Trying to Plan My 3 Year Old's Birthday Party

Hi,

Happy birthday to your son!

Many mothers in my area have had theirs at the local McDonald's.. one with a playscape.

Hi
I had my daughters 3rd birthday at a Burger King in Derry that has a playground. You can book a party and they give you a room and kids meals at a discount(I think...) I bought balloons and a cake and some small favors. It was a cheap way to have a fun birthday and let the kids play in the play ground. It was one of my daughters best b-day parties; she is also a winter baby, born in January. Have fun and good luck!

Gymnastic parties are fun-Kid Planet, Little Gym or the Hockomock area Y offers good parties. Gymboree also as fun ones for that age-there is one on 152 in Plainville.
Good luck!

i am having my 3 yr olds party at build a bear...i wanted it small but still to do something...they require 6 kids as a minimum - we are then doing the food court and buying happy meals and having cake. my son is VERY excited.

I don't know how far you want guests to drive, but you may want to check out Fantasyland in Seekonk, MA (on rte 6). It's an indoor carnival with rides (perfect for 3-5 year olds), games, skeeball, even bumper cars and does birthday parties every weekend. We went there for the first time two weeks ago with my almost 2 and 4 year olds. While a little cheesy, the kids LOVED it and great for that age group (and parents are free). They have a website so you can check out the activities and costs for parties. We may do my son's 4th birthday there in the spring because the adjacent mini golf course will be open then.

http://www.fantasylandminigolf.com/index.html

check your local ymca.. restaurants, Chuck E Cheese, Bonkers, indoor playspaces, do the museum again, contact me if you still have trouble.. I'll try to help you..

We just had a get together for my son at imagination Island in plymouth. (not sure where you are) It was fun for the boys they played for hours. We also went bowling for the first time which went a lot better than I thought it would.

Hi K.,
have you thought about doing his party at home? I have all my boys' parties at home since they were small (or at a family member's house) and we run wild with themes! It's SO fun!!!

themes we've done so far are: Pooh, Bear in the Big Blue House, Elmo, Clifford, Blue's Clues, The Backyardigans, Dinosaurs, Wall-E and Transformers. and for this year coming up we're tossed between an Indiana Jones birthday or a Safari birthday for my oldest and a toss up between an Ocean birthday or a Dinosaur birthday for my youngest.

It's alot of fun (MUCH cheaper) and if you're crafty - you can do most of it yourself. Take regular ordinary games & change them to fit your theme.

For my oldest son's 3rd bday we did Blue's Clues - I drew all the characters (you can print them if you cant/dont want to draw) & hung them on the walls around the room. I made a blue cake - the face/head of blue - (you can order one if you dont want to make your own) - and we did 'pin the paw print on Blue" - i drew blue's body & on a front paw, i left it the light blue color & I cut out (again, or print) the actual 'pad paw print' in the darker blue color for the kids to 'pin on'. I did face paints & a blue's clues pinata.

You can also go to www.amazingmoms.com for other wonderful ideas.

If you don't want it at your house then maybe a mcdonald's play place, chuckecheese, bowling, movies (the kiddie toons one ofcourse that show diego or dora or whatever), pump it up .Good luck! let us know what you decide to do!

You know at this age just a party at the house is a lot of fun as the kids just play with his toys and love it. I did 4 of them that way and last year was our 1st Out of the House party. My son is a Feb boy so I know about the party winter blues. I pt out a ton of finger food (carrots, grapes, watermelon, melon..gold fish etc) on a serving try and maybe you can do a few scavenger hunts for a prize, a Thomas theme or even a Star Wars theme is always fun.

At this young age you do not need to go over the top as the kids are happy with a little, wait until 4, 5 & 6 for more involved parties.

the SEE Museum has parties, Chuck E Cheese (ours this year) Jump On It, Bounce U, Money Joe's is opening up..One Stop Fun, Gymboree, all of these have parties..

If there is a gymboree near you they have great parties.

I had a Lego themed party for my son once. It was easy and fun. I used Lego flat boards (not sure of the correct name) as placemats- they each rec'd a small Lego kit, I made a Lego shaped pinata, they had Lego relay races....plain old playtime with Legos, we had cupcakes with Lego shaped candy on them. It was simple and you can do it right at your home. I made the invitations construction themed such as "foreman" - name of child celebrating birthday, "construction site" - address...etc.
If it does not fit with his age this year, you can save it for another time - does not matter the weather.

Boomerang's in Carver is a great place for a kid party... it's an indoor play place and not too expensive. They have party packages for up to 10 kids, which is plenty at this age, but I think you can add more for a fee if needed. I think we'll be doing my daughter's 4th birthday party there. You can bring your son there for a trial run outing to see what you think since it's open to the public.

We just had my daughter's third birthday party last weekend at North Bowl Lanes in North Attleboro and all the kids had a FABULOUS TIME. Some of them were even younger than my daughter (as young as 2 1/2) , but were still able to bowl and have fun. You'd be surprised how strong these little ones are! And at $10/child, which includes 2 hours of bowling, pizza and drinks for each kid and your own personal hostess, it was a real great deal!

We went to Scalliwags in Pembroke for my daughter's 3rd, it ended up being $275 for 10 kids and her but included cake, ice cream, pizza, drinks,plates, cups, arcade tokens, and access to the bouncy house and play structure. You have your own hostes to manage the party.They did a great job. They take care of everything, and the kids and parents all had a great time. Check out the web site.Deb

At this age, I think it's really, really important to keep it small and simple. Don't invite 20 kids and have your child showered with 20 gifts - it's really too much. You could do a very simple party at home with just a few kids and some kind of theme. For example, if your kid is into dinosaurs, decorate the room with toy dinos (from your own collection and maybe some you can borrow) and get a cake with a dino picture on it. If he's into insects, make a "cake" out of cupcakes shaped into a long caterpillar, using string licorice as legs, stick pretzels as antennea, and different candies as eyes and general "caterpillar bumps" on the body sections. Give them stickers related to the theme and let them make pictures to take home, or cheap foam picture frames from the craft store. You can make simple and inexpensive goody bags with small dinos or plastic bugs - try the educational toy stores or even the museum gift shops for favors, or if you have time, look into Oriental Trading - they are cheap. Just be sure the toys are appropriate for 3 year olds.

If you take pictures during the party, you can email them to the parents and let them choose, or send the best pics to one of the photo centers (like Wal-Mart) and give them to the families after the fact. Might be a little anticlimactic but it's an option.

You can get great game/activity ideas, age appropriate, from books from the library - we always did that with our son, and did a lot of "old-fashioned" games the kids LOVED because they had never played them - it's all the stuff we did as kids!

If you really want to have it elsewhere, you could look into the Ecotarium in Worcester or the Children's Discovery Museum in Acton. Don't know if that's too long a drive for you - don't know where you live. The Ecotarium might arrange for a little animal show - sit the kids down and then a staffer brings out a ferret, tortoise or some other thing for them to look at - making the description very age appropriate for those with short attention spans. Most museums do this sort of thing now, and can give you a contained area in which to keep the kids for some cake/snacks. I think the art museums often will do a little craft thing too - try the Danforth in Framingham or the Worcester Art Museum.

However, you really have to think about what's right for 3 year olds and how much they can handle. Also I don't know how old your second child is, but some of these home parties can span an age range. I don't know about the area you live in, but where I live there used to be a ton of pressure to throw a big expensive extravaganza with 30 kids and hired entertainment - and frankly, it was way over the kids' heads and way over most people's budgets. We took a little heat from a few people for doing something simple, but they didn't turn out to be the kind of people we wanted to be friends with! We didn't let our son go to huge parties for kids he didn't really know all that well, and you know what? He turned out great, able to choose really GOOD friends and able to resist things that weren't really in his best interest.

Good luck!

Hi K.,
We had a bowling party for my son and they loved it. Not too expensive either. We had it at Ficco's in Franklin and the price includes bowling and pizza and use of one of their party rooms. The kids loved it and were very well behaved. I just brought the cake and things for the table and some goodie bags. If he likes fire trucks you could call your local fire house and take the kids to the fire station (FREE) and have a fireman themed party. That is fun too! Good luck!

Both my boys are December baboies. When my youngest was 4 we made pizza at my house. I got premade pizza dough and let the kids go to town designing their pizza. I ordered chef hats and aprons from oriental trading company. I decoreated the aprons with their names. The kids loved it and we did have one 3 year old there that did great.

At 4 with my older son we went to a local gym that had birthday parties. The kids tumbled and had a blast.

Even though we have had parties out of the house. I still prefer to have it at the house. Our house is small, but it is only for 2 hours.

Not sure where you live. But if you have a Pump It Up around where you live, it's a great place to have a party. They have a smaller kids room which is great. The party usually goes for about an 1 hour and a 1/2. You can bring in a cake and they have all the decorations/forks ects. I have gone to a couple parties for 3/4 year olds there and they had a blast! AND alot less stress on the parents. :)

Good Luck!

Hi K.,
You can also look into Kidsports in Stoughton. I've I had a few parties there for my children but it's been a few years. Good luck.