Kids Can Plan Birthday Parties

The weekend was very noisy and overwhelming. We had 9 nine-year old boys over to celebrate our son's birthday. As this was his birthday, we decided to let him help in the planning, which included preparing the invites (printed from our computer), games and food. A few lessons he learnt were:

Planning something takes time!
Don't be wasteful - buy only what you need for the party.
Choose games that everyone could take part in - we actually made it a "no gadget party", but one boy bought his phone with him! Drats!
Buy healthy food, and try to have it home-made

It was the first time we were having a birthday party at our home, and the first time we decided that we would prepare all the treats, rather than buy them. I think the main concern was the sugar rush that is often associated with kids' parties, and then the horrendous aftermath! I've been to one party where the kids just went wild and then there was a meltdown!  But seriously, I wasn't prepared to have that scenario in my home, especially when I know boys can get out of hand. 

We (we being, me and my husband) had planned the party so that the boys would alternate between eating and games / physical exercise (ie their favourite game of football in the park downstairs).  

We used the plastic reusable cups from IKEA -
different coloured cups so you could remember which was yours!

Here's the food that my son had planned for with my help. 

*Cheese and tomato pizzas

Egg mayo sandwiches

*Cherry tomatoes

*Strawberries

*Nuts

Biscuits (surprisingly, nobody touched these)
Birthday cake (a special request of homemade butter cake with lemon icing and sprinkles)

* denotes extremely popular!

Surprisingly, he didn't ask for sweets, which was good! We took this list and went to the supermarket together, and we even made the cake together too! It's activities like these that make the birthday a memorable experience. Will you be letting your children plan their next birthday party?