Plan An Awesome Kids Party In Less than 2 Weeks!

Timing is everything or so they say. This is definately the case for my poor baby boy who has a birthday in January. Due to this he sometimes gets the short end of the stick for his party.

But not this year! I am going to tell how this not-so-crafty mom was still was able throw together an awesome party in less than 2 weeks!

You see, mommy is coming off the holiday hangover. You may be familiar. This is when you have massive shoppers guilt about the money you spent and didn’t have during the holiday season. You are also drained because you have been running on empty while celebrating and living the holiday cheer for well over a month. Then just like that, January hits and you are smacked in the face with the reality of your life: it is winter, you are broke and you have got to get your house and life together.

During the post-Christmas coma, I don’t have a ton of time, energy nor money left to plan my favorite little guy’s birthday. Once I finally snap out of it and realize I need to make sure his party is not just an afterthought, I have just under two weeks left. So what now?

Just Start Planning

Well I need to pick a date, time and location. I would love to have it somewhere because I know that is what he wants. Unfortunately, my budget just can’t be squeezed any further. So we plan for a party at the house.

Now, for the record, these parties are not always cheaper. I have found there are limited locations that are not too expensive.

If having a party at your home is not feasible due to space or any other reason, here are two options that often have some availability last minute if you are flexible and have a small budget.

As much as I hate to say it, Chuck E Cheese is really reasonably priced. If you pick off times like early in the morning or weekdays, you can find lower prices or more party perks. Another affordable option to consider your event is the local skate rink.

Oh and the best part…They do everything for you!
Sometimes you just can’t put a price on convenience of not having to clean your home .

Personally, not a fan of cleaning but I grew up in the era of a home party. This is my preference really. I prefer to spend time with my friends. When the party is based around an event, the guest of honor rarely gets to spend any quality time with their guests.

Since I have decided on a home party, I will have it on the weekend early evening. The kids are still young so I don’t want it too late but I need enough time to clean and prepare.

Getting the Word Out

Now that we have the date, time and location sorted out, it is time to figure out my method of inviting people. Mailing them out won’t work in this scenario because half of the invitees are in his class and they don’t even know their own addresses.

Nowadays, one form of inviting just isn’t feasible. So let’s check out some options.

Facebook

I set up a Facbook event and invited family on that and added the parent that I am Facebook friends with. Something that should be noted is that not everyone gets their notifications for an event. So you may want to message the invite to them or tag them in a post on that event.

Text

I sent texts to the invited guests that I know do not use Facebook. I don’t want people to be left out just because they are not part of socoial media.

Emails & Apps & More

Now to try to figure out how to invite some classmates after asking the boy who he wants to come.

Here lies the problem. The school’s rules for invitations. Does anyone else have to contend with this?

In order to be able to give invites out during school time, you need to invite the whole class or everyone of the same gender. Maybe if i was an outdoor party t would be more realistic but since it’s inside he simply cannot invite the whole class.

I need to get creative about finding ways to invite his school friends since the teacher didn’t give out a class list this year! First step, I hope my son knows the last name of the kids in his class he wants invited and get a list if names. Then I check to see if the teacher sent out emails and see the parents names match. When that fails, I check to see if I have access to any parents info on the app that teacher uses. Still missing a few kids names, so I ask another mother that I enlist the of a mom friend. Luckily she has a little bit more information that helps me locate 2 other kids.

I also luck out running into a mother dropping my son off at day care and snag her phone number to send an email.

As a last ditch effort, I try to think if any other way I may be able to find contact at in a parent. Were they in the class in a prior year? Are they on PTO? Have they done any extra curriculars together? If any of those match I go back through my emails, contacts lists or related apps to see if there is something. This time around, I was able to find something from an old soccer list. his previous soccer team that I know he had some friends on and send emaol invites to their parents.

I cannot believe how difficult invite his classmates to this party. But I am rather impressed with some of my super sleuthing PI work!

Of the 7 kids from school he wants invited, I was able to get a hold of 5. Of that, 4 showed up. Plus some of his cousins so I am happy with that number.

Food Planning

Just like that, there is only a week left for the party. It is time to work on menu planning. This area is where you really can control the cost of the party. Since we had decided to start the party around dinner time we choose to have some dinner food. But if you do it later in the evening or in the afternoon, you could gey away with just having some beverages, chips and dips.

I have a bad habit of over complicating the menu. So this time around I ordered a sheet pizza, made pasta, bought a fruit tray and 2 bags of chips. All of this took little extra time, effort and money.
The food ended up being less than $50.

Savings Tip – I look for coupons and sales and compare my grocery store to our wholesale club to pick my menu and optimize savings.

I did choose to splurge on the cake and ordered a Mario Themed Dairy Queen cake. Since I knew there were less guests and we were not going to do a specific activity, I decided I would give him what he asked here.

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It’s In The Details

To decorate or not to decorate, that is the question! I was going to try to be basic but the day before the party he told me he wanted a theme. Which means he wanted some decorations in some sort of style. His older sister had an Art theme for hers so I decided I would see what I could do.

My budget and timing will determine how to spend for decorations. The best outcome is when we order something on Amazon ahead of time. Often times you can get a whole kit or decorations at a awesome price. There are a lot of options to fit what you want and your budget.

For example, this Pokemon set includes basic party supplies including a banner for less than $30. If you buy this all separate you pay more.

Another option that is even cheaper if they want a certain character theme is to buy one or two items with character and then head to the Dollar Tree. They offer tons of colored plates, cups and table clothes that can be coordinated with “theme” .

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This time around I waited too long and I ended up going to Party City and picking out plates, napkins, banner and a favor set for around $35.

As a side note, I do not always do favor bags because I find them to be a waste of money. Almost ALL the kids left their bag at my house. Plus, the items inside them often get tossed out pretty quickly.

Time To Party

On the day of the party we cleaned, cooked and then I ran out for the pizza and cake. We were more than ready for the party to start.

As far as entertainment goes, I thought about doing an activity but I decided my kids have plenty of toys to play. And they did just that. I think almost every toy was taken out at some point. We had “guest characters” show up as they took turns dressing in different costumes we have accumulated over the years.

It is fun to watch their creative minds go. Kids do not always need to be told what to do or be entertained. Sometimes it is best to let them thrive in their own environment.

Did my house look like a tornado went off? YES
Was it as loud as a rock concert at times? YES
Did they have a blast? Heck Yeah!

At the end of the day, this is what matters. Nothing can replace the smiles on my son’s face that evening so it was all worth it.