Kid Games for Daughter's Birthday Party

My sister did this one year for her kids, I thought it was so neat!
She set up a t-shirt making station and let all the kids decorate shirts.

Get some cheap white t-shirts and a variety of water-based paints. Cover a table with plastic, either plan to have protective coverings for the kids or ask the parents to send old clothes they won't mind them getting paint on.

This link is really good and has more detailed info:
http://www.ehow.com/how_###-###-####_make-fabric-painting...

Here are some ideas:

Bingo- provide copies of blank Bingo cards and have the kids make their own cards with stickers. Once their cards are made, a parent (or one of the older children) calls out the item for them to cover with an M&M, cheerio, or whatever you want to use.

Coloring- Buy one coloring book and rip out the pages so that each child can choose their own picture to color.

Cupcake decorating - instead of a birthday cake, have the children frost and decorate their own cupcake for dessert.

Scavenger hunt - divide the kids into teams and provide a list of items for them to find around the house/backyard.

Birthday Mural- Buy a large poster board or a roll of colored paper at a school supply store and have the children all write or draw their own "birthday wish" for your daughter on the paper.

Pin the tail on the donkey
Musical chairs
Hot potato
Telephone

Good luck,
K.

We use to put up a pinata when my kids were little. It's fairly inexpensive and very entertaining for kids of all ages. The pinata itself might cost you around $20 or so? The candy that you put inside should probably run you less than $10. I would also make sure each child had a bag (lunch bag size)for their candy. Whatever you choose to do I'm sure everyone will have fun! God bless!

Tape Crayola Color Wonder paper UNDER your dining room table with the Color Wonder markers on the floor-- they only mark on that special paper. You can have cupcake or sugar cookie decorating on the table above. Have a Texas snow ball fight (wads of newspaper). Kids love big boxes-- tape several together and have tunnels for them to crawl through (not on), perhaps with the Color Wonder papers inside. Put a pop up tent in a room. Think of the old fashioned party games-- dropping pins into a bottle, pin the tail on the donkey, musical chairs, bobbing for apples, croquet, horseshoes, etc. Kids of all ages love costume parties, so give it a theme...oh, at this age we had an inexpensive party for my daughter-- it was a tea party. Guests came dressed up and brought their favorite stuffed friend, the older kids served the younger kids. We had a large treasure chest of dollar store bling which they could choose from for their party favors. I love the treasure box idea already mentioned!

Hi L.,
I know exactly how you feel. There was a year for my sons birthday party who was turning 10, and I had children of all ages present. I needed something that everyone could enjoy. What I did was buy some little $1 wooden boxes that you can find at any craft store, such as Micheals. I also picked up several different paints and some cheap paint brushes. I set up stations where each child could make their own box the way they wanted it. For little boys I called them treasure boxes, and for little girls I called them jewelry boxes. It went over so well. I did that instead of doing little bags, and I bought some cheap candies and anything I had left over from other childrens parties, and let each child pick out a couple of "treasures" they could put in their boxes. Just be sure to do this at the beginning of the party so the boxes have time to dry. I did the party at a park where there were plenty of tables, and I didn't have to worry about the clean up or paint being all over the place. I also was sure to let all of the parents know before the party that the kids would be doing a craft with paint so they didn't dress the kids up in their "nice" clothes. Every child at the party, young and old, really enjoyed it and got to take home some special they could use for a long time.

Good Luck!
D.

A lot of great ideas already - we have just come from a party where there was many ages, here are some of the things they all enjoyed as well as some all time favorites from Church carnivals/game day. Some of these require that you let the parents know ahead of time that you will be doing MESSY things and to send them in appropriate clothing and not dress up party clothes.

1. Make musical shakers out of plastic water bottles by using a GLUE STICK (much less messy than traditional glue) and tissue paper that was pre-cut. Save the tissue paper from Christmas presents and gather up water bottles from work or ones that you have used and put beans or dry corn in the bottles for the "noise". If you don't have enough water bottles, you can also tape together 2 plastic cups and put the beans or corn inside.

2. Decorate cookies or make your own ice cream sunday - lots of topping - you can even make your own colored sugar if you want by adding food coloring to regular sugar.

3. I am sure that most craft stores are currently or will be soon having clearance on pre-cut wooden Christmas ornaments - easy to paint and decorate - they don't have to be "Christmas" ornaments - you can have stars, bells, etc. anytime of year.

4. bobbing for apples - fill a small baby pool with apples and have the kids bob and get the apples.

5. Treasure hunt - you can put up a maze with clues in your backyard and even start on a pirate ship (blue blanket on the ground and each of the kids get a cloth to tie around their head and some face paint for mustaches, etc.) With the blanket, you can have a set story about the pirates - the parents or older kids wave the blanket like the ocean.... then follow the clues, end with a sandbox (small pool filled with sand or shredded paper, etc. and they can dig for "treasure".

6. GO FISH - make a simple fishing pole by having a dow rod or a stick with a string and then put a paper clip on the end... have someone under a covered table put "prizes" or clues to where a prize is hidden in the house or yard in a paper bag or on a picture of a cut out fish....

Agreed that they dollar store or the Target savings spot is a great place to find prizes and favors!

I hope that you have a great time.
blessings,
Stacy

We love the t-shirt idea! My son was 3 when he attended a baby shower I hosted. We decorated onesies for the new mommy. My son's were everyone's favorite! However, I suggest you have something to put on the floor if you're doing it inside. You can get cheap shirts at an outlet mall or packs at Walmart, Target, etc. Also - Michaels has paint pen-type things that drastically cut down on the mess. There's a coupon just about every Sunday for Michaels. Make sure there is an adult at this station!

Something else that is great for all ages is croquet. They love it! You can make your own with cut up boxes, scrap wood, whatever you have. Then, they can use putters (I'm sure a neighbor has at least one if you don't) and use tennis balls or rubber balls for safety. Have fun!

well this isn't crafty idea but we just had our daughter's 3rd b-day and my husband thought of doing bubbles so we went to walmart bought a lil bubble machine for 6 dollars and the 1 gal bubble solution for 2 dollars and then at the party we turned on some fun kids music and the kids loved catching the bubbles and dancing around!! It entertained them for a good 15-20 mins and they would have kept going but we had to move on to the cake!!! good luck

Have the kids sit in a circle and holding the gift they brought. The birthday child will not be holding a gift at this point. Start playing music and have the kids start passing the gifts around. Stop the music and have the birthday child open the gift they are holding. This keeps the gift giving under control and gives the birthday child a chance to say thank you without a lot of noise.

Some great ideas already, but what about homeade playdoh and cookie cutters at one station?

If you don't mind a little mess you could tape some butcher paper (or even leftover paper grocery bags) to the garage door and let them paint away.

Lots of good suggestions already. My kids LOVED teh "wrap your team mate in toilet paper" game. Pair them off and the kid with the best "wrapping" job or the kid who uses the whole roll of toilet paper first or whatever wins. Or make mummies and then have everyone not wrapped vote on the best mummy. Or most creative, or whatever. Just requires a cheap roll of TP for each kid and gets lots of giggles going and takes a little time. Pair the kids off-older and younger- and have a treasure hunt thru the house for clues with a little surprise at the end. Dollar store prizes.
Pairing older and younger also would help with any painting/craft project. Another thing to paint is flower pots and then give them some seeds as favors. If you don't want to buy individual seed packets- get some sunflower bird seed and divide it up in small baggies.
Google!!! You'll come up with more ideas than you'll know what to do with!! Good luck and have fun.