Recently, one of our momstown team members hosted a Pony birthday party (animal themed) in their very own backyard for her child.
We wanted to share these great birthday ideas that turned into this fantastic party! It is perfect for preschoolers or toddlers – they loved it.
Let’s start from the basics:
1. Pick your theme. It will help you know what to buy, for example:
- Decorations
- Food prep
- Games
We decided to host a Pony Party that included an actual pony and petting bunnies in our backyard! Yes you heard correct and it was fantastic. A big thank you to Lil' Beans Pony Pals and Parties for coming out to the house. They provided amazing entertainment and were so great with the kids. (They also have a farm location you can host at if your backyard is not an option.) Each guest loved the pony rides and petting the cutest bunnies ever.
2. Organize details.
- When is the party?
- Where/location of party?
- What time?
- How many guests?
Tip: Take your child’s age into account. Generally, the younger, the earlier the party. A couple of hours is more than plenty.
As for guests, a good rule of thumb is the child's age plus 1. If parents can come along, great (It's best to have a couple others to help with monitoring and clean up).
Our party was an exception to this rule as we decided to invite preschool friends and also allowed for a summer reunion – so we had 14 friends in total.
3. Arrange for Invitations.
Once you’ve picked your theme, decide on your invitation. Will you buy them or will you make them? Also think about how you will deliver the invite to your guests. Will you mail, hand deliver or email them?
For our party, we decided to make the invites on the computer (photoshop) to tailor to the party. Here is what our invitation looked like:
4. Arrange for Decorations
We took this opportunity to make the decorations with our daughter and son well in advance of the party. It got them involved and it created some family craft time.
These are some of the crafts we made with the kids:
- Individual Homemade Piñatas which also served as decoration the day of the party. After the guest rode on the pony, they were invited to pull their individual pinata which included some candy and toys, but most importantly, their medal of "first place" for riding the pony.
- Bunny photo booth made out of boxes.
- Bunny hanging decorations made out of paper plates.
5. Food and Activities
Simple is better. Kids nowadays just want to play and eat dessert. Will you pre-make or order the food? Pizza and finger foods are always great. Also consider, will you make/bake a cake and allow time for this. Remember to ask guests if there are any allergies.
We had pizza, veggies and for dessert had a butterfly cupcake (daughter loves butterflies) with a rainbow fruit platter (that goes with the "rainbow dash" invite). Here is what our cupcakes and fruit platter looked like:
One of the activities we had was to make any animal with your hand print. Here's what it looked like:
6. Party Favours a.k.a. Loot Bags
Instead of giving away small toys that will be played with for a few minutes then forgotten, make them either interactive or educational. Parents love this!
We created and made our loot bag and gave our daughter’s favourite activity book with an animal themed pencil. Here is what the loot bag made by us looked like:
We had the birthday girl hand out her loot bags as each friend left the party.
We had a great time and best of all, our friends got to share it with her!
Happy planning and hope some of these tips will help you.
