I think a pirate themed party is a cool idea. You can buy the eyepatches, a toy parrot, etc at the dollar tree, and then you could have a game such as a treasure hunt with clues hidden around the house and yard :).

Amy Lauren
proudpatriot2007@yahoo.com

I love doing a pirate themed party for my boys. They love the treasure hunt and a craft of making a treasure chest.

What a wonderful site. The grandchildren just went to Disneyland and a Disney BD theme would be great.

For my sons 6th we did a tornado theme party! It was so much fun! We had a tornando pinata and DH made a tornado cake!

My sister just celebrated my niece's 1st birthday last month and did a flower garden theme. How perfect for those spring and summer birthdays. She got really creative and made flower cakes by arranging 7 cupcakes to look like a flower! She cut out flower petals from colored construction paper and hung them from the ceiling. The kids absolutely loved it!

I'm planning a Noah's Ark theme for my baby boy's first party and a firetruck theme for my son who will turn 3 soon!

Cowboys and Indians party!

My favorite party theme for my daughter was her carnival theme…..we had a face painter, balloons everywhere, a huge tub of popcorn with popcorn bags (from the $1 section at Target), cotton candy hanging in little bags and tons of games geared for the little ones!

I have boy/girl twins, and we planned a mickey/minnie mouse themed party! I would love a Planning Pack to help with next year's fun theme ;)

Tea Party theme is my fav! Teapot cake as well at little teapots filled with candy instead of treat bags. & dress-up at a tea party is a MUST! The girls are SO cute in thier big hats & faux pearls:) Love it!!!

Oh I have a GREAT idea that I am planning for my son this year. An Army theme. He's turning 11. The save-the-dates are “top secret” invitations rolled into cans that they have to unravel to read and that will 'self destruct.' then the real invitations will have army shirts to wear around school and come to my son's house afterwards for the party. They will do fun army games and scavenger hunts. They can wear army paint on their faces and have an army camp out in the backyard with glow sticks. almost everything can be purchased at an army surplus store. I am very excited about this. Wonder how I can make a camoflague cake?!?

We had a nursery rhymes party!

For girls, I love the idea my girlfriend did for her 5 year old. She had a princess spa-themed birthday party. Have a small number of girls lined up in chairs, give them pedicures and manicures (age appropriate) and possibly little massages while they get to watch a movie. Then, the girls get to dress up like princesses & are visited by a “real” Disney Princess! There was face painting, picture taking, story telling, snacks & drinks and cupcakes. FUN!

We are planning an Indiana Jones style party. Messenger bags and hats from thrift stores, and lots of outdoor treasure hunting. Our “treasure” will be glass jewels we found on sale at a craft store. Will be fun!

Last year we hosted an ice cream party. We made pin the cherry on the cone. I set up small tables with different ice cream toppings & the goodie bags were ice cream cone cups (parlor style). I even made a cake in the shape of an ice cream cone. I must say–it was a great party & the kids had a blast!!

We did a Bob the Builder theme one year and easily made a cake to look like bricks stacked with mortar.

For my 24th birthday, I had a movie theme. I had all my friends and family dress like their favorite actor/actress or movie character. And my cake looked like one of the Hollywood stars!

my sisters bday is oct 27: I love the FALL birthday stuff– pumpkins, leaves, the possibilities are endless… dont forget a GREAT camp fire with smores..

my 1st little one is due in 9 weeks… how fun to plan a 1st bday! she is not even here yet and i can only imagine how great it is gonna be!!!

I did a Safari Theme birthday for my son and daughter, with a jungle cake. Treat bags were safari hats, homemade binoculars (that we made and decorated at the party), cameras (from the dollar store), safari notepad and pen. Then we all went on a “safari hunt” and searched for plastic animals I had hidden in the yard. Lots of fun and it kept the kids very busy!!

For a boy, I love a Firetruck themed party! And you can even get a firetruck to come to your house! My daughter is having a Minnie Mouse party this year for her 2nd birthday because she loves Minnie Mouse right now.

My son will be 6 in October. He wants a Lego Theme.

We did a “dog” themed party. Served coco-puffs in NEW, CLEAN Dog bowls which the boys thought were awesome. (looked just like dog food!) We made the cake in the shape of a dog bone. and had themed games to go along with it. Totally easy and fun birthday idea for boys.

I have a teen daughter and we did a 'spa' party. The girls painted each others nails. Several moms helped and we did massages and facials for the girls! They loved it!

We also love the Betty Crocker website. They have some great cake ideas. We've done a dragon them with a 4-D cake, fish them, princess them with the top of a barbie placed on top of a dome cake (dress bottom), all sorts of fun thems.

This year we are doing a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme birthday party. The decorations have been easy to make and I am planning on making a caterpillar cake.

My 9 year old and 5 year old share a birthday. For their last party, we made each of them a round, 2 layer white cake. I let them each pick out their own flavors of jello, and help me poke the cake layers, and pour jello over them. The end results were an LSU purple and gold cake for my son (decorated with candy footballs, and yellow decorating sugar), and a fairy cake with blue and yellow layers (decorated with little Tinkerbell toys, and blue sugar), for my daughter. They both got to ice their own cakes as well (with Cool Whip), and put the decorations on however they wanted.

At the party, it became a competition to see who could get the most guests to choose their cake. :)

My son turned 1 in May. I wanted something special for him and for the guest to have fun. The theme was green, yellow, red and blue. I had those colors for balloons and table cloths. I had plates and napkins with those colors with the number 1 on them. I had candy in tin pails for the guest as a party favor. The cake incorporated those colors with a big cupcake on top with a 1 on top of the cupcake. It was simple but very cute

We've been through ponies and princesses so this year we're on to the latest obsession – bugs. I'm a little nervous about this one.

I am planning a tie dyed birthday for my daughter, who will be 5 next month. We are going to have a tie dyed cake, decorations & of course, we are going to tie dye t-shirts!!

Last year we did a football theme for our son, and had all the kids wear their favorite football shirts/cheerleading outfits (or dress in a favorite team color) and we had a music from Monday night football & ESPN playing in the background. We did a football field cake & had hot dogs and nachos for the food. This year I need a new theme to top our last party!

We had a BARNYARD theme for our son's 2nd birthday. We had a local traveling petting zoo set up all of their animals for the children to feed and pet…they even brought their miniature horse for pony rides! We had a great red barn cake complete with haystacks and fodant farm critters. It was as much fun for the parents as the kids!

I'm doing a Ladybug Theme for a 1 year old's party next month and a Candyland theme for a 3 year old in October.

For my sons 1st birthday party, we had a Peter Rabbit theme. I made some of the foods mentioned in the book, i.e. Currant buns, blackberries, chamomile tea. For decorations, I used images from the story, like a stuffed rabbit in a watering can and some play mice with green peas. The cake was in the shape of a rabbit. The favor boxes were filled with seed packets, a Bunny Trail mix I concocted with roasted and salted green peas/dehydrated cantaloupe/whole grain fish crackers/dried apricots/pretzels, and childrens' dream pillow sachets filled with chamomile and lavender. I found the cutest keepsake scroll online with things that were going on the day our son was born and had all the guests sign it.

We did a ladybug picnic birthday party for my daughter when she turned two, I made the invitations with red and black poster board shaped like a ladybug, when you opened the wings the party details were inside, we did cupcakes with ladybug picks and had pork barbeque and all the fixings, took red plastic silverware and wrapped them with black napkins and placed them in a basket. The tableclothes were red with black streamer down the table with black spots taped to the red. Everything was red and black and she loved it. Got many compliments on it. Last year was butterflies, I made a butterfly shaped cake and we also had another picnic and the kids got to get in the kiddie pool. This year will be Dora, havent finalized the details yet though. Thinking of making it centered around the beach and have beach buckets to hold the food and the shovels to serve the food!

Quite a few years ago, when my nephew was younger, his favorite show was Fear Factor. So, my sister and I did a Fear Factor themed birthday party that year. We bought one of those brain shaped jello molds and had that as one of their tasks. We had them bobbing for plastic snakes instead of apples in a big tub. We made one of those kitty litter cakes complete with tootsie rolls hanging on the side and everything. But of course, like children, will do, the hardest task for any of them was the eating your vegetables station. We had radishes, onions and a few other vegetables set up and they had the hardest time choking those down. LOL

One of the funnest parties we had was a treasure hunt with clues all over the neighborhood.

I want to recreate one of the “Cake Boss” cakes for my kids birthday. For those of you who haven't seen cake boss, it's a show on TLC about a bakery. They make amazing cakes! The cake of choice, a pirate cake. Shaped like a treasure chest! It probably won't look as good as the Cake Boss's cake, but I'm just hoping the kids will love it!

We had a cowboy party with a boot cake and 2 ponies in our backyard.

I love the carnival theme! Face painting, games with prizes, cotton candy, etc.

My son will be one in October, and I'm doing a monkey theme and make a monkey cake.

My son just turned one and I did a pretty generic 1-year old boy theme with primary colors and boy things like rocket ships, baseballs, etc. Next year, I am planning to do something a little more creative such as an animal or underwater theme depending on what he's into at that time. I would LOVE the birthday planning pack to help me throw a stellar birthday party for my son!

My son's turnign 4 this weekend. He has a summer birthday but does not really love hanging out at the pool so we had to think out of the box. He loves spiderman and rockets so he asked for a rocket cake with spiderman in it. So I will attempt to make a rocketship cake and place a spiderman figurine at the driver's seat. For the activity of the party we bought rockets and my husband will launch them for each kid after they decorate them. The children will bring the rockets home as party favors. We aare sure to have a BLAST!

My son will be 3 this fall and is SO into balls–basketballs, soccer balls, footballs, baseballs, golf balls, etc. So, we're throwing him a Sports party and we'll have it at a park and provide all sorts of balls for the kids to play with!

We had a halloween party for my son one year–eyeballs were in the steaming punch! It was fun!

I think a “polka dot” theme party is so cute for a little girl!

My son we will be 4 in a few weeks and we are having a space party with a space shuttle cake and lots of astronaut and shuttle decorations. Would love to win this prize!

My son turns 6 in a week and a half and being on a strict budget have decided to have the party at our house as usual. We are going to have a “fun in the sun” party. That leaves it open for a lot of different ideas. It's much cheaper to make the cake myself and the birthday boy will help decorating it. They love that!

Tea Party Theme for 1-year birthday-
A little backsotry, one of my baby showers was a tea party theme where all the guests were encouraged to bring a tea cup & saucer (used, new, whatever) for the gues of honor (me :) When my daughter was born I had an entire collection of tea pots, cups & saucers from everyone who attended my baby shower.

For my daughter's 1-year birthday this March, we re-did the tea party theme, but for a birthday and a little “younger” since it was for a 1-year old. But, for table decorations, etc we used the tea pots, cups & saucers that were given to me before my daughter was born.

We are dog lovers in my family, so I think a doggie-themed party would be fun. All the kids could wear doggie ears, and the cake, invites, and decor could have paws or dogs on them.

My son turned 6 this winter and requested a Lego party. I used a 13×9 cake pan to make cakes that I cut into 3 lego shaped blocks. I then sued marshmallows cut in half as the knobby parts of the lego. I made 6 since it was his 6th birthday. We had plenty of Legos there for people to play with. For the rest of the decoration I just used bright solid colors. It was a inexpensive great party. He had a blast!

A under-the-sea fishing party! We hung fish hooks from the ceiling with gummy worms attached:) There was blue crepe paper hung around the ceiling like waves, fish all over the walls, the men wore their fishing vests and the kids ran around with toy rods and fished. This was a party for my husband and son who share the same birthday, so it was for all ages. The kids got to fish for prizes, it was very fun.

A scavenger hunt birthday. We had my son follow clues to find his presents. We left some in the dryer, the freezer, and the pantry…among other places. He loved it!

Both of my girls have birthday's in December……which is so hard to plan around christmas and other parties, I have to have their birthday parties together, however I am not creative at all, I would love to when this, I've never won before!!!! THank YoU!!!

My daughter wanted Curious George when she turned 3, so we went on the PBS website and printed off confetti and masks and party hats for the even and did a George cake. So fun to have George himself great the guys!

ladybugs are my daughters favorite!

My daughter's 5th birthday party is Sunday. We're having an ice cream themed birthday. Her cake looks like an ice cream sundae complete with the cherry on top. Also found a great vinyl tablecloth at Old Navy covered with ice cream cones last week for $5.00.

My boys are obsessed with the Super Mario Brothers Wii game so I would like to try to incorporate the game characters, objectives, colors, details, everything into a huge birthday bash this year. The boys turn 6 & 5 this fall & my daughter turns 2. Since we had a big combined party last year for my oldest's 5th and my daughter's 1st we will do the Mario party for my middle child's 5th :)

For my little girl's first we had a “sweet” party. For the center piece, I used different sized hurricanes and filled them with different candies. The guest used scoops to fill their bags and took them home as treats. I also bought scrap booking paper and personalized Hershey bars for favors. We had choc. dipped strawberries and other fruits as snacks. For the activities, we finger-painted with choc. pudding ( easy clean-up for little ones…they just lick their fingers!) and made our own candy. It worked well for my sweet little girl!

My daughter loves planning parties – hers, her brother's, Grammy's, anyone! I always throw big parties, so now she is learning to be the party planner too. I will have to show this to her.

Last year I did a robot theme for my son's 3rd birthday. I cut up pieces of construction paper in different shapes so the kids there could put them together with glue in robot shapes, I printed robot coloring pages, and we had a robot shaped cake that a family member made.

My little girl is all about PINK and Princess.

My daughter Cydney is turning 3 years old on aug.9th. We have NO idea what we are going to do. HELP!!!!!!!

We have had so many fun parties – One that was especially cute was an ocean party – We served hot dogs cut like octopus, and blue kool-aid, and blue cupcakes with gummy sharks. It coincided with “O week” at my son's pre-school. Too cute!!
Another favorite was a “Fiesta” – I always serve Mexican food, so the food was easy. For the Mariachi cake, I made a regular round layer, and then a bowl. I frosted it, then decorated with licorice and candy pieces. For party favors, we made tissue flowers for the girs and pipe cleaner cactus for the boys – OLE – hahaha

We once did a racing birthday for my oldest, and made cars for the kids out of large boxes, and they got to decorate their “car” before the races, and we made a racetrack in the parking lot of our apt building, then played red light green light! We used old suspenders to strap the boxes onto the kids, so they ran in their cars :) We put up racing flags all over the place, and made tire cupcakes. We had a race car pinata, and made racing flag bags out of old racing fabric we had to hold the goodies. Loved it!!

Cupcakes! Cupcake invitations, napkins, banner, etc and of course a cupcake tree! I would make a Giant Cupcake decorated for the birthday girl and have several others baked, but naked, with an assortment of frostings and toppings for the children to use to dress them up before eating!

My daughter's 6th birthday will be in September. I have asked her numerous times what kind of party she would like and each time she tells me peace signs. She absolutely loves them. I am going to bake her cake as a pink peace sign.

my daughter would love to do an all balet theme party

My daughter just turned 3. Ever since Christmas she was wanted a frog cake, a bit unusual, but my sister-in-law came up with the idea of cake made to look like a pond. She sprayed the icing blue and placed painted frogs, dragonflys, and bullrushes on lolipop sticks and stuck them in the cake. She also used a life size craft lillypad to decorate the cake. I would love to win the baking tools for her. She never lets people pay her for work. The look on my little girls face was payment enough for her. What a giving person. We incorporated my daughter's love of frogs in with the princess theme. It was a hit with the kids (boys and girls) and the adults.

My favorite party was my daughter's polka dot party. We did polka dot cookies and a polka dot cake with cupcakes tiered on top. We decorated everything with polka dots (including the driveway) and we even did polka dot food!!

SPA PARTY- for my daughter's 8th birthday this year, we decided to do something different and smaller. We invited 7 friends (with her, a total of 8) and got help from 4 neighborhood teenager girls. We had each teenager in charge of a station- one with a bubbly massaging water thing that you put your feet in followed by toe nail painting, one with a make up station, one with hair, and one with finger nail painting. I found really cool $1 makeup bags that were the “favor” bags. As the girls rotated around to each station, they got items to put in their favor makeup bags. They got lip balm, decorative nail files, nail stickers, nail polish, headbands to hold their hair back for a facial, sunglasses, bracelets, sleep masks, etc. I got all of the favors REALLY cheap at the dollar store and Claires in their 10 for 10 clearance section. For snacks, we had finger foods and bon bon type stuff (anything that could be considered “spa” food). We even had some bean bags and girl magazines (American Girl, Justice catalog, etc) in the “waiting” area for them to hang out on if their station finished before the other tables. The girls LOVED the pampering and enjoyed getting the spa treatment they've heard their moms talk about so much. PS- We had them come to the party in their pajamas and robes- it was more “spa-like” and easier since they spent the night afterward. After the spa party, we watched movies and ate pizza. Fun night for all! :-)

For my daughter's birthday when she turned 4, she wanted a pig party. ???? It really turned out great though. I made a pink pig pinata, a pig cake out of fondant icing, copied some pig coloring sheets for the kids, pink party hats with pictures of pigs glued on, pig balloons (pink helium balloons with paper ears and nose glued on). The party was outside in a park and we had pink table covers for the picnic tables. Party favors were piggy banks & pink playdoh. It was pretty unique and turned out great!

My son is having a pirate party this weekend and in addition to the treasure chest cake, we have a parrot pinata, goody treasure boxes filled with gold coins, eye patches, telescopes, pirate bracelets, and pirate beach balls that the kids will find on a treasure map. He is very excited!

When my son turned 18 we had a black and white party. Everyone wore black and white and we had black and white photos of his life all around the walls. Food was black and white (oreos, marshmallows, white corn chips with black bean salsa, licorice, etc.). We even set up a black and white photo corner where guests could pose for pics all evening.

This isn't an original idea, but I read about a young boy who had party guests bring items for a homeless shelter or for a children's home instead of a present for himself. What a great idea to help our kids see beyond themselves – and truly, there's no better feeling than giving to other!

We did a cupcake themed party as well… lots of fun!

Under the sea would be fun!

We are doing birthday cupcake decorating this year. We are going to call it Chef's Inspirations. Doing aprons and chefs hats for favors……would love the party pack to help us with is since I have a double party for a 2 and 5 year old.

Lego Star wars is the only way to go for my 8 yr old. We are having a build your own lego pinata game. Meteor rock treasure hunt.(prizes wrapped in aluminum foil)And if we can stand it, a sculptere balloon lightsaber war.

A great birthday theme would be to center it around a favorite game your child likes to play, for example you could use a board game. You could also create a party around something that your child loves to play with like cars, barbies, dinosaurs, hello kitty, etc.

My daughter's birthday is during spring and we had a flower “tea” party. Every girl had a different type of flower- rose, lily, gardenia, sunflower etc. as their own. We made a flower cake and topped it with edible flower petals. It was a BIG hit with the little girls!!

A great birthday theme idea would be Survivor! The kids could play games as teams. They could design their own logo for their team names. Everyone could decorate their own bandana. Instead of voting kids off, have each team earn points for the games. Have judges/refs available to make the tough calls. The team with the most points wins the prize!

We had a Star Wars party for my 4 year old daughter. My mother made a Darth Vador cake and we decorated with Star Wars banners, napkins, plates and table cloths. She loved it!

A Disney party….pick your favorite movie and have everyone dress up as a character from that movie! We are having my grandfather's party in a few weeks and it is an UP party…

For a tween or teen party, “Minute to Win it” is a great theme. The “stunts” are so much fun and can all be done with items you already have around the house. Ideas and instructions are on their website. We used this for a slumber party a few months ago and expected it to be good for some of the activities, but the kids wanted to continue on and on in place of the Wii or movies. I'm all for anything that gets kids out from in front of a screen for a while!

We did a tye dye war for my daughter! sooo fun, but messy!!!!

A “girls just want to have fun” sleepover party for a tween! The invitations were minature sleeping bags made out of scrap fabric and the invitation was written on paper and slid down into the sleeping bags which were then rolled up and tied with a piece of string. The tablecloth was a white bed sheet that we tie dyed together and centerpieces were lava lamps, strings of christmas lights were hung across the ceilings, etc. They played many games but their favorite was balloon bust. We placed inside of the balloons either crazy band braclets or button pins with sayings, then blew them up. We placed 120 balloons in the center of the room and they got to bust 10 balloons each but the catch was they had to SIT on them to bust them. After they spent a huge amount of time looking at what each other got in their balloons and trading the goodies. They decorated white pillow cases with paint pens, more games & movies. Dinner was make their own individual pizzas and desert was birthday cake & make their own sundas. Favors were: small lime green baskets (from dollar store) lined with hot pink tissue paper with a minature lava lamp night light (found at target) for their room, girls stuff (nail polish, hand cream, facial masks etc), folding brush, and a hershey's chocolate candy bar, removed their wrapper and made a new one on our computer that had a tie dye background and said “girls just want to have fun” and thank you for coming to my party and their pillow case they made. I also made a book that night which had a question on each page and each girl went through & answered the questions on each page (fun questions like what is their favorite ice cream flavor, if they could be any animal what & why, favorite color,etc). My daughter kept the book and now a few years later her friends get a kick out of reading what they wrote.

For my little girls first birthday we are doing pinwheels and popcicles!

My son & daughter were born on the same day, 3 years apart. They share a ST. PATRICK'S DAY BIRTHDAY. We have been lucky so far with throwing just one big party for the both of them every year, but it is quite difficult to come up with a common theme. Last year we were unable to throw the usual BIG bday party for the kids which broke our hearts because my husband unexpectedly lost his (good) job around the beginning of February 2010. We were only able to afford (barely) for each child to invite 1 friend each to go have pizza with us and believe it or not 0 kids showed up and my sweet kids were absolutely crushed. I want 2011 to be different! I never want them to feel that heartache on their birthday again. I would like to have their bday party with ALL their friends at one of our Minor League (local) Soccer Teams soccer games. Both my kids absolutely LOVE soccer and both are avid soccer players, so I think it will be alot of fun! Fingers crossed that it doesn't rain, we will be having the party under a small tented area during the game. I would luv to be able to make one big SOCCER BALL for a birthday cake … one big enough for both of them and all their friends! Won't that be fun … I think we will all have A BALL (lol)! Thank you for this opportunity.

Our daughter loves insects! I think that would be a great party theme… caterpillars, butterflies, dragonflies, and the list could go on…. just think of all the possibilities!

We're looking at doing a 60's sleepover for my daughters turning 10 & 8 this year. Tie dying t-shirts, friendship bracelets, etc.

Create a theme centered around the birthday child- favorite activity, food, color, Tv show, whatever. The whole party is “The Birthday Kid”

My 8-year-old loves frogs. He would be in “hog heaven” if we had a frog-themed party!

My daughter is turning two and I would love to have a chicken theme party!! Like mingming on Wonder Pets

For my daughter's 2nd birthday this year, we had a Mickey Mouse Club House theme. She loves that show, so we printed Mickey invites and decorations. I made Mickey and Minnie Mouse heads for the cake. We had typical barbecue fare-hamburgers and hot dogs-and had it at the local park. We also did veggies and dip w/ veggie chips for hors d'oeurves. Everyone enjoyed themselves and my little girl loved her Mickey and friends balloons and cake.

I like the idea of a birthday party where the kids get to cook during the party. They could top their own pizzas, decorate their own cupcakes, etc.

Flowers! I can't claim this as original (I think I saw it in a magazine), but activities could include letting the kids put together some potted flowers. They could take them home as party favors.

we did a hula party complete with a tiki hut cake for my daughters 2nd birthday!

I would love to win! We are having a Mickey/Minnie Mouse theme in about 2 months!

My son has had the Cars theme and also Thomas the Train. They were both hits with the kids.

We had a superhero birthday party last year! We used pages from comic books for place mats, played lots of superhero games, and gave out simple home-made capes for party favors.

My October baby had a pumpkin party!

I'm doing Thomas the Train for my soon-to-be two year old!

My first son turned 1 this year. We wanted to keep it simple but fun, so we had a “1″ b-day theme. We had a big turnout and a great time!

My son's birthday is in 1 week and we are having a pool party. For the cake I will make it myself and it is going to be a Volcano complete with dry ice for smoke effect. He is going to have a blast. I always make the cakes.

I've often thought that a Mary Poppins theme would be fun. Boys can be chimney sweeps and girls can have perisols. The cake can have a special craft stick carousel. I'd love to give out homemade iced cookies in the shape of carousel horses.

Puppies! You could do cookies shaped like paw prints that can be decorated at a sprinkle and frosting station with edible pens/frosting bags to write someones name on the cookie and you can make an easy paw print cake with an 8 inch round pan for the palm and then a few small pyrex for the toes. You could even invite the guest's dogs and serve pupcakes and have inexpensive leashes that could be decorated with small add-ons from the craft store.

For two years in a row, we have put our son on his birthday cakes, first time – he was the face with a monkey body, and this last year – we used a picture from halloween and him dressed up as spiderman and had a web coming from his wrist spraying. it was great!!

I did a bug birthday for my son one year. I made a bundt cake out of chocolate and put chocolate icing on it with ground oreos covering the whole thing. Then I stuffed all kinds of gummy shaped bugs and worms in and around the cake. We had walking sticks for snacks with graham crackers spread with peanut butter, raisins for eyes and pretzel sticks for legs. And we had ant covered apples which were just the traditional girl scout walking salad of a half an apple spread with peanut butter and topped with raisins. I put plastic bugs and animals all over the table and spread out pillow stuffing like spider webs everywhere. A week before we went outside and caught all kinds of bugs and put them in his little bug catching homeschool kits we have so they were on display on the table. The ice cubes had frozen plastic bugs in them. We had his ant farm container on the table. All sorts of fun stuff!

My son's 2nd birthday is in a month and we will be having a petting zoo come to our house and we will have a barnyard cake with the different animals that will be at the zoo as animals in the barnyard-sure to be a hit with the 2 year olds!

We had a frog theme birthday party for my 1 year old. We made frog animal balloons for decorations and my mom made the birthday cake using his froggy bath toys! It was so cute.

My mom made me the exact same bunny cake pictured when I was a kid as well as a butterfly one and many others. She had a Wilton book with cakes you could make using your regular cake pans and then cutting them to make the various designs. I don't think they make the book anymore but you can still find some of the designs on the Wilton website. I never buy my kids' cakes at the bakery but rather make them myself. I made an awesome guitar cake for my son's birthday this year.

Can people witht kids enter this contest?

One year I threw a b-day party for a friend that was completely summer themed, in my back yard. I put strings of lights around the preimeter of the the deck and wrapped other strings around low lying tree branches and down the trunks. I then hung flip flops from strings off the same low lying branches. I had an inflatable palm tree and beach balls in the yard. And of course, multi colored plastic buckets of ice cold beer! I am surprised the cops weren't called with all the fun we had.

One of our favorite birthday parties was at the firehouse for a 3 year old. To this day (almost a year later) both boys talk about how much fun they had with the firemen.

I like the Survivor theme. Games for kids to compete to see who can be the Ultimate Survivor. You only need four or five games to make this a huge success. The could eat bugs(candy of course, really sour is best), run obstacle courses, etc.

Butterflies & Bullfrogs – make regular or mini cupcakes with butterflies, frogs, caterpillers, etc. Craft – popsicle sticks, pompoms, glue and pipe cleaners you can have the kids make caterpillars as party favors. Activity – fill plastic jars with shredded green paper (grass) and hide plastic frogs, butterflies, caterpillars, grasshoppers, etc. around the yard/deck/table and the kids can have a bug hunt (also party favor). Can also have bubbles and sidewalk chalk available.

Dinosaur themes are always great. You can cut dinosaur footprints out of construction paper and put them on the sidewalk on the way to your front door. Buy tiny trees (like palm trees) and decorate with tiny plastic dinosaurs. Most stores have lots of dinosaur toys and accessories that can be used around the house and even as a topping on a homemade birthday cake!

An upside down party. You eat dessert first, wear your clothes backwards, etc. SUPER fun!!

for my son's 3rd bday party, since it falls a day before halloween, the theme is going to carve your own pumpkin, i can reuse the seeds and pulp later and the kids can get messy carving their own pumpkins and then take the carved ones home. all the guests have to brin to the party is their own pumpkin. the cake will b in the shape of Mater from the 'cars' movie since my son loves that movie

we did a mardi gras parade – had beads, masks, a butterfly cake, and did a parade down the street w/ the kids – they LOVED it!

I have done an “Under the Sea” themed party

New York Yankee – Brett Gardner. My son's favorite MLB player and he is from Holly Hill, SC.

How about a Toy Story Themed party? We have done superman and zoo and both turned out cute as well.

A party at a butterfly museum is a blast for the kids, boys and girls. There are usually lots of cool bugs at butterfly museums too. Butterfly cake, butterflies can translate into fairies too for little girls!!

My son is turning 1 in September, and so far my planning has gotten as far as a cake shaped like little building blocks. I would like to elaborate on that idea.

I love the “Pancake and Pajamas” theme. All of the kids (and parents, too, if they like!) dress in their favorite pj's and you make a couple of sheet cakes, cut them with a round cookie cutter, like silver dollar pancakes, and the kiddos can decorate them with whipped cream, sprinkles, fresh fruit, etc. Best of all, you can do the party early and still keep your little one on his/her nap schedule! :-)

My favorite for my boys has been a “Safari” theme. We lived in mid-west GA at the time and took our friends to the Wild Safari park for the day. It was great fun.

My son loves soccer, so I did a sports-themed party for him on his last birthday. I did a soccer cake (copied a picture I saw on the internet); we had a soccer ball pinata; and we did sports-themed games, like a relay race, 3-legged race, etc. It was a blast for the boys and girls alike.

It is hard to keep boys entertained throughout a party but we ended up throwing a “Wet and Messy Party”. Think food! THEY LOVED THIS PARTY!!!!! Parents who weren't going to stay ended up wanting to stay and even ran home for cameras when they realized what was going to happen! They were told to wear their bathing suits & bring a towel. INVITATIONS: were made and attached to a pair of swim googles (from dollar store) and they were told to bring the googles to the party. First we had some games and then a obstacle course. We hosed them off, made ice cream sundas, and then they went swiming GAMES: 1) they got in pairs and we made instant mashed potatos (with water only) and added food coloring. Then one boy had to see how high he could pile the potatoes on the other boy's head. boy with potatoes wore googles The pair with the highest won. 2) still in pairs, one boy wore googles and the other spread peanut butter over the googles and face. Then when everyone was ready they had to toss M&Ms onto the peanut butter and who got the most to stick won. Timed game. They had to gently toss to get them to stick. 3) Like hot potatoes but we passed a paper plate covered with cool whip and whoever was holding plate when music stopped had to stick it in his own face & leave the circle & we continued until the last person. 4) Raw egg toss 5) baby pool with ice in it, everyone sat around it and put their feet in it and had to pick up the ice cubes & place in a cup that was next to them, person who puts most cube in cup wins. Timed game. 6) hung doughnuts with string from bottom of volleyball net (could use swingset). covered with chocolate syrup, they held their hand behind their backs and had to eat the doughnut. Messy! Last was a obstacle course they went through indivdually. Some things were: dry dog food mixed w/ water & it sat till mussy (they had to crawl through it), slip n' slide with pancake syrup, tarp covered in flour they had to roll across, etc. After we hosed everyone off, had make your own ice cream sundaes, water balloon fights, and finally swimming. We had a problem from keeping the boys from wanting to go through the obstacle course over again because they like it so much!! Favors were: giant superball, water gun, icky candy like bubble gum toothpaste and such, (and of course they got to keep the googles).

We didn't really do a theme for my son's 1st birthday, but we have some friends who did a Princess (and Prince) party. All the kids dressed up as princesses or princes for the party. They wore crowns and all that good stuff.

Skating! My girls recently went to a couple of birthday parties at the skating rink and loved them. Looks like that's what we will be doing for their birthdays this year!

We did an Elmo themed party this Memorial Day weekend for our 2 year old! Elmo Cake with lots of red decorations – it was a big hit & the look on her face when she saw her Elmo Cake was priceless!
Great giveaway!

we had a poka dot party:) everyone dresses in polka dots and cake was poka dots as well. Plus lots of games with circles(polka dots).

My daughter wanted a Hannah Montan Birthday! Made blonde wigs for the girls with yellow construction paper. Since money was tight, could not go out & buy a cake, so I made a home made cake & had the girls decorate the cake, 1/2 the cake was Hannah montana & the other half was Miley Cyrus. The cake had blonde hair on 1 1/2 of the cake & brown hair on the other half. decorations for make-up on the hannah side & plan on the miley side. The cake was so undescribable. But the girls had fun making it. This year she wants to make another cake for her Birthday, but has not given me the theme yet!

WE did ABC's for my 1 year old. I did a rectangle cake that said happy birthdya with cupcakes around it with the ABC's.

A friend of mine is doing a cowboy theme for her 4-year-old son with a horseshoe cake, cowboy-themed games and goodie bags made out of bandanas!

I always call my son Robby, my little bug, so for his 2nd birthday, we did a “bug” theme party. I made an inch worm cupcake cake and surrounded it with beehive and ladybug cupcakes. The kids made their own bughouses from kits I had ordered from Oriental Trade Co. Then we had a “bug hunt” in our upstairs for plastic bugs I had hidden all over (his b-day is in Feb so we had to do everything inside). Each child used his bug box to store his catch and were given bug tongs to help “catch” the bugs. We also played “Pin the stinger on the bee” and “Put the spot on the ladybug.” For spots we gave the kids an open Oreo cookie. They then licked the cream and stuck it on the ladybug spot with their name written in it. We also had caterpillar, ladybug and bee balloons. I ordered 2 foot long subs from Subway and decorated them to look like caterpillars. I put chips in a big flowerpot lined with plastic wrap. Canned drinks were put on ice in my son's wagon. Gift bags included fruit roll-ups with a bug theme, bug erasers, candy, etc. I think had as much fun planning and making everything as the kids had playing at the party!

I've always wanted to do a Mideval theme…where the food is dumped on the table and all the kids have to eat with their hands.

We did a penguin themed party for my one year old little boy last year… and we made our own penguin cake… it was a blast! :)

My son's birthday is October 30th, so we always do a costume party, with the theme centered around his costume! Gives parents one more chance to use those cute and creative costumes! Last year we had a candy corn relay race and made cute/scary black cat treat bags. Fun! always looking for creative ideas!

We had my son a Spongebob theme party last month for his first birthday. He absolutely loves Spongebob and just giggles and laughs every time he hears the theme song. So, we served Krabby Patties and Kelp (Cheeseburgers, French Fries, and Chips). We had a super cute Spongebob shaped cake with spongebob, patrick, and other ocean themed decorated cookies. While we had a swimming pool, we also had many other games and activities. One of my favorite was having white shirts and allowing the kids to use sponges and paint to decorate their shirts. We also filled small pools with bubbles and hoola hoops. The kids would stand in the middle of the hoop and pull it up over their head and they would be stuck in a big bubble!

We did a watermelon themed party for my daughter 2 months ago. Since it was just starting to get really warm and watermelons were “in season”, everyone, including the adults, really enjoyed it. Fresh watermelon, cake, ice cream, friends & family, what else could you ask for? It was great!

we did a lego-themed party… complete with cupcakes and lego gummies on top and lego jug for a guessing game…he loved it for 6

My son loved astronauts so one year we had an 'Astronaut” Out of this world party!

A beach party sounds realy fun!

my daughter wanted a piggy cake so we had a three little pigs birthday party. i made the the three houses for the center piece. it was very cute.

Since my husband is in Iraq he trained for 2 months in other states before going and I signed us up for the rewards programs with the hotels he stayed in even though they were paid for by the company and I earned so many points we wanted to make the first birthday without daddy soooo special we used the points to take 4 adults and 7 children to a local resort overnight for free so they swam in january and we decorated the rooms with summer themed items (used party city coupons) and everywhere you looked there were big bowls of candy or capri suns or chips and pizza and breakfast were included in the resort price…it was a beauitful Winter Beach party for super cheap!!

We alway have a lot of birthdays around Thanksgiving in the family. So this year I am thinking of doing an American Idol/Rock Band themed party. Then I can do a cake in a guitar shape with big sparklers on top.

My son is about to turn 2 and is in love with trains right now so we are doing a 'Choo Choo, Landen is 2!' party. I'm making the train cake off the Betty Crocker website too!

For my son's 2nd birthday we did Thomas the Tank Engine. It was so cute and Party City had all the decorations that we needed.

My son's birthday party was a Ben Ten party. The cake was a round layer cake filled with white icing we had Ben Ten toys on top of it. We had fun games and crafts like make alien slime, toss water ballons at the aliens and melting an alien in an ice block. and the tradional pinata filled with candy and toys. The kids loved these games.

i have a 2 year old boy and we did a truck themed party. We played a couple simple games – like we hide Match box trucks in the sand table, and used monster trucks to roll through paint and make marks on some banner paper, Etc.. the trucks each child found they got to take home with them.

BARGAIN PARTY: “I love Paris” themed girl sleepover party. I purchased pink & red heart decorations, tablecloths, balloons, heart shapped bowls, napkins etc. and food items like pink M&Ms AFTER Valentine's day when they are discounted 50%-75% off. Then in March, we had a I love Paris themed party. Everything was pink (my bargain purchases) and black, a few red. We printed out Eiffel Tower and Paris images on the computer and placed some inside heart cutouts we purchased for wall decorations, heart shaped helium balloons tied to a bag of rice covered in black tissue paper and tied with pink ribbon. Purchased some black boas at the craft store with 40% off coupons and pinned them to the tablecloth around the edge of the table. Had pink M&Ms in bowls etc. I borrowed paris travel posters from 2 travel agencies for wall decorations. Cake was a sheet cake cut out the image of the eiffel tower (printed a photo off the internet to use as a pattern). Invitations were printed on pink cardstock paper, placed in black envelopes, (wrote on envelopes with pink pen) and attached a black feather to the top of the pink invitation (plucked from the boas I purchased). Favors were put in pink paper bags, hole punched 2 holes in top and ran black ribbon through them & tied a bow. Inside? Girls stuff, lip gloss, nail polish, nail art, etc. and I ran into a clearance bin at “Claires” and found silver necklaces with the effiel tower charm for only $1.00 each !!! But you could just buy a Paris themed charm inexpensively (use your discount coupons!) in the jewelry making section of a craft store (Michael's have them ) and hang on black cording and make your own. It doesn't even need a clasp…they can tie the necklace on.

Tea party theme. All guests dress up and at the party get their hair, make-up and nails done so they will be proper for the tea party. give each a tea cup filled with candy and wrapped in toile as the party favor. Get the tea cups at thrift stores.

My daughters birthday is right before school starts back. We are having a vintage back to school party…think pencils, wooden ruler, composition books…which are cheap right now…(gotta love walgreens)

I love all the idea's out there for a carnival themed party or shower.

PINK FIRETRUCK (MY HUSBAND IS A FIREMAN BUT MY ONLY CHILD IS A GIRL.)

I've got a 4 yr. old party for my son next week. It's a monster truck theme. And the cool thing is that we have tix to see a live monster truck event just a few weeks later.

i think a cool birthday theme would be kids olympics. the guests can win prizes which makes it fun and you can taylor the party depending upon the weather,season or indoor or outdoor.

My son's birthday and daughter's birthday are a week apart. So, every year we celebrate them together. They each choose a theme and we set up a table for each one. This year it was football and Ariel. We had the party at a local Splash Park. Nothing really went togehter, but they each got what they wanted and it was a great way to cool off for summer birthdays!

I am doing a “PEACE SIGN” party for my soon to be 9yr old daughter… I am doing a standard sheet cake… white icing then spraying it with the spray icing… Then writing in black icing a peace sign.. WOOHOO… I can't wait! She is GOING TO LOVE IT!

We want to do a party with a lobster theme. We are a big boating family and catch lobster each year. We want to make a “lobster” cake and celebrate!

A cookie decorating party! My son's birthday is close to Christmas, so we decorated cookies in the back yard & the kids took theirs home as favors. We also did a candy cane hunt & had Christmas music playing in the background. Inexpensive way to have fun & let kids be messy!

Passport to Party. Have a game or craft activity that children do in different countries. Then make the birthday cake in the shape of an icon from one particular, such as the Eiffel Tower.

Grill out in the backyard party with kiddie pool and games!

Our two most recent parties were both for little girls, and though we warmly accept princess themes, we aimed for something different.
….so we had a “pink elephant” and circus theme…and a popsicle party. I really have fun with invitiatons and decorations, and these themes well suited our co-ed attendees. :)

when one of my girls turn 7-ish, we had a tied dye party. I made a sheet cake and voided out the sized and made it look like a t-shirt, iced it with white icing and than dropped food coloring on it to look tied-dyed.

WOW, there are some really good party ideas listed (one of my faves is the candy land party…will definitely keep in mind if i have a girl one day :)) Anyway, i've been wanting to do a Pirate theme b-day party for my son since before he was born (haha). He will be 2 soon & I think that I might do this type of party. I want to have a treasure hunt & pirate hats, the whole works. I found a really cute idea of mailing the invitations in a plastice see-through bottle (with a little bit of sand inside) & the invitation in rolled inside the bottle

We are doing a Pirate theme for my 5 year old son's party. The guests dress up as a pirate or princess. I bought all of the party supplies last year at Michaels for 90% off! I was able to get 24 invitations, thank you notes, plates, napkins, goody bags etc, even a pirate chest filled with cookie cutters. At a garage sale I found all of the pieces to make a pirate cake complete with ship and tiny pirates, cannons, etc. I chloroxed and washed all of the pieces and will try to re-create the Publix store cake. We got a brand new pinata(pirate) at a garage sale. We are doing simple games like pin the eye patch on the pirate-found at the Dollar Tree by my sister-in-law. We also have a CD of pirate songs found at the Dollar Tree. I ordered Pirate favors from Oriental Trading when they were having free shipping. It really helps to be able to collect the items over the span of months and to still save so much on a cool party!

Our little girl is only 4 months, so we haven't had to plan a birthday party yet, but one theme that I think is cute is a football themed party (for boys or girls). If you have a fall baby, you could have them all dress up in their favorite sports team's gear. So cute! :-)

I want to do a “flapper/jazz” themed party for my daughter's next birthday and use the Baby Loves Jazz books as inspiration!!!

I have twins turning 13 next month!! Ahh!!! :) I plan on doing Twilight theme party since they are so crazy about the movies! I want to make the backyard in to a forest theme area…just like the movie. I 'm working on some other ideas as well!!

My oldest is turning 5 this fall. He wants a “putt-putt party”. Since we can't afford to have all his buddies over to the local putt-putt course for a party, we're turning our front yard into a putt-putt course. He is helping to design it from stuff we find around the house and whatever we can scrounge from the neighbors. Our neighbors are mostly retired and many are getting into the theme by donating lots of “hills”, “roughs”, and crazy yard ornaments for us to use.

We are about to have a Pink Elephant Party for my one year old on Saturday!

We had an Army themed party for our 5-year old. The invitations were letters requesting all the “Privates” to report to duty on the party date to fulfil the latest mission. They were requested to wear camoflauge and Daddy lead the mission including a tank(riding lawnmower in disguise) firing bottle rockets. It was a blast!

We like to do 50's theme birthday parties and have the girls dress up in poodle skirts and the boys dress up in jeans, white tshirts and sometimes their hair slicked back. For my niece (who is a big Grease fan) we had a cake in the shape of a jacket and the cake was pink (as in Pink Ladies). The party was a big hit!

Farm animal party for little ones…If you live on or know someone who lives on a farm, you could have some baby farm animals and a tractor set up outside. You could also have an easy little maze made out of hay. Farm animal cupcakes for the cake. I think that this would be a wonderful idea for a birthday party!

Princess Party!

My oldest had a “Spa” spend the night party. I made a cake that looked like a big fingernail polish bottle. A friend of mine who does nails came over to the house and set up and did their nails. I had the foot spas set up to soak their feet while they waited their turn. The other girls were making necklaces and homemade lipgloss while they waited for their turn as well. I also took their picture with the birthday girl when they arrived and they decorated their frame to go with their picture. Their goodie bag was shaped like a pocket book and it was filled with the lipgloss they made, fingernail polish, a compact, and other goodies. They had a great time. Going to do that again for my other daughter. Girls loved to be pampered.

My daughter will be turning 9 in August and we are planning a cool cooking party. The Birthday girl is going to pick out some recipes from her favorite Food Network Celebrity for she and her firends to prepare. They will have aprons and chef hats for the party give away. we are still in the planning stages, but I am soooooooo excited and so is she!!!

The circus :) I had so much fun with this last year for my youngest ones. There's just SO much you can do with the theme from clowns to animals to stunts.

Thomas the Tank Engine party for my 3 year old boy

I love the idea of a dinosaur party!

my daughter loves butterflies so i'm making just a round cake and i found these huge butterfly gummies to put all over it. either that or i'm making a garden theme party with a “dirt” cake. her birthday is in a couple of weeks so she is getting very excited!

Pirate themed parties have always been my boys' favorite. Everyone dresses like a pirate and we have treasure hunts where everyone wins! We also “swab the deck” by pushing balloons across the floor with kid-sized brooms.

We went to the dollar isle and did a Hawaii theme hoola B-day party for my 7 yr old. The cake was easy! The total cost was 32.00. Not too bad. Our second choice was to do Chucky cheese which would have run about 150ish.

My oldest son turned 13 last year. He had an “Alabama” party, on the day that the Alabama Crimson Tide played the Auburn Tigers in the Iron Bowl. (We're huge Bama fans!!) I fixed sloppy joes, chips & dip, they had “Bama” cake & ice cream, sodas and homemade popcorn. They almost all wore their team colors. They played football outside and then came back in to watch the game. Alabama won the game right at the last and I had a den of teenage boys jumping around and hollering and cheering, I filmed their reaction to the winning play instead of the game, and it's made for a real memory maker. They had a blast!!

Baseball theme serving hot dogs, apple pie and coca cola.

we are hoping to have a Fall Festival birthday party for my daughter this year. her birthday is in october, so we plan to decorate with straw bales, corn, and pumpkins. we want to have a pumpkin carving table and caramel apple stand. she loves princesses, so i was hoping to be able to make some sort of cake that resembles the pumpkin carriage from cinderella with some cinderella cake decorations of some sort. i already have tons of stuff for goody bags thanks to couponing and using this site to get free stuff all the time. it should be fun!

Firetrucks…most fire stations will do a free tour of their fire stations and then we went to a park not far away and had cupcakes, fire truck pinata, and firehats for everyone! Simple and a kid-pleaser!

Scavenger hunt through Walmart at 11:00 at night with 20 12 and 13 year old boys. My boys were turning 12 and 13 …. I made a list of items they needed to buy and supplied each team with $8.00 to purchase the items. The losing team had to wear huge goofy hats and stand in the front of Walmart and sing the Barney at the top of lungs in the front of the store. All the boys still talk about this party. It was awesome!!!!

My son is only 5 months old but I am thinking about doing a lizard themed party for his first birthday. He used to flick his tongue out and my husband would say he looked like a lizard tasting the air!

A carnival theme!

my daughter had a great m&m birthday wehn she was 8! we made several round cakes colored them red yellow blue and orange then out of m&m's we put an 8 on one then the others we just put and M on them with m&m's her name also begins with an m so that was cool we put m&m's in ajar and they guessed how many the winner won the jar of m&m's it was a great party

i think we are going to try giraffes. my daughter and i just recently went to the zoo and she was enamored with them. i was thinking about creating giraffe heads with construction paper and tying them to poles so that the kids and “be” the theme of the party. i just dont know about how to make the cake??

For a younger boy, you can do a fishing theme and use brownies and gummy worms to make “wroms and dirt”.

I am currently planning a Luau 5th Birthday for my daughter. We will have hula hoop contests, Tiki Toss game, and everyone comes dressed in tropical attire. I am giving out leis to all the guests with their Hawaiian name attached. For the cake, I am using a storybook doll pan to make a hula girl. Hope it all turns out.

We had a Fire Truck party for my son's 3rd birthday complete with a trip to our local fire station and a firetruck cake. Our fire station was so great and let the kids climb up on the trucks and see where they sleep. He still talks about it and wants to have a Fire Truck party again this year!

For my daughter's upcoming 4th birthday we are doing a “Crafty Pool Party” theme. She is really into crafts & her birthday is in August, so I wanted to make it summery. Most of the party will be held out on our lanai around the table. I found this great bright multi-striped table runner at Target for 75% off ($2.48) which set the color-scheme, and then to keep it “crafty,” I am making most of the decorations, like a birthday banner, party hats, goody bags, & “cones” to hold popcorn out of coordinating brightly colored 12×12″ scrapbook paper. We also made the invitations out of the same paper, which say “Splish Splash: Maggie's Having a Bash” I bought cute little aprons for all the kids (aqua for boys & bright pink for the girls) to wear while they do their craft, which I will be embellishing with some ribbon & their names. The craft will be painting wooden frames & then decorating them with sea-themed foam stickers. After crafts, all the kids will go swimming and then have a kid friendly lunch of homemade mac & cheese and mini hot dogs. The “cake” will be brightly decorated cupcakes embellished with matching birthday flags, arranged on a cupcake tree.

For my husband's birthday we did a superhero theme and all the adults came dressed as their favorite childhood superhero. The kids loved it too!

For my son's sixth birthday I made a volcano island cake with teddy grahams swimming in the “water” with gummy lifesavers around them. It turned out really cute. We used luau birthday supplies to go with the theme, the bonus for me was his birthday is in August when you get all the luau supplies at 75% off.

My son loves cars. I am wanting to do a Racing theme and bring him to a go cart place and let them race around the tracks with his cake in the shape of his favorite car the Mustang.

My sister's three boys are 5,4 and 19 months and they all love Fire engines and anything having to deal with that subject. They have had birthday parties with the group going to a fire house and having a tour.

pretend slumber party for younger kids…..have them wear their pajamas, have popcorn, movie, pizza, etc. Put inviations on mini pillow cases. This is a great idea for kids in Kindergarten through younger grades where an actual overnight slumber party is too much!

Our twins are turning one this weekend and we're doing a polka dot theme – not too “theme-y” but great, easy decorating ideas to pull it all together!

Thanks for the site! My son wants a robot party and I've been trying to think of a cool cake idea. They have a perfect one and he loves it! Can't wait to try it.

My girls are Feb babies 7 years apart. I'd love to find a theme to celebrate the 3 year old and 10 years birthday together. Pink ballons, pink cupcakes with Dora's on some of them.

Great giveaway! For my daughters next b-day we are doing a Tinkerbell theme.

my boys are still little, so we've never done a HUGE thing, but they've both had their firetruck themed birthdays, complete with hats as favors, a cake in the shape of a firetruck (a lot harder than I thought), etc and they loved it!

My daughter's birthday is in December, so a snow/snowflake theme is cute (especially since we won't get any of the real stuff!) I also really love ladybugs for a cute little girl party.

When my daughter was 4 she wanted a fairy princess party. Since her birthday is just after Halloween she wore the same fairy princess dress she wore then. I made individual cakes in ovenproof cereal bowls and froze them. I bought decorating supplies from the grocery store. From my local craft store I bought wooden dowels and styrofoam stars and glitter. The girls made magic fairy wands and decorated their own frozen cakes to take home. It was such a hit the teenage girl from next door who I asked to help out and her friend had to make their own cakes after the party.

I have twins, too. I have a boy and a girl. So, when they were little I did “Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse,” “Pepe Le Pew & his girlfriend (don't remember her name), “Raggedy Ann & Andy,” etc. Now they're twelve and it is harder to plan parties because they are both so different and like different things. Thanks for the link to the website!!

When my twins (boy and girl) turned 5 we had a Art party complete w/ Paint pallet cake, everyone made their own mini pizza on grands bisquits. We also did several art projects one of which was laying on their backs to paint their masterpieces (paper taped to the bottom of the table- sistine chapel).

A friend and I have sons with their birthday 2 days apart. We decided for their 3rd birthday, we did the Cookie Monster and Elmo Theme. Each had their own shirt and decorated cookie cake…one with Elmo's face and the other with Cookie Monster's Face. The kids loved it! We even went to see Sesame Street live the evening before their party which made for their heightened excitement.

Our last party was all about monster truckes. I made the cake myself but it was worth the look on him face. The best part was the crullers I used for the huge tires.

My son loves trains so we had his party at the neighborhood park, where they happen to have a small train you can ride. We didn't really have to decorate because all the kids just wanted to ride the train.

we just had a pirates theme, and we will be having a dinosaur theme coming up……

My daughter wanted a jellyfish birthday party for her 4th birthday. I made her a jellyfish costume out of a foam cowboy hat, bath poofy, and streamers. I found a jellyfish t-shirt online. I turned our garage into an ocean to make it look like the kids were underwater. We projected Nemo on the wall. We had jellyfish cupcakes. I used pink balloons and streamers to have jellyfish fill the house and garage. I kids got to draw faces on their jellyfish balloons. My daughter told me it was the best day ever! That made me have the best day ever!

We love dinosaur themes. We buy jungle explorer hats and one of those huge air run dino statues :)

My girls are after my own heart…after much debating, my soon to be 4 yr old decided she wanted a Strawberry Shortcake party…It helped to sway her that we found a bunch of stuff on clearance at the local party store. She knows mommy likes to save money and this was one perfect way. We are going to have it at a park (where you don't have to pay for the pavillion), do face painting (with leftover paints from Halloween clearances), and enjoy the playground at the park! She also wants a cake in the shape of a HUGE strawberry which, I decided that I'll make myself to save more money.

We had a party with frog themed cupcakes … it wasn’t this recipe but I found a similar one on the Betty Crocker site: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/frog-cupcakes/45057186-bd2d-4835-bc93-606de3199554

I love having a pirate theme party for my kids at school! They all love to wear pirate patches and bandannas while they search for “treasure” around my classroom. Then we have “golden” cookies as a treat.

Well, I have three birthdays between Sept and March to plan–two boys and one girl. So we've done pink poodle parties, monster parties, soccer parties, shark parties and the like! Very hectice!

When my daughter turned 6, we had a cowgirl western themed party. We made invitations on colored paper saying “You're Wanted” at Cheyenne's birthday. We used a lighter and burned the edges around it. We put party favors in brown paper lunch sacks, folded and punched with a two hole punch, tied with twine. All of the children got to wear a bandana (we bought cheap bandana material and cut them into triangles). We cooked hot dogs in the fireplace with the hot dog sticks and all the kids got to drink root beer in the bottles. Her cake was a homeade cake and we put her miniature plastic horses and plastic fence on it to make a corral. Decorations were simple. we bought a red and white checkered tablecloth (plastic)with white paper/plastic products with red, white and brown balloons. We used her toy horses for decorations around the room and played western instrumental music (harmonica etc). We played pin the tail on the horse, musical chairs and had a pinanta. It was the best party she ever had and it didn't cost alot!

My son 's birthday is tomorrow , the 23th and I have made an ice cream cake for the kids and since he's been telling us all this year that he will be “one of the most famous basketball player ever”, and that he “can't wait for us to watch his game on TV” our theme this year is basketball :))..I am pretty excited I have even found some cups, plates and napkins all the same on clearence….that never happens when you need it usually…well all my other 3 kids are excited…can't wait until tomorrow!!!!

I've always wanted to have a Disney themed b-day party! (all the kids come dressed up as their favorite Disney character!) I think it would be too cute! :)

My favorite b-day part theme was my daughters 4th birthday “Fancy Nancy” party. Everyone came dressed extra fancy, decorated 'plumes', decorated 'fans', the girls had fingerfoods with their 'tea' (apple juice). They drank out of tea cups and made sure to eat with their pinkies out! So fun!!

I love the idea of a princess party where all the kids dress up like a prince or princess.

we had a tea party which was tons of fun. we had dress up clothes for the girls to put on when they got here if they so desired and trays with finger sandwiches, fresh fruit and little cookies. then, we served up lemonade and decaf tea. for a fun game, we did pin the lid on the teapot. it wasn't super expensive and was tons of fun!

I'm turning 30 this year & my twin and I are making a cupcakes to celebrate our “30, Flirty and Thriving!” We are going to use 80's items as cupcake toppers like our old Swatch watches & slap bracelets around the base of the cupcake.

My son is obsessed with knights, so we are planning a knights and princess party

My two year old loves Motorcycles and we are going to throw him a bike party for his third birthday. FamilyFun magazine has a great dirt bike cake that I'm going to make for him. He's going to love it. We definitely need a new video camera because our old one is junk. I hope we win!
Also, my nephew wants an iphone touch for his birthday so an iday is a great party idea for him. We are thinking of making an iphone cake for him.

My little one is turning 1 in a few short days…He loves cake, so we're having a cupcake themed party!

my sister is a cake artist. one year she asked my daughter to draw a picture of her family, she was about 5. my sister took that drawing and put it on my duaghter's birthday cake! it was great. my daughter was thrilled to see her artwork “immortalized” in icing! we had lots of mulitcolor plates, cups, napkins etc. for decorations.

Oh, I LOVE giving our kids their birthday party. I also make the cake myself. Whatever theme they pick, I try my best to have a goodies to go with that theme. Like one year our daughter wanted to have a Dog Party, so we went to the Thrift Store and got stuffed dog toys for everyone to 'adopt'. It was GREAT, everyone LOVED it and our son still loves that 'used' dog.

My daughter's last party was sort of “retro.” She was into all the peace signs, flowers and neon colors. Easy to decorate, fun and bright!!

My son's birthday party last year had a baseball theme. I make glove shaped cookies & baseball cupcakes and gave out balls as party favors! The kids love it!

I wish I knew about this site for my son's 1st birthday in June. We had a safari theme and I made a cake decorated with lions, tigers, and monkeys. Everything turned out great but it was exhausting! I'm sure this site would have helped me save some time.

well, I am working on a thrifty nifty fifty party the video camera coupons and any extra tools will help me plan a awesome party. Turning fifty is said becoming a recycled teenager.

Train theme for my son when he was three. Train Art:
Cut the paper into the shape of train. Place a few trains in each paint color. Show them how to “drive” the train in the paint to get the wheels covered with paint. Then, “drive” the train on the paper to make the tracks. Connect the train together to make one long train.

We had a fishing party for my son's 6th birthday. The families came over and fished in the lake, then we had dinner and dessert. I suppose some would say that all those fish hooks might be a little dangerous, but everyone was there with parents and we all had a great time.

having two young girls we are going to a lot of princess parties. Activities include dress up with picture, make your own wand, make your own princess door hanger, painted nails and toenails in princess polish, pin the tail game but the object is a castle, etc. My daughter 3 is already planning her next one. I think she has decided on sprinkles or chocolate. I would love some ideas on a cake design/them that can incorporate lots of sprinkles.

last year for my daughters 14th birthday we did a scavenger hunt in the local mall. I listed clues foe each team to figure out and things to collect throughout the mall. Making several items worth more points ( check with store employees first) We had adult leaders to supervise make sure all behaved. Instead of birthday cake , we had lunch at chick fila and ordered a cookie which went over better with the girls. Goodie bags for all' the girls all want to come for her 15th party.

for 12th birthday it was a fifties theme I made huge records, a giant juke box to go over the door with trash black bags cut into strips so as they walked into the fellowship hall they came through juke box made bowling pins and balls for area of wii bowling with a projector screen. music notes hanging from ceiling with streamers tables covered with matching colors pink blue and black and white served hamburgers and hotdogs and fries
buble gum blowing contest, hulu hoop, theme songs from fifties shows. The parents were coming in bringing their spouces they could not believe it. It was a night she has never forgotten.

We once did a party where we made race cars out of card board boxes, we decorated them, raced them outside ( with us in them ) and everyone got to take their box home as a party favor.

We recently had a Hawaii themed party!! It was really fun to plan!!

I LOVE to plan birthday parties and I try to do something different for each girl's birthday and now I have a boy to plan for as well! We have done a ladybug theme, farm theme, princess theme (disney style), littlest pet shop theme, kit kitteridge (american girl) theme, bees & butterflies theme, zoo/elephant theme, beach party theme and we're back to another princess theme this time more personalized! I usually make invitations to coordinate and I make the cakes too! This is right up my crafting ally! I would LOVE to have a Flip camera to record the princess party coming up!!

We did a marshmellow theme party. We made marshmellow shooters for each child and included a bag of marshmallow amuniton. (there are free instructions on line). we had a campfire and cooked hot dogs and of course roasted marshmellows. I did my best to make a cake that looked like a giant s'more…but you had to use your imagination and squint to get the real effect of my cake decorations! The kids loved it, but my back yard ws kind of sticky until it rained.. The kids took home their shooters in their goodie bag. My son said it was the best party he'd ever had.

I love strawberry shortcake for a little girl's party.

Fiesta! Have sombaros for all the kids, mild salsa and cheese dip for snacks for the kids, sombaro shaped cake, pinata invitations

We have done the Butterfly cake before. For a little girl party, take big sheets of tissue paper and cut out “wings” which you can safety pin to the back of the little girl shirts. And you can give flowers for everyone to take home.

My grandaughter (5), LOVES frogs, catching them and even kissing them! I am planning a froggy party with of course a frog cake, green punch, hopping games and “tadpole cookies”, (chocolate chip).

The birthday cake from my childhood that stands out was my third birthday–a book-shaped cake with the alphabet and numbers piped on it. I loved books and Mom came up with a great cake!

For younger ones (or adults, especially those who have been drinking), pin the tail on the donkey is a classic fun one!

Last year we had a pirate party for our son (4). It was so cold that we had to bring it inside, but we had the kids dig for treasure and make treasure maps.

For the treasure digging, we used a huge galvanized pail and a lot of uncooked rice rather than sand since it was inside. Plus, I can use the rice for blind baking, rice socks, etc. In the wedding section of Hobby Lobby they have plastic “diamonds”. I watched Target, Walgreens, etc. after Halloween and found gold coin candies on sale.

They had a great time!

A Dirt Party!! This was the ULTIMATE!! We bought a real dumptruck load of dirt and had it delivered the day before my 5 yr. old son's b-day party (the price was probably cheaper than one of these party places you might have it at, besides then we used it all over our yard to cover up tree roots!). The delivery alone was spectacular! Then we had everyone bring their fav. dirt / construction toy, and then turned them loose to dig. They had a BALL!! It was actually very quiet, they all started digging holes to China, I guess! We did not add water, so it really wasn't very messy. I made a fun dirt cake, complete with sm. Tonka trucks digging around, and chocolate covered “rocks”. It made for great pictures and memories, and we had friends coming up and telling us that's all their kids kept talking about, and how they wanted a party like that too! Go with the construction theme, add some yellow “CAUTION” tape, treat bags can be their very own free sample of dirt to take home with them– HaHa!

A pirate and princess party. I have a 4 yr old and 2 yr old girl whose birthdays are a week apart so we did one big party this year and did a pirate and princess party, so boys and girls from both age groups could come and have fun. We had a “treasure hunt” for buried treasure in a baby pool, princess dress up and tea for the girls, a treasure chest pinata and a cardboard castle that was mostly colored on and played with by the younger siblings that were brought along to the party. We had inflatable swords around and the boys had sword fights for the whole party. We had pirate flags, princess wands, balloons and streamers for decorations. We gave out eye patches, stickers and pirate rings to the boys and stick on earrings, stickers and plastic necklaces to the girls. By the end of the party the girls in their dress up dress were digging in the treasure hunt pool for treasure with their tea party cups. It was a blast and so easy!

My daughter wants a Yellow Submarine party this year!

We are going to do a pirate theme and make pirate cupcakes and all the kids are going to dress up like pirates with patches(: We are going to hide gold and let the children find the treasure(:

We had a princess party for my daughter and i did an ice cream cake for her with two layers of cake and ice cream in the middle and then made buttercream icing and decorated with cinderella on top. I would love to be able to make a castle for her fourth birthday which is what she wants next year.

We did a spa sleepover. We paid a couple teenage neighbors to help with manicures, pedicures, and facials. The girls made their own flip flops as their craft. The chocolate fountain (borrowed from a friend) was a huge hit!

My nephew's really enjoyed NASCAR themed birthdays. Lots of fun!

We are all about pink princess parties at our house.

Last year the baby's birthday was during the week and we were having his party over the weekend. Well, I couldn't let his actually b-day pass without something. When he was asleep for nap on his actual b-day, I filled the living room with balloons and we made rice crispy treats just for him. He was turning 2 and he thought he was hot to trot. It doesn't take a lot of money, time or people to pull of something special.

We did a Halloween party last yr. The cake was in the shape of a pumpkin
and all the kids got one more wear out of their
Costumes!!!

Through the years I have done many a creative themed “homemade” party. My only requirements were that they could not be commercial and lacking in creativeness (such at Thomas the Tank Engine or Disney Princess, etc) Probably my most memorable was the “Picnic at the Park” party when my first girl turned two. We rented a shelter at our local park (only $5 an hour) and made finger foods and cupcakes. Activities were a breeze with the playground nearby and some outdoor toys from home. The guests LOVED taking home a party favor that consisted of a reusable container filled with snack items like a juice box, crackers, and fruit snacks (gotten very cheaply with recent sales and coupons of course) and a little note inside thanking them for coming and to enjoy another little “picnic” later.

We are doing a Fun in the Sun party this weekend for my son's 3rd birthday party……we are going to swim in the pool, have a baby pool set up, and have a bubble station. I also got some of the cheap and free (after Q) gummy sharks from CVS and will use them to make him an ocean-themed cake (but, let's face it, he's going to think it is Nemo!!!).

We are having a pool party with mini beach buckets filled with bulk candy (obtained at 75% off), the kids get to scoop up the candy with toy shovels. I'm going to make one of those cakes that uses blue colored jello to make a pool in the center of the cake – really easier than you would think and the kids love it!

Whale of a Good Time theme! A pool party with a whale shaped cake and invitations! There are all kinds of fun water games to play. Sharks and minnows (Whales and minnows?), Marko Polo (Whale out of water!!) And maybe a screening of Free Willy for any younger tots who don't like the water :)

My cousin just had a “farmyard” party for her 2 year old. She made a cake that looked like a red barn with graham crackers for the roof and doors with twizzlers for the trim. It was so great! She also made cupcakes that looked like a pig, duck, and sheep.

We did a carnival party for my daughter's 2nd birthday. She was really into Elmo at the time so we did a Sesame Street carnival and all the games had SS characteres on them. We made and Elmo cake and a train cake with some SS decorations on it. The train cake was a huge hit! The kids each wanted their own train car.

A few years ago my son was into John Deere tractors. It took me forever to get the icing the right colors but we had a green and yellow tractor cake and everyone bought him a different tractor to add to his collection. He had a ball with his friends playing in the dirt with the different tractors that he had gotten.

I love making birthday cakes for my daughters birthday parties. My favorite was a Candyland themed cake!

CANDYLAND!!!!

Cowgirl/boy!!!

My youngest is having her first party with friends (we do family parties for the first couple of years!) She wants to have a dress up princess party, but also water games outside. We are still debating how to combine those two ideas!

My DD's room is done in frogs & her lovey is a frog so for her 2nd b-day we are having a “Frog Party”. The invites will say “hop on over” and we will be doing some “splashin around in the frog pond”. I even found frog sport cups to fill as party favors and frog bath squirters too. We will also sing “five little speckled frogs” for story time.

I love the idea of having a robot themed party. You could build a robot out of larger boxes and spray-paint it a cool color. Let the kids crawl through the fun maze!

For Toddler:
Theme: Balls
Invitation: Deflated beach ball with the following written in permanent marker “David's First Birthday has Rolled Around! Come have a ball with us on July 5, 2010″
Once mailed, the invitees have fun because they participate in blowing up the invitation to play with it.
Cake is ball shaped cake. Games involve balls.

For my son's first birthday we kept it simple–everything was primary colors and jungle animals or polka dots :)

One of my favorite parties as a child was a slumber party when my mom let us all be chefs. We made personal pan pizzas, ice cream sundaes, and muffins in the morning. My mom loved it because she didn't have to do much cooking. Just supervising.

For my daughter's next birthday I am going to have a ladybug/garden theme. I purchased ladybug themed birthday supplies. Sandwiches will be served made in the shapes of ladybugs and flowers using cookie cutters. I am going to make ladybug balloon bracelets and flower balloons to hang around. I will attempt to make a ladybug cake but if it turns out to look like my attempt at making a train cake for my son, I will have to make a last minute trip to Publix :)

We're doing a fairy garden theme at our house this year!

Minnie Mouse
We did cupcakes with red icing and white round sprinkles.
Red decorations that the girls put those white dot stickers on
We played dress up relay. I made a red and white polka dot skirt, and found ears(target maybe?) and white long gloves ($ store), black shoes out of my closet, and some dress-up jewelery. The girls had to dress themselves, run around my pool table and come back to the start and undress themselves.
This birthday was after Valentine's Day….so the goody bags had heart shaped candy in it…I got on clearance;)

We have a special birthday coming up for two of our kids–they were born exactly a year and one week apart, so we plan to combine their parties, at least for a few years. Of course, the challenge is that one is a boy and the other, a girl. This year will be the first time we celebrate their birthdays with friends, and they have MANY friends all of a sudden…
We live in (more often than not) snow-covered, icy North Dakota. Our kids' birthdays are in August, while the sun is still very warm (read: hot), and the mosquitoes are vociferous. We won't be discouraged from throwing a party outdoors, though! So we plan to do it up at the local water park (imagine many sprinklers in a concrete park for children to run through). There are covered pavilions with tables, grills for cooking out, and several very large playgrounds to climb all over, too. We want to invite lots of friends, give t-shirts to every guest to tie-dye at our party, hopefully light some sparklers left over from the 4th of July while we sing the birthday song, bust up some stuffed pinatas, throw water balloons, and enjoy a grilled feast of hot dogs, corn on the cob, and watermelon. We only have a few months to celebrate warm weather here, and a sweet, hot birthday party for my two little ones couldn't be better! Now WHAT kind of cake would be good for a boy/girl b-day party at the park?!

Luau!

When I was younger, my sister had a circus party. Everyone dressed like they were in the circus (clowns, ballerinas, magicians, etc). Then they put on a circus together! It turned out very cute! Even the shy kids wanted to have some part in the imaginary circus! We also had a neighbor come over dressed up as a real clown to add to the excitement! Very fun! I would definitely recommend it!

My son loved the Zoo and had his party there. We had five little round cakes and made each cake a different animal scene. We used large retzel rods, marshmellow tops and piped icing to make trees.

We did dress up parties for my sister when she was younger. We would pull out all the dress-up supplies and let the girls create outfits. Then we would do hair and makeup and they would put on a fashion show! We would take pictures of them and send them out with thank you cards. It was fun and they got to use there imaginations!

One of my daughters once had a craft party. We made and decorated kites, door hangers, and bracelets. Everything that was created became their goodies to take home. We even turned the cake into a craft project. Each child was given two unfrosted cupcakes. They were then allowed to ice and decorate to their hearts desire.

For my friend's three year old's party, we had an Old MacDonald theme. She made huge cardboard cutouts of farm animals and painted them. We placed them around the yard and had straw hats and bandanas for the kids. We had bales of hay for sitting for the adults (the kids didn't sit!) Drinks were kept cool in a galvanized watering trough. Farm themed cake and balloons. The biggest hit was the visit by real farm animals. We had baby goats, chickens and baby chicks, bunnies and bby ducks. The kids and adults all had a blast!

When I was in middle school, we had a “Glamour Shots” themed birthday party. My neighbor was a professional photographer and the guy that cut my family's hair came over to style our hair and do our make-up. My neighbor took our pictures, printed them and that was the girls' 'party favor.' Tons of memories were made that weekend!

Have a Disney theme party. Have people dress up as their favorite Disney character. Play games that incorporate Disney movies and characters

My four year old BBGG quadruplets will be five in October and I'm already planning their party – it's going to be a Pirates and Princesses theme and I'll have eye patches for all the boy guests and tiaras for all the girl guests :) Will definitely need two themed cakes as well!

We had a firetruck/man theme for my sons birthday. We got everybody little fireman's hats and the cake was decorated with flames. My little fireman got to put out the fire (candles). It was really cute.