Party Review

We used to have very poor turnout at our birthday parties. At one party, nobody had arrived thirty minutes after the party was supposed to have started. We called around, and everyone had forgotten about it.

The last two birthday parties for our kids have been very well attended, and everyone who went talked about it for quite a while afterward.

First, we chose a theme. SpiderBoy had a pirate theme, and TikiPrincess had a royalty theme.

Next, we made interesting invitations that would instantly attract attention. Any child who saw one of these invitations really wanted to attend.

For the pirate theme, we printed out a picture of a pirate over a pirate map, and wrote our invitation on the map. We then cut it out, and yellowed the paper in the oven. We rolled the invitation and tied it with a bit of yarn.

For the princess party, we printed out individualized invitations, written in the form of a royal proclamation. “Hear ye, hear ye, by royal decree, Princess Girlnextdoor is hereby invited to the birthday celebrations of her royal highness, Princess TikiPrincess.” We rolled the invitation and tied it with a ribbon.

We strove to find appropriate party favors. The pirates took home a pirate eye patch, as well as a bag full of pirate booty, consisting of plastic coins, chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil, and Jujubes jewels.

Here two guests show off their eye patches.


The princes and princesses took home a princess hat or crown, a wand or sword, and a bag full of the dragon’s hoard.

Here two guests show off their wands and princess hats.


We worked hard on making the cakes.



Everyone loved our treasure hunts, whether we wrote out instructions or used maps.


At the end of one treasure hunt, we found a treasure chest stuffed with pirate booty. At the end of the other, we found a dragon, stuffed with its hoard.

We played the same party games as we had before, but with different names. Musical chairs became “Walk the Plank.” Simon says became “The Princess says.” For some reason, it seems to be more fun when it’s called by a different name.

All of this took a lot of work on our part. But we had a very high rate of people RSVPing, and everyone who could, showed up and had a great time.

Some things I’ve learned:

• Frosting a cake with little cut bits, like the pyramid shapes on the castle, is very difficult. I wanted a frosting I could spray on like spray-paint. Since I didn’t have that, I used a pastry bag with a flat tip to cover it with ribbons, then smoothed it together with a basting brush dipped in water.



• Drilling holes in the pointy end of a heart is very difficult, no matter how you do it. I might have done it differently by drilling a hole in from the top and going clear through.



• Invitations printed on a laser printer survive being yellowed in the oven better than invitations printed on an inkjet.



• If I can imagine how a thing could be made, I can usually make it.



• Putting on an elaborate party can be expensive and time-consuming, but a good time is had by all.

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