Birthday Party Activities for a 4 yr. old?

Brandi - posted on 01/02/2010

Thanks everyone. LOTS of great ideas. I can't wait to start choosing what I'll do. I especially appreciate the reminders that kids LOVE to play ANYTHING as long as they have friends to play them with, so elaborate and fancy are totally NOT necessary. Thanks a lot.

Bernadette - posted on 01/02/2010

I agree with the post that said that at this age the most important thing is that they want to play together. Kids make fun out of any activity when they are together. Some simple ideas are having a teddy bear coloring sheet (printable from the internet) and have them create their own Care Bear. As a party favor for my daughter's birthday last year I printed a few coloring pages from the internet (she had a curious george theme) and stapled it together to make a mini coloring book. I made a lil cover page saying thank you for coming, etc. The kids loved it and it was better than paying money for those lil goody bag toys that always end up broken or thrown away anyway!

Good Day! - posted on 01/01/2010

Pin the rainbow on the carebear's tummy. You can make it yourself from posterboard. Let them make their own treat bags with markers, glitter, stickers and such. You can do a pinata and the candy they get will go in the treat bag. Then you don't have to worry about any more favors. I remember at my 5 year old party my mom asked each mom to bring their kid a white t-shirt. She bought puff paint and we decorated our shirts. Fun and time consuming! About food, cake and ice cream is enough.

Jennifer - posted on 01/01/2010

http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com is a great website that has tons of birthday ideas- you can even type in care bear parties

When i think of carebears i think of Rainbow, so maybe a rainbow craft of torn up construction squares and glue them to make a rainbow very easy simple and cheap-- do rainbow themed food, make the cake rainbow...
for gifts to take home why not go to dollar tree they have bears for a dollar and outfits to fit them etc -
for your son i would suggest farm party thats were doing for my one year old girl (Guess what chick is turning one?) and we are doing pick up duck where you actually get to keep the duck as a prize, bowling (using gerber graduate containers for bowling pins), and her party is easter weekend so we are going to hide easter eggs and collect the chickens eggs to go with the farm theme- hope this helps I Love Partys my sons a month ago he is 5 and we did Gi Joe and let kids make cards to send to soldiers and then did obstacle course and tug of war it was a blast

Stephanie - posted on 01/01/2010

I also am a stay at home mom on a tight budget and in a tiny space that being said-
sticker art is big activity with girls just some paper and some carebear stickers and they can make some pictures!!! maybe a homemade beanbag game(peice of cardboard with holes cut out and decorated) I have parties from 2-4in the afternoon so no meals are expected,just cake and ice cream.
you can also buy cups/plates/goody boxes etc..at the dollar store and print out pictures from the internet and tape or glue them on.
and remember at that age they mostly just want to play with each other so they dont need alot of fancy stuff

Nicole - posted on 01/01/2010

For my son's first birthday last month, I did a carnival theme. His older cousins (ages 6-11) loved playing the games. I did a fishing game with paper fish and a magnet, a ball toss into plastic cups game, and a clothespin drop game. I also gave out tickets and set up a prize table like at Chuck E Cheese so all the kids got something. You could do games like that, just alter it to fit your theme. I don't know a whole lot about care bears, but maybe cut out some bears and have them go "bear hunting" instead of fishing. Take ideas from the books/cartoons. We had my son's party at my dad's house so it was mostly family that came. As for food, I made some little sandwiches and a fruit and veggie tray. And of course cake!

Brandi - posted on 01/01/2010

Oh, just to mention, I had my kids birthday parties together last year (I did a candy land theme). It was my son's FIRST birthday and I feel like he got ignored. I didn't have the time to make him feel as special as I should have and 2 weeks later when it was actually his birthday, nobody really acknowledged that it was his birthday. I baked him an ice cream cake for his ACTUAL birthday and invited my mother, who lives right next door to me and she acted like it was some kind of inconvenience to have a piece of cake with him on his birthday. I FELT AWFUL. If i had given him his own party on or near his own birthday, he would have had just as special a day as his sister had, so I vowed to NEVER throw their parties together again. They are each special and each deserve their own special day. Just wanted to mention this as i realize that their birthdays are very close and some might suggest to throw one big party together. Thanks.