3 Year Olds Birthday Party

Hi E.. My mom in law always has awesome ideas. Last party we had a swimming pole w. plastic fish and fishing poles that were all magnetic. She made some with magnets and some she bought at wal mart. Pin the tale on the donkey is always cute. And you can't forget the pinata, they have pinatas that you can pull strings instead of hitting with a bat. Good luck, have fun.

You have a gotten some good ideas so far. I would just include relay races, decorate a cookie station, I always try to think of an idea with a holiday that is near. Example carve pumkpins or make scarecrows by Halloween. Water balloon or egg toss in July.

Hi E.,

Here are a couple inexpensive ideas:

1. decorate their own cupcake. Couple of different frostings and some different kinds of sprinkles/candies. This is messy but the kids get to eat their creation when they are done.

2. coloring table. I always put out some theme coloring pages downloaded from the internet and leave them on a table for kids to do.

3. shaving cream painting. squirt some good old shaving cream on a big window and let the kids fingerpaint all over the window. It is only a mild soap and it cleans up easy with a hose and the window is clean.

D.

An old fashioned party game is dropping clothes pin into a bottle or jar. It used to be a milk bottle, but it can be any large bottle/jar with a wide enough mouth to drop in a wooden clothes pin. We usually used 10 pins per turn.

Position a chair with the back facing the large jar. The children kneel on the seat leaning over the back to drop the pin into the bottle. We made the height requirement the top of the chair back. You can modify the height according to age, by having the older children drop from a higher point. The one that drops the most pins in the bottle wins.

Every time we offered this game, several children would line up to continue to play during open play. They loved the challenge.

Another oldie is the relay race with an egg on a spoon. Map out your length, break the group into two teams Give each team an egg on a spoon and see which team comes out first. The egg can be a real one (outside game or even hard boiled) or it can be one of those plastic ones from Easter. The plastic ones are actually harder since they are so lightweight, but you can add weight to them. If they drop their egg they must return to the starting point and start over, thus delaying their team time. Everyone can have their own egg and spoon or you can make the team share one one egg thus taking the time to pass it to the next team player. When the kids are older you can put obstacles into the course like walking on a 2 x 4 or stepping over a fake water hazard.

Family Fun magazine has many great ideas for parties and vacations for young children. I had a subscription for years, but you may be able to check out a copy from your local library.

We had a theme (Nemo) for my daughter's 3rd. I bought bubbles with the Nemo theme and buried them in the sand box. The kids had to dig for them. I bought foam visors and stickers at Michaels and the kids decorated their own visors. We just poured out the stickers on the grass and the kids sat in a circle picking out their foam stickers. Parents helped them ...most put their name on the visor and other decorations. We had a pool, so we had a swim-with-me lesson and gave everyone of Nemo floating as a parting gift. On Oriental Trading co. you can buy gift bags that have a Nemo fish on them. That is a craft activity...they glue the pieces on the bag and there are flat gems too. My daughter built (3) them all and gave them to her friends with the swim ring.

We had a coloring page table. Where every child made a page for my daughter's birthday book. They enjoyed that. I took th pages and put them together as a book for my daughter. We do this every year. She loves looking at her birthday books.

Have fun,
Stephanie

We've had a few parties where the old time games were a huge hit. Best for little ones is pin the tail on donkey (or what ever you or your kids want to make it) and sack races. I just get big bags from a feed/pet store and they race and then end up jumping in the bags on their own. It goes longer if you have 3-4 kids race and them the winner race with 3-4 more. They also LOVE bobbing for apples but not sure if you want them wet. I will say the bobbing went on until all apples were gone with kids trying and then getting back in line over and over. Personally I would shy away from crafts or games that are too organized. Do you really want to spend the day explaining rules and art projects to a bunch of preschoolers? Keep it simple and they'll have a blast. Enjoy! Kari

Wow you've gotten alot of responses , I just wanted to mention The web site " birthday parties . com" If no one else has. This is a great resourse full of theme party idea's. Have fun.

One party I went to, the mother had made cupcakes instead of a cake, and she set up a table with a plastic tablecloth outside, and had a cupcake decorating station. She had out different kinds of frosting (several different colors), and sprinkles, M&Ms, things like that. The kids decorated and then ate their cupcakes. That was cute, and kind of fun. (But messy!)

I think the bounce house is a great idea - they will spend 95% of the party in there, guaranteed. I am always amazed at how long kids can jump without getting tired (yet cleaning up their toys is soooo tiring! =)

The best party game I have used for little ones, which older ones can join in the fun and everyone is a winner is "Hullabaloo" the board game. You can have as many players as you want and it gets alot of giggles... "This game is sort of like Twister meets Simon Says. Lay the Hullabaloo pads around on the floor about two 'kid's feet' away from each other. The pads are different shapes and colors and have pictures and words on them. Turn on the game console and the cheerful music begins, a happy voice welcomes you to the game and then gives the simple directions you'll need to play. "Jump on a square shape," "Slide over to a red shape," "Hop to a shape with an animal on it" and so on. Then it might tell you to freeze, or to put a body part on one pad, and then a different body part on another. Then, it'll tell you that if you are on a particular pad at the end of that round, you are the winner. We found it to be fun, and easy to understand" http://www.amazon.com/Cranium-16518-Hullabaloo/dp/B00008MIGQ we pull it out for all the parties and even the adults join in...

I recently gave a birthday party for my four year old granddaughter. We also had the jumpy. The kids thoroughly enjoyed old time favorites like pin the tail on the donkey, musical chairs and hot potato. Even the one or two 9 and 10 year olds liked the games! Everyone had a great time. One suggestion, the games go quickly and the kids usually want to play more than one round. I decided that next time we will play the game more than once and it will be something like so many rounds of a game instead of just one time because they just don't get enough one time around. But make the prize for the winner of the game, not each round so you don't have to buy so many prizes. Especially pin the tail on the donkey and musical chairs - they love them!

My daughter turned 4 in march and for each of her birthdays i always had good ole pin the tail on the donkey! and one year i did kids bowling! each party we would end with a pinata,too. i agree with some that the jump house may be the life of the party but you know you always have those few kids that don't like them or get bored of them easy so i would always make sure there were more activities to keep them occupied rather than alot of games...i always have bubbles, sidewalk chalk and tons of crayons with paper & coloring books..the craft table is a good idea, as is the freeze dance game someone put down! good luck!

For my daughter's birthday I did like a cake walk. I did spider webs because I did boy and girl themes for games since there were boys and girls. But you can do maybe princess diamonds or gems or flowers. Cut the shapes out of cardboard, decorate them and put numbers on them. Put the shapes in a circle big enough for the kids to walk on them. Write the numbers on paper, cut each paper with the number and put in a hat or jar. Play some kids music (I played Little People CD)you then stop it. The kids should be on one of the shapes with the number. Someone draws a number from the hat or jar and whatever number is picked that child wins a prize. I made sure there was a prize for everyone. The kids loved it and love winning. You can get the little people CD's at target, Walgreens or Walmart, usually by the childrens clothing or bathing needs. You can also do a search and find with things from the theme of your party. One year I did starfish for a Nemo themed party and one year I did pirate coins for a princess and pirate party. Hope this helps.

Freeze dance. My 3 year old loves this. Basically you play and stop music (like musical chairs, but no outs or chairs.) They can dance, spin, move however they want and have to freeze when the music stops. Its great because 2's and 3's will just stop normally and older kids will freeze in the position that they were in when the music stopped. And if they don't stop dancing who cares.

Have a great party.

E.,
My husband has a very creative mind and did alot of things for my son on his 3rd birthday. He went online and found the recipe to make bubbles for the younger kids and placed the solution in a bucket. We purchased very inexpensive Bubble makers at the $1 store and Target. He also had a knock the milk cartons down station, 3 different heights/levels for basketball hoops, etc. We purchased little toys from Oriental Trading to give to each child just for participating. Good luck!

Hi E.!
My daughter's 3rd b-day party was on Saturday. I did a scavenger hunt. Instead of just handing out their goodie bags at the end of the party I turned it into a game. They went and hunted for their own stuff. I wasn't sure how it would go over but they loved it! After the hunt we did cake and gifts...they were all so mellow and that made the end of the party so nice!
Good Luck!
M.

How about face painting or a balloon artist?

You could have someone do face painting...always a hit at all parties we've been to...

They have kits now that come with differnt things that kis can put togather (crafts) Ive seen them at Target in the toy section and over by the stationary stuff. Micheals is also a great place to find stuff. You may even be able to find things to match any theme you may be having. Im planing on Making cup cakes for my daughters party in Augest and have the kids decorate their own cup cake with iceing,sprinkles and candie. My Daughter wants a Pink party, everything pink. at least its easey she's turning 6 so she is a little older than yours.. Well i hope i helped you.

buying the cute visors for kids and having them decorate their own party hats with sickers and of markers could be a lot of fun. pinatas are always fun as well.

How about a potato sack race and an egg hunt. For my daughter's 3rd in April we did an egg hunt and an activity with buckets where they got to decorate them with stickers, paint and markers. We didn't do anything else besides that because then gifts and cake and pizza become a distraction.

I'd only do one game..and maybe and arts and craft item...I have my 3 year old bpday party...we are doing pin the tiara on barbie...we also are renting a inflatalbe wet slide...most of the time the kids want to play when they are 3.

I think a jumpy house and some outdoor space to run around is all you need. I think an organized game might be a little too much to ask for 3 year olds, especially with a jumpy house around. My recommendation would be to have a craft table or a face painter, and possibly an automatic bubble blower.

Have fun!!

N.

Get paper and paint and let them do finger painting. I went to a party like that and the kids had a blast. You will want to provide little aprons or big tshirts so they don't ruin their clothes. You could also cut holes for head and arms in trash bags and use those. Some other craft thing or have a nail painting table where you or someone else paints their nails.

a scavenger hunt possibly? At that age you would have to have parent help and use picture clues. Coloring contest?

Hi E.!

I have BOYS, but when our little neighbor girls come over to our BD Parties and stuff, they LOVE when I pull put the Beads for them.

They love making necklaces and bracelets. Does that interest you? :o)

Blessings to your BD Girl!

Hi E. J,

There is a fabulous website called Family Fun (don't know address but just typing that should get you there) which has wonderful birthday party ideas. Wow! They will give you more ideas than you know what to do with and you can look by age or theme. You'll need some time to read it all though. Have a great party!!!

We always play pass the parcel at our parties and the kids love it. You wrap a small gift and then keep wrapping it in layers of different paper, in each layer place a small candy/toy, have enough layers for each kid to open the present once.
Sit kids in circle, play music and let the present get passed around the circle, when music is stopped the child holding the gift unwraps a layer, then leaves the circle, and so on until all the layers come off one by one a one child is left to open the special present. have fun

A previous poster mentioned having a scavenger hunt for their end-of-party treats. I've taken that one step farther. At Michaels you can buy small, canvas tote bags (maybe 8"x6") for a few bucks each. You can pre-write their names on them with fabric marker and then have them either color with fabric markers or use stamps and stamp pads (this is probably better for 3 year olds). You can have a station set up so that they can do it or not, their choice, but either way their name already is on it. Old adult t-shirts work great for smocks. My kids are 13, 11, and 7 and my biggest piece of birthday advice is to have too much planned....better to have games you never played than to have dead time.

We just had a picnic with potato sack races and an obstacle course. The kids loved it. We divided the kids into 2 teams and had them race through a tunnel, try a hula hoop, ring toss, then spin around 3 times before racing back and tagging the next runner. They were having so much fun that they didn't want to only go once.

Pin the tail on the donkey/nose on the clown?
Go to a craft store and find something safe and simple they could make and take home. I know you can get foam things you hang on the door knobs and they can each decorate their own....

don't plan too much... the jumpy will likely be the star of the show.

You've gotten some really wonderful ideas. My advice is just to keep it simple. You probably won't need much more than what you have planned. Kids at that age will just want to play, and they arent't that great at following directions for a game, especially if they are really excited to be at a party. Your ideas sound great. Good luck!

I just saw a really cute favor/activity. A mom purchased thong sandals for little kids at Old Navy (you could also go to the $ store). She also bought a bunch of stick-on jewels, stars, etc. at Michaels. Each kid could go to the "craft table" at any time to decorate their own flip-flops. It's hard to get all the kids to leave the bouncy house at one time so it's nice to have something that can be done at any time. Also, if they don't get around to it, you can let them take home the supplies.

Hello E., I just attended my four year niece's birthday that was very successful. Her mother had various water activities set for the kids including slip n slid, small blow up pool and a bouncy house. The kids all loved it. Hope this helps, good luck with your party!
P.

I've had several parties with a bouncy house, and what always works well for us to have some sort of craft table set up as well. The kids go back and forth between the two, and the party basically runs itself. Having either a pinata or scavenger hunt at the end is also an inexpensive and easy idea, and the kids LOVE it!
I would suggest keeping the craft very simple for 3 to 5 year olds, decorating party hats and/or party bags is a fun, cheap and easy idea.
You can also check out familyfun.com and birthdaypartyideas.com for lots of creative advice.
Have fun!!!