I almost opened a business with my kids, we still could someday. The three of us were an awesome team of birthday party planning on a budget. I did it out of necessity, but I challenged their creative minds to do more with less. It has spilled over to my eldest daughter’s way of life. Totally budget conscious, reduce, reuse, recycle.
This type of planning probably won’t make us rich, but we sure had fun & the best parties.
One such party was held at our dog shelter. We played with puppies that were brought to us in a building just for our party. Our local favorite clown painted our faces like dogs or cats.
All gifts were donated to the shelter & each child ate special “puppy chow” from dog bowls. We went into the cat room & played with all the cats.
The kids goodie bags were little stuffed animals that they chose to adopt as their pet, complete with adoption papers. Human kibble (cocoa puff cereal) and “vitamin” gummies was included in the bags
Another really fun party was our spy theme party in the park across from our house.
My daughter’s friends always knew the party would be interesting & were up for anything.
The invitations were sent to each child by manilla envelope. Inside were instructions of the rendezvous point, time, address, date. It was written so they knew it was a mission: wear tennis shoes.
Upon arrival at our home, they each selected a brown paper bag. Instructions for their secret agent identity were inside.
The bags held supplies they needed including a little kid super hero mask. I took photos and printed for a later activity.
The mission was to find the spy training facility. Their first clue was to navigate through the laser maze across the street in the tennis court parking lot.
The lasers were red yarn tied & looped in such a way that careful planning had to be done by the agents to make it through without getting touched by the red lasers beams.
If they successfully completed the activity, another clue with given for the directions of the next location & activity. At the end of each activity was another clue and activity getting them closer to the final destination, a lot cabin in the woods that I had rented for the day for $25.
Clues took them down steps, through a path in the woods, around a pond, down, across a field & up a steep hill. Finally at the training camp, they sipped truth juice then immediately moved to the shooting range. Each agent was provided nerf guns, ammo and plenty of time to practice on each other.
Eventually, we moved inside the cabin where each agent was tasked with learning the process of making secret identities.
Potato Heads and accessories from Mr. and Mrs. plus a plethora from Disney characters were scrambled on the table for the agents to assemble bodies. No time limit and swapping pieces was encouraged. When finished they were displayed on the mantle and each given names.
The bomb cake (made by mom) exploded and nourishment began. All agents passes the course and were rewarded with their official ID cards.
Other parties included:
Clifford the Big Red Dog. We played go fetch the paper bones that were hidden in the yard. Perfect for the littles, pin the tail on Clifford. Everyone had their own headband dogears, ate Scooby snacks before a homemade Clifford cake.
Horse riding in back yard with a barn under our carport. Fence gate made by dad with lumber in garage. My friend brought her horse for the price of the gas of 60 miles. Kids took home their own bandana and cowboy boot cup.
Trip to Mars. Dad built a rocket ship for our living room. This was a super awesome party! I changed different lamps in the living room so when they traveled I turned on certain lamps for blue, green, black. Finally green. Little sis had make up on & dressy clothes & welcomed the astronauts to Mars. They were wearing white painting suits.
I made cupcakes & kids had to decorate out-of-this-world colors on their cupcakes. We ate space ice cream. I sent all their names to NASA to be placed on the Rover that Mars. I printed certificates for each astronaut commemorating that.
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My eldest heard that some people did not even have extra cash to give their kids a birthday party & it touched her because we had always had great parties using items we had, borrowed, bought on sale, found at Goodwill.
She wrote a local grant for her project and was awarded. She bought supplies on sale with coupons to make it go as far as possible & reached out to her community to see if any one had donations of supplies to help. Help was there.
She donated Birthday in a Bag to the Lord’s Cupboard. Each bag contained a cake mix, can of frosting, tablecloth, plates, cups, silverware, and a small gift. The Lord’s Cupboard was giving the eggs and oil.
Every one has a journey.
Be kind.
Journey By Eskew 