PLANNING A PARTY TO REMEMBER !
PLANNING A PARTY – BUDGET
Planning a party, when you are young and naïve, birthday’s are a joyous occasion (once we cross a certain number not so much!). Is your child’s special day coming up and you need some ideas to pull off and plan a successful party? Keep your eyes on this page because we are doing the hard work for you. We’ve done some research on some cool ideas that will not only keep the kids entertained, but it will keep your pockets from completely emptying.
Step one is determining your budget. This is very important because you need to know how much money you can spend to determine what type party it will be. A few questions to ask yourself when deciding the final number are:
- Is this a significant age (10, double digits, 13, entering the teens etc)
- Is this a yearly ordeal (do you host this event every year regardless of age)?
- How many children do you plan to invite?
- Are parents allowed to stay?
- Will you cater the party yourself or get someone to do it for you?
- How much will the food cost, the location, the cake and the entertainment?
- This is a big one: IS MY PARTNER OKAY WITH HOW MUCH I AM PLANNING ON SPENDING?
These are some of the main things you will need to consider, we haven’t listed everything of course or we would be here all day but all the following tips should help you planning a party well.
PLANNING A PARTY – LOCATION
Once you have your budget in mind you can move forward and think about the location of the party. We are going to suggest a few different options to suit everyone.
- Backyard
We will start with the most economical location to host your party and that is none other than your own backyard. Stating the obvious, it’s free because you are the one in charge of this space. You can decorate it exactly the way you want! Some people have larger backyards than others so it will be up to you to determine the best way to use whatever space is available at hand. The only downside is that you are the one who will have to clean up at the end of the day. - Local Park
If you don’t have the space to host a party in your own house, but want enough room for the kids to run around then we suggest your local park. There are so many cool locations around Perth that have fun and interesting play equipment. One of our favourites is the Synergy Parkland in Kings Park. This one has all sorts of facilities besides the interactive playground such as BBQ areas, picnic tables and a local kiosk (for all you coffee mums out there). If that’s not enough then you might think about hiring some other forms of entertainment from bouncy castles or face painting to name a few. Don’t forget to contact your local council though, this a really important point because we wouldn’t want your party to be cancelled at the last minute because they did not approve your use of the space. This can happen guys and it’s really disappointing for everyone involved. Be Prepared! - Play Centre
If you don’t want to worry about cleaning up after anyone and want everything organised for you, we’d suggest hosting the birthday at a local play centre. There are plenty of these around Perth and they will offer you packages including food and drinks to suit your personal budget. A great one we found was Tropical Twist, this one has themed party rooms! Their packages include invites, a host for the hour, snacks, a drink and a meal, they also do an ice cream cake too (what more could you ask for). All you need to worry about is hoping all the kids show up on the day! We would suggest you look up the local centres near you, this will make it easier for your family to get there and back, plus your child’s friends who live in the area too. - Hall
If you want to host something big for a large number of people, or if the birthday is a big one (this is determined by the individual of course) a hall is the perfect solution. There will be plenty of room for tables, entertainment and a dance floor. Be prepared because hiring a hall can become quite expensive. We recommend you finalise your guest list before looking for the perfect sized space. Venues often have different sized rooms to fit the amount of people on your guest list. A few things to consider with a party in a hall are, chairs, tables, decorations and AV equipment. Do they come with the hire price or do you need to organise these things separately. Some centres do not allow external catering either and you may have to get food from the approved vendors only. These can only add to your already increasing bill. Once you have all of this sorted, book the venue. Please make sure you get this confirmation in writing to make sure you haven’t been double booked!
PLANNING A PARTY – FOOD
You’ve sorted your budget and location, now it’s time to move onto the food. Are you cooking everything yourself from scratch? If you said yes then we salute you, you must really enjoy creating masterpieces in the kitchen. If you said no, that’s okay we’re here to suggest the easy way out.
There is a huge focus on healthy living right now and providing party snacks are no different. The best way to get children to look at a vegetable is to present it in a way that intrigues them. Cutting fruit or veggies in interesting shapes is a great way to catch their eye. Putting this fruit next to a tasty dip is another option. When it comes to dips you can buy options like hummus or tzatziki flavoured. Both of these are tasty and very healthy. If you want to make these from scratch, here are some thermomix (these are totally worth the investment by the way) recipes which you should be able to whip up in no time. Tzatziki Dip or Hummus.
Some other great snack ideas are the more traditional sausage rolls, frankfurts or party pies. Once again these can be homemade or bought from the grocery store. Our personal favourite is Fairy Bread even though it is not exactly healthy…but who can resist the colourful appeal of 100s and 1000s on freshly buttered bread?
FAIRY BREAD
Certainly not us. This is one of the easiest snacks in the book to make. Just get a loaf of fresh bread, butter the slices and sprinkle well sprinkles (100s & 1000s) all over it. Take it up a notch and spread Nutella instead of butter and then sprinkle the 100s and 1000s all over the slice.
You didn’t hear this from us though, because we always promote a healthy lifestyle of course
PLANNING A PARTY – ENTERTAINMENT
You have everything sorted from the location to food and you’ve sent out the invitations. What is missing? Your party needs something extra to make sure the kids are completely tired out, because you’re also going to need a good night’s sleep after planning this whole affair.
Entertainment! Either you are going to plan your own activities and games or you are looking for something to keep them busy. We always suggest something interactive as this keeps them physically moving but disguised as fun. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking!
INFLATABLES
Bouncy castles, obstacle course or sport inflatables. You name it, it already exists. Get in touch with Perth’s premium providers ‘Monsterball Amusements & Hire’ if you want a top selection of jumping castles and more.
One of our favourites are obstacle courses. This keeps kids entertained for hours on end and continues to challenge them physically. Two kids can enter at the same time and turning it into a race gets them very excited and makes them run even harder and faster to beat their friends. They will have to climb through, slide and crawl under various pop up obstacles along the way. A great addition to any event, they come in different sizes too. You can fit them in your backyard or local park and amusement companies can help you planning a party. Call 9335 5109 for more information today.
PLANNING A PARTY – FACE PAINTING
This has always been a great traditional activity for children’s events. We still think it’s really cool to have something painted on your face. We would highly recommend the Freedom Fairies! These ladies are fantastic for themed parties because they come in full costume. Your children will be immersed in imaginary land and given the chance meet real life fairies. They bring all of their own props are materials too, so all you have to do is give them a space to set up.
Look on their websites for package options which include ‘fairy’ props to create your own enchanted forest and the birthday girl or boy gets their own special gift too!
PLANNING A PARTY – GAMES
Create your own party games to play. Some all time favourites are Musical Chairs. We can only hope everyone knows how to play musical chairs, because it is such a beloved classic. For those of you that don’t we will explain it to you anyway.
Grab X amount of chairs, one for each child for the first round. Each child starts at a chair and the music is playing, give them a ‘tester’ round walking around the chairs and as soon as the music stops they must run to sit down on their own chair. As each round goes by, remove a chair and whoever doesn’t get a chair is ‘out’. The last round should be between two children and one chair! The race is on.
