garden party for my 9 year old princess- finding new friends

[ychris822]

hey everbody..
my little girl is about to get one year older next week. i am thinking about a garden party for her birthday.
we just moved to a new area (finally arived in our new home some days ago) and i want her to get to know new friend. birthday party is a great chance therefor.
we invited all of the children from our neighbourhood and she also asked some of her new mates. by that i want to make it easy for her to find new friends ...

can you maybe give me some inspiration ? what can i do? what kind of food, of games, and what procedure in generally??

before we only had small parties with her best friends, so i could need some help

[Annaxoxo31]

hey chris
what a lovely idea !
maybe u should offer some healthy and tasty snacks, like kittle vegetable-sticks and some dippers (just one example)
after everybody arrived, give them some dirnk and let them play with each other naturally... after some time u could arrange a game like fox and geese or hide and seek.

[UnrelatedToElephants]

Depending on the personalities, you might like to include something gentle and crafty, or cookery perhaps decorating pizzas? Then they have some time to just chat quietly, outside of a perhaps boisterous game.

[scrappydappydoo]

How about a beach themed party with mocktails limbo competition etc and planned water fight (obviously have a wet weather plan)

[ychris822]

beach themed sounds great! it´s hot anyway!

[5madthings]

Some craft activities? Loom bands? All kids seem to like those!

[GretchenWiener]

Why will a tent calm them?

[SugarPlumTree]

Are you saying you are having a princess themed party? I've found a bouncy castle has gone down well . Other things my two have enjoyed are treasure hunts, craft activities, traditional party games such as musical statues, pass the parcel etc.

I started off doing healthy foods when they were little but by the time they reach 9 the usual party food of sandwiches, sausages, crisps, some veg cakes, biscuits etc is what goes down well.

If you are princess theming it you might want to add pirates for the boys as a fair few will be not hugely impressed with princess stuff at 9, however much people say about the gender equality things.

[ychris822]

oh sorry wrote the same twice

[ychris822]

of course i could combine party and "healthy" food... sandwiches arent unhealthy, some vegetable-sticks and maybe they can create their own pizzas, thats a great mix

i did not plan princess-themed til now ^^ confusing, sorry cause i said "my princess" ;) but she is every day...

maybe i´d prefer the beach theme because of the high temperatures...

[ychris822]

i just thought that they would not be that much distracted by their enviroment with the help of a tent...
u do think it is idiocy??? i didnt rent one until now

[SugarPlumTree]

Oh sorry, bit early and I got the wrong end of the stick . Beach themed party would be perfect in this weather.

Don't bother with the tent, unless you lace the food with weed and make it a chill out tent it isn't going to calm them down! They will sit down and eat as they end up hungry after playing games etc but some are quite quick to finish and ready to get back up again before others.

[ychris822]

no problem^^
yes i see... i am always overthinking everything too much

[curiousgeorgie]

You could do a beach disco maybe? At my nieces 9th birthday all they seemed to want to do was dance and put lipgloss on

[ychris822]

haha great
the boys were ok with that too ??? :o :D

[SugarPlumTree]

Curiousgeorgie has a great idea with the beach disco. At school they hire Disco Darren to run the disco. On for an hour, he has them all very busy, competitions for both boys and girls, knackered children at the end.

Find your local version of Disco Darren, let him/her do their thing, bit of food, a party bag - job done, they'll have had a great time with minimum effort from you.

[ychris822]

yeah i think that´ll be fine! not planning too much will be better and more relaxing for myself too :D

[BellaVida]

We have also done a disco beach party with a local DJ. He did some fun warm up dances, then games to music-islands, limbo, boys v girls races with inflatables, bubble machine, certificates, prizes. The kids loved it!

The kids all came dressed in their brightest summer clothes. For food I just did different kinds of sandwiches, tomatoes, cucumber sticks, sliced apple, melon, strawberries, grapes, popcorn, bread sticks etc. You can also get those huge sharing pizzas, which would go down well.

We decorated with a beach scene setter, buckets & spades, multicoloured hanging lanterns and bright tableware. You can get loads of beach or Hawaiian themed party bags and fillers online.

Have a great time!

[ychris822]

wow that sounds amazing !!

so many isnprirations thats great!

[Partyrama]

Hi, How about a 'Festival' theme. Lots of colour and 'flower power' accessories, and see if they want to put on performances. Gives them a chance to interact with each other planning dance routines! You could set up a 'glamping' area with cushions and a tent where they can sit and have some food - You could use flower cookie cutters to cut out your fruit i.e Watermelon - this is always a hit! And if they fancy making things maybe get them to make some festival headbands with paper and flowers. Just a few ideas :)