Easy Decorating Ideas

• Hang a banner on the porch; drape streamers from trees; or tie balloons to the back gate to let everyone know where the party's happening.
• Create an arch of balloons for the entrance to the party room.
• Paste snapshots of the birthday boy or girl onto paper plates and hang them around the party space.
• Cut shapes (stars, circles, triangles, alphabet letters) out of cardboard or heavy construction paper and hang them from the ceiling to create mobiles.
• Suspend several balloons above the party space, using a white sheet. Near the end of the party, release the balloons!
• Buy a paper tablecloth for the party table and let your kids decorate it themselves!

10 Awesome Activities

1. Have children decorate their own goodie bags. Provide brown paper bags, stickers, sparkles, paints and markers.
2. Decorate a birthday shirt. Get guests to bring an old white T-shirt and provide fabric markers and paints.
3. Play musical chairs - with a twist! When the music ends, the person left standing draws an animal name out of a hat and acts out the animal for others to guess. Repeat until all the chairs, and animals, are gone.
4. Set up a scavenger hunt. Hide candies, party favors, toys or other treats around the house or garden. Each guest has to collect a list of items. Then divvy up the treasure!
5. Hold a mini-Olympics. Set up teams and conduct relay races, obstacle courses and a tug-of-war in the park or backyard.
6. Bury plastic dinosaur bones in a sandbox and have guests dig for fossils in a mock archeological expedition.
7. Host a jewelry party. Set out beads, braid and pendants and let guests make their own baubles.
8. Turn present-opening time into a game with a round of Circle Spin. Kids sit in a circle, the birthday child spins a bottle, then opens the present from whomever the bottle points.
9. Rent or borrow a karaoke machine and get everyone singing!
10. Play Who Am I? Have the person seated next to you write the name of a famous person on a scrap of paper and pin it to the back of your shirt. Take turns asking questions aimed at guessing your secret identity.