What Does a Good 3 Year Old Birthday Party Look Like?

You must be a brave soul. We didn't have "parties" (except family members) until our kids turned 5. At that age the kids can be herded and directed and expected to at least participate in some of the activities. Before that, it seems like just herding cats to me. :/

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Any chance you could change the venue?
Is the weather there too cold to do at a park?
Does your apartment complex have a meeting room? If so, could you use that space instead of a restaurant?
I'm just thinking that it might be hard to do it & spread out to have fun @ a restaurant.
Could you shorten the kids' musicians down to 20 mins instead of 40?
Might be too long.
If you start it early (say 10:30) you could do 1 activity then have lunch at noon. I say it like this because 10am seems early to start.
The taco bar sounds good.
I would make the entire party 2 hrs. That's about the attention span of young kids esp in a restaurant.
I would bring some low-key crafts: crayons (don't rely on the restaurant having them), coloring books, stickers, Matchbox cars, wood blocks.
They can play w/these @ the table.
Happy birthday to your little twins.

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These are 3 year olds. They will want to play, they will not sit still for more then 20 mins, 30 mins max. On the invites I would say that a parent has to stay with their child, I would not want to be responsible for that many 3 year olds at a restaurant (private room or not).

Additional things: crafty or coloring things

If the food is to be set out at a certian time plan to do 30 minutes of activity before the food, eat (about 30 mins), have cake (about 15-20 mins), open gifts (20 mins) and then leave. So you are looking at a two hours tops for this (ideally at this age an hour and a half should be the max length for the party)... any more and the kids will be melting down from being couped up.

For my daughter's 3rd birthday we did family (uncles, aunts, grandparents, birthday girl, mom & dad; total of 12 people). We went out to eat, she got a HUGE cupcake, when home for her to open a few gifts and she took a nap. All done within two hours, no other kids and we stayed sane :)

At age 4 she invited TWO other friend families in addtion to the people at her 3rd birthday (family), we went to a park, had a simple picnic lunch, pinata, playduh, coloring, opened 3 gifts done with in two hours. 18 adults, 6 kids.

At age 5 at home invited THREE other friend families in addtion to family. Had everyone over for an outdoor BBQ, 20 adults, 10 kids. Thankfully it did not rain so we spent all the time outside, some kids played inside our small house but were respectful of our place :)

At age 6 my daughter will have her class (18 kids) invited to a party either at a kids gymnastic place or other place that can be fully rented for just those kids at a resonable cost (under $200) OR I will give her the option to do a small family party. I will not be doing a big party every year, maybe every 3 years.

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Can the 3 year olds sit still for the length of time for the musicians? That seems a bit long, especially for an exciting event like a birthday party. That may very well be the recommendation from the musicians, though.. I don't know for sure. (Who are they?)

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I am a party entertainer. I do balloons and facepainting and a small magic show, and I have done a few small parties in private restaurant rooms.

Since it is in a restaurant, a lot of the time will be eating/waiting for food to arrive, so you have to plan around those things.

Have something to do when kids arrive and are waiting for things to start. Such as crayons and a cute picture to color, or playdough or a little foam sticker craft kit to make blocks, large building legos.

The entertainers should get there about 20-30 minutes after your party starts, SO many times I get there right when guests are supposed to arrive, but not many people are even thee yet. so I tell my clients to schedule me for about a half hour after the party start time.

So:

~arrival of guests: color, playdough, foam craft kits from a craft store...
~entertainer does his/her thing
~food arrives, everyone eats
~play a short game or craft, do some facepainting or little party temporary tattoos if you need to fill up time and the kids aren't getting crazy, but you most likely won't need to do that.
~cake
~open gifts

*edited, another mom made a good point about having the entertainers take a break to split up the entertainment. However, they are charging for the time they are there, and that could break up their little show. If by taking a break they are there for an extra 30 minutes to an hour, you need to pay for that. Kids entertainers know how to keep young children entertained, so really, breaking up the time shouldn't be needed if you keep the party moving.

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Don't make them sit through presents! It's hard for 3 yr olds to sit still and be happy while watching someone else open all of the fun toys.
Take them home and write thank you notes to the parents later.

40 minutes for show/activity and then lunch is just fine. Most parties at this age are 2 hrs.

My DS turned 3 last year and we had a jumpy castle (borrowed my SIL's) and then pizza from 11-1. After that, the kids were more than ready to take a rest.

I believe that the trend is not to open presents at birthday parties for young children. That avoids any "mine" discussions.

Do you plan to have favors of any kind for kids to make/take home?

When I first saw the headline on your question my first thought was .......

MAYHAM :-))

Your plans sound great to me. Have fun and take a lot of pictures.

Last year we had a music man come for my daughter's 3 year old party. I went to the dollar store and bought any type of musical instrument they had. I placed them in a basket. I put the basked out when the music began. They loved it and they got to take it home.

One thing you can do is cover the tables in white butcher paper and have crayons laid out. They can color all over the paper. You can go to Michael's and scoop up anything they have on clearance that the kids can color. You can bring a radio with a kids play list for background music. Planned games do not exactly work because they do not understand that yet. At 4 years, they do. You could have a story telling time. You could have them decorate their own iced cupcakes or cookies. My daughter loves to do that.

I would have one activity at a time. Let the music man be the last activity. Each activity should be about 15 to 30 minutes.

As for decor, go to etsy.com. You can find tons of diy decor that you can print on your home computer. I just paid $30 for a banner, cupcake toppers, thank you cards, party circles, etc. I printed everything from home and cut it out. It takes time but my daughter's birthday is Saturday and I cannot wait.

Also, I agree with the response below. Do not open presents. At this age, they will be bored plus they will want the present and might throw a fit.

The kids will play, just kind of corral them. They are going to like playing and not really want to do much other stuff. Since you are having this in a non kid friendly place, not McDonalds or some other place that has a playground, then you are going to have more issues with them being bored and perhaps more issues with the kids not having something to do. I would make sure and take a big tub of toys for the kids to play with.

The plans sound great, the only thing I would change would be take the presents home and open them. 3 Year Old will need some time to eat Tacos and Cake so it will probably take up more time than you think.

Sounds like tons of fun.

For my little guy's 1st and 2nd birthdays we had BIG parties, complete with bounce house, (courtesy of Auntie) gourmet food cooked by my BIL, tons of guests, when i just wanted to do a small family party. This year for his 3rd in April I am taking him, big brother and sister and my nephew to an aquarium, and we are doing pizza and cupcakes afterwards. Best to keep it simple as can be for the under-5 crowd, as they can't or won't sit for more than a few minutes.

As another mom suggested, put on the invitation that a parent needs to remain with their child at the party, (they can prepare their food for one thing,) have crayons and coloring books or pages to keep them busy, maybe play one game, and keep the entire party under 2 hours, tops.

Hope your twins have a wonderful birthday!

Unstructured.

I just offer snacks, cake and unstructured games. Friend had her son's party at a miniature train station and the kids got a ride on the train and otherwise ran around the party room with soft balls and tunnels to crawl through. I think that the musicians should be the only game/entertainment and otherwise let the kids just socialize. Make sure the musicians are the type to involve the kids in song or dance. Our story time runs about that long and the kids do alright if there are "stretches" between times to sit down.

I'd give the kids plenty of time to eat because otherwise you'll be cleaning up around them (like my friend) while they eat their cake.

Make sure there is plenty of room for the kids to move around, since they won't sit still for a 1.5-2 hour party at a restaurant otherwise. Have the musicians take a break - maybe they can play for 20 minutes when people first arrive and then another 20 while you're eating. If you have the budget, bring in a face painter, too. The kids will love it.

Don't plan to open presents at the party. The kids can't sit through it and, in all honesty, most of the adults don't really want to. Just open them when you get home and you'll all be a lot happier and more relaxed about it. Know that some people will bring one gift and others will bring two, so don't have any expectations about the gifts.

What's the theme of the party going to be? Try to find a couple of small activities related to the theme to keep the kids busy, such as bringing in cars, trains, dolls, etc for them to play with. A couple of crafts or just some crayons and themed coloring sheets are good to have, too.

Happy birthday to your twins!
K.
http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao - check out our fabulous January sale!