Let’s face it throwing your child a birthday party can get expensive and if you have multiple children then birthday parties can start to become a major expense each year. I once thought that it was a luxury to have my girls’ birthdays only two weeks apart so we would do one big birthday party for the two of them. The benefits to that is that we could afford to do something bigger for them because we are splurging on one party as opposed to two so for example I was able to hire a magician last year and have a magic show for their magic themed birthday party. Now that they are getting older they don’t really want to share their birthdays with each other so I decided this year we would try out the individual parties.
Now I had to get a little more creative and throw a party that was as equally fun as the big parties of earlier years but do it for about half of what I would normally spend so that it would be fair to both of the girls and I wouldn’t go broke in the process. After brainstorming several ideas with my eight year old, she decided she wanted a Lisa Frank themed birthday party. I thought it was a cheaper idea than some of the others she had come up with and asked if we could just do a rainbow colored party, which is a big part of the Lisa Frank brand. She agreed.
With the theme set, we started to brainstorm and search the Internet for ideas. The first thing I decided to do was to have a candy buffet instead of making goody bags for each of the guests. There are several reasons for this. The guests can help themselves to what goodies they like; it saves time for me not having to make up individual bags and trying to figure out how many I will need. But the biggest thing for me is that I tend to forget to give out the goody bags at the end of the party. I get so busy with activities, opening presents, keeping gifts and cards straight and paying attention to whom gave what gift so I know whom to thank for what gifts. I get overwhelmed and forget the darn goody bags. So by doing a candy buffet the guests can get their own goody bags before they leave.
Candy bars are simple. All you have to do is fill jars with candies. I used individually wrapped candy to help prevent the spread of germs and messes. And each jar was fill with candies that were rainbow colors such as pixie sticks in one jar, lollypops in another, etc. I even had a few goody jars filled with mini Play-Doh jars and small boxes of crayons. I made a sign that basically told the guests thanks for coming and to fill their own bags as a thank you. It was a really big hit! The kids that came through the door and instantly lit up when they saw all the yummy candies displayed on the table in the glass jars! Plus it made a cool rainbow table display.
If you have a Dollar Tree in your area this will be your go to spot for most of your decorations because you can get just about everything you need for a buck a piece. I was able to find some Lisa Frank pennant banners so I went ahead and picked those up. I found a rainbow Happy Birthday Banner and a couple of rainbow birthday cardboard centerpieces. I found glow in the dark bracelets and necklaces that were in rainbow colors.
We have a pastry chef in the family so I was able to have cupcakes made with rainbow tie-die looking icing. We decided to get different types of rainbow candies and let the kids decorate their own cupcakes. They made such a mess and you could tell all of them had a blast. You could see it on their face that they were shocked that they were allowed to load up a cupcake full of sugary treats and got to make such a mess in the process. Thank goodness I put down a cheap dollar plastic tablecloth and all we had to do is roll up the tablecloth full of the mess and toss it in the trash afterwards. The floor was a mess but it was worth it. This was a really big hit and it gave the kids something to do at the party.
I made my own centerpiece out of tissue paper. I just made quick and easy tissue paper flowers out of different colored tissue paper and that was the centerpiece. We also hung multicolored Christmas lights around the room, which was something we already had and that gave more of a rainbow feel to the room. It doesn’t take a lot of money just creativity and you can make a really memorable cheap birthday party for your children to enjoy.
