So when you leave party planning to the last minute and your children have high hopes simplicity is always key, we hadn’t planned on doing a 5th birthday party but after the success of last years mermicorn party even I was a little sad not to have an excuse to plan another one! So jointly we caved and decided that our girls could have another joint party, with our girls only being three weeks apart on their birthdays its was easy meeting in the middle on dates, but what about a theme?

theme wisely – go generic think colour

Well, with cake always being the favourite part for my daughter and knowing that mummy could make it, we started there, to see if a theme naturally occurred! one picked carebears and the other my little pony, how retro (I remember these from when I was a little girl and that was some time ago) but to make our lives easier we used ‘rainbows’ to connect the themes which would prove to work really well. I thought I’d share some top easy party tip we discovered:

Theme everything (including the food)

If you’ve picked something generic like ‘rainbows’ often you’ll find themed things every wear and lucky for us rainbows are trending, so finding some colourful outfits wasn’t difficult or costly. It might take a bit of searching to find the best deals but remember not all items will list ‘rainbow’ in the title so search generic terms like ‘party decorations’ or ‘colourful banner’ and you’ll be surprised what comes up. We purchased some ribbon, socks and pinfold dresses and we re-used tutus we had from a previous fancy dress under the dresses.

You’ll even be surprised how easy it is to theme food, both healthy and treats in rainbow shades is super easier and the kids will love it, the fruit rainbow has always been a firm favourite, we used drinks cups as the bowls so they could fill them up with fruit and enjoy.

simple Activities

Although we did share the cost for a bouncy castle when the little legs get tired of bouncing its always a good idea to have some sit down activities, I created two games which I believe were quite simple to do and easily replicated. Using a postal box I cut several holes and covered with thin tissue paper in colourful shades of course! then attached a paper cups with a treat inside using a glue gun to the inner side of the box, the idea is to punch through the tissue paper to win your prize, each one is a winner and they’ll love the ‘smashing’ part too!

I also did a simple colour letter bingo, stuck around the party venue are coloured letters, the idea is to hunt out the letters and place them in the correct coloured square, there are so many possible version of this game but keep it simple and then all ages will enjoy the hunt!

Its hard not to get carried away but being a designer means im really lucky I can create something reasonable easily but id still try keep it simple for your own sanity as often you need to do x30 of everything. If you choice to create something if it will keep (wont go off, easily stored) it can always be used at another party or gathering.

I had the request for another set of craft packs, I created themed ones at the last party and they were a big hit, so this year I created some new ones, alot of our guest took another pack home as they ran out of time to do them all. We had a butterfly & unicorn wand, rainbow cloud wind sock and dragon blower, im looking at creating these packs for sale but i just need to work out the logistics.

Above all kids parties are stressful enough and its key to try keep it simple, prep ahead what you can and above all remember children really are happy having their friends and family around and CAKE!

>> other party ideas – DIY Go Wild Party