OT: Birthday Party - Princess&Pirate Theme - Ideas Needed

[labst60]

I'm planning a bday party for my dd (she will be 3).

I plan on renting a party room so that I can invite her daycare class and her playgroup - and include siblings - so all in all - about 20ish kids in the 2.5-3.5 range.

DD LOVES princesses (all kinds, not just the Disney) and at first I thought I'd just do a "royalty" party (princesses for the girls & princes for the boys) - but at least 2-3 of the boys were pirates for Halloween - and none were princes - so I guess that is bigger with the boys (???)

I'd love some ideas of activities, etc - I think planned "games" would be a bit much for a group this size - so I thought I'd just have different types of activities scattered throughout the room for everyone to do on their own (or with parents).

Any ideas would be great!!

THanks!

 

[rt2dz]

At that age, you're best with free play. Planned activities with that large of a group when they are so young just doesn't usually work well; it could, but it would be a huge stroke of luck.

You might do well to have various arts and crafts tables set up that are age appropriate that work well to the theme. Or you could do games in a carnival type of way. Try http://http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/. It is a great source of birthday party ideas.

Other good birthday party sites are:
http://http://www.coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com/kid-birthday-party-ideas.html
http://http://www.amazingmoms.com/htm/KidsBirthdayParties.htm

 

[KariC]

we did this for our twins' theme this year. the party was at a "fun zone" kind of place, so no games. but when it was time for the gifts and food, we bought pirate bandanas for the boys (tied them doorag style, remember that?) and little tiaras for all the girls. We bought them in packs at a party store. Then, we bought a treasure chest (kinda big) and filled it with loot....mardi gras type beads, gold coins, princess gear, pirate stuff....most of it came from Party Express I think. THe kids each got a loot bag before they left to fill from the treasure box. It was a hit. The kids ranged in age from 3-6 (their classroom ages), and all loved it!

 

[labst60]

Thanks for the input - I did plan on having it "free play" instead of "organized" activities - but since we will be in a large empty party room - I needed some ideas of indoor appropriate activities to bring for the kids to play.

When we do playgroups at home - the kids always play with the kitchen, baby dolls, etc - but I'm not sure what type of things to bring???

Hula hoops?? Foam balls?? Pop-up tunnel/tent?? Art/craft supplies - playdoh???

 

[rt2dz]

Off the top of my head...

I'd go with one of those color cardboard castles. If you can't find one locally, try celebrate express or birthday express. They can color it and play with it.

Mega blocks would also be good to build with.

Balls would be good. Do a variety of sizes.

I'd have various coloring pages out too.

Skip the playdough. It could get ground into the floor and you could get hit with a cleaning fee or loose your deposit.

A pull string pinata with age appropriate toys is good at that age too.

 

[SharpMomOfTwo]

We did the same exact thing for DD 2nd bday - it was a tinkerbell / pirate party at our home. First of all, we sent out invitations in glass bottles like the ones a shipprecked person would throw into the ocean in hopes to have someone find it and rescue them... The actual invitation I did myself on a home-made piece of distressed paper (like what old treasure maps look like) with tinks picture on it asking everyone to come save tinkerbell because captain hook had kidnapped her - it was very cute.
We have two very good party rooms right next to eachother in my house, so one was the tinkerbell room, and the other the pirate room. Tinks room had fairy wings hung all over the place that the kids could wear as well as little asain lanterns with lime green accents for tinkerbell. for the pirate room, we had the usual hats, eye patches, swords, a huge pirate flag, bandanas, sea shells, starfish, and since my FIL likes to crab, we put in one corner a group of crabbing boxes with fake crabs on/in them. What else.....
Another great idea is to get a pirate chest (if you have an AC Moore near you they have them pretty cheep) and fill it up with gold coins, candy necklaces... anything the kids would like.
Hope this helped, and if you want to do the invitations, PM me and I will let you know how to do it!

 

[katiesmom2]

Will you have some adult help? The kids might need assistance with some of these.

For the princesses:

1. My sister did a great craft at our niece's party. Instead of having the girls decorate wands or crowns with messy glitter, provide each girl with a skewer stick with a star on one end. Purchase a bunch of candies with holes in the center (peaches, lifesaver gummies, etc) and marshmallows and allow the girls to thread the candies onto the wands. Finish off with the tied of a large bow on the end to keep the candy from falling off. The kids loved this!

2. Allow the girls to make necklaces or bracelets with beads (adult help a must)

3. Copy a bunch of princess photos from the internet and have a coloring station

4. Are the girls coming in costume? If not, have a costume center where they can put on feather boas, crowns, faux jewels, etc or as the girls enter, provide them with feather boas and crowns

5. Hide Hershey Kisses or pennies around the room and have the guests "search for gold"


For the pirates:

1. Decorate pirate flags (cut from foam or felt)

2. Color pirate pages

3. Fill a swimming pool with sand and hide rocks painted with gold spray paint. Have the boys dig for treasure

4. Arrange a treasure hunt. We just did this for DS's 3rd birthday party. First, I hid boxes of clues. I bought 8 different types of wrapping/tissue and wrapped each box in a different pattern. Inside each box was a clue to finding the treasure (the loot bags). To start the hunt, I gave each child a swatch of their pattern and they went looking for their clue box. Then, we took turns reading clues and having the kids figure out where the clue was leading. Then, they went to that spot and found their loot bag. The kids and adults had a blast!

Good luck with your party!

 

[katiesmom2]

I wanted to add a couple of things.

For DS's pirate party, we found lots of great stuff at the party store: each child received a pirate hat, bandana, patch a stick-on mustache.

I put a treasure chest in the middle of the table with Hershey nuggets and faux beaded necklaces. I found a cute pirate outfit at Build a Bear and dressed one of DS's bears in it for the table too.

Oriental Trading Company has some great stuff. I found a giant pirate ship cutout and some pirate heads to decorate with. I also found some paper skeletons and hung them on the wall with eye patches over one eye and necklaces around their necks.

OTC also has some great sticker sheets. We did this one at DS's party - the kids LOVED it!

http://www.orientaltrading.com/appl...n+Your+Own!+Giant+Treasure+Map+Sticker+Scenes

(make your own treasure map)

They have these ones for your princesses:

http://www.orientaltrading.com/appl...partial&N=0&sd=Make-A-Princess+Sticker+Sheets


At DS's party, we also played "Wrap the Wounded Pirate" - in teams, they had to wrap one teammate in a complete roll of toilet paper. First one done wins. They LOVED this.

I also took our Fisher Price pirate ship and placed it on a Rubbermaid bin lid. I had the kids stand at a distance and try to "sink the ship" by throwing golf balls at the ship. All balls that landed on the ship or lid scored a point. Fun!

I also did the bottle invites. For the invitation, I used a scroll and put DS's photo on it like he was holding the scroll, put a parrot sticker on his shoulder. Then, I just make color copies.

I put skull stickers on the bottles and made labels with pirate names for the kids "Pirate Peter Evil Skull", "Pirate James Blackbeard", "First Mate Pirate Mark", etc.