As every good parent knows, your child’s birthday is thee most important day of the year. And the pressure is on for Moms, Dads and Kids to out do last year’s birthday. Don’t panic, instead remember the three P’s. Pick, Prepare, Party!

Pick

There are dozens, okay, hundreds of themes to pick from and including your child is not only productive but fun! Before you decide on a theme do some research online to make sure you can secure the decorations, plates, cups, and other paraphernalia required for a great party. Check the party store online in your neighborhood. At the bottom of this page, I listed 5 Retail Stores in Burbank. But, I also did some online research and was amazed at the over 34,000 party products, and How-To videos from Shindigz.com a fantastic site (family owned for 83 years) with so many ideas and tips.  If you don’t find what you’re looking for there, it doesn’t exist. Watch the “How To Throw the Perfect Ballerina Party.”

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Moms with little boys will love the sport themes I found online at PartyBell. You can also find a wide variety including Bowling Water Games for only .63 cents. They are having a bargain basement sale, so click below and start saving! 
Let the Game begin with Football theme Birthday Party Supplies. Save up to 40%
 



Prepare

Write out your guest list of kids and parents. Once you get your final head count of RSVP’s you can begin to figure out how many of each item you will need to purchase: plates, cups, forks, cake plates, hats, decorations, and goody bags.  Of course, all have to match your theme. Now you know why it’s important to search and secure the items of your theme, before you completely commit to a theme.  You don’t want to purchase half of the items just to find out you can’t find the other half of the items! So planning makes a lot of sense as well as saving cents.

Activities

Next, for kids, the activities are the most important part of the party, adults are the ones that care most about decorations or how fancy the cake and food/drink is . So it makes sense to focus your party efforts on what the party goers likes the most during the event. And if it matches the theme, even better for a “wow” factor. For example, if Elmo is your theme, why not have Sesame Street puppet making as an activity. Or, if the theme is “Princess” they can decorate tiaras.

Food
For young kids, cake and punch is a perfect combination if the party is after lunch time. If the party is for an older child and you want to serve a meal, pizza and hot dogs tends to be a hit. A vegetable plate with dipping is always a good idea for any party, chips, finger food, Mexican food, Chinese food , Indian and  BBQ are the most popular for parties. For an activity they can eat, provide bagels, tomato sauce, mozzarella and various toppings and let your guests build their own mini versions.
And of course, cake takes center stage at any birthday. To keep serving simpler, try cupcakes, cake pops or both if you are having a big party.

Party

1) Start the celebration with a craft project or other relatively quiet activity to keep the children occupied while guests arrive. For example, you might have the kids decorate cookies, cupcakes, crowns, wands, T shirts or party hats. Other activities ideas, Play-Doh, coloring books and crayons or/and  stickers and sticker books.

 2) It’s also always a good idea to hire professional  entertainment  to keep kids busy while their parents mingle and rewind . Here’s some of the most popular entertainment such as face painters, balloon artists, caricaturist, magicians, story book entertainers, clowns,  princesses, story tellers,  ponies, science entertainment, animals for zoo parties  such as lizards ( for boy’s parties ) ,rabbits ( for girls parties), mobile spas , dress up , puppet show , mystery murder and dance parties.  There’s several companies specialized in each category, so look online.

3) Here’s some games ideas the parents can play and interact with their kids: Pin the Tail on the Donkey ,  Musical Chairs,  charades, treasure hunts, relay races, sing along and dancing. 

NOTE: Really young children may prefer to play alongside each other rather than as a group, so be flexible.

4) Finally, serve the cake and open presents. Some parents think opening presents during the party is asking for trouble, since their child may get distracted with new toys or be overly blunt if they don’t like a gift; others feel that opening gifts in front of the givers allows them to share in the recipient’s joy. It’s your call, but if you do decide to wait until after the party, put presents in another room as guests arrive so they’re less of a temptation for the birthday child.

About The Author

I have been working with children entertainment since 2000, I start as a party planner and work with several companies such as jumpforfun.com and Colorful Characters in Orange County. In 2001 I funded theprincessparty.com, in 2007 I sold theprincessparty.com for my best employee Kristin. In 2010 I fund funbirthdayparty.com and have been working with my own company since than. I’m a professional face paint ,balloon artist and party planer.

Contact Patricia
www.funbirthdayparty.com

Birthday Party Stores near Burbank CA

  1. Burbank Party Supplies & Flwrs
    local.yahoo.com

    (818) 840-0117 –

  2. Party City 
    partycity.comOpennow till 8:30 PM

    (818) 846-6202 –

  3. Atomic Production Supplies (1) –

    atomicproductionsupplies.com

    (818) 566-8811 –

  4. Party Time Enterprise –
    (818) 955-9536 –

Magic Jump Rentals,… (4) –

magicjumprentals.comOpenstomorrow at 8 AM

(818) 848-1819 –

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