March 2008

Readers Share Their Best Birthday Ideas

Stories compiled by Beth Geiger and Christina Harper

Another day, another birthday party. Sometimes it seems as though party-hopping is all your kid does. Some parties are fun; some are disasters; and others are just same-old, same-old. When it’s your turn, what will you do?

Here’s what some creative parents have come up with for one-of-a-kind events that stand out from the usual. Most were less expensive, and more memorable, than parties at commercial venues.

Follow That Photo Treasure Hunt
Deb Flynn, Kingston, mother of Maria, 9, and Edgar, 6

Flynn’s family lives in Kingston on about an acre. “Kids love treasure hunts, so I put together one for Maria’s 5th birthday party that turned out perfect,” Flynn says. I photographed places in our large yard that I knew Maria would recognize and put them in envelopes.

“Maria opened the first envelope. She then raced out the door, trailed by the group of partygoers to the place identified on the photo in the envelope, where another envelope was placed with another child’s name on it. The rules required that only the child whose name was on the envelope could open it. This part was very important because every child got two turns to open an envelope, and 5- and 6-year-olds can usually recognize their own names when printed. Maria had to identify the location of each clue.

“One clue led to the next until finally a big box was discovered that contained a small gift for each child. This was a great game because it got the kids outside and was active. The structure and rules allowed everyone to play, it was not competitive, and they could pretty much do it on their own, while parents took a breather.”

Step Right Up!
Christie Rodgers, Seattle, mother of Sarah, 12, and twins Julia and Carolyn, 9

“We hosted a "carnival" party in our backyard when my twins turned 6,” Rodgers says. “We bought raffle-style tickets at Archie McPhee's and issued each kid a long strip when they arrived. We had homemade games set up in the backyard, each manned by an older cousin wearing a "carnie" apron: bean bag toss, fishing, face painting, ‘petting zoo’ (a pet rat and some stuffies in home-made cages) and fruit loop necklace-making. Guests got to spend their tickets on the different games, win small prizes, etc.”

Under Construction
Heidi Favour, Seattle, mother of Anna, 9, and Sadie, 7

Heidi Favour hosted a construction-themed party for her daughter Anna’s 7th birthday. “We were smack-dab in the middle of a second-story addition. Anna was really interested in the whole building process – fluent in the language of "studs," "sheer walls" and "sub-flooring,” she says.

Favour explains that Anna’s party took place in the partially finished remodel with the studs exposed. Each guest got a Home Depot apron and filled the pockets with nails, tape measures, construction pencils and other items that they found on a treasure hunt. Then each child built a small creative piece from scrap lumber using real nails and hammers, and painted it with house paint.

Favour maintained the theme right down to the invitation and refreshments. “The invitation was based on a blueprint,” she says. “The cake was very long and narrow, decorated to look like a 2x4, and it was cut (with careful supervision) with a coping saw by Anna.”

Surf and Turf
Lora Hammersmith, Seattle, mother of Blue, 9, and Niko, 3

For her son Blue’s 8th birthday, Hammersmith began the party with one of Seattle’s favorite excursions, a ferry ride. “Blue and his parents met the guests under the viaduct and then boarded the ferry to Bainbridge Island,” remembers the parent of one guest. “Kids just love ferries; it's already a party at that point!”

At Bainbridge Island, the group walked to the Kid’s Discovery Museum (www.kidmu.org) and played at every interactive activity they could. Afterwards, they stopped at Eagle Harbor Waterfront Park. Finally, on the ferry ride home, they had a cake with candles on it. Her idea works well for kids in the 5- to 8-year-old range, and is a nice mix of indoors and out.

Pirate P-arrrrgh-ty
Brenda Hansen, Seattle, mother of Kiki, 10, and Mina, 6

“One of our best birthday parties was a pirate-themed treasure hunt,” Hansen remembers. “I split the kids into partners, and each team had an initial clue consisting of a rhyming couplet leading to the next clue. (All clues had rhyming couplets! I was up until 2 a.m. coming up with those, but it was worth it).

“After all teams found their third clue, they had to put their clues together to reveal where the map in a bottle was hidden. The map (burned edges and all) led to the treasure, of course, which was a Rubbermaid bin filled with all the goody bags, buried in the front yard. It was pretty amazing to see the boys take turns digging and all chanting at once, "DIG! DIG! DIG!"”

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night
Lynne Miller, Seattle, mother of Helen, 13, and Amelia, 11

When Miller’s daughter Helen turned 12, she hosted a spooky radio story party. “(Our daughter) had really been enjoying radio stories recently, so we had a party from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m., much of the excitement of a slumber party without the extreme sleep deprivation,” Miller says. After some dancing and games, the girls made fancy ice cream sundaes, and then the real event began.

“We turned out the lights and listened to an old Lux Radio Theatre murder mystery starring Lucille Ball, which scared the pants off the girls,” says Miller. “I thought this might have been tame for our modern sophisticates, but one of the girls was so scared she got sick and had to go home early. We turned the lights back on.”

Winter Inside
Heather Cournoyer, Marysville, mother of Victoria, 8, and Evelynn, 6

“Evelynn is limited because she has a winter birthday. We had to think of what to do indoors,” says Heather Cournoyer.

Evelynn and her mother decided on a winter theme. “First everybody came and played spin the carrot on the snowman. Then we did the papier-maché snowman (by connecting three balloons of different sizes, covering them with papier-maché and decorating them).” The party was between meals so guests made chocolate snowflake suckers with melted chocolate in molds and put them in treat bags. Later they ate cupcakes with marshmallow snowmen.

Hawaiian Hula
Jennifer Fox, Everett, mother of Malcolm, 9, Holden, 7, and Mim, 6

“Mim said she wanted to have a Hawaiian birthday party,” Jennifer Fox says. “I hadn’t realized that it would have been a lot easier to do in the summer. I went to look for hula hoops in late November and everyone said, “We don’t have them now.”

But Fox found hula hoops at a dollar store and gave them to Mim’s guests as party favors. A friend brought back retro postcards from a trip to the Aloha State, and Fox mailed them out as invitations. Fun craft activities like making grass skirts from green crepe paper and packaging tape were a big hit. Fox rented a Hawaiian ‘how to do the hula’ video from her local library. “They were kind of doing the hula as a workout. There were Hawaiian women instructing on the beach. The girls put their skirts on and did it. It was hilarious to watch them,” Fox says.

Fox says she is not a super baker, but she made a round cake and decorated it with white frosting. She crushed some Graham crackers and made an island, and then sprinkled blue sugar sprinkles for the ocean. She couldn’t find a figure of a girl doing the hula, so she worked with a fancy sticker, put it on card stock and cut around it.

Hidden Treasure
Sasha Selden, Edmonds, mother of Sierra, 9, and Rory, 7

The invitations to Rory Selden’s party were tinged with flames to burn the edges. That way they looked like pirate treasure maps.

“It was a really simple pirate party with plastic swords and eye patches,” Selden says. She put chocolate and plastic coins in a chest and buried it in the yard. She then made a pirate map that told the eight or nine kids to go from one point to another looking for treasure. “They really got into the treasure hunt and finding the next clue. It took them probably about an hour,” Selden says.

Spa Sleepover
Mona Ramos, Marysville, mother of Shae, 11, and Brynn, 7

Mona Ramos, a massage practitioner, made sure that Shae would invite only a few girls to her party where guests wore pajamas and bathrobes. She bought a foot massage soaking kit and had each girl soak her feet, one at a time, in a salt bath. “I wiped their feet and legs down, lotioned them up, and massaged their feet. While I worked on one girl, another painted nails. Then we did hands,” Ramos says.

Ramos had a gentle face mask with egg, oatmeal and lavender ready to apply to the girls’ faces. She wanted the kids to relax before bed. For an extra fun tip Mona likes to use fruit, such as pineapple, and lay it on the mask once it’s applied. “They looked funny and it made for a memorable night,” she says.

Hosting the spa at home with just one parent doing all the treatments was not easy, Ramos says, but after beauty therapy and before a cozy sleepover, Shae and her guests indulged in pizza, ice cream and cake.

Anne of Green Gables
Patti Sontra, Everett, mother of Chelsea, 17, Lucas, 15, and Caroline, 5

“When my older two were little, I went overboard (and out of my mind) doing theme parties for them. One I recall is an "Anne of Green Gables" party I did for Chelsea's third or fourth birthday,” recalls Patti Sontra.

“We did it here at home. A life-sized Anne (big doll dressed like her with a straw hat and long red braids) greeted everyone at the door. I had an Anne of Green Gables cookbook and a book about her "world." I made everything from raspberry cordial and plum puffs to a cake that looked like a straw hat with flowers around it,” she says. “The games the children played were all old-fashioned games from Anne's day, like a gunny sack race and a three-legged race. I decorated with everything Anne - dolls, flowers, a school slate, etc. With Chelsea being a redhead, it made it very much about her and Anne, and it was lots of fun, despite all the work!”

(Non)Tropical Beach
Kate McCullough, Snohomish, mother of Josie, 4, and Luke, 2

At a family home at Mission Beach on the Tulalip Indian Reservation, almost 16 families gathered to celebrate Josie McCullough’s birthday, Hawaiian-style. “She said, ‘Can we go to Hawaii?’ Then she said she wanted a beach party. So we sent out flip-flop invitations,” Kate McCullough says. Guests were given goodies such as sunglasses, flip-flops, and leis.

Kids ages 1 to 13 built sand castles and when the tide came in, they built a moat. They climbed to a brier patch and a sand cave then jumped down into the soft sand. At sunset they roasted marshmallows on the beach.

“The food was all finger food and some potluck. It was Labor Day weekend so there were fireworks, too,” McCullough says. “It was the most relaxing party I’ve put on with more people than I’ve ever had. Josie had a great time. She wants to do it again.”

More Parties

For a 5th birthday: “When the kids arrived, they each began making a car out of a cardboard box opened up at the ends with ribbon stapled on to wear like suspenders. Then, we had a “road rally” outside.”

Using taped-together appliance-sized boxes, one family created a “space station” in their living room for their son’s 6th birthday. Guests climbed through the maze while the adults flicked the lights on and off, and announced “astronaut” communications like “Emergency, emergency.” The kids loved being on the missions, climbing through the “space station” over and over.

Indoor camping party for a 10th birthday: “As the girls arrived, they drew a mountain and forest scene on a big swath of white paper for their campsite.” The theme continued with a neighborhood treasure hunt for camping items like compasses and whistles, a cake shaped like a giant s’more, and white holiday lights set up as stars around a big tent in the basement.

When their son turned 12, one family arranged a barbeque party at Golden Gardens where the kids learned to play a game new to all of them: cricket. “Old men stopped to watch,” remembers the mom.

©2008
Seattle's Child, a publication of the Washington Post Company
All rights reserved

Web design by Intentional Publishing & Design