Best 4yo birthday party ideas? Help!

[naismama]

Sorry to start yet another birthday party thread, but I've searched old threads and still need help! DD is having her 4th birthday party in 2 weeks, and I need help bringing things together. This is what I have so far.

1. I have already sent out invites with a little birthday cake on them, so as of yet, there is no theme.

2. We live in a super hot place, so we are renting a giant water slide.

3. DD has requested that daddy cook hot dogs.

4. She talks a little about fairy and princess, but I'm not sure how I can make that happen with water, swimsuits, etc.

Any ideas for themes, activities, goody bags, anything would be greatly appreciated. We'll probably have about 10 kids show ages 2-7. I don't really have any help planning this so thanks so much in advance!

[LaughingHyena]

How about a fairy hunt in the garden. You could either hide some fairy dolls or print out some pictures of fairies to hide. Then tell the children how many the have to find.

If you want a craft how about making some simple wands. Cut some stars from shiny card and let the kids decorate with glitter glue, stickers etc. Then glue/tape them onto a dowel. The children could take these home in place of a goodie bag.

The other thing I though of would be mermaids. They seem to appeal to the same group as fairies and princesses. Maybe a seashell hunt would work. The children could take home the sea shells at the end.

[4evermom]

There was a fun fairy house activity on a blog. Let me find that...
http://filthwizardry.blogspot.com/20...-for-your.html

There is lots of other fun stuff on that blog so look around.

[4evermom]

Just yesterday, at Target, I saw wands in their $1 bin. They were wood dowels with a yellow wood star. There were also some with apples instead of stars. Don't know what the apples were all about, lol. If you can find those, you could tie some ribbon on to make them fancier. If you'll have boys, put them in the goodies bags so you don't end up with sword play (yeah, I'm stereotyping )

[crl]

DS came home from school with a wand they had made. It is a piece of dowel with a star shaped piece of felt glued on one end. There is a ribbon tied to the dowel right below the star. The kids had glued buttons on the star. He really likes it. That could be an activity and a take-home item.

Catherine

[OTMomma]

I just did a mermaid themed party for dd- as a good excuse to use the pool in the yard. An easy activity they loved was that we put fresh sand in the sand box and we hid in it a bunch of tiny seashells and let them dig them up like a little treasure hunt- super easy to do, and now we have fresh sand for the kids to play in all summer. We also made seashell bracelets. I gave out beach bags with a tiny beach ball in them as gift bags, and you can have a permanent marker handy to write the kids names on the balls, if you want to just let them play with those as a "game". I got our stuff from orientaltrading.com

Oh- and I found directions at howdini.com to make a barbie doll into a mermaid on the birthday cake.

Have a fun party!

[naismama]

Wow, thanks for the ideas so far.

Is it possible to find mermaid stuff that is not Disney's "The Little Mermaid"?

I welcome more ideas!:

[OTMomma]

Originally Posted by naismama

Wow, thanks for the ideas so far.

Is it possible to find mermaid stuff that is not Disney's "The Little Mermaid"?

I found this website had mermaid ideas that weren't Disney :
http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/mermaid.html Personally, we got a vinal table cloth with fish on it that won't be thrown away and didn't waste money on plate and napkin type stuff that had a mermaid theme- I felt using blue ones was on target enough.