How to celebrate a child's birthday and not go crazy, how to save the apartment from the invasion of the child's friends? Have you ever had questions like this? Or has your child not yet informed you that he is going to invite half the kindergarten group, five best friends from the yard and only three from the section to his birthday? What to do? Book a party at the club? Close your eyes to everything and try to survive this day?
Is it even possible to organize a children's party in an apartment and happily wait for the next one? Easily.
What is required of you?
You should know who your child is going to invite, and he should know how many friends you are ready to see
. When the invitations are finished, contact the parents of the future guests to discuss organizational issues with them. The most common ones: how the child will get to you, whether his parents will stay at the holiday, and if not, when they need to take him home. It wouldn’t hurt to find out if any of the invited children suffer from allergies.
The size of the apartment does not allow you to accommodate both children and their parents at the same time? You don't know each other well and don't know how to say it? Do not worry! If you tell what you are going to do with the children, ask about the characteristics of your guest and leave your phone number with his parents, they will most likely easily understand you. It’s unlikely that they want to stay in your apartment to try salads, they just don’t know you either, and they may have no less reasons to worry than you do.
Try to realistically assess the size of your apartment and your strengths. If you are organizing a party for the first time, limit yourself to 2 hours. This is not at all small, even if it seems to you that the children are not tired yet, and you are ready to entertain them for another half hour or hour, resist the temptation. It's better to walk a little short than to walk too much. Overexcited children do not pose a threat to your apartment only if you know them well.
Birthday in the style of "Trolls"
Trolls are bright and amazing cartoon characters, so loved by many children and even adults. If your child has become attached to these simple-minded cartoon characters, don’t rack your brains over the theme of a children’s party, take the trolls and you won’t go wrong. Decorating a holiday is very simple because any bright and rich shades are suitable for this. A pleasant highlight of the holiday will be a themed candy bar with a huge amount of goodies, fruits, cookies and cupcakes. Don't forget about the main treat - a cake with decor appropriate for the event. The following will help complement the atmosphere of the event: a piñata, a disco, various competitions and master classes, a soap bubble show and small surprise gifts for guests.
For the event you will need: garlands, balloons, pompoms, sparkles, any images of trolls and compositions from them, dishes, napkins and themed invitation cards.
What to do with children
Thinking about what to feed your little guests? This question is the last one, it won't take much time. It is much more important to figure out how to keep the children occupied.
If you are going to hold competitions
, start right away, don’t let the children scatter, after 10-15 minutes you may simply not be able to collect them. Are some of your guests delayed and you have to wait? No need! Decide in advance what you will play in this case. It is desirable that this be a quiet game, which you can connect to at any time. I can suggest: “Don’t take black and white, and don’t say no. Will you go to the ball?”, “Words with the same letter”, “Words on the same topic”. When everyone has gathered, proceed to your main program. Try to remember your childhood, read books, search the Internet - you can probably find something you like. I can only advise one thing - alternate calm competitions with active ones, make sure that, if possible, all the children win somewhere.
Do you have doubts, can’t figure out which game will interest children?
— buy a few rolls of toilet paper and cheap balloons. I haven't seen a child who doesn't like playing "mummy". As a rule, even disputes about who will be the mummy and who will be its creator do not arise. If they arise, it’s easy to solve, just stock up on more rolls of paper. Why should balls be cheap? They burst more easily. It's hard to imagine a more fun competition. Balloons can be used in many competitions; the simplest one is passing in a circle to music (the one who still has the balloon in his hands is either eliminated or performs some task).
Our favorite competition is ball tossing
from one half of the room to the other. Children are divided into two teams and begin to throw balls into the territory of the other team; the team that has fewer balls after the “Stop” command wins (the room can be blocked with two or three chairs). When all the competitions are over, invite the children to pop the balloons. There is no need to feel sorry for them. They burst with such a roar, and it gives children a lot of delight.
Birthday in the style of “Smeshariki”
A party with a similar theme promises an abundance of events and impressions. The scenario must be thought out to the smallest detail, because games and entertainment are needed in large quantities, and the decor for the design must be bright and consistent with the theme. You should also take care of costumes and order a large birthday cake with cartoon characters. To get complete childish delight, you should reproduce the atmosphere in the holiday design as close as possible to the cartoon. Children perceive very well the design of a festive table in the form of a fairy lawn: decorative butterflies, flowers and ladybugs are attached to the tablecloth. To recreate the cartoon atmosphere, accessories with images of Smeshariki or themed costumes of your favorite characters from the series are also suitable.
To carry out you will need: garlands, pictures, posters, a lot of balloons, portraits of Smeshariki.
What to cook for a treat
Now to the question of what to feed the guests
. The main thing is to stock up on enough drinks; children drink a lot. There is a lot of joy in being allowed to mix different juices, juice with soda, or with tea.
Children, for the most part, eat little and not at all what we would like. Everyone eats sausage and some vegetables - cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers - you can cut them into pieces, or you can create some kind of culinary and architectural masterpiece. Many people love chicken fillet fried in breadcrumbs.
Some children eat cheese and fruit. It's strange, but not everyone loves pizza. It’s even stranger that many people gobble up mashed potato soup. I have been trying to comprehend this fact for five years now. An ordinary puree soup made from ordinary potatoes, the only difference between my recipe and my mother’s recipe is that I add a teaspoon of mustard to the pan, and on the table I put a plate with white croutons and a saucer of chopped green onions. Either the children like to throw croutons into the soup, or there are some other reasons, but I cook this soup for every birthday.
Sandwiches with caviar are popular with about every second person. You don’t have to put anything else on the table; the salad will arouse the interest of a rare child today.
Menu for children's table
What can you offer on the menu for a children's birthday? First of all, let's talk about what should not happen:
- Spicy. - Peppered. - Salty. - Fat. - Chips, nuts, crackers. All this is not advisable for children to consume.
For older children, you can prepare a beautiful salad in glasses - all your guests will be delighted!
We suggest making sandwiches. Here you will have to experiment and use your rich imagination. You can make ladybugs, Cheburashka, a house, gnomes, cows, dogs and other funny images.
We stuff tartlets and canapés with delicious fillings. They are convenient and can be eaten right away. You can fill the tartlets with egg salad, cheese, mushrooms, delicious sausages, red fish, and pates.
Hot dishes include mashed potatoes, baked mushrooms, fish, chops, meat baked with cheese.
The sweet table can be served with a variety of fruits, even exotic ones. Also sweets, cakes, jelly in molds, ice cream. The table is crowned with a sweet cake with a bright pattern and picture.
How to feed children Olivier salad
Cut all the ingredients and put them in different small containers (baby food jars work very well). You need to stick a label on each jar, and write on it the name that you will need to come up with. If children cannot read, the title can be a picture. The choice of name is up to you. If you have a birthday according to the Harry Potter scenario, then the jars will contain potions (polka dots are the eyes of a bad tail, eggs are chicken embryos); if you are looking for treasure, there will be treasures in jars, you will have to strain your brains.
You also need to prepare instructions, preferably encrypted - instead of letters there are numbers, puzzles, if children do not know how to read, you can draw diagrams by which they will look for notes with numbers - each number corresponds to a number on the bank. In Russian, your instructions should be deciphered as follows: take jar No. 1 - pour it into the cauldron (salad bowl), stir 5 times clockwise, 5 times counterclockwise, and so on all the jars in turn, translation of the last phrase - squeeze out half a pack of mayonnaise and mix. It’s better if one child guesses the first sentence, the second pours out the jar, the third mixes it, and so on, so that everyone takes part. According to my observation, almost everyone tries this salad.
Birthday in the style of "Minions"
A cheerful, atmospheric holiday for lovers of mischievous and playful minions. To create an optimal atmosphere, it would be useful to hire animators. Or you can limit yourself to ordering themed T-shirts with images of your favorite cartoon characters for all invited guests. An excellent addition to this outfit: a pipe, a cap and large glasses with round lenses. This way, any toddler at a party can feel like a cartoon character. When decorating a room, it would be useful to try to recreate the atmosphere of the cartoon and select as many thematic attributes as possible. When it comes to treats, give preference to sweets. Get ready with stylized candy bar themed balls, stickers or stencils. For the holiday table, dishes with images of funny yellow minions would be ideal. And a real mega-bomb for children will, of course, be a cake in the shape of a minion.
For the event you will need: garlands, pennants, balloons, accessories and prop paraphernalia depicting minions.
Are we blowing? Together!
The most important thing, of course, is the cake! Or rather, not everyone likes candles on it, cakes either, although almost everyone wants a larger piece, in fact, most are only able to cope with a small one.
The availability of candles at home must be checked in advance.
so as not to run around looking for it at the last moment. The birthday boy blows out the candles, you can cut the cake. Wait! Children will have a lot of fun if you let everyone blow out the candles - just put candles for each one according to the number of his full years. It won't take long. Very rarely does anyone refuse; children love to blow out candles.
The birthday is coming to an end. Mothers, grandmothers and nannies come for the guests. Don't forget to let the hero of the occasion say goodbye to the guests and thank them for coming.
Now is the time to take a look around the apartment. Is there toilet paper lying around? It was supposed to be collected during a special competition “Who can collect the most.” You need to give the children at least two empty bags, each team will fill their own. The remains of the balls are removed quickly, but this could also be “pushed” onto the children. Just exchange three (four, five) pieces for a chocolate medal or a whole ball that your child will take home. A mountain of dishes? You had to feel sorry for yourself and buy disposable plates (2-4 per brother), then you will only have cups, a salad bowl and forks and spoons.
Photos for memory
It’s good when after a children’s party spent at home, you are left with not only positive memories, but also beautiful photographs. And to make the photos really beautiful, organize an impromptu photo zone. It can be done directly on the wall by hanging interesting thematic pictures and posters. Photos in such a photo zone will definitely turn out better than against the backdrop of furniture and wallpaper.
Don't have room for a photo zone? Get photo paraphernalia. Photos with mustaches, lips, crowns will surely amuse little guests and the birthday boy. And making such paraphernalia is as easy as shelling pears - print and cut out all the details and glue them to wooden sticks. The role of wooden chopsticks can be played by kebabs skewers or sushi sticks.
Let your home celebration turn out to be such that, looking at the photographs years later, the warmest feelings and emotions arise in your soul, and you will want to spend such a fun and exciting holiday - a birthday at home - more than once.
The article uses photos from pinterest.com
Be ready!
There are also all sorts of “small” tips. Just be aware that you may encounter:
- Grandparents, as well as aunts and uncles, as a rule, want to communicate with the birthday person personally, and the presence of other people's children in the apartment affects them in very different ways. If you know what I mean, don't invite them over at the same time as the kids (they might visit in the late afternoon or on the weekend);
- children do not know how to give a gift;
- are embarrassed to ask where the toilet is;
- they are afraid to participate in the competition (make such a child an assistant judge, it is quite possible that he will want to join the participants later);
- they are afraid to “burst” the balloon (if they feel sorry for it, give the balloon home and do not allow other children to destroy such “personal” balloons; if they are scared, give them a fork or a canape stick, just don’t let them out of sight and take them away immediately after eliminating the balloon);
- children want to receive only the same prizes, explaining to them that only the candy wrappers are different, but the candies themselves are the same is practically useless (this happens quite often);
- some parents did sneak into your apartment (don’t think that they are your guests, harness them to the fullest, it will be much easier for you if each team has an adult assistant, especially if you have time to tell them the rules of the competitions);
- Does your child have no friends yet? Birthdays are a great reason to start them up.
And further. Don’t get your hopes up, everything won’t work out for you, you’ll have to improvise
, swap different competitions, some may have to be abandoned, and some will be held as an encore. Make a list of all the necessary little things and check their availability. Often, what should have been exactly right at the right moment is anywhere, but not at home - a camera, cake candles, cocktail straws, blindfolds (used in many competitions), napkins, tape, pencils, scissors, bags for garbage.
That seems to be all: I told you about almost all my “tricks”, except for the most important one, but it is very simple - go back to childhood, play with the children as equals - you will only get pleasure from the holiday.
You will have to be a judge during competitions - judge honestly, but try to create conditions so that all children can win somewhere.
PS Are you glad that your child’s birthday is in the summer, and you are not in danger of finding yourself in a cramped apartment? Are you ready to answer the question why all your classmates invite you to their birthday party, but he can’t invite them? Is the answer obvious? For me, no, and we celebrate name days in winter (alternatively, we can celebrate 7.5; 8.5 years, and so on). Not convinced? It's up to you, but you're losing an excellent opportunity to get to know your child's friends better.
We organize a holiday at home for children 4,5,6 years old
Here the birthday boy has already grown up, so the approach to holding the celebration should be different. The scenario for the holiday must be thought out. It can be an excerpt from a child’s favorite cartoon, film, book or game. Where to start:
– In the morning, parents are the first to congratulate the birthday boy, hug him, say warm words, kiss him, and give him a gift. - They are preparing for the arrival of guests. To do this, festive balloons are inflated, and a heartfelt wish is placed in each one. When a guest reads it, he should in return congratulate the baby and give his surprise. The birthday person can greet those who come with poems or a memorized song. – You can invite guests to a theme evening and give them costumes. To do this, you can buy various hats, masks and other inexpensive paraphernalia. Some costumes are made independently, with your own hands. – When the ceremony of congratulations and gift-giving has passed, everyone is invited to a beautifully decorated table. This could be a simple buffet of tartlets, canapés, and small sandwiches on skewers. A fruit table, cheese and cold cuts, small cupcakes, pastries, birthday cake will look great. – At the table you can play forfeits, guess melodies, sing children’s songs at karaoke. – If you wish, you can arrange a photo session yourself or invite a photographer.
Quests
Who is it suitable for : this type of entertainment is suitable for children aged 5 to 8 years, the next group is from 8 to 10 years, and the teenage group is from 10 and older.
If children of different ages are invited to the holiday, it is better to choose more neutral activities, where in the process it will not be clear that older children are more skillful and faster. You can involve close relatives in the quest. You should expect misunderstandings in the first couple of minutes, but in the end the quest will be remembered for a long time. Where to conduct quests : it’s more interesting to take place outdoors. On a personal plot where you can walk around but not get lost. In a spacious room.
Next stop - holiday
“Every little child has two hundred grams of explosives, or even half a kilo,” everyone knows the words to this children’s song. It happens that children find it difficult to sit still, and even the most intense show program will not interest them. So, it's time to move on and rent a party bus. Move in the literal sense: take an original quest tour of the city, visit a museum and get to a van with cotton candy, if the birthday boy wants it. The holiday is built entirely according to the customer’s wishes: you can write a script, choose photographers and animators who will entertain the children.
