Goal: Throwing a party

The other day I was going to talk about having a birthday party. Your goal would be set up a birthday party and successfully run it. First and foremost we need to make sure we can do it stress free.

The first thing I always do when planning anything is make a list. Since this is a party my list will include the following:

When and where I can have it.
Decorations and what kind of party (costume, birthday etc)
Foods
Prizes and gifts
Who is invited and how to invite
Games and props
How much I am willing to budget for everything.

Most of the time it is hard to have a huge party due to lack of funds. I find it more creative when you can have others particiapate. Here is a fun stress free party idea that may help you see what I mean.

Problem: I don't have money to take all my friends to the movies, bowling or some other activity.
Solution: Instead of them bringing a gift maybe they can use that money to pay thier own way in. Remember the fun is having friends there with you!

For my party I invited 7 friends to do bowling and movies. I knew I could not afford to pay for it. My friends and I decided that we would have fun by doing a carwash. We asked a store if we could use thier parking lot and we would give them 10% of our earnings. The store agreed. We then made signs saying birthday car wash. We used the theme that every car has a birthday and needs to be cleaned. It was great! We had a lot of fun. We were able to pay for not only the movies and bowling but also for food. After all of it was over we still had enough for each of us to have 20$ in our pockets. It was the best birthday I had ever had.

Problem: I can't have a party at home for personal reasons and I don't know what else to do since I dont have money to go do things.
Solution: Have it outside at a park, or maybe at a friends house or even in the backyard. There are alot of places you could have a party. Maybe just a few of your friends are invited and you can all car pool (all chip in for gas) and go have a beach party.

I did the beach party I invited four girl friends and we all carpooled up to the beach. We had a blast. Girls day out. What made it even better was the surfer guys we met that taught us a bit about surfing. A girls dream come true.

Problem: There are too many people invited and not enough food
Solution: Potlucks are best. Cheap snacks from a local dollar store such as cookies are good for layouts. Or do pizza but cut the pieces into smaller slices.

I once had a party that was themed as a casino. The only way you were allowed in was the cover charge of $2.00. This would enable each guest to play all the games inside and gave them $20 in chips to play with. Plus one free soda. After that we charged .50 for every can soda after and $.25 for every extra needed chip. This helped us make the money to order the pizza that they got to eat. Basically the guest paid for thier own meal.

Problem: I can not afford alot of decorations. I am on a very tight budget. Balloons alone are very expensive.
Solution: Sometimes we have to get creative. If you can't afford much the dollar stores have some fun party supplies and some even have balloons. Get creative with what you have. you can make confetti by shredding papper or cutting it into odd shapes. You can make streamers out of popcorn and ribbon.

For my childs birthday I had some colored ads that I normally toss but instead used the back of them and cut out each letter shape in Happy Birthday. I taped them to the wall. I bought a teenbop magazine. I cut out The pictures and taped them to the walls, chairs, tables, and hung up with ribbon the poster ones. I got some fun eyeshadow, blush and lipstick from the dollar store and layed those out along with nail polish. I put up pictures of her and her friends around the room as well. I used some dollar purple (her favorite color) material to cover the table where they could do thier make over. She was estatic when she came home and saw all the fun surpises.

Problem: Can't afford any decorations.
Solution: Become Creative. Use your mind. What pictures do you have that you can place out, what colors of materials can you use to decorate. What ribbon do you have left over from christmas, what about wrapping paper that you can use to cut out words and decorate walls with?

I just moved into a new studio. I had nothing on the walls yet because I had not unpacked. My friends thought this was perfect. I had no decorations and they had tons. They all came over with decorations and decorated my new apartment for my birthday. We had such a good time that we planned to do this for each time we get a new place. Mark who posted a picture of Santa Clause on the fireplace and his pic on my cieling said he is next. I am already getting ready to get him back for all the silly decorations he did to me.

Problem: Not sure what kind of theme to do
Solution: Be reasonable. Don't pick a theme that you can't afford to pull off. Costume can be fun, that way the decorations are basically on the person themselves lol. Game night have everyone bring thier favorite game over, Casino, Character night... are just a few fun ones

I did Casino and character. Both are fun to do. Character night is when you give each person that comes a certain idenity. Only they know who they are at the beginning of the night you have them reach in a hat and pull out a piece of paper. On that paper is an identity of who they will play the rest of the night. (course you and someone else has to put in identities so that you have some you know and some you dont. All night they have to go with that character. Then at the end you have everyone guess who they were. If you ever seen whos line is it anyways then you already know how to play. For the casino we had gone to the dollar store and picked up games.. tried to find casino type games, but used other games as well. We bought alot of cards and then enough so that each person can have a deck of thier own as a party gift.

Problem: What can I give as a party favor when dealing with a tight budget?
Solution: Alot of fun stuff can be from the dollar store. Since that place is cheap and you can find some fun things. Another idea is stuff that you may have that is in good standing that you may not want anymore.

The one I recomend is brown bag byes. Everyone invited brings a brown bag with an item in it. The idea is that there is a set budget on it like five dollars to a bag. So someone may put in a five dollar bill or another person may have put in a five dollar item. How it works is all the brown bags are the same but what is inside is different. They are mixed up and before each person leaves they get to have one of those bags. You never know what you may find. But it needs to be appropriate. (exp: Rags, makeup, hammer are not appropriate for a 7 year old all boy party.) This way you dont have to spend alot on party gifts instead you just do the one for the children of the household that are throwing the party.

Problem: I want the gifts to be originals not just same for each child.
Solution: You can go pick up some cheap gifts that are all different, or you could create crafts with your own supplies at home. (Sometimes you can get coupons for supplies at art stores)

The party favors I did for my children were they got to make things and take them home. I did alot of arts and crafts (cutting magazines, glitter, ribbons, beads etc) and alot of food crafts (we did worm in the dirt plus some other fun. These they got to take home and keep and it was arts and craft stuff I already had. I still can use the left over for children school projects and more.

Problem: Who should I invite.
Solution: Depends on what your planning for the day. If it is an out of town trip I suggest not taking as many kids. Where as if you are planning a home party then I say go ahead and invite more. Also pay attention to the ages. For a four year olds birthday you would not want to mix with alot of 10 year olds.

WHY?
Out of town trips are different when it comes to numbers. The more kids you have the less time for activities. It is easier to keep an eye on a few then on alot of kids plus it is safer. Unless you are in a school setting I don't suggest having alot of kids. Sometimes they can be overwhelming especially when there is not enough supervisors.

At home party is best for alot of kids. You have a set time of when you will start and end the party. Kids can come any time in between those hours. That helps you not to be overwhelmed with an all day trip, plus you have more supervisors as some parents like to stay with thier kids. This also helps kids to be available to participate since some parents wont let children go on long trips away.

The same concept goes throughout kids to teens to adults. If you go on a trip I suggest a few very close good friends this is so that you wont get drowned out by a crowd. Where as if you are close to home you can have people come and go as they please.

Age appropriate is meaning if you are throwing a party for a kid, then have kids around the same age. A young child will not understand if there is all adults and no one to play with, same with age difference. Kids like certain things at certain ages. You can't expect 10 year old boys to want to play dolls with a little four year old girl on her birthday. If it is an all boy party do things boys like... lazer tag, water balloon fight etc. If it is all girls then do girl stuff: Makeover with hair, nails, and makeup. Make sure it is age apropriate.

Problem: Invites are expensive these days
Solution: One of the fun things about doing a party is sending out the invites. You don't have to buy invites. Instead you can make your own. Draw different things and then write the info on the oppisite side. Get creative and pull out art supplies, glitter, beads, coloring pencils etc. Have fun making invites. Hand out instead of send... or do a singing invite on phone message machines.

My child once went to class and this person walked in all in a cowboy outfit. He sang to them about a wild west party. Then handed out hand made invites to a birthday party thrown by another boy in his class. He was so excited that he came home asking me to make his outfit right away. My older daughter thought paper invites were outdated so she text her friends which was the cheapest invites I ever had to pay for lol

Problem: What activities and games to do?
Solution: That all depends on you and what kind of party you want to have.

If you are planning on staying home for the party:
Any games can be fun: board, cards, video system like the wii
Casino party: play card games (solitare, black jack, poker, etc)
Wild West: Western dancing
Safari: Scavenger hunt, Picture find
Princess: Makeover
Outer Space: Crafts Outerspace Mobile
Cooks: Make differnt kinds of fun food (Playdough for in between while things are in the oven)
The most important question to ask is:
How much I am willing to budget for everything.

This will be your main focus on all that you do. From Decorations, Food, Party favors and more.

Free-$10
Place: House, backyard, park
Decorations: Ads cut into shapes, letters and confetti, old magazine pictures or pictures of family, friends or birthday child
Invites: Text, handmade on paper at home
Food: Pot luck
Party favors: Brown bag byes (one persons junk is another persons treasure)
Games: Scavenger hunt

Whatever you plan on doing have fun :)

~Hugs Keyria~
Oh yes and before I forget. I am going to be doing blogs once a week for a bit. I am starting up some new goals in my life and I have to get them in a routine that works. This is why this weeks blog is so long. Once I have the routine down of my new goals I should be back to once a day or once every several days. We will see how it goes.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ~Matthew 6:19-21~