A birthday party idea that’s got the kids slip sliding away

Turn Your Backyard into a Water Park This Summer

This is a great birthday party idea for summer birthdays. We turned the yard into a water fun festival! No worries about who can swim with the fun party. Be resourceful and check your local dollar store and you can do this party for $100 complete for 8 kids! Here’s how to turn a birthday party idea into a celebration that will have everyone “slip slidin’ away”!! Just make sure you don’t mind getting wet too!

Step 1 Keep the invite list to a manageable level and only run your party for 90 minutes. That is long enough for the kids as well as for you to plan for! Make sure you have help from your friends to supervise the kids. They will be having a ball running all over the yard. Also, make sure you have a raindate and put it on the invite! For invitations, once they decided on the theme, I let them pick them out. Using this birthday party idea, there are tons of “summer” themed popular character invites that you can print off the web for free! Cost – 0

Step 2 Purchase a “Slip and Slide”. This water slide is great and all the kids can participate without worrying about swimming abilities. You take it out of the box, hook up the hose and you have a runway for fun. When we did this party 20 years ago, look at the “Stone Age” slip and slide (pictured below)! It was very primitive. Not any more..there is a new generation of super cool ones. Look at this one on Amazon for $16.49 You could expand further on this birthday party idea by filling an inexpensive blow up kiddie pool with sand! Cost – $20.00

Step 3 Get sand pails for each child. Using paint pens, I labeled each bucket with their names and decorated! With this theme you don’t need artistic talent. You can “bubble letter” their names and draw a sun and a boat. This becomes their lunch box. You can make sandwiches in advance, add a bag of crackers or fruit snacks, a fruit juice in a box and feeding them all becomes a snap! Cost – 3.00 per child, including food

Step 4 Get some water toys that squirt. Also get bubbles. They love them. There are all kinds of bubble blowing apparatus available now. We used the old bubbles in the bottles with the wand inside. Then we had a big pail of bubbles and a huge wand, again a stone age version of what’s on the market now. Make sure whatever you do, you have one for each child. If possible keep them all the same to avoid bickering. Give them the water toys once they start slipping and sliding! Cost – $2.00 per child

Look at the fun with bubbles!

Step 5 Water Balloons.. they will have a ball with these. Make sure you have them all filled in advance and have a target so they are not wailing them at each other! A target can be anything… we have lined up soda cans and let them take a throw. One year my husband was the human target and he had to dodge or catch the balloons. He was a great sport and ended up as wet as the kids! Cost – 2.00

Step 6 A good Birthday Party idea must include creative Party Favors!! What could be more perfect.. send them home with a beach towel! We had them laid out around the yard for our party..Names on them in advance. Cost – 4.00 per child

Step 7 Birthday cake and popsicles!! We had the worst case scenario at this party.. thunderstorms rolled in…so we had to do the Birthday singing inside.
What I found early on with kid’s parties is that nobody eats the cake.. they “oh and ah” over it, eat the frosting, the decorations and the filling but most of the cake goes to waste. So I found great mini-cupcake pans and they worked perfect. Two bites and they were done and no waste. If you have a theme you can decorate each mini-cake accordingly. There are all kinds of small candy treats or even lollipops that are “character” based. As you can see here, I did old fashioned sprinkles!! Cost – 6.00

Can you believe our birthday boy is now 25???? AHHHH… I am feeling very old!

Step 8 Open the gifts and it’s time for all to go home for a nap..(this includes the MOM & DAD!) Each child leaves ready for a day at the pool or beach.. they have a sand pail, a beach towel and a water toy!!

This birthday party idea is a proven winner. After doing this party for all four kids within a 5 year range, it has been tried and tested!! Keep in mind, if you don’t have a summer birthday, this could be just a great get-together for your little ones and their buddies. You could even combine it with these 4th of July party ideas. This “water themed” party is a break from the summer heat that is sure to bring out the smiles.
While it is simple.. it is guaranteed fun and all for $100! Here are some more fun kid’s party ideas.

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