Activities for small at-home fifth birthday

[Anonymous]

Our soon-to-be five year old wants to have five of her friends over to our apartment for her birthday instead of having a big party, but doesn't have any ideas of what she wants to do. Any ideas for specific crafts or activities they could do?

We will probably do decorate your own cupcakes instead of cake, but I'd like to have something planned instead of six five year olds running wild in our not-so-big apartment.

[Anonymous]

What are her interests?

[Anonymous]

Get some wooden frames from Michaels for $1 each. Have the kids decorate them with whatever you want to use, paint, markers, stickers, glitter, pom poms etc. This can also be the item they take home instead of a goody bag.

[Anonymous]

Coloring or sticker crafts. You don't want painting in your house. Pick a theme for the party and then craft around it. If decorating cupcakes, maybe have favor boxes that they can color and sticker up. Or cupcake coloring pages.

Jewelry crafting too - bead bracelets and necklaces.

[Anonymous]

Slime kit off amazon

[Anonymous]

What about a superhero party--decorate capes?

[Anonymous]

If you’re doing a theme you could base the activities around that. My 6 year old recently went to a puppy themed party at someone’s house with 5 girls. They got to pick out a tiny stuffed dog, decorate a little collar, decorate a little favor box that they put the dog in, etc. She had a lot of fun.

[Anonymous]

We got a decorate your own cardboard castle and had the kids dress up, decorate it and play in it. Was a huge hit!

[Anonymous]

Get some big popsicle sticks. Put out a bunch of markers and stickers and stuff like googly eyes. Decorate a few examples and give them each something to put theirs in.

I used this as an activity while we were waiting for everyone to get there, but they wanted to do it again later.

[Anonymous]

Pick a theme and then do some kind of easy craft and maybe photo booth for that theme. Examples we've done:

Moana--they made rafts our of popsicle sticks and I bought them all grass skirts and we had a hula lesson

Pirate--I made a pirate ship out of a big cardboard box and they had hats and spyglasses and eye patches and a cheap set of photo booth accessories. I filled a big rubbermaid container with sand and big fake coins and gems in it for a measure hunt (better if you have a balcony). I found little wooden treasure chests at Michael's for $1 each so they decorated them to hold what they found during their treasure hunt. I found kits to build foam boats for their goodie bags, but you could do that as a craft instead.

Superhero--They put together foam mask kits and decorated little wooden people from Michael's as superhero.

Princess--buy foam or paper tiaras and let them decorate them with markers, foam stickers, or stick-on gems. They could also make fairy princess wands or jewelry. (We've never done a princess party but we've been to plenty and the kids liked them.)

If you have thoughts about a theme she might like, I'm sure people would have ideas.

[Anonymous]

Also, dance party and classic party games like musical chairs, hot potato, statues, pin the something on something, etc are surprisingly fun since they're a novelty in the era of venue parties.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all. I think we’ll go with superheroes. These are great ideas!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, dance party and classic party games like musical chairs, hot potato, statues, pin the something on something, etc are surprisingly fun since they're a novelty in the era of venue parties.

An apartment is not the place for a dance party lol. Please be considerate of neighbors.

[Anonymous]

At that age they are just happy to play together. No need to create a whole schedule!