These party ideas for a first birthday party came to me while I was enjoying the 18th birthday celebration of a niece. I was thinking back and wondered why didn't we do a special time capsule that we could bring out for her today.

My time capsule idea is to throw a first birthday party, as you normally would, but you'll want to have a few extra items:

• Note cards that have the babies name imprinted on them. These cards will be handed out to the party attendees; aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, and so forth. Have them write on these cards special sayings or wishes for the baby.
• Also purchase one of those novelty newspapers that has all the big events that happened on the baby's birthday. Hire a videographer or if you're into videoing do it yourself. Video all the party and just like the note cards have each party member, give a good piece of advice for the baby that they will need when they turn eighteen.
• Don't forget to include music. If possible, get a CD with the most popular songs of year. You could play this CD during the party if you like and that way it will also be in the video or you can have the videographer incorporate it into a video production for you.

You can do this each subsequent year for each birthday party, and then at their 18th birthday you can bring out your time capsule of memories. This time capsule captures their life and keeps all the mementos in an easy to keep and easy to add-to way.

I know my sister-in law wished I would have thought of this idea 18 years ago. Oh, I almost forgot! You'll need a good secure box that can contain the capsule items. Also, label it well so you can keep up with it year after year.

Planning a birthday party for your son in those awkward years between 8-12? He's too old for those sweet little kids parties you used to throw. Yet, he still willing to have you plan his party. So, how do you create a party that he will love?

Skating Your Way To A Party That Is Off The Hook

Ask yourself "what do tween boys want or like?"  Think of what your tween's interests. I know several tweens who are in to skateboarding. Using the party theme like skateboarding is a fantastic place to start.  Seek out some skate boarding teens that can show the tweens some cool tricks (keeping in mind safety). Ideally it would be wonderful to rent a skate board facility.  Don’t fret if a skateboards facility is not available. Create a skateboard paradise at your house. Decorate your party area with mini skate boards, posters with skate board heroes such as Tony Hawk or Andy MacDonald and graffiti boards. Buy some thin ply board and spray paint and write graffiti on it.

Entertainment That Will Have Them Stoked

Keep a few ply boards and spray cans for your party goers to graffit up. Use teenage skateboarders as another form of entertainment. Have them give the young kids a demonstration. If your party area allows let the kids show off the skateboard skills learned for the older teens. Remember safety comes first. All kids should wear protective gear before they skateboard. You can also have them play a game of follow the skate board leader. Have one of the teens do age appropriate tricks for them to follow and when each tween fails to complete the leaders action, they leave the game to go drink a soda or power drink such as Gatorade. Listen to your tween and he will give you plenty of idea to make this party a success. Savor the memories of this party, hire a videographer to document the skateboard fun.

Party Favors They'll Be Down With

Party favors STICKERS … that is all you have to give to 8-12 year old boys to make them happy. This age group loves stickers. Need to fill your gift bags with more? Granola or power bars and skateboard key chains will excite these tweens. When looking for skate board theme items try a skateboard. You can even find great skateboard items online.

Grindage Must Haves

These tween will build up quite the appetite after all that skateboarding. Pizza is a good choice for the food, as well as hamburgers/hot dogs and soda. The big wow of this party is the cake with graffiti air brushed skate board and your tween's name.

A skateboarding party is a great way to have fun and allow boys to be boys. By the end of the day, your tween will think your the best bro a boy could have.

Planning A Party For Your Pre-teen Daughter?

Of course you can always do a party for your tween girl using the many tween idols of the day; Hannah Montana or High School Musical.  While these are great themes, every party your child has been to in the last six months has been a Hannah Montana party. UGH!! By now you've grown tired of the same theme, but your tween's birthday is drawing near. So what to do?

Creating Your Own Teenage Superstar

Ask yourself what does my tween girl want? To be glamorous and dress up like older (teenage) girls. You know the phrase 12 going on 20.  So for one day, her birthday allow her to be a teenager (with full adult supervision of course). Employ a teenage girl and maybe her friends to do the tween girls make up and hair.  Buy a few inexpensive foundations, and eye shadows, lipstick for the teenagers to use on tweens. Create a runway decorated with streamers and lights. Have the tweens walk the runway as the teenagers vote on who has the best style. You can even give the winner a special prize. For party favors give mini little lip gloss along with some inexpensive nail polish and bracelets. Hanging out with real teenages is the best part for these tweens.

If it is a small party, you can have the tweens make their own pizza. If not, order pizza from your local pizza parlor. For the "cake” choose something unusual like cup cakes or fancy cookies. Create a special drink for the tweens or serve an assortment of canned sodas.

Using a popular tween idol for a themes is certainly okay, but it can also be fun for you to do a creative party such as the one above.  Plus this is an added bonus teenagers like to be idolized by the younger set as well so you get bring the two groups together.

Your primary goal when planning for a children's birthday party is to make sure the birthday child feels special. Your secondary goal is to ensure that everyone has a good time at the party. The entertainment part of a children's birthday party is a very important part! You want to be sure that the entertainment you have planned is well thought out.

Let's start off with a little entertainment that doesn't take a lot of work to get planned. Children usually have a large imagination and just about anything will get their attention. The number one thing to add festivity to the air of a birthday party is music. Play kid-friendly songs, or have a musical DVD playing on a TV in the main party room. Besides the music , children's party activities always make a party a lot more fun for every child.

Here's a simple idea that doesn't cost much to do. You could set up a game room inside your home, or even outdoors. This game room could be arranged with a variety of homemade games that cost very little to do. You could then provide each child that completed or won the game with a "prize". This could be anything from candy bars to glow sticks, whatever you think would be fun for any child. A couple of homemade games you could set up are soda bottle bowling, or even mining for jewels. Sounds fun!

Need bigger entertainment ideas? One major hit at most children's parties is to book an entertainer. This could be a standard clown or magician. To change things up a bit, you could even book "character entertainers" who come as popular TV, movie, or story book characters. But before making your decision to hire an entertainer, you need to be sure of a couple of things. Try to see them in action performing before the party to determine if they are the right entertainer for your child's party. Another thing is to be sure and let your entertainer know ahead of time if your child is shy. This would prevent the entertainer from asking your child to participate in the show, if you know that's not what your child would have in mind.

Another entertainment idea that any child is for sure to enjoy is to rent out a "bounce gym" or also known as a bouncer. Kids love them! These bouncers usually tend to cost $150+ per day including delivery and setup. They also come in lots of fun themes. Not only do kids love them but these bounce gyms are even actually good for their bodies. They have fun while doing a little exercise. Talk about two for the price of one!

Regardless of which of these entertaintment ideas you use, your birthday party is sure to be well entertained. Just make sure to have back up plans in case one of your entertainment ideas ends up not being possible. Which is why planning ahead of time is always a good first choice!

My daughter just celebrated her first birthday and my husband and I wanted to come up with a birthday party idea that would be really special for our daughter and memorable for our family and close friends. It was obvious Elisabeth wouldn't comprehend all that was taking place. Nevertheless, we wanted to come up with a memorable first birthday party idea.

We felt that many parents set a dangerous precedent with kids parties that are "over-the-top" with clowns, games, moon bounces, expensive party favors, catered food and the like, but we wanted her party to be about celebrating her. So, we took the theme of her nursery–ladybugs–and we asked a friend who makes cakes to come up with a birthday cake idea around that theme. Wow! Did she ever! She made a Read the rest of Ladybug Theme A Simple 1st Birthday Party Idea »