A dinner party for 6 year olds - Opinions please

[lee]

My daughter is turning 6 on Friday. She wants a party on her birthday, and that means after school, so 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm, so I need to serve real food in addition to ice cream and cake. The plan is to have it outside if possible, and in the family room, and adjacent den/bedroom if not. She has invited seven children.

I made up the invitations in photoshop using a picture of crocus from our garden, but the theme for the party is the rainbow. I am making rainbow party hats, and have colorful party favors. I ordered a rainbow birthday banner, and have bought some other colorful decorations.

The activities planned are pin the tail on the donkey, and a piñata, which I already bought. Other ideas are welcome.

The cake and cupcakes to bring to school are going to be rainbowiffic. I practiced this week and feel I have that part under control. For ice cream, I was thinking strawberry, chocolate and rainbow sherbet, but I welcome suggestions there.

The menu has me stuck. My daughter wants tandoori chicken, which is easy enough, I can cut up chicken breasts into fingers and make them up tandoori style. I have no idea about the rest. I was thinking crudités and dip for the vegetable because they are colorful and my kids love them.

I have the whole day off to prepare, but I want to do ahead as much as I can.

[wonder9]

A) You do not need to have a birthday party on the actual day of the birth. Children can and do understand that the party may not be on the same day as the birthday itself. Week day parties are stressful on the party givers and the party goers.
B) Let the kids make dinner themselves. Buy the ready-made pizza dough, make little pizza pies, put out boatloads of toppings, and let them go nuts. While the pizzas are cooking, open presents or play games. Or have the makings for salads. Or loaded baked potatoes. Or anything that they can assemble themselves.
C) I am so happy to hear that the party is limited to 7 kids. One kid per year of age plus an extra. Very good plan.

One year, I made a Pin the Eye on the Alien game instead. Made a blob like thing on a big sheet of white paper, made big googly eyes from construction paper, and voila. Great fun.

[dangermom]

Pizza is good.

Rainbow fruit kebabs! Strawberry, canteloupe, pineapple, green grape, blueberry, purple grape. Or whatever. They were a big hit a couple years back at my oldest's party.

[Aspidistra]

Third thumbs up for pizza. My kids especially like making faces (it ends up as a pretty boring pizza by my standards when the entire topping set consists of two olives, one thin capsicum slice and a tiny handful of cheese hair, but they like it!)

What about popcorn? That pre-popped rainbow stuff they sell in the supermarkets is fairly foul, but I'm pretty sure if you made it fresh with butter and salt you could rainbow it up with food colouring and it would be just as beautiful.

[TJVM]

I'd suggest having an alternative to the tandoori chicken. It may be a staple at your house, but it's something a lot of American 6-year-olds have not seen, and kids that age are prone to reject food just because it seems "weird." Maybe pizza as others have suggested, or plain chicken nuggets.

Finger food can be good at birthday parties, because sometimes it's hard to get the kids to sit still for a meal.

As for the pinata, I hope it's the kind where you pull some strings on the bottom to open it. If it's the traditional kind that has to be broken open with a stick, you may encounter some difficulty. At that age, a lot of kids just lack the motor skills to deliver a solid blow to the pinata. Also, when you have a bunch of excited 6-year-olds gathered around, and you give one of them a big stick and tell her to swing it really hard at something, the results can be ... interesting.

One final random thought: helium-filled balloons are always a big hit. Tie them to chairs and whatnot, and let each kid take one home. They're cheap, and the kids think they're awesome.

[NinetyWt]

Originally Posted by lee

The activities planned are pin the tail on the donkey, and a piñata, which I already bought. Other ideas are welcome.

One old-fashioned game which my kids (and their friends) loved to play: Fishing. You can do this indoors or out. Indoors, just stretch a sheet across a doorway halfway up. Put up a poster saying "old fishin' hole' or something. Fix up a fishing pole with string and a clip on the end. One person hides in the room and, when the kids toss the end over the sheet, clip a party favor on it.

I've also had success with those jewelry-making kits from the craft store. Each girl makes her own bracelet (or whatever) and gets to take it home.

I know you've planned the cupcakes already, but next time how about let the girls make their own ice cream sundaes?

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

One more thought: be careful that the party isn't overplanned. Kids IME really appreciate a lot of time to just goof around and be silly with one another. If too much stuff is arranged or set up by theme, they might find it more intimidating than relaxing.

[HongKongFooey]

Originally Posted by NinetyWt

I've also had success with those jewelry-making kits from the craft store. Each girl makes her own bracelet (or whatever) and gets to take it home.

My kids love doing this at parties.

My other tip is to buy earplugs, I'm only half-joking.

[missred]

Originally Posted by lee

The activities planned are pin the tail on the donkey, and a piñata, which I already bought. Other ideas are welcome.

Instead of pin the tail on the donkey, how about put the gold at the end of the rainbow. You may have an extra rainbow in the decorations and most craft stores or the parent teacher store will have something in the line of a pot-o-gold type wall decoration. The gold can be chocolate coins with a bit of stickum on one side. The upside of this being mmmm....chocolate.

[StGermain]

My sister raised her daughter in the land of rent-a-limo birthday parties for grade school kids. Rent a limo and take the kids to a restaurant and then to have makeovers, etc. My sister was having none of that. The rule of thumb was my niece was allowed to invite as many children as she was years old. Lisa usually planned craft things the girls could do and take home with them, then they'd make chocolate chip cookie and ice cream sandwiches. The kids all thought my niece had the best parties, even though a ton of money wasn't spent on them.

At that age, playing games like Easter Egg Hunt (hide small trinkets around the yard and have them search for them), or drop the clothespin in the bottle (stand on a chair and try to drop the most clothespins into a mayo jar) are also good time wasters and don't involve big sticks. Even better is a treasure map and a good old fashioned treasure hunt. That's best if the kids can read and solve riddles.

StG

[Glory]

Those cupcakes look super cool! I love the idea of the rainbow fruit kabobs

[lee]

Thank you all for the advice. This is the first kids party I have planned.

I kept the guest list small partly by having my daughter write it herself. Miss Manners advises keeping birthday parties to a number very close to the age of the child, so I followed that advice. I felt bad about leaving some of her classmates out, but I had a talk about how it is rude to invite someone in front of someone who is not invited and it seemed to sink in.

I was thinking of having plain broiled chicken fingers as an alternate to the tandoori chicken. I really don't want to do pizza. I don't know why either. It is not high on the list of my daughters favorite foods.

I was thinking that I would have fruit version of crudités too, but Rainbow fruit kebabs sound even better. I don't know what to do for a starch. My husband suggested tatertots, which have the advantage of being finger foods, and recognizable to most, so they should provide some respite from the tandoori.

I appreciate the advice about not over planning the party itself. I thought two activities would be plenty, and I am ready to ditch the donkey if they are having fun on their own. The pin the eye on the alien sounds fun. Who is the winner? My daughter loves spore creatures, I could make it pin the body part on the creature. She wrote a book tonight about one, "The history of the Gifl."

I did get a traditional piñata as that is what they sell around here. I do expect it to be interesting. I hope there are no concussions. Hmm, I wonder if I could rig it to be the pull strings type myself.

[lee]

Ok, the lion now has pull strings. Thank you for the suggestion!

[Juniper200]

I was going to suggest a bunch of dipping sauces in many colors for chicken nuggets and tater tots. Ketchup, honey, ranch with food coloring...kids love to dip.

[Critical1]

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/21...-fun-inse.html

this looks great if you are a kid. and stupid easy to do.

[Boyo Jim]

Make sure you talk to the other parents about allergies. You never know when some kid with a peanut allergy will show up and spoil the party by dying.

[Blue Mood]

The chicken and fruit and veg sound perfect. I have a couple of quick games that are good giggle-inducers with little preparation. The first one is a sock contest. Gather up lots of socks (including yours), and see who can put the most socks on one foot in a minute (taking it in turns).

Another good one is a variant on musical chairs, except nobody gets out. If you have eight kids, start with eight large pillows. When the music stops, everybody finds a pillow to sit on. Then take one away, but everybody still HAS to sit down, meaning somebody will have to share. When it gets to the end with eight kids trying to squeeze together on one pillow there is lots of giggling. In fact they'll probably want to play the game again.

[Lynn Bodoni]

Don't worry too much about the starch in the menu. You're having adorable cupcakes, right? There's some starch. Tater tots would be good too, though, as most kids love them.

My daughter's birthday is near the end of June, and we always had a barbecue and some water play at that age. We'd inform the guests' parents that we would have a Slip'N'Slide and Water Wiggle as entertainment, and to dress the kids in a bathing suit or something that they didn't mind getting wet, and to bring a towel. The kids played while my husband cooked chicken thighs and drumsticks and hot dogs on the grill. Then it was lunchtime, everyone sat down for a while, and after lunch she opened presents. Usually this was followed by another waterworks session. We always had a backup game, but never had to use it, everyone loved playing in the sprinkler and on the Slip'N'Slide. Well, my husband TRIED the Slip'N'Slide, but he found out that a large man has more velocity than small girls. He slipped right down the length of the plastic and onto the lawn, and got some abrasions.

The rainbow theme is a good one, I think. Very appealing to that age group. I think that pinning pieces of gold to the rainbow's pot is good, too. And again, I love the cupcakes, I'm sure they'll be a big hit. I used to make a layered Jello thingy, of orange and lemon and lime Jello, and they have an even bigger assortment of colors available today.

[Kalhoun]

You could also do the ice cream thing with plain vanilla, and then offer multi-colored fruit toppings. Cherries, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, kiwi, bananas, etc. Set up the bowls and let them choose their own favorites.

I preferred to do an activity with 15 minutes or so between so the kids could screw around on their own for a bit, but then you can draw them back to Earth with something structured. I only had a son, and they seemed to always want to bounce each other off the walls if there wasn't something organized to do. Girls may do things differently.

We also did a little magic at one of his parties. My dad messed around with it when he was young, and he had a couple cool tricks to show the keeblers.

By the way...I like the Friday after school party. I think its very courteous to allow the parents the entire weekend to do their family stuff.

[Dorjän]

I'd suggest a taco bar. Cheap, the kids can prepare their own tacos (all you have to do is the prep work), and what kid doesn't like tacos?

[Anne Neville]

Originally Posted by lee

The cake and cupcakes to bring to school are going to be rainbowiffic. I practiced this week and feel I have that part under control.

I liked rainbows as a kid, and I would have loved those cupcakes.

[phungi]

food coloring and Mac 'N Cheese... inexpensive, rainbow-themed, and the kids can learn something about perception altering taste.

[TruCelt]

Pasta is always a big hit with kids. Keep it kinda plain, maybe a cream/butter sauce with a little basil. . .

You and I have similar taste in kids parties! Celtling's second is this Fri, and I got big and little bubble wands, sidewalk chalk and fairy wings for everybody. That oughta keep 'em busy 'til the cake is served! LOL!

[lee]

Originally Posted by missred

Instead of pin the tail on the donkey, how about put the gold at the end of the rainbow. You may have an extra rainbow in the decorations and most craft stores or the parent teacher store will have something in the line of a pot-o-gold type wall decoration. The gold can be chocolate coins with a bit of stickum on one side. The upside of this being mmmm....chocolate.

This is a good suggestion, I don't know if I will be able to pull it off this time, but I do like it.

[lee]

Originally Posted by Kalhoun

You could also do the ice cream thing with plain vanilla, and then offer multi-colored fruit toppings. Cherries, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, kiwi, bananas, etc. Set up the bowls and let them choose their own favorites.

I preferred to do an activity with 15 minutes or so between so the kids could screw around on their own for a bit, but then you can draw them back to Earth with something structured. I only had a son, and they seemed to always want to bounce each other off the walls if there wasn't something organized to do. Girls may do things differently.

We also did a little magic at one of his parties. My dad messed around with it when he was young, and he had a couple cool tricks to show the keeblers.

By the way...I like the Friday after school party. I think its very courteous to allow the parents the entire weekend to do their family stuff.

Kalhoun, that was part of my motivation for keeping it on Friday, it seemed nicer to parents. It one thing having the party on a weekend when the birthday is on a weekend, but co opting a Saturday for my convenience seems a bit much. My daughter is also very conservative in this manner and doesn't believe in having birthday parties not on birthdays.

I like this suggestion of rainbow sundaes, easy enough if we are also doing the rainbow kabobs.

[lee]

Originally Posted by Boyo Jim

Make sure you talk to the other parents about allergies. You never know when some kid with a peanut allergy will show up and spoil the party by dying.

Well, I can't do that because I don't know the parents. I gave them my number in the invitation, so I hope they would call me ahead of time if there is some deadly allergy.

[Olentzero]

Originally Posted by NinetyWt

One old-fashioned game which my kids (and their friends) loved to play: Fishing. You can do this indoors or out. Indoors, just stretch a sheet across a doorway halfway up. Put up a poster saying "old fishin' hole' or something. Fix up a fishing pole with string and a clip on the end. One person hides in the room and, when the kids toss the end over the sheet, clip a party favor on it.

This is a huge phenomenon in Sweden. They even have it at street fairs. One fun variation is to grab a bunch of silly junk that aren't prizes but will mess with the kids' heads a little. Last time I pulled prize duty I had things like an onion, a banana peel, crumpled-up paper and the like. The important thing is to have an adult on the other side to say things like "The fish are bein' naughty today!" and encourage them to try again quick so they get the goods. Fun and entertainment for the whole crowd.

[WhyNot]

What about tricolor pasta with butter/oil for the starch? With "sprinkle cheese" for those who want it, of course. If you're feeling adventurous, you could even sautee up some onions and tricolor bell peppers for people who want them on the pasta (the kid I babysit would eat all the veggies and leave the pasta and chicken, to be honest!)

Sounds like a fun party!

[lee]

It looks like it will be an indoor party. The yard is soggy and forecast is for more rain. We just rearranged the room we will have the piñata in, and it made a space that would be great for the fishing game. I think I could convert the whacking stick to a fishing rod now that we have converted the piñata.

[DMark]

All I can say is you are so brave...the idea of having 7 seven-year-olds (mostly girls I assume) in one house is mind-boggling. I would imagine sitting next to a jet engine would be quieter.
Good thing Uncle DMark isn't hosting this party or the main game would be "See who can stay the quietest the longest!"
Of course, I have to assume that would be the shortest game of the day.

Aren't most kids that age "nibblers"...meaning they eat a bite, then run around and then come back and eat a bite again, etc. etc. I think most people sort of put out food that tastes good at any temperature - doesn't have to be eaten while hot or at a specific time. Pizza might seem to you to be the easy, lame, boring thing to do - but Chuck E Cheese has proven kids like it.

Do kids that age play Twister? Very active, but in small space.

[Eureka]

No reason to do pizza if the hostess doesn't want to. (Both hostess in the sense of the birthday girl, and in the sense of her mama). I'm not seeing anything wrong with chicken fingers/tenders/whatever, so long as you have ketchup available for those who eat everything meaty with ketchup. And perhaps ranch dressing available for the veggies if you serve veggies.

(or maybe it's only my nieces who only eat food which is smothered in either ranch dressing or ketchup. Actually, that's an unfair characterization of said nieces' eating habits. But I do think having ketchup available would be a good thing).

But, in general, modern American 6 year olds will not starve if they skip a meal--and many have parents who would see they had another shot at dinner if they did choose not to eat at your daughter's party.

[lee]

I'm thinking of serving clear soda in clear cups with colorful straws and a rainbow fruit kabob as a garnish.

I will definitely have ketchup as a dipping sauce. Not only is it a safe fall back for the cautious, it is a lovely red. I am thinking of having cheese dip too and coloring it blue.

[Idlewild]

Originally Posted by DMark

All I can say is you are so brave...the idea of having 7 seven-year-olds (mostly girls I assume) in one house is mind-boggling. I would imagine sitting next to a jet engine would be quieter.
Good thing Uncle DMark isn't hosting this party or the main game would be "See who can stay the quietest the longest!"
Of course, I have to assume that would be the shortest game of the day.

When I was a volunteer at a day camp, we would get the kids to play "sleeping lions", which involved lying down, absolutely still, and being quiet. Last one who doesn't get spotted twitching or wriggling wins. It's amazing how long you can keep kids quiet if it's a competitive event.

[Tom Tildrum]

Originally Posted by lee

I will definitely have ketchup as a dipping sauce. Not only is it a safe fall back for the cautious, it is a lovely red. I am thinking of having cheese dip too and coloring it blue.

Be vigilant that these only get eaten at the table. You don't want to have to be cleaning up ketchup and dyed cheese from the living room carpet, your daughter's bedspread, the cat, etc.

[eleanorigby]

I would PLAN twice as many activities as you think you need, but only actually DO half of them.

What about some version of duck, duck, goose? (when Daughter was small, we had a dinosaur party theme and her ddg was Barney, Barney, Baby Bop--and you got to "bop" the chosen one on the head with a stuffed Baby Bop. The rest of the party was serious dinosaurs, but I digress). Maybe your party goers could tag with a rainbow colored stuffed animal nicknamed Roy G Biv.... Ok, maybe not.

Can you get to a craft store and purchase inexpensive prisms or those cool cardboard " eye-glasses" that make all the lights turn into rainbows? That might be fun for the girls--tag with the glasses on or some such.

It is always a good idea to have some few party ideas to be held "just in case". The clothespin drop is a good one--and not a common one these days. What about writing down names of the colors and having one taped to each girl's back and she has to guess the color by asking questions of the other guests? That may be too abstract, but work with me here...

attitude is everything at these things. If you are having fun, chances are the kids will catch your enthusiasm. But they also don't want to sit around waiting for set up etc.

[Lynn Bodoni]

Originally Posted by lee

I'm thinking of serving clear soda in clear cups with colorful straws and a rainbow fruit kabob as a garnish.

I will definitely have ketchup as a dipping sauce. Not only is it a safe fall back for the cautious, it is a lovely red. I am thinking of having cheese dip too and coloring it blue.

Do they still make green and purple ketchup? I haven't bought ketchup in ages, I only eat it on my fries, and I generally only eat fries when I go out. I remember the oddly colored ketchup, though.

[lee]

The party was a huge success. The boys were no shows, but the four girls came and they had fun. They played with the party favors, and played hide and seek. The piñata trap door jammed so we had to whack it with a stick, which was apparently great fun. They took turns beating the lion and scrambling for the candy which was flung out. KellyM helped and beat it to separate the head from the body, and then they paraded the lion's head through the house and shredded the piñata into tiny pieces, including splitting the head in two. Although they savagely beat the piñata, they managed not to hurt anyone or anything else.

Menu
Starters:
rainbow fruit kabobs, green and purple grapes
pop with rainbow fruit garnish
tortilla chips
blue cheese dip
crudities
ranch dressing

Dinner

four color pasta with sautéed vegetables and butter
Broiled Chicken tenders and legs 3 ways: tandoori, BBQ, and Soy and Balsamic vinegar
rainbow fruit salad

Desert

Rainbow marble cake
Rainbow sherbet
Chocolate ice cream
Strawberry ice cream

Post Desert
piñata candy!

[Avarie537]

Can I come next year? Sounds like you had a great time.

[missred]

And please give WeeLee my belated birthday wishes.

Glad everything went well.

[lee]

I think it is amazing that everything went so well. The party favors I bought and put in little buckets were hits; I think I saw someone playing with each type of favor, usually in little groups. Also, though not every girl wanted everything I had to serve, but no one looked negatively surprised by anything they put in their mouth, and everyone had something they were eating with enthusiasm.

I had toothpicks out and was going to suggest building things with cruditiés, but there was never a lull, not even someone by themselves for a moment. The closest was when one of the girls was especially taken with my soon to be two year old son and played with him for a few minutes. She even asked if she could come over sometime again to play with him. We told her that she was welome to.

[kaylasdad99]

Originally Posted by Lynn Bodoni

Do they still make green and purple ketchup? I haven't bought ketchup in ages, I only eat it on my fries, and I generally only eat fries when I go out. I remember the oddly colored ketchup, though.

I obtained those for Michaela's fifth birthday party in 2001. The leftovers lasted for months. Michaela claims not to remember them, but she has no knowledge of seeing them around lately.

The description of Item #47, here indicates that Heinz pulled the product, but doesn't say when it happened. The Heinz website does not proudly trumpet the fact that they once made these.