Creative Birthday Parties

Our family LOVES birthdays!  The streamers, balloons, cake.....always a necessity in the Haynes' family!  We have had parties ranging from SEVERAL friends of the birthday child all the way to just our family and grandparents.....but regardless of how many, we must celebrate!

Now with four children, this, of course, can get costly but we have created ways to cut the costs as much as we can.  Our first tradition that saves money is taken from my own childhood .  The birthday child gets a birthday cereal.....which means the birthday child gets to walk down the hallowed cereal aisle and pick ANY cereal they want.  Since our family does not buy "sugar cereal," as we call it, this is one of the most treasured things about their special day!   You can hear my kids planning a couple months in advance about which cereal they will get, how big the box will be, and if there will be a toy inside. This may seem to be a pretty simple tradition for many, but trust me, it's the little things that are remembered.

Another big saving idea we've created for birthdays when they pass the preschool years is to give our kids a choice. They can either have their birthday at one of the many wonderful places which provide everything needed to celebrate a special occasion, OR get a gift of their choosing from us.  One rule my husband and I have is that we don't go beyond our budget in either choice, so when allowing your child to choose, make sure you check out prices first.  A little ingenuity goes a long way, and whichever type of party they choose, your child will learn from your effort.

So, how to have a low cost party?  Simply said, let the child take the lead.  When the children are young, we ask their favorite colors or characters and plan accordingly.  They are allowed to dress in one of their dress up collection items and become king or queen for the day. Invitations have been sent out to suggest all the children also attend in the dress up theme. As the children get older, we allow them the freedom to help us create themes and games for the party as well as design their own cake.  We have had everything from a dress-up dinner party with a three course meal (all planned by my seven year old) to a LEGO party with LEGO cakes and  games (of course, related to LEGO!) designed by my ten year old son at his last birthday.  We have even made our own pinatas and painted them!!  What wonderful memories for all of us!
Added to all this, they are usually allowed for one or two of their friends to spend the night with their choice of snacks, drinks, movies, and even breakfast in the morning!  So, when I said our family loves birthday, I really meant it!

This past Friday night, we celebrated our daughter's eighth birthday. For her special day, she planned the theme to be Games.  Hot pink and lime green were chosen as her colors. Fortunately, we found the food coloring gel in those colors for her cupcakes to be served.  Of course, we had green and pink streamers and balloons and she chose several different games that she loves to play:  Pin the Tail on the Donkey, Musical Chairs, Hot Potato, Relay Races (one she came up with was carrying a small plastic ball on a spoon held in your mouth!), and Balloon Pop.  I know some of these are old, cheesy games to us as adults, but it's amazing how timeless they are. The girls all had a blast and giggled away!  My daughter also chose to have a type of craft (we girls love them over here!) so we decided to make small cakes for each of the guest to decorate.  I baked a few when I had the chance every few days before the party, frosted them white, and then wrapped them up in cellophane and froze them....I had nine of the little cakes before I knew it!  I also have an awesome, very simple recipe for butter cream frosting and made a HUGE batch.  My mother has used it for years and always gets raves about it. To be so simple, it's one of the best tasting recipes I've had.  I used the gel food coloring to make some wonderful neon colored icing and put a few spoonfuls in small freezer ziploc bags and tied them so the girls could use them for icing bags once I cut a small bit off the corners. Due to the fact I was still in recovery mode with my back,  I was able to plan all this in the week proceeding the party by writing down everything that needed to be done, and doing a little of it every day.  By the day of the party, the only thing I had to do was straighten up and hang the streamers!   It was an evening to be remembered and what was so wonderful is the fact that by planning and doing a little at a time, our family was able to save money and have a blast doing it!
By the way, the girls were elated to be able to ice their own cakes and take them home to share with their family!  Their faces lit up when they saw all the bags of icing and sprinkles they could use.  I wish I could show all the sweet cakes that were created, but here are a few. The butter cream frosting recipe follows the birthday pics.

 

Butter Cream Frosting

1 two pound bag of confectioners sugar
2 sticks of butter, ROOM TEMP
1 - 2 tsp. of vanilla
3 - 6 tbs. of milk (evaporated is best)

  Beat the sugar, butter, and vanilla on low .  Add milk tbs. at a time while increasing speed to medium, until it's of spreading consistency. Once you've iced your cake, it's best to thin the frosting a tad in order to use for decorating. I also have a Strawberry cream cheese frosting.....leave me a comment if you are interested and I'll be glad to share it with you!