It's Party Time

Parties are a great time to celebrate. Whether it be Halloween, end of the school year, New Year's Eve or Birthday, parties do require some upfront planning and preparation. Birthday parties are extremely fun for everyone and especially for the kids. But kid parties can often times be overwhelming for us Moms. If your kids are like mine, they want to invite their entire class from school, the whole baseball, soccer team or dance class, and their neighborhood friends. Before you know it, the guest list is pushing 25 and that doesn't include their parents. Many Moms often times hold the party outside of the home at places that offer party packages. While this relieves the stress of party planning, it can become expensive. If you are planning to host the party at home, here are some tips to get you started.

Choosing a Theme

The first step in your party planning is to decide on a theme. Once you have decided on a theme, your party planning will be much easier. The number of theme ideas is extremely overwhelming. The best tip is to choose a theme that is centered around what your kid's interests are. One reason for doing this is because many times the guest will purchase presents for the birthday child related to that theme. For examples, if your child is having a Spongebob Squarepants party, I would guarantee that your child will receive Spongebob Squarepants related gifts. Here are some fun theme ideas.

Guest List

The amount of room you have will be the first step in determining how many people you can invite. Also a good rule of thumb for younger children is one guest for each year of age. For example if your child is turning 4, inviting 4 to 6 guests would be a good number. I would suggest inviting 6 just in case you have a couple of guests who don't show up. Keeping the number of guest lower for younger children, helps to ensure that the child doesn't get overwhelmed with too many children. Another thing to remember is that when inviting your child's class, the teacher may recommend that you invite either the whole class, all girls or all boys as to avoid hurt feelings. Of course, you could always mail the invitations to their homes.

Deciding on the number of guests for an adult party comes down to determining how much room and seating do you have to ensure that the guests will be comfortable and the room won't be overcrowded. Nothing puts a damper on a party, like trying to eat while juggling your plate, napkin and drink in your hands and on your lap.

How Long Should the Party Last?

As a Mom of a 6 and 9 year old, I love it when parties are only two hours long. This goes for parties that I host as well as parties that my children attend. If my child is invited to party where I'm not able to drop them off or if I don't feel comfortable leaving my child, it's always great when the party only lasts 2 hours. While my children would love for the party to last longer, this is a good amount of time. Many of us have extremely busy schedules and may only have time to fit in a 2 hour party between the other activities already planned on that day. Additionally, some Moms may not know too many of the parents besides the hostess and may not be comfortable making small talk for more than 2 hours.

I keep this idea in mind when I host a party. It is also a good idea to limit your party duration so that you don't party guests lingering too long because as the hostess, you have a lot of cleaning up to do, gifts to organize, trash to throw out, etc.

Goodie Bags

This is a favorite topic of conversation among Moms at the playground, ball fields and dance studio. Should I give out goodie bags or favors and what should I give? I know of Moms really dislike the whole idea of goodie bags because many times they are filled with trinkets and toys that your kids don't end up playing with or breaking. Here are some ideas for goodie bags or favors that my children have received from parties.

• A water bottle filled with a few pieces of candy
• A bag of Chex mix
• A plastic popcorn container filled with an unopened package microwave popcorn and candy
• Arts and crafts made at the party
• Helium balloons
• Books
• Bubbles
• Play Doh

* Tie or tape a printed card on each favor thanking the guest for coming to the party.