Dad's do you feel left out when it comes to planning a party for your child?

You are not alone. Many times, Dads feel left out when it comes to planning kids parties. What they don't realize is moms are tired of planning every party for their child. This year try reversing the roles. Dads let the moms sit back and watch as you do it all.

Dads don't panic you can plan it. Yes you can.  For dads looking for children's party ideas, I've got four easy steps to building a great party.  Use the following steps as the building blocks in constructing a great kids  party.

STEP 1 – Party Theme

Start with a theme (a concept for the party – pirates, star wars etc.) which help focus the other basics steps and guide us in planning the party.  For our example, the party will have a construction theme.

A construction party consists of the parents helping the party attendees to build an item.  You can choose to build any number of things.  For children ages 3-5, build a truck or a car with construction paper. Using pre-cut paper trucks and cars have the children color and draw in wheels or special features. You can cut cars and trucks from your old car magazines and let the kids glue them to old milk cartons as a way to build their own car.  For kids 6-10, build bird houses out of Popsicle sticks. All you need are popsicle sticks, glue and some craft paint.  You can buy bulk popsicle sticks at most craft stores. These are just a couple of theme suggestions. When choosing a theme draw from your own and your child's interest.

STEP 2 – Party Invitations

Invitations should include a minimum of four things: Who, What, Where, When.

Begin by setting the date and the place. Once you've got that you can decide about whom to invite. Most experts say for children 3-5 invite their age plus 1. So, if your child is 3 invite four, 4 invite 5, 5 invite 6.  With children 6 and over you can use the rules given or invite the amount of kids you feel comfortable entertaining.

Invitations should be personally delivered or mailed at least 2 weeks prior to the event.  I also suggest picking an invitation that displays the theme. For our example it needs to be something that represents a construction theme.  Hanny Manny invitations would be a good example of a construction theme or even ones that have Tonka Toy backhoes or dirt movers on them. You should be able to find kids theme invitations at party or stationary supply stores.

STEP 3 Party Decorations:

When choosing decorations work from your theme. You'll notice that when you were choosing your invitations the party store carried theme decoration as well. You will find that items like napkins, posters, plates, cups and other theme party decorations will compliment the Hanny Manny or Bob the Builder invitations you have already selected.  If you can't find character or decorations based on your theme, use colorful streamers or balloons to dress up your party area. Although not necessarily a decoration, party favors are a must.  Now is the time you will want to pick up the party favors. The best kids party favor is a small gift bag containing candy, toys or fun items for each child.

Step 4 Party Food:

A little food goes a long way with kids since most kids 3 to 10 years old would rather play than eat. I recommend with younger kids in this age group you serve cake and ice cream only.  But the cake should be specially designed around the theme. As for drinks, I suggest bottle of soda and water or juice boxes.  Be sure to contact your bakery one week ahead, so they can create your party theme cake.

So there you have it dads. A blueprint for building the perfect kids party. Go out and build one today!

These tips for planning a kids party were brought to you by the wonderful local party vendors in the United States and Canada.

Chalk Theme Party

This party idea came to by way of my neighbor, an ever inventive father of two. His daughter’s birthday was soon approaching. Since he is a single father in need of party help, I suggested he choose a party theme related to one of his daughter's favorite activities. It seems Christina, 4 soon to be 5, was into drawing. In fact, her dad said he had works of art everywhere in his house.

So the party girl was into drawing and this lead to Chris (the father) to decide a party outside on his driveway would work. His plan was to get several tubs of sidewalk chalk for the entertainment part of the party. The little party Picassos could draw all over his driveway to their hearts content.

The day before the party Chris power washing his driveway and sets up some tables he rented. On the day of the party, I helped him by stringing some colorful streamers and balloons, as well as assembling the party favors bags. Each child received a bag of party favors containing coloring books with crayons, black craft paper with chalk (black works best for chalk) and some bubble gum and assorted candies. The cake was an airbrushed version of one of his daughter’s art pieces. The cake was so cool! Christiana squealed with delight when she saw her own drawing on her birthday cake. Between the cake, the party favors and sidewalk chalk entertainment, the kids had a blast. Chris could not have picked a better party theme for Christina's birthday party.

I suggest, if your going to have Chalk It Up Party, you do it in early spring or early fall. Driveways either cement or asphalt get extremely hot during the summer months and can burn bare feet and knees. You’ll find this theme is a minimal effort party that young kids can enjoy. As a parent you can pull it together in a short amount of time and clean up is a breeze.

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.

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 »