Planning children's parties can be a lot of fun, once you have chosen your theme, date and time for the party start thinking of a location.
Parks and recreation centres are great locations because they are often free or inexpensive.
Once you take care of the basics it is time to prepare the invitations, plan a menu, games, decorations and prizes.
Example themes for children's parties are: Luau theme, prince or princess theme, Thomas the Tank Engine, a pirate theme or circus theme.
Once you have decided on your theme, you can buy or design your own invitations.
One year when we were planning a birthday party, we found Thomas invites online that we were able to print for free.
Something to remember in planning children's parties is to always keep the menu simple.
Fruit kebabs, sausages on sticks, cheese and pineapple and triangle-cut sandwiches go over well.
Parents always appreciate 100% juice over sodas.
Another helpful hint in planning children's parties is to keep games age-appropriate.
Old School games such as Hot Potato, Relay Races or Hot and Cold go well for kids of all ages.
Kids always love piñatas, too.
The next element in planning children's parties is the decorations.
Thank God for the Pound Store and discount stores.
Balloons are festive, easy, inexpensive and very easy to put up and take down.
Balloons are also easy to match up with your table cloths, cups and napkins.
Pound stores keep planning children's parties fairly inexpensive, since you can buy most of the coordinating decorations and table ware.
The last thing to keep in mind when planning children's parties are prizes and goody bags.
Cans of Play-Doh, jump ropes, punching balls and die-cast cars make great prizes.
Goody bags can be filled with anything such as; juice boxes, bubbles, costume jewellery, plastic dinosaurs, candy or mini-puzzles.
The next time you are planning a children's party, have fun and keep it simple.