my oldest child is turning 6 next tuesday (that's her in my avatar a few years ago!) we're thinking of throwing a little party for her and maybe 5-6 of her friends. any ideas of what we could do for activities? i thought i could bake them each a little 6 inch and let them go to town with some candies and icing. what else could we do? she's a bit of a princess (if princesses can also love dirt and worms -which i think they can). i think the biggest problem will be that i'll have to clean my house!!! ugh!

thanks for any suggestions

Decorating the mini cakes is a good idea. Mine always like to decorate cookies, or make candy.

I know it's kinda lame, but my 8 and 9 year old STILL want to do Pin-the-Tail-On-the-Donkey every year for their birthday. We do a pinata, too, instead of goodie bags.

I've done ring tosses, hula hooping contests, jump roping contests, and with my daughter, we've painted nails, done "make-overs" and played dress-up with Mommy's stuff.

HTH

well do you have a specific theme in mind you can alter tons of stuff to fit your theme.

But I have done the kids decorating there own little cakes and all the kids at the party LOVED it!

Also since she's a princess she might like to make her own body glitter. It's not really expense. Just buy CLEAR aloe vera and glitter. I bought the little containers at JoAnn's that had a screw lid had the aloe in the container all ready then the girls put in the colors of glitter they liked stirred w/ a popsicle stick and vola! It's a little messy w/ the glitter so I recommend doing it in the kitchen or somewhere w/o carpet.

Go to Michaels and buy a pack of fun foam door hangs and have the kids decorate there own ROYAL Door Hangings w/ glitter, fun foam, construction paper, sequins or little jewels.
You can also buy little fun foam crowns if you want to do that option Michaels as I'm sure you know often has 40% off coupons.

OOOH is it warm where you are? A game I had at a party when I was a kid was divide the kids into 2 teams. Make some hard boil eggs and give each kid a spoon have the kids walk from one side of the yard to another and back and which ever team can get all there players there and back the fastest w/o dropping the egg too much wins!

If you need more ideas let me know I can a kid party queen LOL Also I have done a search before online w/ kid party ideas and lots of things come up.

Around here the "in" party for 5-6 year old girls is to have a tea party with a princess theme. Each girl comes dressed as a princess and they have tea and petit fours. If you have candy molds with a princess theme you can make your own sugar cubes. You can pin the crown on the princess, and you can use the foam to make your own magic wands and mirrors.

ooooh... some good ideas! my wheels are turning.

maybe a princess theme would be good. i did think of having everyone come in their favorite dress up but maybe decorating cakes in those wouldn't be so good. i could have them put an apron over it huh? i'm in nebraska so the weather is iffy. for her first b-day (she's an april fools baby) we had a doggone blizzard but the day she was born it was sunny and about 60 degrees. we never know what we'll get!

What about supplying them with some dress up clothes, or ask their momma's to pack them something to dress up in. You can do their hair and make up and let them do a run way walk.

With my nephew I learned early on not to plan too many games. Kids want to be kids and play to. So 2 or 3 things is good, then they can do what they want the rest of the time. If you try to have a big list of scheduled events you will end up stressing yourself out.

If you need something for a filler until the parents pick them up, you can always pull out some coloring books/paper and colors.

My daughter is now 22 (barely!), but I think that this party would work even now. We live in a rather wealthy part of the world and the kids are spoiled with fancy birthday parties, but this was a big hit because it was...different!

Not a princess party, and boys came too. Here's the whole deal...maybe it will inspire you!

I didn't have room to have all her friends at our house, but I had a relative who had free access to a community center, so that's where we had it.

It was close to Easter, so we decided to do a bunny party for her 5th.

I got an large box, bought a bunny cut out at a party store (less than a dollar) and made a bean bag toss box. I even just borrowed bean bags from a crafty friend.

Got a piece of butcher type paper, had my sister help me free hand a bunny. Created a pin the tail on the bunny game, with cotton balls for tails.

Had a bunny hop relay.

I think there was one more game, but I can't remember!

I made a bunny cupcakes. Then, I scooped out balls of vanilla ice cream, put them in cupcake liners, refroze solid, and put it in a bucket in the freezer. Made cake time so much easier!

I'm pretty sure we had bunny plates and napkins and that I make pink lemonade.

For favors, we made bunny sugar cookies and had a few other CHEAP toys (from a local paper store that had a ten cent bin back then), put in a brown paper bag we decorated to look like a bunny...with ears attached.

We started early and had a lot of fun. My daughter helped with a lot of it and she felt so special. The kids had an absolute ball and the moms raved about it. Easy, cheap, fun.

One thing I did was this: I also had a 2 year old and knew my husband couldn't help much during the party. So, I paid a teenager her babysitting rate to be my assistant at the party. She was a big help and the kids loved having a teenager there, paying extra attention to them.

So, maybe some of those things might inspire you with your ideas? I hope.

This is a great site for party ideas. Parents write in and share everything from homemade invitations to cakes, favors and party games. It's divided up by age and theme. Maybe you can find some ideas here.
http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/party_ideas.html

This won't help you much this year, but I imagine it will come in handy next year when your little princess turns 7. After Halloween, when costumes are 75%-90% off buy a bunch of girly costumes. Put them away until your daughter's party and throw her a princess tea party and let all of the girls choose a dress to put on at the party.

I'm also into photography, so I put up backdrops and they each pose for a keepsake photo.

I do this for my son also. I buy a bunch of super hero or character costumes and let the kids come here and dress up. It is the biggest hit ever!

Don't forget to check the Disney store for costumes too. I bought $50 costumes on clearance, plus additional sale and only paid about $6. These are very high quality.

great ideas! thanks!

They love musical chairs and hot potatoe. Very inexpensive. They look so cute too.

We had a princess birthday party for my daughter when she was 6. One activity the kids did was to make their own princess hat.

I had precut posterboard so that it could be shaped into a cone hat. The kids used markers and glitter pens to decorate and then we formed the hats with different colored streamers and tissue paper coming out of the top. The kids loved decorating them and then posed for pictures wearing them.

Hope you have a fun party.