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Looking for a kids birthday party planning kit? Wondering how to plan a kids birthday party on a budget? You have come to the right place! I’ll be sharing with you just how easy it can be to plan a kids birthday party on a serious budget without sacrificing any of the fun, and I’ll provide an awesome kids birthday party planning kit to help!
Just Send Me My Free Planning Checklist
I know you are busy and may not have time right to read this full post. I get it! I’ll skip the fluff and explanation and just send you your free Speed Party Planning Checklist.
Just sign up below and I’ll email it to you right now and you can get to work on planning your party. Don’t forget to pin this post for later so you can refer to it when you have more time!
WISH PLANNING A PARTY WAS A PIECE OF CAKE?
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Party Planning Can Be Fun
I love to plan birthday parties for my kids, and I know not everyone feels like me. Planning a kids birthday party is a lot of work and can be incredibly stressful. I get it! I really do. As much as a I love hosting the party, sometimes I wish the planning didn’t take so much work.
But, I’m here to help! I’ve taken all the hard work out of the planning for you and have made a simple 3 part plan to help you organize and throw the best birthday party your child could ever ask for!
I don’t think you need a ton of charts, checklists, shopping lists, etc. to plan an affordable, and super fun party. You just need a few of the right tool to get all your ideas in one place. No need to spend hours pouring over all the information and plans for the party, just fill out these 3 sheets from my Birthday Party Planning Kit and you will have all you need to plan the best party out there on a serious budget!
Kids Birthday Party Planning Checklist
I’ve created a handy free printable to help you plan your next kids birthday party. Download my Speed Party Planning Checklist and you will be on your way to planning the simplest, most affordable, yet amazing, party ever!
Why You Need a Birthday Planning Checklist
Our Speed Party Planning Checklist is designed to get all your ideas in one place. This checklist will help you quickly get your ideas on paper in an organized manner.
While filling out this checklist, it’s a great idea to have your child sit with you for a few minutes and answer a few simple questions about what theme they want, who they want to invite, what they want to do at their party, and what kind of cake they want.
Using this information, you can quickly map out the party and get an overall idea of what the party will look like. Don’t stress about this sheet too much, just fill out what you can and then come back to the things you haven’t quite figured out yet later.
Use Pinterest For Other Ideas
After you fill out the checklist, sometimes it helps to jump on Pinterest and see what other people have done for the theme your child would like. Get some ideas, pin some pins and then use them to create the type of party you want to have.
When you are trying to figure out what types of games and activities to have at your party, you might want to read this post: The One & Only Theme That Fits ANY Kids Birthday Party. This post reveals the secret to taking all the stress out of planning party games! Let me give you a hint: Carnival theme games, customized to your party theme, is the way to go!
Easy Party Decorations
Kids birthday party decorations don’t have to be complicated or expensive. You can create a very festive look with simple and frugal decor. Over the years I’ve learned that you can save a lot of money by using solid color decor items like streamers and balloons rather than spending a lot of money on character specific decor items.
For example, pink, purple, blue, and green solid color streamers, plates, cups and utensils for a girls soccer themed party instead of the more expensive soccer imprinted plates, napkins and matching decor items.
In our house, we tend to use the color red a lot for our parties, so I like to buy plates, cups, streamers, balloons, etc in bulk at Walmart and use them for a few different parties. You can also pick up smaller packages of paper products and decor from your local dollar store too!
Just remember, you can save money by using solid color decor instead of character branded decor and your party will still look very festive!
Goody Bags Don’t Have To Be Expensive
Just remember, you don’t have to hand out goody bags. You really don’t. But, if you do, don’t spend a lot of money on them. It’s really easy to go a little crazy and buy a lot of filler items that will break as soon as all the party-goers get home.
WISH PLANNING A PARTY WAS A PIECE OF CAKE?
Don’t waste the money! I know I hate when my child comes home with a bunch of cheap junk from a birthday party, so don’t provide them either!
Don't waste the money on cheap goody bag junk. Share on XInstead, I like to give kids either candy right from the pinata (because what kid doesn’t love candy), or something that truly goes right along with the party theme. Think along the lines of providing aprons for a Chef Party, or a set of watercolors for an Art party, or a pirate eye patch for a Pirate party.
Planning the Birthday Party Food
Keep the Birthday Party food really simple! Share on X
Keep the party food really simple. I don’t get very caught up in making the party food totally match the party – unless it really fits the theme of the party. To save money, I always suggest hosting your party during non-meal hours. Hosting the party mid-morning or mid-afternoon saves money because you don’t have to serve your guests a meals – just light snacks and cake.
When I host a kids birthday party, I will make a special cake that really goes along well with the theme of the party and then I’ll typically serve a few snacks that the birthday boy gets to pick like, goldfish, popcorn, pretzels, cheese balls – etc.
I also suggest investing in a big drink dispenser (1-2 gallons) and making some type of flavored water to serve. Wondering what I mean by flavored water? I simply mean filling your drink dispenser with water and then about 30 minutes before the start of your party, add in some fresh fruit – you can even mix a few fruits to try different flavors.
Now, before you dismiss flavored water, think of all the great flavors you can serve like strawberry (our favorite), cucumber, lemon, lime, blueberry, etc. Serving flavored water not only looks cool, but it’s super frugal! It won’t stain your carpet, because it’s just water, and we all know how much kids can spill!
Serving flavored water not only looks cool, but it’s super frugal! Share on XMake Your Own Invitations
Invitations can be simple, or complicated. It’s up to you! If you love to design and create homemade invitations, go for it! Get out glitter, glue, paper and make some really cute homemade invitations. If making the invites homemade is not your thing, consider using an online invitation like Evite.com. Or you can buy store-bought invitations and just fill in the info yourself, or you can even just send a text message with all the info.
For me, I love to design and create and so making the invitations is more my speed, but I know that is not for everyone. If you do want to make your own – consider using Canva – that’s how I make my invites. Canva is free to use and has some really adorable templates and resources to use.
When I design invitations for my kid’s birthday parties, I like to design my own with a size of 4.75in x 3.25in and then I print them out on my home printer. I cut them out and then I like to buy solid color note cards from Hobby Lobby or Michaels (or your local craft store) and I cut the card in half and use the fun solid color card as a print to mount my design to with double sided tape, almost like a postcard. To save even more money, I like to hand them out instead of mailing them (if I can).
Keep The Kids Busy
Simply fill out this checklist and plan the party from the moment those kids walk in the door up until they leave and you will save yourself a TON of stress.
I’m sure you are thinking, “Katrina, how is this possible? I can have a stress-free party just from this one sheet of paper?”
Yes! Yes and yes! Kids just need a plan and they need to be kept busy. As long as you can keep their minds busy and occupied, the whole time they are at your party, you will be set.
Limit Your Time
One other piece of advice – consider keeping the party at an hour and a half up to 2 hours at the most. Having all the party-goers at your house too long is another reason we moms want to lose our minds when we host a party. I like to keep my parties right around 90 minutes for younger kids – up to age 6.
WISH PLANNING A PARTY WAS A PIECE OF CAKE?
For my older kids I will extend the party length to 2 hours, but no more than that. I think any party over 2 hours not only wears out the birthday child, but all the friends too, and don’t get me started on how tired mom gets!
Get Your Speed Party Planning Checklist Now!
Go ahead and download our Speed Party Planning Checklist now and get started planning your next party. Even if you are not ready to plan a birthday party right now, get the Kids Birthday Party Planning Kit and save it for the next party you have to plan.
I sure hope it will be a big help to you and will take the stress out of party planning. If you have any questions, please comment below or email me, and I’ll be happy to help!
Let me know what you think of the Speed Party Planning Checklist and please share! Plus, tell me all about the party you planned using my checklist – I can’t wait to hear all about it!
Want to remember this post? Pin this post, Kids Birthday Party Planning Kit, to your favorite Pinterest board right now!
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