My sister and I throw one big birthday party for our kids. My sons birthday is only 1 week away from her daughters. So for the family and friends we just do one party. Last year we did a Farm theme and took them to Fiesta Farm. Did all decor and cakes etc. to go with it. I loved it.
This year I cant think of a theme that both my son and her daughter will like or that is unisex.
She thinks we should just do a seperate theme for each kids. But I really want a theme. I love them and to go all out for them. Should I let them have there own? If not then what theme? And where is a good place to have it. My son will be 3 and her daughter will be 4. and it is in summer and really hot.
I had a friend who did a joint party for her son and daughter--Nemo for him, Little Mermaid for her. They tied in well together with the whole ocean thing, but each kid was happy.
Here are a couple of ideas...
Western Theme - have pony rides
Castle Theme (Princess and Knights)
Christmas in July (or June or August whatever month it will be) - have Santa come, decorate with Christmas decor
Hawaiian Luau
Pajama Party - have the kids wear PJ's, have a pillow fight, make smores.
Cooking Party - plan foods that the kids get to "make" themselves (mini pizzas, trail mix, fruit salad, decorate their own cupcake)
Good Luck,
K.
What about a fun in the sun party? You can rent a public pool or just have slip in slids in a backyard with little pools set up. The kids can be dressed in bathing suits and do water guns, water ballons, beach balls, and those sorts of things. This kind of theme can go for boy or girl.
My sister and I have children very close in age as well (11 days apart). I have a boy and she has a girl. We were gonna do a joint birthday party and the theme was going to be Dora and Diego. I googled it online and found a website where you can order birthday invitations that has both Dora and Diego on it as well as each child's picture.
http://order.personalizedpartyinvites.com/Party-Invitatio...
We had a backyard splash party for my daughters 4th birthday. We had slides, pools and sprinklers. We bar b qued and did a sand treasure hunt,everything was served in buckets, we had a cake with beach balls and fish and a big cookie with a sun on it. I gave the kids bubbles,gold and swedish fish, sunglasses, small beach balls etc...It was fun for boys and girls!
My sister-in-law and I had joint birthday parties for our little ones this year. They actually share the same birthday. It was my intention that we just have a joint theme, but she decided that she wanted to get her daughter a strawberry shortcake cake. Well, I couldn't give my son a pink cake! So he got a Blue's Clues cake. We had both strawberry shortcake and blue's clues decorations and the goodie bags were filled with stuff from both themes. They basically each had their own party, but they were held at the same time. I don't know that we'll be doing it again. Our little ones turned two.
Have a swim party with the Hawaiian theme or a beach theme. Have fun!
a Cowboy/Cowgirl, Or a Cartoon Characters Party,Luau if weather permits
A Hawaiian Luau since it's summer and have it at the pool?!
Sesame Street is a good gender neutral theme.
I think 2 themes would be OK. Although I understand your desire for uniformity, the kids would probably enjoy it more if they each had something they really like rather than share a theme maybe they don't like as much. My brothers did this one year with their kids. We had a girl/boy party and the theme was monster trucks/strawberry shortcake. 2 cakes, 2 cups/napkins/monster truck spacewalk (guess they could split that up)and a baby pool,& a slip n slide. Anyway it was fine, lots of fun, and both kids really had a good time.
Hi B.,
I am doing my son's party all about Mickey Mouse and everything comes also with Minnie.... or a generic theme like the beach.... little girls this year are big on fairies, someone suggested Pirates with tinker bell that is a great idea... if your kid likes pirates of course.
Good luck!
How about using a carnival theme, you could set up stations with different litle games. Like ring-toss, pin the tail on the donkey, fishing for prizes and that kind of thing. Then you could have someone doing simple face paint designs, and serve simple hot dogs & popcorn. I guess I'm stressing the simplicity of things because the more basic things are the more time EVERYONE (by that I mean grown-ups) will have to enjoy being together with friends and family. I think that time like that means more to the children when they are grown than what kind of crazy themes and complicated birthday parties they had when they were pre-schoolers.
Old fashion get together, sack races , apple bob, pool party,picnic with hot dogs a clown, balloon toss. All will not break the bank and all can be done out doors.
You could do two separte themes but to me it is always more fun to do one big theme party. Do a Hawaian Luau. We did this party before and went all out with Hawaian tattoos and Limbo to music and all the kids and adults had a blast. You could also do a pool party with a summer fun theme with sand pails and such. Have fun.
I LOVE Fun in the Sun splash parties. Either get giant inflatable pools for home or meet at a public or community pool that has a very large toddler/splash pool or go to a community splash/spray park....Party favors, (trip to the dollar store) for sunglasses, beachballs, . Provide water guns to play . Ice cream sundays that the children can prepare. Most parks have shaded areas with picnic tables. Make sandwiches cut in fun shapes. Also do face painting.
You could do a beach theme. Summer is the perfect time of year for that!
I agree with the other poster that you may want to be clear on her intentions- is she politely saying she doesn't want to do them together? We have 4 b-days all within a month of each other my niece's, my bro's, my son's, and mine are each 6 days apart. We do have separate parties for the kids, and mine & my bro's birthdays are generally forgotten in the shuffle. As kids, my bro & I always had separate celebrations though our birthdays were less than 2 weeks apart. It was a big deal for our family to keep them separate so each kid had their special day.
If that is not the case... Pool parties are always fun, esp since it's going to be in the summer- unisex & great for kids of all ages (even those BIG ones!).
We rented a moonwalk for our son's birthday and we all had a blast! I think the adults had just as much, if not more fun than the kiddos. You don't really even need a theme for that if you don't want.. you could just go with a color, or the place we used did have different theme moonwalks you could go off of, and they even have waterslides. I'm actually thinking of doing this for my hubby's bday in June! LOL
Pirates are for both/They can dress and have a scavanger hunt along with a hidden treasure - do it at a park.
Or go to Angleton and have it at Pony land they can ride pony's do a western theme.
Or go to Wildlife Ranch and ride the train.
My son has been invited to a little girls birthday this weekend and it is a princess and knights theme. Tiaras and swords, make everyone happy. Good luck.
I am throwing a Monkey Beach Party theme this year for my little one. It is definitely uni-sex. Check out orientaltrading.com for the whole kit and kaboodle! Good luck.
How about a circus theme?
How about a "water party"? You can set up swimming pools in the backyard and provide water guns and water balloons. The kids will have a ball. My grandson had one of these when he was three, and everyone had a great time. My daughter provided the usual birthday cake and ice cream, as well of lots of drinks. She also had hot dogs cooked on the grill and snacks like popcorn, chips and fruit. For decorations, she kept it simple with balloons pinned to the fence and crepe paper streamers in the trees. Warning: Adults should come prepared to get wet--they are favorite targets for the kids!
Pirates? Girls like to be pirates too.
What about a Hawaiian theme? I know that they have LOTS of stuff out there for decorations. One of the games could be the Limbo. I love fun birthday parties! Good luck!
You could do a Zoo theme.
Hire some high school kids to come and face paint.
Have posters of all types of wild animals all over the place.
Make a bean bag toss. Use foam core with faces of wild animals with their mouths open. Have the kids toss bean bags or balls through the mouths.
"Go fish" is always great. Get a piece of bamboo with string attached, have a clothes pin on the end as the "hook". Have them toss the :hook: over the back of a "Sea wall". someone behind the wall can attach a small treat.
Play Simon says, encouraging the kids to make animal sounds or act like different animals.
Serve them popcorn, mini corn dogs, fruit in a cup like at the zoo.
Do either one of you have a pool?? Have a luau party. Or if you dont have a pool, rent one of those water slides and decorate the outside like a hawaiian theme. We did this for my sons 5th b-day and it was one of the best parties we have ever had. I am not sure where you live, but there is a party rental place here in Houston that actually has a huge water slide that has palm trees and it would fit great into a hawaiian theme. Good luck.
A fish theme is cute. There are lots of EASY cake ideas out there. Lots of other decorations as well. Or a luau party?
Make sure she isnt trying to politely telll you that she dosent want to have a joined party again. I was thinking about doing a poem theme party for my son" puppy dog tails and snails thats what boys are made of" you could do sugar and spice along with that very well. I also saw a mom do a princess theme on here and needed fun stuf for the boys to do...sounded like everyone told her to do a castle theme with knights kings and dragons swords. Good luck.
You could do two seperate ideas, but one theme. Example: Pirates and Tinkerbell, SuperMan and Wonderwomen, Dogs and Cats, Sharks and fish. I have been to a few boy/girl parties where they did this and then just had one big cake that incoporated both. All the decorations matched and all the kids got goodie bags that went with both.
At 3 & 4 the only theme they are interested in is what their cake looks like. Do a theme cake for each one then let the rest fall as it may. In the summer, go to a park or pool and let them just play and have fun. If you are stressing about this as this age, you'll be a basket case when they get older. The idea of the party is to have fun.
Have it at a water park or have a celeb bday like boys can come like ben ten and girls can come as faires
Having separate themes would be fine. What if you had b/g twins. They are not always going to "be into" the same thing, but yet you would most likely have their party together. You can still go "all out" with different themes.
Have a boy side and a girl side, Victor/Victoria-esque.
But, here are some ideas for common themes that work with boy or girl...
Pirate party
Super Hero party
Zoo adventure party
Luau
Super sleuth party (think Dora and Diego)
Summer time - a swimming party
Ocean adventure party
Jungle theme
Look through www.orientaltrading.com for ideas. They have tons of party items, favors, etc.
Under the sea? you could do Nemo for the boy and little mermaid for the girl.
www.birthdaypartyideas.com is a great site
Hi, I own a Martial Arts School in Universal City and we do AWESOME Karate Birthday parties! We start kids at 3 years old at our school and the Karate birthday party is a unisex theme and you can invited kids of all ages that can participate. We can even add Kung Fu Panda decorations if you like...If you would like more information give me a call at ###-###-#### and we can talk about when the birthday's are and party details. Thanks! J. Howanic, Owner of Premier Martial Arts
How about a Dora/Diego theme? You could do zoo animals with it or even have a zoo party...Have fun!
Hello,
When I was searching for something for my son. I found that we have here a bounce house place indoors. They have all these different house blown up in a warehouse. They have a website, www.pumpitupparty.com. They have all different packages. Then I also found this place called Goin' Bananas Playnasium. They also have bounce houses indoors and themes. Also have archeologists digs the children can do. Unfortunately they are very popular and I wasn't able to book either one. The Goin' Bananas Playnasium has a website also, www.goinbananastx.com. Our party needed to be indoors because my son's birthday is in February. We know how Texas weather is, you can't tell from one day to another. So I hope this helps some. Good luck and I hope you find the perfect party for everyone.
I just found the coolest "Carnival" theme party at Hobby Lobby! It's very well made of canvas and it's got a vintage look. and I thought very cost friendly. I bought it all for about $100.00 and figure I can rent a popcorn popper, cotton candy, and sno-cone machine at our local rent-it center. It has canvas banners that say "Face Painting", "Popcorn", "Games", "refreshments", and "Carnival". It has a bean bag toss canvas with the bean bags, and Pin the Tail on the donkey, and A Picture canvas that has three holes for the faces. The paper goods are the old vintage red & white stripe with hot dog boats and popcorn boxes and they have the neatest napkins/plates, etc. If you're doing this with another family, it would be a ton of fun and I think reasonable as far as cost. My imagination runs wild on ideas for games and other activities that coincide with the banners! I do not have children with summer birthday's but bought all of this for my party closet and I'm loving it so much that I'm thinking about making plans for a mid-summer celebration! I think it would be a blast for old and young! A local park with a gazebo for shade would be ideal. I'm seeing balloons, a clown, oh what fun!!
HTH
Since it's in the summer, you have several unisex options. Water is always a fave when it's hot. My bro & I are exactly 1 yr apart, summer bday's and had water/swim parties several times. You could do a tropic theme with flowers and what not. I saw one joint party with a younger boy, older girl. She got princess stuff and he had frogs. It was too cute! A summer picnic could also be fun. With such young ones, you can pretty much do what you want. The sky's the limit! Hope this helps. I've started thinking about my little ones summer party, too. She'll be 2 and could care less, but I still want it to be special. And, I too, can get carried away with the themes. Have fun!
