Ideas for a 6-Year-old Boy Birthday Party

I've heard of photographic safaris where instead of hunting, a photographer skilled in tracking animals helps people to take stunning photographs, National Geographic quality.

How to translate this for a 6-year old birthday party? Have a photo-taking contest of wildlife. Maybe even do a sort of treasure hunt where they have to find types of subjects, like bugs, blue jays, a type of plant, and so on.

Then, have a volunteer take the cameras (disposables) to the nearest 1-hr developing center!

You can even "stock" your yard with hidden but easy-to-find pictures of safari-type animals on cardboard cut-out or whatever.

Since your son wants to hang wtih the boys, do a gender thing where the girls use one side of the yard and boys use the other.

When the pictures return, put them up on a wall decorated with bugs, snakes, safari-type animals, etc. Even if you're not an artist, you can find and cut them out of magazines and draw a background of grass, trees, etc.

This also teaches kids to leave nature as they found it so that wild life can continue to use it as they need to - to survive!

Why not make it a treasure hunting party. You could go to a park early before the party and hide little treats and clues to a big surprise. You could make a cake with a treasure chest and send out cards shape like a chest for the party. Or you could just set up games in the park like red rover and the like. Take them to a mountain climbing place, the zoo, a farm that has tours or allows for picking crops like strawberries. I think the main thing is to make it something the kids can do outside.

Why not make it a scavanger hunt using plastic ducks as the clues? This way he gets his duck hunting party and will not offend anyone. At the end of the scavanger hunt could be the food for the party.

we are doing a picnic/luau party at an area lake...they have shaded picnic area, we are taking a shelter to keep on the lake so we are out of the sun down there. we'll have a pinata, a picnic lunch, treasure hunt on the beach and swim in the lake...then eat cake and ice cream and open presents...you could turn it into a pirate party or something.

Maybe instead of a duck hunting party, you could throw a scavenger hunt party. It would be a little work (as any party turns out to be) but instead of giving the kids attending the party a favor bag, they could search for them in the scavenger hunt. This would also be a good way for your son to open his birthday presents. Hope it's a great birthday!

You might try doing his party outside, @ a park,tha zoo,anything outdoors. Have his cake made with a toy boat or 4-wheeler on it. Something to do with duck hunting. Find some outdoor games for his age group to play. You can find most party supplies at Hobby Lobby, or Micheals. Hope this helps you with some kinda idea on what to do. Trust Me it gets more mind boggling as they get older. I have a son that is 17 & a step son that I've been with for 8 years. Tha step son just turned 16. All he likes is video games & guitars. My son loves all the outdoors hunting, fishing, if it outdoors he loves it. As do I. Let me no how you do. If you live in west monroe or surrounding area. My sister in law does wedding, birthdays or any occasion cakes.

When he thinks of duck hunting does he think of camping out too? You could totally do a camping theme, you could have the kids come dressed in hunting gear or have some they could dress up in. Family Fun magazine had great ideas for a camping out party (this included the boys staying overnight-you may not be up for that at this point!) you might check thier website, I think it's familyfun.com, they may still have instructions for the cake that was made to look like a campfire-who wouldn't think that was cool?
Have fun and remember you are the parent! Just because it's his birthday doesn't mean he can get whatever he wants-he'll love it no matter what you do!

Does he like Army guys? My neighbor had a party about a month ago for her son who just turned 7, and it was army themed. The boys got pretend hats to wear and she had tattooes for them. We had it at a park here in Mid Del area that had army trucks. My 9yr old son loved it so much we may do that theme for him in Sept.

Camo! You can't go wrong with it! If he likes the hunting idea, maybe just get some green and brown decor, plates, cups etc.. Or ~ I plan events and I just recently did a birthday party for a 4 year old boy, and it was "Carnival" themed... we had a kissing booth (for the grandparents) lol.. Also, we had a ring toss, and used bright colors, had pop corn and cotton candy and hot dog "concession stand". Pop in galvanized buckets with ice, oh, we also tacked alot of baloons to a piece of ply wood, and had the kids play baloon darts. There are endless possibilities with kid birthday parties!

L.,

Since it is his birthday and he has asked for a hunting party that is what I would do. In the invitation you can explain what you are doing and if the parent doesn't feel like that it something their child would enjoy or they would feel uncomfortable participating in they can keep their child at home and not attend. If a child is invited to a party there is nothing that says that they have to attend or send a gift if not coming.

My daughters are now in their 20's and my son is 2 and whatever theme the girls wanted for their parties is what we did if it was a reasonable request. You can't please everyone no matter what you do so the birthday boy is the one who should be happy with the party. If it is family members you are worried about them remind them who's special day it is and that it is only one day not weeks or a lifetime request.

Our youngest daughter would request the strangest parties for her birthdays and we would always honor the request which made for a happy birthday and child.

J.

what if you twisted his duck hunting idea in to a carnival theme you could use carnival type games, like the shooting range with the yellow ducks w/targets on them, the fishing pond game w/ the baby pool, water ballons, confetti eggs, silly string. I'm not one to promote guns to children, but I live in south Louisiana and understand the predicament. This theme will be more acceptable to you guest who are not comfortable with hunting. You could use marshmellow guns to shoot at paper targets.
As for the cake you can make it red velvet sheet cake and cut it in the shape of a duck. If he wants to hunt for the duck you could set up an "easter egg hunt" or "duck hunt" with papers in the egg, they have to find the egg with the word "duck" written on the paper before they can eat the cake. To use up more time repeat the game for the girls when it is time to open preasents.
Hope this is helpful, if you need more let me know.
L.
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a few inexspensive ideas are:

if you are staying at home, borrow an outdoor pavillion like people take camping and have tents as stations where the kids can go around to each station and have an activity one being the ducks in the pool fishing idea and that could be how the kids get their treat bags, with this idea it involves your son's love for ducks and with the camp site lookalike set up he will love it!

If money is not much of a problem you could have a duck hunt like an easter egg hunt! The ducks for the bath tub are still lovable when it comes time for baths!

with your son's love for being outdoors I recommend a small cook out to feed the party goers, what kid doesn't love to eat outside? hot dogs and hamburger fixings are fairly inexspensive.

What if you did a "splash party" outside?? Like get 2 or 3 of those $5 swimming pools, a couple of sprinklers, a million water balloons. You could even get a bunch of rubber duckies and some some water guns and they could go "duck hunting". Thats just cute even if you don't agree with hunting. Just tell everyone to bring swim suits and towels. Just serve snacks that are easy for outdoors and let the kids go wild. They would have a lot of fun. You could even do cupcakes instead of a real cake to eliminate needing to sit at tables with utensils. Hope this idea helps. Oh and I make specialty birthday cakes and cupcake cakes so if you're in the BA area, feel free to message me. Let me know if you need any more ideas.

A. K

Try the "duck" pond at Hafer park. I did my girls' parties there when they were a little younger. Summertime is great because there are so many trees and it stays really pleasant. You can hide rubber ducks in the trees and bushes along the edges and walking paths and label them (or color code) for special prizes. Games could include pin the bill on the duck, name-that-duck, and duck races, where the kids have to put on flippers. You can make duck-hunting fun and safe (and audobahn-friendly) by having the kids "shoot" the real ducks there with cameras instead. This will teach them stealth and respect, because they have to be quiet to approach if they dont want the ducks to run away. And they will get to take home momentos of their experience with all the pics they take (put disposable cameras in their goodie bags).

And for an extra splash, there's even a walking path from there to Pelican bay, you can take the little "ducks" for a swim of their own! Just call Edmond parks beforehand to reserve a pavilion. Have fun! :]

i agree with janet...it is HIS party and HIS day so i wouldn't worry about what other people might go "for"

and i love the idea so much of the tents and "camping stations" that is brilliant...

i have a mason also and he is 7 and loves mario so i am having a super mario party...i have all my decorations i made and stuff on my blog if you want to take a peek for future birthday ideas at www.meocracy.blogspot.com

and also a friend of mine just had a pirate party and her stuff is on her blog as well at www.blackflipflops.blogspot.com. You might have to scraoll down a couple of post but she had some really fun ideas as well and we both did ours on the CHEAP! mason's b-day cost me less than 50.00

good luck and let us know what you decide

What about just taking them to a park and letting them have their own fun? When my son turned 5 we went to a park that had a little train running around it, and everyone loved it. I also went to a party where some boys defended an outdoor fort while others tried to get in and capture it, I'm not sure how the mom avoided mayhem, but a good time was had by all. My son really liked history, so at one birthday (7) we reenacted the Battle of Cowpens from the American Revolution. Everybody was either British or American, and we appointed officers and explained the scenario. We also had an older boy helping out. It came off all right, and my son really liked it.
If your son really wants to shoot things, what about a shooting gallery with prizes?

Hi L.,
I have a very active 16 month old and here are some ideas we had that could translate for your son. Also Oriental Trading Company (google for address) has some great cheap decorations, games and party favors that can fit many different themes.

I love themes so I have listed them below:
--Where the wild things are (book)
--Pirates
--Lions and/or Jungle Safari
--Beach party
--Scavenger hunt
--Art party using Stamps
--Decorate an item: T-shirt, hat, backpack, etc

Hi L.,
Kids parties are so much fun. Have you thought about doing it at the park? Some parks, at in the Oklahoma City area, now have water features. Everyone can go in their swimsuits and play in the water, and if you want to stick with a duck theme, you can always do a duck shaped birthday cake, or cupcakes with ducks on them, and give out rubber duckies as party favors. Or even hide ducks in your backyard if you decide to have the party at home, and let all the kids go 'duck hunting'. Rubber ducks are faily inexpensive, and any arts and crafts store have a good variety of differnt cake pans. You might also check out www.orientaltraders.com . They are awesome when it comes to party favors. My oldest is turning 8 this year, and he's my little monkey, so he's decided he wants a monkey party this summer and that's where I'll be getting all the party favors and decorations from. I hope this helps!
S.

You could do like a Safari theme party. Not exactly "hunting", but I bet he would love it! (My son will also be six in the fall and we're doing a "zoo" theme)

If you live near a river, or mountains or similar area, have a picnic party. I did that for my kids for years - sandwiches, chips, juice and cupcakes decorated nicely. The kids played outdoor games and swam in the lake. Simple and easy. and clean up is a brreze - all paper products and one huge garbage bag. Kids don't care about fancy dicroations or food - just playing with their friends. Our party favors were books and the like.