By Elyse Major

Birthday party planning and party venues have become quite the booming industry. It seems like almost any business can figure out a way to handle your party needs. I can imagine a Supermarket Party, where each child gets to load a cart, guess the weight of green peppers on a scale, and have cake at the WiFi café. Favors could be packed into reusable bags! Kidding aside, many of these non-DIY or “pre-packaged” parties can be fun, active, and sometimes cost-effective.

However, it can also be very fun and rewarding to plan and host your own party. In our family, we have a Brothers’ Party each year. My boys were born two years and two weeks apart, and since they share many of the same pals, we combine their birthdays into one annual fete. Deciding on a party theme can make everything else fall into place. Here are a few ideas from past parties.

The Pirate Party
This party was planned about a year before the pirate craze started. The lack of available favors and items forced some creativity.
Location: The best idea of all for this party came from my son Jonah, who excitedly suggested that we have the party at a beach. We did. We had the party at Bristol Town Beach and took a chance that its covered picnic area would be available. It was!
Highlights: Finding buried oversized gold coins in the sand; a piñata; and temporary tattoos.
Fun Food: Pirate’s Booty and pizza strips.

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I consider myself an artist but NOT when it comes to baking or cake decorating. And I will leave decorating with fondant to my friend Kristin who out-Marthas Martha every year with her kid’s birthday cake masterpieces. I used pre-made sheets of fondant to cover my sons’ pirate cakes one year (see below) and although they looked fine, everyone had to peel the icing off because it was so sugary sweet.

Since I like to get creative with my boys’ cakes, I have developed my own special style and have found that adding a few favorite toys that go along with the party theme (if there is one) can really wow a crowd. Then again, if you put a chocolate cake in front of most five-year-olds, they tend to go wild. Sometimes I raid the boys’ toy collection for decoration ideas, and sometimes the cake toppers are new and become part of their birthday present. (Always wash toys first.)

My twin boys have always celebrated their birthdays with one party, but I make sure to have two cakes.

Birthday #4
Party Theme: Come in costume and put on a show
Cakes 1 & 2: Blue and Green Pirate Ships
Toys: Disney and Pixar figures from the boys’ collection

Birthday #5
Party Theme: Dress as your favorite Superhero (or make up your own)
Cake1: Batman
Cake 2: Robin
Toys: Classic Batman and Robin figures from eBay

Birthday #6
Party Theme: Musketeers and Maidens
Cake 1: Robin Hood & Little John
Cake 2: The Three Musketeers (not pictured)
Toys: Papo figures

Birthday #7
Party Theme: Science
Cake1: Star Wars IV: A New Hope (Scene: In the Cantina)
Cake 2: Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (Scene: Yoda trains Luke to be a Jedi)
Toys: Various Star Wars figures from Benny’s, Toys-R-Us, and boys’ collection

If your kids like to dress up all year round, costumes may not be just for Halloween in your house. If you read my previous costume post, you know that I believe DIY does not have to mean “difficult” or making an entire costume from scratch. Sometimes it just means looking at what you already have around the house and combining it in new ways with a little sewing, snipping, or glue. Please share your own costume ideas for girls and boys in the comments below.

When my boys turned five, they dressed as Batman and Robin.

DIY Batman Costume (pictured)
• Supplies Needed: Batman logo T-shirt, black leggings, yellow felt, Batman mask, black cape (or black fabric), scissors, Sharpie marker
• How-To: Batman T-shirts are generally easy to find at thrift shops or Target. (We already owned three hand-me-downs.) Black leggings are also easy to pick up at thrift shops or borrow from a friend. (They may be worth buying new if your child attends dance classes.) If you do not already have a black cape like we did, you can buy a remnant of black fabric from a fabric store (my favorite fabric place is Lorraine’s). Cut the fabric to cape-size and sew string on one end to attach cape or sew cape directly to T-shirt (see Robin costume below). Cut belt from yellow felt and draw on Batman logo with black Sharpie marker. (Use Velcro or a safety pin to secure belt.) Add mask.
• Total Price: $4.99 (We only bought the mask, we already had all the other parts. Price will vary depending on what you buy and where you buy it.)

DIY Robin Costume (pictured)
• Supplies Needed: Red T-shirt, green pants, green shirt, red underwear, yellow, green, and black felt, black mask, black cape or black fabric, scissors, Sharpie marker
• How-To: My son turned his red Spiderman shirt inside out because he was not a Spiderman fan and it was the only red shirt he owned. We already owned the green shirt and sweatpants and red underwear so that part was also easy. My son Dylan does not like things tied around his neck so I sewed a scrap of black fabric onto the shoulders of his T-shirt (Velcro and safety pins may also work). I cut a belt and the Robin logo from felt. I hand-sewed the Robin logo onto the T-shirt and safety-pinned the belt on. We added green felt armbands and a black mask.
• Total Price: $0.99 (This was another easy costume for us because we used what we already had in the house, except for some minor sewing and buying the black mask.)

When my boys turned six, they were so into the Three Musketeers that they chose it as the theme of their birthday party. We made these simple blue Musketeer tops for all the party guests – and gave them away as party favors.

DIY Three-Musketeer Costume (pictured)
• Supplies Needed: ½ yard of felt, silver duct tape, and scissors. Optional Extras: black felted hat and plume feather (available at thrift shops or iParty store) and sword.
• How-To: Fold felt in half and hold up to your child to measure. Mark felt (with chalk) so the width is about 6 inches wider than your child’s shoulders and the length falls between his waist and knees. Lay felt flat and cut to size. With felt still folded in half, cut an opening for head (cut slits to help make opening fit more easily over child’s head). Lay felt open flat and stick duct tape around edge of felt and in middle for pattern. (See photo for detail.)
• Total Price: $2.50 ($16.00 if you purchase new hat and plume feather from iParty store.)

Fancypants Bakery specializes in making delicious, buttery, beautifully decorated shortbread cookies. These 100 percent nut-free home-baked treats are made from scratch every day with all natural ingredients in their East Walpole Bakery under the direction of Maura Duggan, her partner, Justin Housman, and a few local moms who design, decorate, and package the cookies.

At first glance you will be mesmerized by the artfully painted masterpieces, and at first bite you will be hooked on the light fluffy cookie paired with frosting that is not too sweet but sweet enough to make it the perfect treat even when you are not having a party.

Browse the cookie gallery and you will find cookies to match almost any party theme, hobby, season, or special event. Buy cookies individually wrapped as party favors or buy a fancy gift-boxed set of 6, 9, or 12 cookies appropriate for any occasion.

Fancypants also makes custom designed cookies. I particularly liked the Director’s Clipboard since my sons have been nicknamed “Siskel and Ebert” for their habit of giving movie reviews and their growing knowledge of movie trivia.

Details:
Available at a select number of retail outlets in New England (none in Rhode Island so far) or online at FancyPantsBakery.com

Want to win a large (12 cookie) “On the farm” cookie gift box?
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Summer is half over over (Yikes!). Celebrate with more delicious treats from Anna Sawin.

With two young boys and two summer birthdays at our house I HAVE BEEN BUSY, mostly just drooling over the choices out there in kid heaven on the web.

Just recently I was considering doing the dog and cat cupcakes I had seen on the cover of a magazine this spring, but then I turned to the glorious Internet and have you SEEN what’s out there? Click the links for directions for these babies. Yum.

Butterfly Cupcakes

We had these beauties at an early summer birthday party, and creative mom used white chocolate-covered pretzels, very pretty and oh so yummy.

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I am a big fan of birthdays, and having some kind of celebration makes it special. From small and cozy to an all-out extravaganza, there are many ways to honor the birthday kid. Kidoinfo has a great list of resources and ideas on how to have a party. Decide what works for your family and don’t stress over what you think you should do. I wrote about choosing a birthday theme in the past and today Katy Killilea writes about having a birthday party at home (one of our family favorites).

What happened to having a birthday party? My first grader’s classmates have been taking turns hosting parties at Big Fun, big-box venues: Radical Rick’s, Monster Mini-golf, Fantasyland. It seems we go to one of these parties a few times each month. Hey, I have no quibble with the fun the kids have and do not mean to criticize parents who choose these venues for parties. I am, of course, grateful for the many afternoons of entertainment my son has enjoyed. (And please don’t stop inviting him. It’s not his fault his mother is like this.)

But. When it came time for us to have a birthday party this spring, we planned our usual little shindig. Doing so felt almost aggressively retrograde. And I worried that our back yard party would flop. That the kids would be bored without the delights to which they had become accustomed: glow-in-the-dark monsters, an animatronic bear strumming a guitar every twenty minutes, or laser tag. An additional worry: would we just seem cheap? (I do not know the cost per child for one of the Big Fun parties, but I’m pretty sure it is more than the cost per child for cake, pizza, pineapple, and grape juice/milk, and a bag of fifteen multicolored balloons.)

I do not know how to decorate a cake to look like a Barbie princess, nor do I have clever party ideas to share (our not-so-clever yard party games are described below). Instead, I want to report that our very simple party was fun. We played games, the kids played on the swing set, ate pizza on the patio, zipped over a pit of poisonous snakes (or were they dead leaves and random sticks?) on a trolley strung between two trees. It differed from a regular playdate only in that there were more kids, and there was a handful of adult-directed games, ahem, “events.” Oh, and there were cupcakes, and the singing of the song that no birthday party can be without.

The kids we know, I am happy and relieved to report, are not yet so jaded that they can’t just play outside and enjoy one another’s goofy company. Start with a birthday boy or girl and add some friends, a watermelon, a pizzeria that delivers, and cake, what you get is a pretty great birthday party.

Yard games we used:

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Costumes are not just for Halloween. Little kids love to dress up. In our house, every day is costume day. For anyone who knows my kids, they know that the boys perform shows as often as other people brush their teeth. As a result we have accumulated quite a few costumes, masks, and accessories – store-bought, hand-me-downs, and DIY ones. Preparing for Halloween in our house is not much different from any other day.

Kids often have ideas for their costume, but if they are young or you’re both stumped - look to your kid’s favorite book for inspiration: The bunny from Goodnight Moon, the bear from Corduroy, a baker from In the Night Kitchen, or Peter Pan, Wendy, or Madeline from those classics.

Assembling the costume can sometimes be as simple as tying on a blanket for a cape to dress a superhero or a king or wearing brown clothes and a mask to be a lion. Here are some more ideas to help you get ready for your kid’s Halloween costume or as another addition to the dress-up box.

Ready-Made
There are lots of terrific ready-made costumes of the latest superheroes, movie characters, all the “D” princesses, Prince Charming, and more. These costumes can be amazing, but they can also be pricey. Check out Target, the Disney Store, or Old Navy. Check Savers in East Providence for a great selection of used and new costumes and accessories. Online check out Leaps and Bounds or Oriental Trading Company. After Halloween you can scoop up costumes for next year or your costume box at HUGE discounts at Old Navy and Target.

Do-It-Yourself
DIY does not have to mean making the whole costume from scratch. Sometimes it just means looking at what you already have around the house and combining it in new ways with a little sewing or glue. Here are some costumes I have put together:

For Baby: Crayola Crayon (pictured right)

• Supplies Needed: yard of Felt, Sharpie Marker, Paper clip, Scissors
• How-To: Cut the felt so it is long to enough to warp around baby. Fold felt in half and mark spot for arm holes and cut out holes. Draw Crayola logo on front with Sharpie marker. For crayon tip hat - trace one 8-12″ circle onto separate piece of felt. Cut a slit half way. Shape circle it into cone hat and sew or secure with paperclip.
• Total Price: $4.50 (includes buying Sharpie marker)

For Toddler: Postman (pictured above)

• Supplies Needed (I found everything at Savers Thrift Shop): Blue polo shirt, blue trousers, blue satchel bag, envelopes from junk mail. Use mailbag as a candy bag.
• Total Price: $7.50

For Toddler: Baker from In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak (pictured above)

• Supplies Needed: Baker’s hat from party store, white oxford shirt, white pants. White cloth folded over and tied as apron. Toddler pillowcase with shoulder strap sewed on. Use bag to carry a baguette and as candy bag. (Optional: scan images from book. Iron-on baker logo on hat, shirt and bag)
• Total Price: $7.50 (plus cost of baguette)

For Preschooler: Peter Pan (pictured right)

• Supplies Needed: Green shirt, green pants, felt, cardboard, foil, hat, red feather.
• How-To: Cut leaf shapes out of felt and sew around collar and bottom of costume. Make a hat out of felt or use a hat you already have - insert red feather. Cut sword shape out of cardboard and wrap with aluminum foil. Make optional belt out of ribbon and glue on felt leaves with a glue gun or use a belt you already have.
• Total Price: $3.75 (I already had the pants. shirt and hat)

For Preschooler and older: Musketeer

• Supplies Needed: yard blue felt, duct tape, hat, plume feather. Sword optional.
• How-To: Fold felt in half and cut small opening for head. Trim length to fall below waist. Add duct tape along edges of felt and as a cross on front of felt. Stick feather in hat. All for one and one for all!
• Total Price: $3.50 (plus cost of sword)

Click comments below and share your favorite stumes resources or ideas with readers.

I had my first opportunity to pet a six-foot alligator and an albino python. Although touching snakes may not be my favorite thing to do, it was definitely fascinating for my kids and their friends during a recent trip to Regal Reptiles.

There are more snakes, lizards, turtles, and spiders than I have ever seen under one roof. This warehouse space, near the Providence Public Safety Complex, has ponds and aquariums filled with all kinds of amphibians and invertebrates from around the globe, including a 6,000-gallon alligator and caiman pond. Learn fun facts and watch the alligators feed during special weekend shows.

If you have a birthday party there, the birthday kid even gets to sit on an alligator!

Regal Reptiles Adventure Center: 425 Washington Street, Providence, RI. 401-277-9000.
Open Daily: 11 am until 7 pm
Admission Prices: $7 for adults and $5 for kids (3-12). Children under 3 are free.
$6 for seniors (55 and older). Click here for $1 discount coupon.

birthday: [noun]
1. an anniversary of the day on which a person was born (or the celebration of it).

From a small, cozy celebration to an all-out party extravaganza, there are many ways to make this day special for the birthday kid. If you want a theme, choose something that’s special to your child - a toy, sport, movie, music, etc. Use it just for the cake or to shape the entire party.

In our house, birthday celebrations are centered around a theme (it’s the designer in me - can’t help it), whether we have a large party or a small family celebration. We picked the kids’ themes for the first three years of their life (1st - Fish, 2nd - Monkeys, 3rd - Jungle Animals). But when it came time to plan the 4th, my son D said he had it all figured out. Because he and his brother love to put on shows, it became a costume party complete with show curtains. For their 5th Birthday, the boys still loved costumes, but expanded the theme to their current obsession - Come as your Favorite Superhero.

Before having kids, I used to sell my metal home accessories at trade shows. Lucky for us (and a little crazy), we could produce a stage in our dining room just by carrying up my old trade show booth walls from the basement. Unless you have an old trade show booth laying around your house, hanging up some curtains temporarily in a doorway to create a stage area will work fine.

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Looking for a playground in Providence? Want to have a picnic in Bristol? Check out the new Kidoinfo Parks + Playgrounds guide. Where is the closest toy store? How about a list of preschools? Our Resource section is brimming with information about Shopping, Education and Childcare and many more resources to follow. Kidoinfo makes it easy to find what you need. Tell your friends. Visit often.