Pirate party!
Here be pirates!
Shiver me timbers - it's the Captain's third birthday, so
we're putting on a pirate party for him and three
of his friends. Here's how you can throw a fantastic toddler
birthday party without resorting to 'Yo ho ho and a bottle of
rum!'
Pirate Theme for Boys Birthday Party
Did you go overboard for your toddler's first birthday,
throwing a huge bash that ended up being a lot more work, expense,
and stress than you bargained on? Many new parents make the mistake
of putting on massive parties and inviting everyone they know,
placing heaps of unnecessary responsibility on their shoulders and
exhausting themselves with an effort that their child won't have
any memory of later in life. There's absolutely nothing wrong with
wanting to have a big party for your child, but all too often, what
should be an enjoyable occasion for everyone seems to fly by in the
blink of an eye, and as hosts, you don't even get to really benefit
from all the preparation you did.
Rather than spending endless hours making invitations, cooking,
cleaning, hiring furniture, filling loot bags, and getting up at
6am on the day of the party to finish off those last-minute tasks,
we want to encourage you to make it easier on yourself. You can
throw a great toddler party without the hassle - and both you and
your guests will thoroughly enjoy it. Here's how.
Hire a venue
An easy way to remove a huge chunk of stress from your party plans
is to hold it somewhere else. You won't have to clean, rearrange
furniture, or spend hours preparing to be overrun by shrieking
toddlers. (You also don't have to have the carpet cleaned after
they smash cake into it.)
There are a number of child-friendly venues for toddler parties,
and many of them will do all of the setting up and cleaning up for
you.needing to keep an eagle eye on their excitable
toddlers. We chose the delightful child-friendly cafe
Bang Bang in Ponsonby, Auckland. Bang Bang had the perfect space
for a child's birthday party, with child-sized tables and stools, a
delicious selection of food for the kids with healthy options
including popcorn, fruit kebabs, and juice, and great activities
like a magnetic wall, chalkboard wall for scribbling, and heaps of
toys. Best of all, we didn't have to do a bit of work - they did
all the cooking, setup, and cleanup afterwards, so we could
relax.
Use the age + 1 rule
One of the other big stressors for party-throwers is the number of
guests to invite. We highly recommend sticking to the "age + 1
rule" when it comes to your invitations. For example, if your child
is turning three, invite four children to the party. This keeps
things manageable, and if you want their parents to stay with them
to supervise, it'll keep the place from feeling crowded. It also
gives the children quality time with each other in a secure
environment, rather than feeling overwhelmed with new faces.
Keep the party to a specific time frame. Afternoon tea is a good
time for a party, as you won't have to 
serve a massive amount of food to keep
little tummies full. Also, because you're hiring a venue, your time
will be necessarily limited, so your guests won't hang around for
ages like they would at your home. About two hours is good - a
half-hour of playing when guests arrive, then a half-hour of food
and cake (it will go quickly!), then an hour more of play and
nibbling.
Have age-appropriate
activities
Let's face it - toddlers aren't ready for
pin-the-beak-on-the-kiwi or any kinds of organised games. They can
only sit still for so long, so with a toddler party, it's best to
tailor the activities to suit their short attention spans and
interests.
Have available several different low-key activities, such as a
selection of picture books to read, toys to play with, and
"stations" where children can do things like drawing. Bang Bang's
chalkboard wall was perfect for our budding artists. Keep all of
the toys and activities conined to a manageable area of the venue,
rather than letting things be scattered all over the place. It'll
make it easier for parents to sit nearby and chat without
Decorate in
style
While many party venues have available decorations that you can
hire or borrow, a themed party like our pirate bash needs a special
touch. Specialty party supply company Poppyseed
(www.poppyseed.co.nz) had everything we needed to make our pirate
party look classy, from invitations to filled loot bags to
tableware to balloons. And because it's a one-stop shop, we didn't
have to hunt all over town for those elusive accessories. So many
of the party supplies we've seen in chain stores and even party
supply shops are tacky or cheap-looking, and Poppyseed's unique
themed products are definitely a cut above the rest. Using a
specialty party-supply company like Poppyseed will save you time,
energy, and money, making for less stress and more fun.
Let them eat cake!
The birthday cake is one more area where the best thing is to
simply delegate that task to someone who knows what they're doing.
We asked Model Cakes (www.modelcakes.co.nz) to create a
pirate-themed cake for our party, and the result was amazing. A
completely edible treasure chest with chocolate coins and brown
sugar sand was almost too gorgeous to cut! The kids loved picking
it apart, and we loved the fact that this job was someone else's
responsibility. Model Cakes was also able to provide hand-decorated
pirate-themed biscuits for our guests to take home as favours,
saving us yet another stress.
All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable party - and our
little pirates went home sated and happy, while we went home
stress-free and already planning next year's birthday
bash.
As seen in OHbaby!
magazine Issue 2: 2008
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