Planning your first kids' birthday party can be overwhelming, well, planning any type of event no matter how many times can be, as well!
My kiddos have birthdays 2 weeks apart and this year they decided they wanted to host a birthday party together.
Eek!
Where do we start? Who? What? Where? When?
As a former professional event planner, kids' birthday parties was an uncharted territory for me.
So I created this guide to help other parents and caretakers who may be planning a party in the future. Included is a FREE printable checklist to help make sure your I's are dotted and T's are crossed.
My best advice for any event planning is start with the bigger details and work down to the smaller details.
Where:
My boys like extreme fun, adventure, and especially arcades. It was a no brainer to call The Web Extreme Entertainment, as they are locally owned and operated, and there is a variety of amusements to keep their attention spans occupied for hours! It was great for all age ranges, including adults.
- Brainstorm what your kids and their guests may like.
- Indoor or outdoor? Weather?
- Would an on-site coordinator be beneficial?
- Cost?
- Is outside food or birthday treats allowed?
- Clean-up policies?
When:
Choosing a date before a location is most often based on reservation availability.
- Reach the location you have in mind for date and time slot availability
- Is there flexibility in your date?
- Once you have the place and date locked in, it's time for invitations!
Theme:
Themes are optional but fun for kids! This year we went with the "Level Up," video game styled theme, where our invitations and decorations coordinated.
Some popular themes include:
- Disney
- Glow-in-the-Dark
- Barbie
- Animal (Dinosaur, Safari, Unicorn, etc.)
- Harry Potter
- Sports
- Fortnite or Minecraft
- Mermaids
- Circus
Who:
My family and I are newer to the NE Cincinnati area and have family and friends based out of town. We decided to invite all of their classmates. We discussed with our coordinator the different packages that could accommodate a variety of guest counts and the age ranges, as well, for a seamless joint party.
We considered digital invitations versus paper. We went with paper because we did not have everyone's phone numbers and email addresses, although, paper invitations can be lost or misplaced (guilty of this!)
Invitations:
- Child's name (and optionally, age)
- Date, time, location
- RSVP to who, how, and by when
- Is there an agenda? Providing a brief itinerary (if there is room on the invitation) is helpful to guests
Now that you have your party booked and the invitations out, keeping an organized list of who is attending will be helpful when finalizing your guest count for food, party favors, and more.
Our venue reached out to us the week of to finalize our guest count and to make adjustments to our food and entertainment options as needed. We were able to order our desserts and create our party favor bags after the guest count was finalized.
Time To Party:
You might have ordered decorations, but how long do you have to set it up before arrival? Will you have assistance with decorating? Communicate with your venue.
Create a checklist of items needed for the party to pack in your vehicle. Shuffling through boxes minutes before guest arrival to find some items are missing is not fun.
Plates? Serving spoons? Cake cutter? Your venue may provide some of your utensils, as well.
The front desk greeted our guests and directed them to our party room. We also had a sign showing which room was ours, as the Web Extreme offers a variety of rooms for different guest counts.
They helped us build an itinerary for the different activities we chose, and our host guided our guests to each attraction, demonstrated the rules, and kept the party organized.
We chose 2 types of pizzas that we all enjoyed, extra snacks we were allowed to bring in, and birthday cupcakes.
While the kids played in the arcade, we were assisted with clean up and loading out to our vehicles.
Our kids had a fantastic time with their friends, and as parents - we were so thankful for the extra hands to help!
Our birthday party was a success with a huge thank you to The Web Extreme Entertainment for making the planning process so smooth for us.
We hope this guide is helpful to your future events and wish you a successful party, as well!
A note to our readers --
Your local MacaroniKID website and newsletter is a FREE resource because of the businesses that sponsor our site.
The experiences and opinions of the North East Cincinnati, MacaroniKID Publisher is its own; however, sponsored by The Web Extreme Entertainment.
