Need Advice to Plan a Birthday Party

I recently did a joint birthday party for two sisters very close to the same ages as your girls. Here's what we did...I hit as many thrift stores as I could and purchased hats galore! All shapes and sizes. Then I hit the dollar store for "girly" stuff...feather boas, tiaras, stick on jewels, beads, funky sun glasses...I even found white gloves. We called the party "Tea Party for Two...and You". We made miniature finger sandwiches out of the favorite PB&J, ham & cheese, even Nutella and banana. The girls all adorned themselves in their hats and such, followed a real tea party with all the trimmings. The very little girls loved it and the 10-year-olds thought it was the best party they had ever been to. I'm all about having kids use their imaginations. I'm SO over overgrown pizza mice and arcade games for birthdays! Hope you have a great party!

Hi! The Montclair Rec Center in Lowry might be a bit far for you, but they have an awesome indoor pool and rooms for parties. I've never hosted one there, but we've been guests of parties held there and my girls (6 and 4) absolutely love it!

Another idea is to have a tea party at your house. I just had one here for my 6 year old's party and it was a lot of fun. You can rent kid sized tables and chairs from Butler Rents or another rental place, then decorate with your own linens and fresh flowers. I also made turkey, cheese and jam sandwiches, then cut them in the shapes of stars, hearts and flowers (using cookie cutters) for lunch. Added some carrot and celery sticks and some cheese puffs...voila, lunch! And Child's Pasty shop in Denver does a really awesome teapot shaped cake. I also ordered teacups and saucers in packs of six (actually demitasse cups) from Ebay for the girls to use at the party (with chocolate milk, not actual tea) and take home with them as favors at the end. It was a really cute party and all the girls were in pretty dresses and on their best behavior! Since your girls are so far apart in age, you could have a big girls' table and a little girls' table...We had lunch, did some classic birthday party games (pin the handle on the teapot, musical chairs), a painting craft project, had cake, opened presents, then the party was over.

Another idea is (if you have a big enough yard) to rent a jumpy castle for the day. Kids really, really love those! You can find a bunch of places that rent them online. They're usually around $150-$200 per day (not cheap, but still less than you'd pay to have a party somewhere else). They come, set it up and when the party's over, you can go in there and jump around with your kids until they come to pick it up. It's really a lot of fun! Anyway, hope this gave you a couple of ideas...good luck and enjoy!!

Hi T.,

I am the author of Slumber Parties...What Do I Do? which is my birthday party book with a twist to do a sleepover. If you don't want a sleepover follow one of the 14 themes in the book, and eliminate the midnight snacks and breakfast. The book is complete with all you'll need. It is a two-time GOLD award-winning 192 pages fun book that will give you ideas for years. The girls may enjoy having my Double Trouble party, if not there are girlie parties and sports parties and more. Try getting it from the library to see if you like it or read more about it on www.whatdoidobooks.com, click into products and see all my books. P.S. I live in Littleton and you can meet me at one of my Barnes and Noble nights (look at author tours on the website) Have fun...and write me back to let me know if you like the book.

The best, Author W. Ripple

If you want to have it at home I would suggest setting up stations in your backyard; We did a double birthday in Spring and had a craft station where they made a cute bug box I bought the kit online. Then they went and caught lady bugs to put in it (purchased at a garden store), I had giant bubble wands (Us Toy) and pans of bubbles, and the game Elefun (which we already had) The kids just went where they wanted and they all had a great time. I also had our babysitter (12) come help with the game. You could also rent a giant blow up bouncing thing. If you want to go somewhere Monkey Buziness has party rooms and it's great for both age groups. We have been to 2 parties this year at Build A Bear. They ate lunch and did presents at the pizza place in the mall then they walked to the Bear store and were given a choice of what they could get. They also have a party room.Bowling parties are fun too and most have a party package. If you are going to stick to the house there are several webites that give suggestions for activities. Just google kid birthday party. I hope these suggestions help. Good luck (make sure you and your husband have a date night the night after the party. You will need some down time:)

I thought a jumpy castle thing would be fun as well. Both of my daughter's birthday's are in the winter but if they were in the summer I would have one of those. Besides I think it would be a great fall back. We just had a b-day party for my 5 year old and some of the games I had planned didn't go over well. And there were a few kids that stayed too long.

Hope you figure something out.