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.

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.

Sometimes we just can't afford to have a dog and pony show party for our children. Yet, we still want them to have a special party.  Throwing a party for your child can be done frugally and still filled with with fun. Inexpensive treats such as popcorn and movie rentals are just the ticket.

Your thinking popcorn is not a party theme. A party revolving around popcorn is boring. Not so! Popcorn can be a fun party activity, a great party theme and a hectic of a good time.  You can pop your own and make popcorn balls or pop up a big batch of plain popcorn and set up a table with "fixings" for the popcorn. You can even rent a popcorn machine that looks like an old popcorn cart.

How To Make A Popcorn Party Exciting

Create a special popcorn table with all the "fixings". Your "fixings" table should have some sweet items, sour items, flavored salt and cheese toppings. Sweet popcorn fixings are items like raisins, M&M's, peanut butter chips, gummy bears, anything sweet and chewy.  Sour items such as mustard, sour patch candies and pickles will add interest to popcorn.  Flavored salts or cheese need to be shakable. Black pepper, garlic salt, shakable cheese and special popcorn salts that come in a variety of flavors will satisfy and intrigue many palates. All of these toppings will create a Yummy treat!

You can put the popcorn in paper coffee filters and allow each child to mix up his/her own popcorn. Now you have both a treat and a great party activity (you get a twofer with this one). Kids will mix all kinds of things like mustard and gummy bears and dare each other to eat their creations. What could be more entertaining. Kids will love it because they get to make decisions. Kids like to feel important.

What goes better with popcorn than a movie. Movie rentals are inexpensive and a convenient way to take the party up a notch. Need a bigger screen? One thing you might look at is renting a projection screen. One day projection screen rentals can be very inexpensive and it certainly gives the kids the feeling of a movie theater with out the cost of the movie tickets.

Everyone knows that a party is more fun if there is a theme involved. That’s why whenever hosting a party, I  try to have some kind of central idea to focus around whether it be Hawaiian themed, Mexican themed, or holiday themed. Here lately, I have been in a rut with my party theme ideas. I really needed some fresh ideas.  So, I started exploring possibilities outside of my norm. I considered weird wacky themes, outlandish themes and even considered recycling some old themes.  Then in the midst of my brainstorming, I thought of a new and exciting idea for any kind of party: Decade Themes.

With a decade as a theme, you can incorporate many aspects of entertainment into your party planning including: popular foods, clothes, games, and music. To make sure the theme really takes off, be sure and send out party theme invitations ahead of time incorporating elements of the decade. Let guests know that decade attire is required for the party. Guests decked out in decade party attire will add to another element to your party decorations, not to mention some good laughs. Think of how much fun guests will have putting together outfits for the event. You can even have a contest for the best decade outfit.

Choosing what to serve at your party is completely up to the host. Regular party food is always fine. However if you want to get creative, find or make some foods that were popular during that time. Entertainment is a must. Games are optional of course, but games such as Twister and Super Nintendo sure do bring some laughs to a room full of MC Hammer pants. Of course pumping it up with a little music, is probably the best way to immerse your guests in the decade, as well as, entertain them.  To add that special musical ambiance to the party hire a band that plays a variety of songs from the decade. If you can’t find the right live entertainment for your party, a good decade music list from your Ipod will work just fine.

A decade theme party is a fun and unique way to throw a fabloulous shin-dig.  So pick a decade and let the good times rock and roll.

A great party idea for a teen party or a kids party is to make it a "favorite things" party. This idea works whether they’re 12 or 18, boy or girl. Although, this idea might be best for a 13^th, 16^th or 18^th birthday party.

Have the event on their favorite day of the week, choose invitations in their favorite color, decorate with their favorite team colors or theme. For example, if they really love a particular baseball team, decorate with those colors and set up the site to look like a stadium. Serve their favorite baseball foods, beverages and dessert. For activities, choose their favorite games and movies, along with their favorite movie snacks.

Another party idea is to have your guests dress in accordance with the theme. You can also do this if the birthday boy or girl is really into a particular hobby or if they love a certain vacation destination, like music or the beach.

The important thing with this teen party idea is knowing your guest of honor. So if it is a surprise, enlist the help of his or her friends. This way you can really tailor the party tho their favorite things. Including their interests will make this an unforgettable birthday party that truly reflects their unique personality and style. What would be an ordinary party will become a fabulous celebration.

Jungle themed parties are, in my opinion, one of the best theme ideas for kid’s birthday’s or celebrations. Appropriate for all school age children, both boys and girls, jungle themed parties are exciting, creative and actually easier to plan than you think.

Party decorations would be the main focal point of the "jungle themed" party venue, so decorations need to be the first priority. You can do this several different ways, depending on the Read the rest of Jungle Theme Parties–Creative Kid's Celebrations Made Easy! »