For that reason, planning and carrying out my childrens' birthday parties when they were younger was always great fun.
So I thought from time to time on this blog I might share some ideas from a party that proved particularly successful and which elicit great memories.
My children are now teenagers so I haven't had a chance to plan fun-themed parties with cute favors, invitations and the like for a while. Please know that I was working to keep costs (relatively) low and that sites like Etsy, which I adore and which offers thousands and thousands of cute resources, didn't exist then. However, I never shied away from store bought resources and, in fact, loved Oriental Trading and other similar type companies.
When my son was 6 he loved The Crocodile Hunter, so we planned a crocodile-themed party.
Theme selected, I Googled "alligator/crocodile template" and found several I liked. I printed the template I chose onto white paper and then enlarged it to a size that would fit in a #10 envelope.
Lest you think I am even mildly crafty or technologically savvy, I will embarrassingly admit that I typed up what I wanted the invitation to say and printed it on various size labels, cutting/sticking to fit - I really wanted the tail to say, "See you later alligator." I then xeroxed the invitation onto green card stock, glued on googly eyes and cut the entire thing (teeth and scales too) out.
Because my son celebrates his birthday in December, we held his party at the local Y. But of course, this would be a great summer party too.
During a Labor Day trip to the beach several months before, I purchased 4 five foot long inflatable alligators for pool games (no doubt available online as well).
The kids arrived in their bathing suits and brought towels and a change of clothes. We did alligator relays - team and individual, other fun games and let the kids swim for an hour or so.
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| That's my son on the right with the scuba mask - taking his alligator wrangling very seriously. |
After drying off and a quick change, we moved the party upstairs to a party room, where we broke open the alligator pinata (you can catch a glimpse of the pinata in the top left corner of the photo below), had cake and ice cream and opened gifts.
I purchased the chocolate alligator at a chocolate/candy shoppe in Atlanta (after a little online research) and took it to my local Kroger bakery. I asked them to create a cake that looked like a swamp. The cattails (see the #6 hidden among them) were made with uncooked spaghetti noodles and chocolate.
Like so many things about my children growing up -- I miss those days. Is there anything more priceless than the look on that little boy's face?
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