Fourth of July Birthday!!!

What I do for my son's summer party is go to the Dollar store and buy squirt guns or water toys that they can play with at the party and then take home. A goody bag filled with little toys has never worked out for me. Most of the kids open them right away and then leave them. OR when my kids get them, most of the toys are thrown away or broken before they make it home. If you spend $1 on a better toy the kids will actually get to play with them

Hi A.,

You've got great ideas yourself! I would suggest buying those pinwheels (only about 99cents) with the red, white stars, and blue. Stickers would also be a neat idea or little individual bubbles.

For activities, have them make their own red, white, blue cookies. Bake the cookies prior and get the colors as frosting and have the kids do whatever they want: make stars, stripes, etc...
Also create American flags on foamy sun visor hats that you can buy from a craft store and decorate with markers, stickers, foamy stickers, glitter, etc...

Have fun!

For my daughters 4th birthday I gave the kids coloring books. You can get them at Party City in 5 or 10 packs. I can't remember which. They also sell those small crayon boxes you get when you eath out. It's all pretty inexpensive. Also, check the dollar section at Target. They have some good stuff for little treats. Good luck!

That's funny, my daughter will be turning three on the fourth of July! We have always had her birthday on the weekend after since everyone always has plans on the fourth, so I haven't done the independence/birthday thing yet. I'll be interested in peoples ideas for you. Maybe the confetti poppers for the older ones or the blowers if you don't mind all of the noise. Good luck!

Keep it SIMPLE!!! I can't say this enough!!! Little kids can get SOOOO overwhelmed at b-day parties and just cry the whole time!!! It really is alot for them to deal with at one time. The kiddie pool sounds good, I would refrain from anything organized. Slip & slides are so fun for older kids, but the little ones won't figure it out. Just fill the kiddie pool with containers of various sizes, turkey basters, funnels, collanders, cups and watering cans and they really will have such fun!! Maybe toss in some frozen colored water bricks full of hard plastic toys (you can use tupperware containers if you have enough room in your freezer.) Make sure your little one has your attention whenever he needs it or he will melt down. At this age, they really don't know what is going on. And don't open the presents at the party. Wait until the next day!! Have fun!

Congratulations on your twins, who just happen to be due on my birthday. I did goody bags for my daughters second birthday. I went to a party store and got stuff like mini bubbles, those things you blow into that make noise, the things where you pull the string and confetti shoots out, water balloons and so on. I would also suggest granola bars, banana and apple chips, etc. These things are sweet but healthy. Good luck with your party. I hope it turns out great.

What about bubbles? You can buy them in a pack. Also, bouncing rubber balls *large enough so as not to be a choking hazard*? We put in the rainbow colored goldfish snack packs in my daughter's 1st birthday goodie bags. I'm sure there are much more creative people than me out there, but hopefully this helps! :)

First thing that came to mind was making a little trail mix and putting them in small snack bags, maybe even ones with flags, stars and or stripes if you can find them. Use dried cranberries, dried blueberries, pumpkin seeds (w/out shell), Sunflower seeds (w/out shell), and white yogurt chips. (You might even throw in a few banana chips.) This could replace the traditional candy that is often given away. You should be able to pick all of them up at Trader Joes for fairly little $$. You might also pick up a few fruit leathers there.

Other than that, STICKERS! Stickers are always a big hit, and the glittery star stickers are CHEAP!! A dollar store may have mini coloring and activities books that might fit in the prize bag. I know they have somewhat small bottles of bubbles. (Although, I would probably look in the party isles at Target or Wal-Mart for them; the dollar store bubbles are usually not very good.) Also around this time of year I often find pencils with a star shape at the top for about 50 cents to a dollar each.

As for an activity, if you like plants and are willing to spend about $4 per child: buy a few coils of the wired star garland in different colors. Also buy small potted ivy for each kid. Cut the coils so that they are in pieces about 6 inches or so. Instruct the kids that they may have XX number of star branches to push into their plant. It should probably be about 5 or 6 pieces. Let them "curl" the ends with their fingers and put them into the pot. They will be both decorative and creative!

If this will be to pricey for you, you could instead put out multi-colored sheets of construction paper and glue sticks with pre-cut stripes, squares, stars, circles, or any other shape you'd like to add. (You can provide safety scissors for the older ones if you’d like.) Then instruct them to make their own flag. It can be ANYTHING they want. They have no need to make it look like the American flag or even to represent the American flag. If They want a purple flag with red stripes and green circles, GREAT! How Beautiful the choice they made!!!

Hope it helps~ J.

Target usually has some really cute squirt gun toys that are in the shape of animals. Water toys are always a hit.

Hi A.,

Good items for goodie bags for the younger kids, that also keep them busy are;

For little ones: bubbles & color books & crayons. Even though you're not too into candy, if you'd be willing to do a lollipop, they have ones that double as a whistle. Kids love those!

For older kids: Squirt guns (yes, even at pool parties!) & punching balloons

You should be able to get all of these things at a 99 cents store. Good luck with your party!

D. H.

3 words, bubbles bubbles bubbles. You can make homemade bubble solution and make bubbles with your hands. You can put little bottles of bubbles in the goodie bags and you can have bubble catching contests. Put food coloring in the bubbles, give each kid a piece of white heavy stock paper and let them run around catching the bubbles on their paper. The one who gets the most gets a prize.
Have fun

Hi A.,
Congrats on the twins! :)

Sounds like you are already well on your way to a great party and also some neat goodie bags...you don't have to load 'em up to the max, just a few things they will enjoy. The star sunglasses sound great! :) Instead of candy, you could put a mini box of raisins in each bag (we have done that and kids love them!).

I agree with the mom who suggested bubbles for blowing - that's a classic summertime fun thing and kids of all ages (and adults!) enjoy it!

I also second the idea of the crayons/inexpensive coloring books. This can work as a "goodie" item AND an activity for during the party. In fact, you could make your own coloring books to really keep costs down; we just attended a birthday party with a character theme where the mom had made a small coloring book by printing out a few character coloring sheets front/back (only about 4 papers total, printed both sides) and attaching them together with blue tape (may have glued or stapled first and then covered with blue tape for safety, I can't tell). These were given to the kids to color at the party at the beginning (as an activity) but then they could take them home and finish up later. We got there late so my daughter did all her coloring at home. :)

Such a coloring book is very inexpensive to make if you have a computer and printer at home. You could seek out coloring sheets of flags, fireworks, Independence Day themes, or just summery pictures of animals, the outdoors, etc. My daughter is 2 1/2 and really liked the coloring book a lot - she has heavily colored every page and worked on it for a few days following the party.

Another thing that was in the goodie bag from this latest party we went to was a pair of tiny maracas, and my daughter has gotten a lot of fun out of those. :) Kids of all ages enjoy these and the noise isn't too objectionable like some other "noisemakers" can be. I think the mom found them at a party store, or possibly ordered them from Birthday Express.

One neat thing to do at the 4th of July foodwise is to have strawberries and blueberries - they look good and taste good too. Kids usually all like these too and they are healthy rather than having cookies, candy, etc. as dessert items.

Have fun with your son's party! It will be great! And at this age, repeating a theme is no biggie - we did Veggie Tales last year for my daughter's 2nd birthday, and plan to do it again this year - she still loves them so she will be happy.

Blessings,

S.

If you live near a Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt shop, they sell $2 gift certificates. That and stickers are my standard goodie bags for parties. I have buying trinket toys that I know most parents will throw out pretty quickly. This way, the kids get a treat, somewhat healthier than candy.

my niece also has a birthday on the 4th of july. one year we did tye-dyed t-shirts out in the back yard. we gave them bubbles and made their own labels for each child. just a couple of ideas.