OT- Pool Birthday Party!

[IluvXU]

So I have decided to have a pool party for my 4 year olds birthday (4 days before we leave for Disney)
It will be just a handful of kids and around the 3-6 age. Any simple fun ideas for games/food/cute cupcake or simple cake ideas?

We are just going to our neighborhood pool, swimming and eating there, just a few hours in the evening!

 

[almburr]

I run our towns pool and I do the parties. Nothing fancy. Parents bring the cake and punch. I will start some games for the kids if Im not guarding. Try noodle races, diving ring hunt, silliest jump off the boards, best dive. little one could just jump off the side into the shallow while duing something silly. Here they like to say things "Nestea Plunge" etc.

 

[MNdisneymom]

Hi! That party sounds like my 4.5 year old DS's dream--don't kids love the water?

For a theme/food...I don't know if you have a SuperTarget near you...(or if other grocery stores can do this)...2 years ago for my DS's first friends party (with kids) we got a pull-apart cupcake cake. It was individual cupcakes on the bottom, decorated like a normal cake on top. (I think we did Nemo that year...) And speaking of which, what about Nemo for a theme? (Since you're going to be around the water anyway...)

As for the pool, a couple of things. About food...I don't know how your local pool is, but ours doesn't allow you to bring your own food in there. About
the swimming...(and I'm really anal about this, sorry)...do all the kids know how to swim? How well? If not, will they have personal flotation devices? (not swimmies or stuff like that.) Is there a life guard? Etc....I have put a bit of thought into this because my DS wants a swimming party for his next b-day--but it's in winter, so we'll have it at his swim school, so I won't have to worry so much, thank goodness.

Good luck, have a fun party and a great trip to WDW.

 

[suffolkprincess]

We had a luau theme and it was fun and easy to pull together decorations and games between borrowing and buying things on sale (luau stuff is already on sale nearby me.) We found a precious pattern at birthdays in a box-- hula girl-- and the cake was decorated with the "hula girl" on it.

For favors I gave every child a grass skirt, lei, and flower headbands for boys (straw tiki-type hats for boys.) These were not expensive from oriental trading considering what we have spent before on goody bags. AND we took a cute group photo and had a lot of fun with a hula hoop contest, limbo, etc.

Be sure that you make it VERY clear on the invite that its a pool party and I would suggest, with that age group, that you write something on thei invite about a parent needing to be present for the party. Even with lifeguards it is a big responsibility to have a group of kids at the pool...

 

[toesmom]

Kids love these types of parties, but I assure you, most parents don't. It means that you have to go to the party and swim in the water with the kids. Not every parent enjoys that.

We've been invited to about 3 of these when the kids were younger and although I don't mind the water, I didn't have a choice to get in. And not all pools are heated to a temperature that I like.

The kids did love it, and you can't say no when the kids are already discussing the party.

But on a hot summer day, sounds like a nice idea.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Kids love these types of parties, but I assure you, most parents don't. It means that you have to go to the party and swim in the water with the kids. Not every parent enjoys that.

I agree 100%. It sounds like fun but I dread the whole pool party thing.

 

[suffolkprincess]

I agree 100%. It sounds like fun but I dread the whole pool party thing.

We were lucky enough to be able to use my MIL's backyard pool-- so we made it more of a general family party. I noticed in most families one spouse had on a suit, the other didn't. So-- one got to have a margarita (watermelon ones-- YUMMY!) and the other... didn't!

We also planned three sets of non-water activities so that the parents got a break. We started out with some group games like tossing a ball in a parachute as well as the hula hooping, limboing, and a "coconut toss." About 30 minutes after that we had food, (hot dogs and burgers), and then about an hour later on we did the cake, and a pinata after opening presents. Some children only swam for about half an hour.

 

[gumbys7227]

We have a pool in our backyard, and our DD has an August birthday so I can tell you some of our experiences. When DD was 1 we had a huge party in the backyard with swimming. It was really just family & close friends so everyone was responsible for their own kids (no drop offs.) When she was 6 I hired a lifeguard and so many parents said that they were glad because that way they could drop off their kids and not have to stay or worry. Last year she was 8 and only had 6 kids so I was able to handle that on my own since they were all good swimmers and I could keep track of them easily.

A couple of cool games were pushing a floating item (water bottle, rubber ducky, boat...) across the pool with their nose in a race. This is good because it works with independent swimmers, or arm floats, or swimming ring. We also gave two teams a bowl that would float and dumped a bag of ice cubes in the pool and gave them 60 seconds to put as many cubes in their bowl as possible. (Be careful, you need lots of ice because it melts!) An inflatable ring toss game works good too. Have a great time!

We served snow cones. We have an electric one that the kids can work themselves, & I made many diff. flavored syrups from Kool-Aid & put them in water bottles with a sipper top so I could just throw everything away when they were done. The kids barely ate anything but the snow cones. You can get one of these at Target if you don't have one. I was able to make a cake that looked like a pair of flip flops. I just cut the shape from a sheet cake, frosted it, and used fruit roll-ups for the strap. Super easy and cute. I also made a "pool cake" one year with a jello pool and the kids loved taking all the decorations off and eating them. Look here for some cool pics. http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/kid-birthday-cake.html

 

[IluvXU]

The pool is in our neighborhood with lifeguards. There will be probably six kids-all good enough swimmers (can touch/swim around/wear water wings/belts). Thanks so much for the help!


More ideas would still be appreciated!