span at 1 so try to do the stuff you really want to take pictures with first then have fun
Are you having any clowns or face painting? I would set up little centers and instead of only a few children getting a prize. At the end of the party hand out the goodie bags. For the cneters I would have like a basketball hoops, ring toss, a small pool and get a fishing game, pin the tail on the donkey, bingo with party words, music chairs, hot potato w/ a stuff animal instead and the list could go on. Add any more party ideas message me... The main thing is having stuff for the children to do. Are you having a jump balloon or pinata? Just some more activies. Also you can have an arts and crafts table making crowns for them to wear. Have fun...
And Good Luck that's a big crowd.
Personally....1 year olds do not do games. They have little concept of the game thing.
I would have an activity that all can enjoy doing or watching but not in a game setting. For instance maybe have a hay ride and wienie roast. Even a 1 yr old can enjoy a hot dog or marshmellows and ride on a flat bed in an adults lap. Or maybe have bobbing for apples (but bday boy can use his hands. LOL).
Good luck,
I was watching Discovery Health channel and these parents had 8 chidren. They had a huge carnival party. They built their own booths witch cost them 60 dollars to make 3 instead of buying them for 200 dollars each. They also had a popcorn and cotton candy and donkey rides.
You mentioned that the birthday is in October and I have 2 children who's birthday's fall in October. My boyfriend had the idea of a haunted house in our backyard or you can have the kids outside and make your own home the haunted house. Thats what I am going to try to do this year if possible financially. I'll get some cousins or uncles to help out in being the monsters. Stobe lights and scary music, and spider webs will be some good decorations. A cpstume contest would be fun too.
I hope this information was helpful. Good luck.
NERVOUS...I would be too with that many people!!! Not to discourage you, but your son may be very overwhelmed with all the children and adults coming to this event! I received this bit of advice throwing my first birthday party: one invited guest/child per the number of years of the birthday child. So if you son is turning 1 you would invite 1 guest/child. Having this much attention to such a small child is very overwhelming and may end up not enjoying all the attention - though I may be very wrong. I have tried to follow the year rule within a couple children and it has made birthdays very enjoyable!!!
As for games: if you are having a theme party you could draw on ideas towards the theme. For example: my almost 5 yr old is having a army party in Oct and we are having a army theme green/black/brown face paint, basic training obstacle course and then an army man hunt. Keep it simple and try not to have too many activities. Let them play and have a good time!!! I hope you have a great day!!!
PS...keeping it short helps too - after 2 hours they are going to start loosing interest.
