My daughter turns 4 on March 20. We did a BBQ like party last year for it, it turned out great! We want to do the same thing this year , but want to do something a little different. Last year we had lots of kids, but no entertainment, other then running around outside. I have looked into getting a clown to host, but there are none in the small city we live in, so they would have to travel. Traveling fees go from $100 and up. I will do that if I can't figure out anything else to do, as far as entertainment goes, but I'd rather not. Oh and we live in an apartment so a bounce house is out of the question. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, thank you in advance!
I have seen really cute ideas in Parents Magazine- see if you can look-up some old issues.
One of my favorites was a day-time slumber party. Everyone wore their favority jammies and the food/cake table was made-up to look like a bed. They read spooky stories, snacked on popcorn and painted pillow cases. They suggested serving "midnight snacks" as food with hot chocolate. It looked like a great kids' party theme!
When my daughter turned 5, we did a "ballet" party. Her little friends came dressed in their leotards and tights. First thing, they practiced an "interpretive" dance - - I said, "Ok, we need 3 girls to be flowers, and - - who wants to be the bee - - and now who wants to be 2 butterflies." You could hand out head antennae and scarves for wings, and petal tutus. We played the music several times until everyone pretty much knew their dancing part. I demonstrated some basic, basic moves like a turn, an arabesque, but left most of the choreography up to the girls themselves. Then we played, opened gifts, had cake, and watched "Little Mermaid" - - it was newly out on VHS back then! LOL. When parents arrived for pick-up, we set up lawn chairs & the girls did the "show" out on the drive-way. MY BEST HINT FOR ANY B-DAY: Make the gift-opening as much about the giver as the B-day child. Have 2 chairs set face-to-face. Have each child fetch their present and hold it while they sit cross-legged on the ground. Then let them take turns sitting in the giver's chair and giving their gift. They get to sit there while the gift is opened, and the B-day child can express thanks, hug them, get a picture with them, etc.
My son attended a birthday party for a 4 year old last week. They had a bbq (burgers and hot dogs), which I always appreciate so it's not just sugar going into my son's system. For entertainment, they had races (in a cul-de-sac, so it was safe with parents watching the entrances), and then they set up three long tables in the backyard with sheets of parchment paper. The kids each got a paintbrush and put on blindfolds and then were told to paint the first thing they think of that is "birthday" - it was really cute to see them paint cakes and hats, without seeing what they were doing. The mom asked us all to bring a shirt "smock" so that the kids clothes were protected. The kids loved the art, and spent the next hour or so painting. Cheap, easy, and fun! Then it was cake and presents and we were done.
He is also attending a party this coming weekend at a museum. I don't know if you ahve a children's museum in your area, but the "host" will plan everything. It can be a little more expensive though, but I'm excited (probably more so than my son) to see what it's like. :-)
Face painting is a great idea by Elaine below. That's a big hit for kids! Maybe a puppet show? Or magic show? Maybe you could find a willing high school student to learn a few tricks or learn to make some balloon hats/animals. Good luck with the party!
You could have a princess party-- do their nails and a little bit of make-up, then spray their hair with glitter (available at Claire's), let them choose some dresses, let them make wands, give them some crowns or let them make some, and then have a parade and sit down to "tea and cakes." If there are boys, they can wear hats, ties, capes, etc.
for 4YO's, running around outside can be a lot of fun - maybe add a few things like bubbles, sidewalk chalk, bean bag toss, or other simple games. Are there any responsible high school students you know who love kids? The smartest thing I ever did for my girls' b-day party was to "hire" a couple teens from our church high school group - they have WAY more energy than I do, and can have over a dozen giggly bouncy kids all lined up for a game or face painting in no time. Oh, and the kids ADORED our teen helpers - you'd think we hired a couple teen movie stars or something :-)
Another cute idea I remember from when my kids were in preschool -one of their classmates had a "Dora" party (friend's parents hired one of the preschool teachers to dress as Dora and lead the kids through a treasure hunt in their backyard. And the teacher's fiancee was a great sport about dressing up as Swiper the Fox!)
You have gotten a lot of great ideas!
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Maybe your complex has a pool but we love having parties at our local parks then you can make a scavenger hunt or get the bounce house. Pick your park and reserve it with the city most are $25-$50 to reserve.
Does Cleburne have a community center with an indoor pool? You could throw a pool party. If you want entertainment for a backyard bbq, you could go online and look up kid games and just run them yourself. I made up a few games to play at our last one and everyone had fun. We did the limbo and played a silly dress up relay. Between the party games and the pinata, everybody had a blast. And it certainly didn't cost anything at all! What about simple stuff like pin the tail on the donkey, but make it into your theme - pin the Ear on Blue or pin the wand on the princess or whatever. There are free downloads on line and lots of ideas, especailly if you have a theme in mind. Ours was Luau so everything fell into place easily with one trip to the party store.
Hi A., Please contact us to discuss. We are not in the area as well but may be able to work something out. S. ###-###-####. You can also check us out on Facebook - S.
Four year olds are easy to entertain! For my 4 year olds, we did a craft; decorating foam visors with foam stickers and markers- I have also seen decorating face masks, doorknob hangers, picture frames, you just provide glue or stickers and stuff to glue on-sequins, buttons,feathers-letter stickers so they can put their name on it etc. can be messy, but fun. Also traditional pin the tail on the donkey-or something similar if you have a specific theme-we did 'stick the gem to strawberry shortcakes crown" or something like that. We also played twister-yes with 4 year olds-we tweaked the rules some- but it was hilarious! I also had a friend do face painting (we found face paints at hobby lobby) You don't have to spend the big $ to hire entertainment, they are 4 they like to just play together. Depending on how many kids you have you could play a game- our favorite was Pretty Pretty Princess!! You could have more than one game going on at a time. You can decorate their own cupcakes as another activity. So fun!
