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How To Throw A Hot Wheels Birthday Party

How To Throw A Hot Wheels Birthday Party

HotWheelsThemedPartyMy youngest son, Rylyn, just turned 5!  We had such a fun birthday party for him – you see, Rylyn used to love trains more than anything – but as the years have gone by, his love for trains has turned into a love for all things cars, especially Hot Wheels tracks and cars.  He loves them!  When we started to think about themes for his birthday party, we knew we had to do a Hot Wheels themed party.  If you have been reading my blog for a while, then you know that I love to plan birthday parties for my kids and I love to plan over-the-top fun parties on a serious budget – in my mind, there is no other way to do it!  I think if you work at it, you can absolutely have an amazing birthday party for your child without spending a lot of money – and, you can do it from home (which saves even more money)!

 

I wanted to make this party for Rylyn extra special because it’s the first “friend” party he’s had!  I know what you are thinking, Katrina, he’s 5, why in the world is this his first real party?  Well, I’ll be real honest with you, take a seat…. I’m a mom of 3 kids, and he’s the 3rd kid.  Simple as that – plus I’m smarter now.  :)  I didn’t want to start off this awesome birthday party tradition with Rylyn too soon, because I have many years ahead of fun parties with him.   He’s a crazy boy with so much energy, that I honestly wanted to put off the “friend” parties with him for as long as I could.

 

This was the first year that he finally noticed the fun parties that my other kids had and was already planning his own party.  When I think back on it now, I can’t believe that my oldest son, who turned 10 this year, has had 10 amazing at-home birthday parties.  His parties have been over-the-top!   He’s had really fun themes like: Messy Party, Star Wars, Science Lab, Minute-To-Win-It, etc.  My daughter, who turned 7 this year, has had a few less than my son (you see, I was starting to wise-up).  Her fun at-home parties started when she was 3 with her first “friend” party.  She’s had 4 great years of fun parties with themes like: Tea Party, Italian Cooking Party, Cheerleader Party, Daddy-Daughter Construction Building Party, etc.  Now that we are on to my 3rd, I’m older and wiser and think it’s ok that he’s just starting his “friend” party tradition.

 

When I’m planning a birthday party I start out by making a quick Word doc with all my ideas of themes that they might like.  I then make a guest list and ask for input from my child on who they would like to invite.  We go over the themes and I let them pick one.  Thankfully this year I pretty much knew what theme he was going to pick, it was either going to be Trains or Hot Wheels.  He chose Hot Wheels and I was off the races to start coming up with games and things to do for a November Hot Wheels party indoors with a bunch of 5 year olds.  What in the world can you do inside with car track? I did what any mom would do, I got on Pinterest to see what everyone else has done.  I found a lot of great pins for decorations for a “car-themed” party, but I know my son, and he could care less about the décor, he’s all about the fun things you would DO at the party.  He’s a very active boy and so are his friends, I knew I needed to keep them very busy or I’d lose control of them all.  I really didn’t find very many ideas at all of fun Hot Wheels themed activities we could do and was bummed.

 

It was close to Halloween and I still didn’t know what we were going to do at this party, but I had the invites made, the décor picked out and a cake ordered (from my mom of course).  A local high school in our area was hosting a Halloween Party for little kids, so we got ours all dressed up and headed over there for the free candy!  Once inside they had transformed the whole school into a Candy Land themed Halloween Party with tons of carnival games and it struck me, we could do that for Rylyn’s party!  Carnival type games that are Hot Wheels themed!  Genius!  My older son even mentioned to me much later that we should do a bunch of those simple games for Rylyn’s birthday party because Rylyn had so much fun and so did all the kids his age!  He even offered to help me make the games, and viola, we were off and running.  I was pumped because they all were fairly simple and inexpensive to put together, and they would work as indoor or outdoor games if the weather was nice enough (which at the time I had no idea what the November weather in Colorado would be like).  We got super lucky and had very warm weather the day of his party and could do most of the games outside, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

 

Here are all the game stations we came up with:

 

  • “Tire Toss” – We set up some old tires which I just so happened to as we had just put new tires on one of our vehicles.  YouHotWheels6 could also use ring shaped floaties used for the pool for kids who can’t swim yet.  You just set up the tires staggered and use beanie bags to toss into the tires.  If they make it into a tire, then they win a prize.
  • “Ring Toss” – We used glow necklaces hooked together to make a ring and had the kids toss them on to yellow caution cones that I happened to have for coaching soccer.  I found both at the dollar store.  The children had to take a “tire” glow necklace and toss it onto the cone.  If they made it, they won a prize.
  • •“Pin Wheel”– Think of Pin the Tail On The Donkey, same idea but I made a big poster board of a Hot Wheels Car instead.  Then I printed and cut out a page of small tires.  At this station, I had my dear friend give each child a tire with some tape on the back and after they spun the child around a few times, blindfolded, they got to try to get their tire on the Hot Wheels Car.  We gave everyone candy for just trying this one no matter where their tire ended up.  I hung this poster on my garage and it worked out great.
  • “Car Walk” – Just think of a good old fashioned Cake Walk!  Same thing, except if your number is called you win candy instead of a yummy baked good.  J I made numbers 1-10 and taped them to my driveway for the kids to walk on.  We played music and when we stopped the music you had to be on a number.  You would then pick a number out of a jar and whatever number was called won a piece of candy.  My daughter helped with this station and loved every second of it.  Hands down, this was the wall time favorite station by all the kids at the party.  I mean, who doesn’t love a good ‘ole cake walk?!HotWheels5
  • “Tire Eating Contest” – This was so fun!!! We hung mini chocolate donuts, which were the “tires” with fishing line from a low branch on our big tree in our front yard all at different lengths.  We then lined all the kids up in front of a donut that hung basically right in their face.  At the same time, with their hands behind their backs, they had to eat the donuts without touching them.  HILARIOUS to watch and so yummy!  The kids loved this one as well.  We only did this station one time as a group.
  • “Car Race”  – this was the last activity.  My older son built a Hot Wheels track that went down our stairs and made the cars go really fast!  We had everyone use the Hot Wheels car they were given from the “Car Fishing” game to face off with each other and see which car was faster.  I initially planned to make a big tournament poster with individual heats for the cars to race, but time got away from me and I realized that being 5 year olds, they didn’t really care who won!  They just wanted to race!
  • “Stop Light Piñata” – I made a VERY simple piñata from a tall rectangular Amazon box and stuffed the candy in the bottom of the box.  Taped it together and then decorated the box by wrapping black streamer paper all around the box completely covering it.  Then I cut out a red, yellow, and green circle from construction paper and taped them on the front of the box and it looked just like a stop light.  We hung the piñata from our front tree and used a very hard baseball bat toHotWheels4 whack it.  I was worried it might have a hard time busting open because it was a real cardboard box, but thankfully, that also meant that each child got to hit the box a few times and then we let the birthday box pound on it until it all feel apart – which he loved.  Was a very cheap way to make an adorable piñata.  This was another all group activity that we did only one time.
  • •“Car Fishing” – This one is where you hold a fishing pole with a string hooked to it, then the child tosses it over a big board and the person behind the board hooks a toy to the string and tosses it back like the child “caught” a fish!  We changed it up a bit and attached a red Solo cup to the end of a string on a wooden pole I had.  When they child tossed it over they were given a brand-new Hot Wheels car in their cup! They all seemed to love this and the best part was that the Hot Wheels cars are usually on $1!  We then planned to have each child keep that Hot Wheels car and use it for the Car Race that would happen later.

 

Other Things I Made:

The Decorations:

HotWheels3If you have read my posts from my other parties, you know I like to keep things cute, but simple and budget-friendly!  Rather than buying official Hot Wheels branded décor, I believe in picking solid colors that match and making my own birthday banners out of poster board and ribbon, and making my own signs and hanging them up.  Plus, we always use matching streamers.  I also made a simple tablecloth for the main table to look like a road.  I picked up a black plastic tablecloth from the Dollar Store as well as some white duct tape made my own road!  It was cute and cheap!  Don’t forget the balloons!  I always get about 10-15 solid color balloons and disperse them around the house – as well as outside so it sets the mood when you guests arrive!  Simple, cheap, and awesome!

Signs:

I made my own signs FREE from my favorite website – Canva, that I glued onto poster board and hung it up near each station.  I also recruited a few parents and family members, even my older kids, to run each station so that they could help the kids and hand out prizes.  My prizes consisted of a lot of candy (that I recycled from Halloween, and small little toys like pencils, erasers, stickers, that were again recycled from Halloween and that I picked up at the Dollar store).  I tried to find some fun Hot Wheels themed prizes, but when they got too pricey, I figured kids love candy and I had a TON from Halloween that was just a week before his party!

Goody Bags:

These were very necessary as the children needed a bag to carry around during the entire party so that they could put all the candyHotWheels2 and treats they won at each station – as well as when we did the piñata.  I kept these simple as well, I just picked up a package of red paper lunch bags that I found from my local Dollar Store and printed out a small tag that I made on Canva.com for each bag that I glued to the front and added each child’s name.  I had these sitting out so each child could grab their bag when they arrived to the party.

The Cake:

My mom is our cake maker extraordinaire!  She makes the cakes for my kids every year and they are  amazing!  The best part about her cakes is that they are gorgeous and usually make for an awesome focal point on the main table.  This year, she out-did herself with a Hot Wheels cake that had a tunnel right through the middle that you could drive a Hot Wheels car through (that was the request from the birthday boy)!   Even if you can’t make an extravagant cake, there are so many cute ideas on Pinterest for cakes, treats, and cupcake that go right along with the theme.  If I didn’t have my mom to make the cake, I was going to go with something simple – a “tire” donut cake!  Just take a bunch of small chocolate donuts and stack them up on a plate just like a bunch of tires. Then stick a candle on top and there you go – a “tire” cake!  Viola and super simple, plus this would be very inexpensive!

Invitations and Thank You Cards:

HotWheels7I also made my own invitations on Canva and used the same layout to make a thank you card.  I like to make invites that are simple 3.5 x 5 in postcards that are 1 sided that I can put in an envelope or pop right in the mail as a postcard.  It’s much faster to just make your own, print them out and mail, versus hunting down a matching invitation at the store and hand-writing in all the info (at least it is for me).  Plus, I love to make stuff on my own and personalize it!

 

It may sound like a lot of work, but besides making the signs and few other décor items, it really wasn’t that bad!  The party was a lot of fun and really you could use the same games to fit any theme for any party!  My son loved this 5th Hot Wheels birthday party and for me, that’s all that matters!

 

 

HotWheelsThemedParty

 

 

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February 27, 20170 commentsRead More
7 Budget Birthday Party Ideas For Girls

7 Budget Birthday Party Ideas For Girls

budgetfriendlybirthdayI’m a big planner – I like to start planning for my kids’ birthday parties about 4-5 months in advance.  I do this because I’m a tad bit neurotic, but I also do this to save money.  When you plan in advance, you are able to start thinking about what you’ll need and can pick those items up whenever you see them on sale, instead of having to buy them the week of the party at a more expensive price.  You can always save more money when you have more time to shop around.  To save money you need to be consistently patient as you look and wait for deals.  My two oldest kids have birthdays 2 weeks apart, so I tend to plan way in advance because I have to do two parties near the same time.  While researching ideas, I’ve gathered my top 7 unique, easy, and frugal birthday party ideas for girls.  My daughter’s birthday comes first and she is turning 7 this year, and after gathering all these great ideas from other amazing moms, we have picked the theme for her party that I’ll tell you all about in the next few months!

Top 7 Unique, Easy, and Budget-Friendly Birthday Party Ideas for Girls 

  1. Art Party - There are lots of things I love about this party, especially the 6 layer rainbow cake!  Being an artist myself, I love the idea of sharing that love with a bunch of other little artists!  If you have a budding artist, this is a great party idea with lots of ways to keep the kids busy!  I’ve tried the marble painting idea in this post and it’s so much fun.
  2. Slumber Party - Who doesn’t love a good old fashioned slumber party?  There are so many fun things you can do with the actual ‘slumber party’ being the theme of the party.  I love the revised Spin the Bottle game – I know my daughter would love this since she loves to paint her nails all the time!  There are many other good ideas on this post of frugal and fun ways to have a great time hosting a slumber party that your daughter and her friends will love!
  3. Cheerleading Party - My daughter loves cheerleading and this is the party we did for her last year which had a cheerleading theme!  We made easy invitations from home and had very simple decorations.  All the girls got their faces painted, they got to make their own megaphones out of poster board, and they made simple hair ties to match their new pom poms.  As an added bonus they got to learn a cheer and they performed it for the parents!  If your daughter loves cheerleading, check out this very budget-friendly cheer party!
  4. Cooking Party -  Such an adorable idea for a party!  The cooking courses are simple and fun and what could be easier than salad on a stick and english muffin pizzas?  Yummy!  Instead of having to make an elaborate cake all the children get to decorate cupcakes instead!  With cooking as the theme, you don’t have to purchase any extra snack foods! Great for your future chef and her friends!  I’ve even seen some easy chef hats on Pinterest that you can make out of poster board and tissue paper that are adorable!
  5. Tea Party - What group of girls doesn’t love to get dressed up and have a fancy tea party?  Adorable and budget-friendly ideas on how to decorate and save money on the entire party.  Wait until you see the fancy cake!  This party is so cute and fancy and will be a big hit that I’m sure your daughter and her friends will remember for a long time!
  6. Science Party - Do you have a future scientist who loves to experiment?  She and her friends will love this science themed party full of frugal science experiments that will have them in awe!  I really like the notebook idea for young scientists to take notes about each experiment, as well as the great idea for lab coats.  Plus, a party schedule and printables are also included!
  7. Breakfast In Your PJ’s Party – YUMMY!!! This party includes all things breakfast – doughnuts, pancakes, cereal, and all while in your pajamas!  What fun?!  This party is great if you don’t feel like doing the sleepover the night before, but want to still achieve the same sort of idea.  The pancake relay game sounds like a lot of fun and is super simple to do.  All in all, this looks like a great party theme with some really simple and yummy food!

So many great ideas by some amazing bloggers!  I hope you all enjoy this list as much as I do and that it gives you lots of great ideas for the next birthday party you host.  Sometimes the best ideas are the simple ones!  Enjoy!

Ibotta-logoDon’t forget to shop early, use your coupons and pay attention to all the great extra savings you can achieve using my favorite coupon app – IBOTTA - when you are buying items you need for your party.  The great thing about signing up with IBOTTA is that you will automatically earn a $10 rebate after you redeem your first offer!  It’s a quick way to not only save money, but make money!

If you plan to purchase anything online such ebatesas party decor, make sure you use eBates to earn extra cash back on everything you purchase!  eBates is a great site that you will want to check out and start using anytime you shop online – it’s very simple, you just use the eBates site to earn additional cash back on your online purchases.  You can shop at major retailers like Walmart and Target and earn an additional percentage back on your total purchase!  When you refer your friends to eBates they pay you $25 for each referral!  It’s another great way to save and make money!

 

All photos and content are copyrighted and from the original blogs on which they reside.

Some links in this post are affiliate links, thanks for using them – while they help you save monney, they also support me and my blog.

budgetfriendlybirthday

 

 

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March 7, 20161 commentRead More
How To Throw 2 Birthday Parties For Only $65

How To Throw 2 Birthday Parties For Only $65

HowToThrow2BdayPartiesThis post contains affiliate links.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

True story – two weeks ago, I threw two birthday parties for less than $65 total.  Not kidding!  My two older kids both have birthdays in June, only weeks apart.  For some silly reason, this year I decided to have both of their parties on the same day!  Yes, I’m crazy, and I know what you are thinking – oh Katrina, that’s not a big deal – I’m sure you just had a joint party at a park with both sets of their friends and you just served cake and let the kids all play…right?  Um, no…that’s not what I did, I’m not that type of mom.  I’m the super crazy type of mom that loves to throw at-home parties that are creative, fun, active, and have a unique theme!  Cue the theme music…yep, I’m certified crazy!  :)   But, the cool thing about their parties this year was that I did them both, on the same day, hours apart for less than $65 total and I’m going to tell you exactly how I did it!

20150606_142434My oldest son, Coen, turns 9 on June 25th.  We started planning his birthday party at the end of his party last year (yep, more crazy) and the theme he chose this year was Minute-To-Win-It.  Have you ever seen this game show?  If you haven’t you should watch it sometime – it’s a great show where contestants have 1 minute to complete silly tasks for money.  We had debated doing this theme the year before, but changed our minds at the last minute.  After attending a Minute-To-Win-It party, Coen was determined to do the same thing for his party this year.

My daughter, Makenzie, turned 6 on June 10th.  We started planning her party Mak_frontDoortheme last November when she quit her gymnastics class and decided she was a cheerleader instead.  :)  She fell in love with cheerleading and so her theme this year was..can you guess? Yep, cheerleading!  Picking a theme early is key, that way you can start planning, and picking up items that are on sale when you are out and about already.  And in fact, the colors for their parties was picked based off the fact that in December I just so happened to be at the Dollar Store buying stuff for Christmas and I came across cheerleader pom poms that were red, blue, and silver.  I bought 11 sets of pom poms and her party theme was decided!

When we picked Makenzie’s color scheme I honestly didn’t realize that Minute-To-Win-It’s logo was red, blue, and silver – I got super lucky!  The colors just worked out to be the same!

So here is how I planned, decorated, and threw their parties for under $50 total.  Let’s start with Makenzie’s Cheerleading party…

Cheerleading Party

Invitations: Her invitations were megaphones that we cut out and tied a ribbon around.  We M_inviteadded some glitter to the end and were good to go!  They were adorable, we made them ourselves and spent an afternoon decorating them.  I just googled megaphone clipart – picked one I liked and printed it out to fit inside the cute silver envelopes I had at home.  To make these, we used stuff we had at home – and were only making 12 invites, so it didn’t take very long, and was FREE.  We tend to use a lot of red stuff for our home parties so we always have a lot of red paper, red ribbon, etc.

Don’t Feel Like Making Your Own Invitations?  I will!

If you love the idea of these Megaphone invites and don’t want to make them yourself, I will!  I will customize the invite with your child’s name, age and party location.  I’ll assemble and send them with matching envelopes ready for you to hand out.  Price is $3/per invite fully assembled + shipping/handling of $8.95.  I need about a week to make and get them to you, so try to plan ahead!  ORDER NOW!

Decorations:  Going along with our blue, red, and silver color scheme, I made a very simple and cute birthday banner that I found on Pintrest here from Chicfetti Parties.  This was really adorable!  I picked red 20150605_193834and blue for the colors, and after I printed and cut it out, I reinforced it by mounting it to blue poster board (that I actually found at the grocery store in the clearance section in March when I was doing my regular grocery shopping for the week – total score since they had a ton of them for $0.19 each).  I then punched holes in the top corners and laced a red ribbon through it that I picked up at the Dollar Store.  This was really cute!  The great t20150605_222515hing about it is that I can save it for another year as well!

I also used the rest of the poster board that I found in clearance to make posters for the decorations.  I simply printed out cheerleading clip art and sayings like “Go Team!”, “Happy Birthday Makenzie”, “Go, Fight, Win!”, etc. and glued them to the poster board.  I made several signs to hang around the house, as well as the front door for when guests arrived.  I made different sizes by cutting the poster board in half and even in fourths.  I also made one extra special sign that said “Happy Birthday Makenzie” that I p20150605_222625lanned to have the girls use in their group photo!  Besides the poster board, I didn’t have to buy anything else to make these decorations and they came out super cute!

I also used red and blue streamers that we found at a garage sale the day before the party for $.05, a blue table cloth that I got at the Dollar Store, 9 helium balloons (from the Dollar Store) and some of the pom poms.

Food and Supplies:  We served some simple snack foods of popcorn and pretzels and I made a big batch of strawberry water for my big drink dispenser.  I used only 3 sliced strawberries that I had purchased with my groceries for the week (I didn’t include these in my cost breakdown because I purchased them for my weekly groceries).  Great way to serve a lot of drinks and keeping the cost to a minimum.  All my paper products were leftovers from previous parties – again FREE!

Activities: I’ve learned over the years that the best way to do a party is to keep your guests busy from the second they walk in the door – I like to plan every minute of my party and keep them kind of short – usually only 90 minutes.  When guests arrived they were given their special set of pom poms, which had their name printed on the handles and these were their ‘thank you-take home gift’ as well.  Then we had them immediately  get their faces painted by a friend of mine.  She had very simple choices (megaphone, heart with the word ‘Cheer’ in it, star, etc) and of course these all included glitter!  I even got my face painted!

20150606_103354
After they all got their faces painted we had them color and decorate their own megaphones.  I made my own flat megaphone template and traced them on to pieces of the poster board we found in clearance.  I was able to get 2 megaphones per poster board.   The girls were able to color and decorate their own megaphone and then we stapled them together to form a megaphone.  These came out great and were super cute!  They got to use them when they learned their cheer!

Next, we made hair ties out of the ribbon I found at the Dollar Store.  I picked up 3 20150605_222700different colors and for the final color I used some ribbon that came with the treat bags for my son’s party that we didn’t plan to use for his party. Once they all had their hair ties finished, we put their hair in ponytails, applied some hair and body glitter that I already had to get them all pretty and ready to learn their cheer!  Some of the girls said the glitter was their favorite part!  I love glitter – I like to think I sweat glitter…but that’s another story!
Next, we took a group photo with one of the poster board signs I made and then we headed outside to teach the girls a cheer!  My friend’s daughter, who was a little bit older than all the other girls, very sweetly offered to create a cheer and teach it to the girls.  It was adorable!  She created a “birthday cheer” complete with arm motions and kicks and included the use of their pom poms and megaphones! cake She did such a great job and kept it simple and easy!  The girls all did a great job and it was very special to Makenzie!

After they worked up an appetite, we opened presents and ate cake!  Makenzie’s cake was awesome!  Was a Pinterest fail, but I think it came out even better than the original idea!  Every year it’s tradition for my momK_cake to make cakes for my kids, and she always does an amazing job.  This year we made white chocolate dipped sugar cones to look like megaphones along with cupcakes topped with pom poms.
These came out great and were really yummy!  The megaphones were supposed to be sideways on top of a cupcake, but after we dipped the cones in chocolate they were just way to heavy that they smooshed the cupcakes!  So, we had to serve them on the side along with the cupcake and pom poms.  They were a big hit and the cones were super yummy! Plus girls always love getting something with their name on it!

Her party was a huge success and I’m so glad we picked this theme!

Price Breakdown – Cheerleading Party: 

Here is a list and price breakdown of things we used for her party.  I realize not everyone has access to a Dollar Store, so I’ve also included links to Amazon for similar items that you could order and have shipped right to your door.

  • 12 red and blue posterboard sheets (found in clearance) - $2.28 – or order now online now
  • Stickers (Dollar Store) - $2 – or order now online now
  • 3 spools of red and blue ribbon (Dollar Store) – $3.00 – or order now online now
  • 9 helium balloons (Dollar Store) - $9 – or order now online now
  • Blue tablecloth (Dollar Store) - $1 – or order now online now
  • Sugar cones – $1.49 – or order now online now
  • Cake mix – $1 – or order now online now
  • Frosting – $2 0 or order now online now
  • Chocolate candy melts – $8 – or order now online now
  • 11 Pom poms sets (Dollar Store) – or order now online now
  • Popcorn – $3 – or order now online now
  • Pretzels – $2 – or order now online now
  • Total $45.77

Minute-To-Win-It PartyC_invite

Invitations: His invitations were super simple as well, we just googled the Minute-To-Win-It logo and made up a simple invitation that I printed out on my own printer.  We only needed to make about 12, so it was quick.  I mounted them to postcards that I already had and we handed them out at school.

Decorations:  The cool part about the decorations is that I just used all th20150606_135926e same stuff from Makenzie’s party just hours earlier.  All the poster board signs that we used for Makenzie’s party we just flipped over and had made clip art signs for Coen’s party.  I used the Minute-To-Win-It logo for all the signs that had sayings like:  “Your Time Begins Now!”, “60 Seconds”, “Happy Birthday Coen!”  I made a giant scoreboard on one of the extra poster boards and hung it so we could keep score of how the kids did coen_decorationswith each activity.  I did have prizes for the winner and the loser! We also reused the birthday banner, the balloons, and streamers.  Since the party was just a couple hours after Makenzie’s all we really did was run the vacuum, and flip over the signs.  Was EASY!

Activities: Now this was the fun part!  I had a blast planning this party and all my ideas came from watching the actual show or Pinterest.  We played so many fun games and with my 90 minute time line, we actually scrapped the last game, but we kept all the kids busy and occupied from beginning to end!  Some of the games we did as a whole group, some we did head to head and some we did individually.  I had a friend keep track of the time and another friend was keeping track of scores on the giant scoreboard.andrew_noodle

  • Noodling Around – with your hands behind your back you had to get 5 penne pasta noodles onto a long spaghetti pasta noodle in one minute.  This game was a lot harder than I thought it would be and out of 11 kids, only 1 was able to do it.  The pasta I had in my pantry – another FREE game!  We did this game as a big group because I had plenty of pasta!

 

  • Baby Rattle – Take empty 2 liter soda bottles and fill one with marbles (about 40), 20150606_135642then you tape another empty bottle on top.  The object is to shake all the marbles from one bottle to the other.  It’s more fun to have a set of bottles for each person so they can shake in both hands, but I didn’t want to assemble that many! I just made 2 sets and that worked out.  I found the 2 liter bottles on a FREE Facebook group we have in my local area and I also got some of the marbles from the same free site.  I purchased some marbles, because I just didn’t have enough, but it was awesome to find some free stuff.  This game was fairly easy and everyone was successful, was also VERY LOUD! :)

 

  • A Bit Dicey – Object of the game was to stick a craft stick in your mouth and stack 5Coen_dicey dice on top of each other on the end of the craft stick and hold for 3 seconds.   I had the kids go head to head for this game because I only had 10 dice.  This one was hard, but quite a few kids were successful!  I actually picked up a box of 10 dice at garage sale for $0.25 and I already had the craft sticks.  I tried to find the larger craft sticks to make this a bit easier, but never was able to find them, so I went with the small craft sticks I already had on hand.

 

  • Cup Stack-O – Object of this game is to stack 11 cups of one color on top of the others until you have stacked them all one by one on top of the other until the 12th cup of a different color20150606_145414 reaches the top again.  Sounds a bit complicated, but was a good game of skill to put kids head to head.  All kids passed this game, but a few were super close to 60 seconds!  A good game to keep the scores up for everyone.  I already had all these cups from other parties that I’d had in the past.  We did this game head to head – but you could do more if you had more cups!

 

  • Sticky Situation – This was hands down the favorite game of the day!  With this 20150606_151552game you take a slice of bread slathered in peanut butter and place it on a small table.  Then you take a bowl of ping pong balls (that I found at the Dollar Store) and place them in a bowl on another table about 5 feet apart.  Object is to bounce a ping pong ball on the first table and get it to bounce from the first table to the second and stick to the peanut butter.  This was really tricky, but a handful of kids were able to get it!  Such a fun game!  We did this as an individual game – they all had a great time collecting the ping pong balls that missed the peanut butter.

 

  • Face The Cookie – This game made us all giggle!  Object of the game was to take a 20150606_145035cookie and place it on your forehead and with your hands tied behind your back you have to wiggle and jiggle your face just enough to get the cookie to slide down your face into your mouth.  Was hard, but fun to watch – it really took some serious concentration and body wiggle!   I picked up the cookies for $1.29 at the grocery store.  We did this game as big group.

 

  • Tortilla Flip – This was a hilarious game!  Object of this game was to put a tortilla onCoen_tortillaFlip the end of diving flipper and to flip the tortilla into a pan on top of your head!  I found the diving flippers at the Salvation Army for $3.   Then we made the other part by taking an old baseball hat that my son had and we hot glued a plastic dish on top of it that would collect the tortilla.  This game was a bit hard as well, but a bunch of the kids were successful.  I already had the tortillas on hand, and we only really used about 4 for the whole group.  The neighbors got a kick out of watching the kids do this game since we took them out front – they sure can flip those tortillas pretty high, so watch out! W20150606_140357e did this an individual game because I only had one 1 hat to catch the tortillas in.

When the games were all done, we crowned a winner and handed out a prize to both the winner and the loser!  Next, we opened gifts and then my son requested ice cream sundaes instead of cake for his birthday!  Was super easy – and the kids got to load up on more sugar!  I bought one big tub of vanilla ice cream and then used chocolate sauce and caramel sauce that I already had, along with a bunch of leftover Easter candy that I had saved.  Worked out great and my son loved it! We also served the rest of the popcorn and pretzels we bought for my daughter’s party.  Overall it was a wonderful, LONG day, but was super successful and we had so much fun!

 

Price Breakdown – Minute-To-Win-It Party: 

  • Candy prizes – $1.79
  • Ping Pong Balls (Dollar Store) – $3
  • Marbles (Dollar Store) – $2
  • Cookies – $1.29
  • Ice Cream – $5
  • Caramel Sauce – $1.79
  • Flippers – $3 (Salvation Army)
  • Dice – $0.25 (garage sale)
  • Total $18.12

Total Price for both parties and a ton of good fun = $63.89

Tips:

  • Start planning early - I usually start planning my ideas 6 months in advance
  • Pick a unique theme, instead of a branded theme – I like to pick unique themes like cooking, art, messy, firetrucks, tea, etc – this tends to make your decorations cheaper since you are not having to buy branded items
  • I use simple, solid colors to decorate that I can pick up at the Dollar Store
  • Make as much of your supplies and decorations as you can
  • Use what you have around the house to keep costs down
  • Reuse as much as you can
  • Use coupons to to purchase supplies that you need
  • Ask your friends for help
  • Pay attention to sales flyers and buy supplies that you need when it goes on sale – even if it’s months in advance
  • Find a local “FREE” site on Facebook in your area and ask for things that you need for your party – you never know what someone has around their house that they may want to give away – for FREE
  • Share decorations  - even with a friend
  • Pinterest is your friend!  You can follow my Pinterest Page here
  • Follow my Facebook page, I’m always posting fun tips!

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HowToThrow2BdayParties

 

 

 

 

 

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June 18, 20150 commentsRead More