Ideas for 5Yr Old Girls Bday Party.. It's Cold Outside!

My neice's birthday is October 22, and my daughter's is October 30. We usually have a combined "halloween" theme party...well, we let them wear their halloween costumes, and my sister usually goes to the dollar store and gets "goodie bags" (brown paper bags with maybe a couple pencils, a balloon, maybe some stickers.

FYI...

Hi D.,

You could have the birthday olympics. Seperate the kids into age groups like 3-5, 6-8, 9-11. Then have different tasks and activities for each group. Like beanbag toss (cornhole)and long jump for the littles, egg toss and potato sack races for the mediums, and obstacle course and three legged race for the bigs. Everyone wins a prize for competing with special prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

You could do a scavenger hunt. Assign a big kid to each little or seperate them into two teams and leave riddles leading them to the next clue until they find the big prize - maybe a pinata - at the end.

For the craft you could decorate pumpkins or carve pumpkins (1 pumpkin per family). You could have a make your own pizza station with flattened biscuits for the crust and a number of toppings or decorate your own cupcake with white a chocolate cupcakes and a few colors of frostings and sprinkles and such.

Hope this helps.

We just had a "pig" themed party for our 5 year old. The one game that was a big hit was a pig scavenger hunt. I told the girls that sometimes animals get out of their pens and the farmers have to go look for them... then they went to find 7 plastic pigs that I had hidden outside (like an easter egg hunt). You could do the same with your daughter's My Little Ponys (if she has a lot). Our 3 year old got left out though since she couldn't run as fast and was upset that she didn't get to find any pigs... so for round 2 we had the 5 year olds hide the pigs again for her to find. They REALLY liked that and it took up more time.

We also played pin the tail on the pig, balloon pop, and then I filled the baby pool with treats and covered it with straw (instead of a pinata) for some other ideas.

I don't know where you live, but my sister always had a "bonfire" in the driveway with hotdogs and s'mores for her birthday... and a hayride.

You could have them decorate a pumpkin for a craft.

My child's friends all liked "centers". various activities they could choose from and stick with as long as they wanted.
something like this. one area swing set. One area bubbles
one area crafts one area coloring one area chalk. one area dress up etc.
the one thing they have loved and requested each year was this.
I saved toliet paper and paper towel rolls. We covered them with peanut butter and rolled in bird seed. Put a ribbon like christmas curl ribbon through the tube and hung on a tree. birds loved it too.
Another station we had cherios and yarn to make necklaces, braclets etc.
I had coffee filters. we had little containers of food coloring with water and used q-tips to "paint the filter"
then used a non-pinching clothes pin and looked like a butterfly add pipe cleaners to the top for the antenes.
None of these are expensive but the kids loved them.
At a friends Oct. birthday party we painted and or carved pumpkins and went on a hay ride
Have fun and good luck!

We did a luau for my daughter one year. It was a lot of fun because we did pirate type stuff for the boys and flowery stuff for the girls. I know it is not warm out, but you could still do the limbo, a pinata, a treasure chest hunt, hot potato (with a coconut). They had a blast doing these things. Also, I did treat buckets instead of bags with individual bags of goldfish crackers and some other goodies. It must have been fun for her because it was three years ago and she just asked to do it again for this year's party!

When my daughter turned 5 (she's 17 now!) we had a party in our home in February with lots of kids. Obviously we couldn't go outside at all. We hired a clown to come in and it was a hit with everyone. It has been one of her most memorable parties.

D.,

I've got a soon to be 5 year old girl too and I'll be watching this post to get some more ideas as well!

We are having the whole preschool class over (give me strength!) and have asked them all to wear their Halloween costumes. So that will be fun for them. I'm hoping for at least sunny weather so we can set up a cornhole game outside and I'm contemplating a scavenger hunt too. It's going to be a madhouse, so I'm keeping it simple with just a Halloween theme. Dollar Tree is great right now for decorations and plates and napkins.

One other note, last year I put some Halloween pictures on some 1 liter water bottles and found a couple of round small pumpkins and had 'pumpkin bowling' - it was a huge hit!

Good luck and hope you have a great time!
J.

I have two sons that have birthdays in Oct. so I understand. We did a number of things. For food, I did the crock pot since it was easy and less hassle. Of course with alot of people, you may not be able to do that. As for the kids. Kids are pretty good about things. We did fires in the back yard, roasting marshmellows, and such. My son now does a piñata for his son. I have found that looking for "treasure" works great.....put suckers, or tootsie rolls out and hide them before the party....in baggies if necessary and have the kids do a hunt for them. You can also play "old" games, like riddly riddly ree, I see something you don't see.....kids still like that game. Build card houses using playing cards, get cheap ones at the dollar store, or let them try to throw the cards into a hat.....I think you will find that you will have plenty of fun. Pretend that your back yard is in the middle of the park.....you'll come up with some great stuff. You know sitting around telling stories and letting the kids tell some too is a good communication tool and it can fun. Even if you start a story, and let each person add to the story as it goes from person to person.
I hope you have a great time and good luck.

Why not make it a bonfire/weenie roast. I know she is a girl but set up your backyard to look very fall festive with straw bales and corn stalks, and then use a fire pit to have the girls roast their own hot dogs and make s'mores afterwards. It's always fun for kids to make their own food and with all the parents there, the adult supervision should be available. I would also suggest maybe an outdoor carnival....make some game booths and get little prizes for them to play for. Michael's has an awesome selection of things to use for prizes for under $2. Just some ideas...it's so hard when the weather is unpredictable! Maybe we will get a few days of Indian Summer, you just never know!!! Good Luck with whatever you decide to do.

For my neice who will be 5 in November we are having a formal sit-down tea at 4pm. Just another thought if you think the girls would be into that....!

Check out Smarty Crafts and send them an email. They offer Birthday Craft Kits and provide the craft materials. Since you will have a blend of ages, the crafts will be perfect b/c the older kids can help the younger kids. They also offer Grab-n-Go takeaway kits which are perfect for party favors. www.smartycrafts.com

Birthday Party - Lessons learned...
Keep the sugar content as low as humanly possible. It DOES make a difference.
A friend of mine got ice cream sweetened with honey and a carob birthday cake with natural sweeteners. Instead of lots of candy she had popcorn and all kinds of other non-surgary treats. Her daughter was turning... 4 or 5. There were a lot of kids and parents there ranging from infants, through toddlers. She had an animated movie going on the TV at one end of the house to occupy those that didn't want to play games (or for the moms and those with infants). There was a lot of energy - don't get me wrong - but it was the calmest child's birthday party I have ever attended. No crying, screaming or fighting. I was a believer!

Just b/c her birthday cake, plates, etc are My Little Pony doeesn't mean the entire party has to be pony based. Have somewhat of a costume party seeing her birthday is just a couple weeks before halloween. It gives the kids another great reason to dress up in their costumes. For the craft they could make masks... either buy the foam kit masks you can get at a craft store or supply things such as feathers, paper plates, glitter, jewels, foam shapes, etc.
If you have a firepit you could have a small "bonfire" & let the kids roast marshellows, make smores, tell stories around the fire to help warm things up a bit.
As far as games go... maybe a scavenger hunt. Have them find things either theme related or fall items around the yard. With those ages I would say a list of ten items would be good. You can pair the smallest children with an older child or have a parent help them.
Another thing we have done for fall/winter birthdays in our family recently is to blow up a small bounce house type thing. It of course helps burn some energy as well as warm them up from the exercise/movement. The one we have is a 2 kid at a time bounce castle that my parents got from walmart for right around $50. I believe the recommended age range is 3 to 6, but my sisters soon to be step daughter is 8 (& stalky for her age) and she gets in there with my almost 5 yr old all the time. It came w/ inflatable swords as well as balls so it gives the other children some items to play w/outside the castle while they wait their turn, etc ..... Also on another note, we've had the bounce castle for over a year... its also a great indoor cold weather energy burner. We're able to move things around in the play room & set it up for short periods of time.
Good luck, have fun & happy birthday to your daughter!