Okay readers, I need your input. What should we do for Melody’s 4th birthday? We had a bounce house the past two years so I’d like to do something different. I despise Chuck E Cheese. It needs to be something that kids and adults will enjoy, not break the bank, and allow us to bring our own cake.
Bumper bowling?
La Habra Children’s Museum?
Stay home and play?
And, by the way, she likes Barbie, Tinkerbell, and Johnny Sokko & His Giant Robot. We have a few weeks ahead of us to decide, but…..HELP!!
Notes from the Melody Maker 
Children’s museum sounds good for her age group now… but when my daughter was 8 or 9 we had a fashion show girls party. I bought about 25 bucks worth of odds and ends at Goodwill, put it all in a box and the girls had to create outfits and model them. I also had one of my girlfriends dress up like a gypsy and tell the girls their ‘fortunes.’ I had asked all the Moms what they wanted her to tell the daughter… “I see you are having trouble with math, but you need to try harder and do your homework” or “I see you don’t like to make your bed, you need to keep a tidy room in order to receive the ___ you are wanting.” While she read their futures in her crystal ball, I did manicures. Then they had a sleep over. Of all of my daughter’s BD parties (Clown with a monkey, petting zoo, pinatas, bowling, swimming, etc) this party was the one where the girls had the most fun. Maybe it was the party, maybe it was hitting the appropriate age group, but it was a blast. Keep it in mind for when Melody is older ;o)
Face Painting. If you want I’ll put you in touch with Bridgette. ;-)
Princesses. Bridgette has some great ideas here!
Good question!
Danica has her 7th coming up in March so I need to start thinking along these lines myself.
Some of the at-home themes that friends have had that were fun were:
1. Carnival (this got VERY elaborate): they made their own carnival games and had tickets, tickets were redeemed for prizes instead of goody bags. They used window markers and made a menu on a pass thru window and served hot dogs, pop corn, juice boxes, cotton candy and the kids paid with tickets.
2. Bubbles: one person had a bubble guru come to their house and do a bubble show (plastic on the floor and a plastic wading pool for the jumbo bubbles with kids inside them. After the show the kids all played outside with their own bubble stuff.
3. Make your own…: sundae, pizza, taco, cake (this was particularly fun). For a preschool party with the entire class (4 yr olds turning 5, boys and girls) one of the moms got a bunch of small round cakes from a bakery and each child decorated their own. Party favors were aprons (puffy painted with their names) and spatulas, also with their names. They decorated the aprons with stickers before the cakes. They had lots of cans of frosting that were colored and a few decorator-type bags of frosting with piping tips. Moms helped out and afterwards they did a pinata. They did have a regular birthday cake and the kids took their cakes home in bakery boxes.
4. Pump It Up or some other bounce house destination play zone. These are fun, but not inexpensive–and I am a bit leary after Danica went to one and got impetigo. No direct evidence it was from that, but it was awfully coincidental.
5. Miniature Golf. Always fun, but I always worry about arming the kids with clubs :-) (that’s only been a worry since Geneva, aka Destructo-Kid, came along).