Customize Your Child's Birthday Party

At age four my son wasn't into Spiderman, Bob the Builder or any characters. What he was obsessed with was fans and vacuums! So I chose to have a fan birthday party!

First, for the invitations I took a piece of paper and used the computer to type up the information as to who, what, where, and time of the birthday party. I printed the invitations out. Then I took the paper and folded it like an accordion or hand fan. I stapled it at the bottom to make sure it stayed looking like the hand fan.

Next I took a photo of my son next to our upright fan with a huge smile on his face! After all, he was by his favorite thing! I bought an inexpensive white t-shirt and transferred it with iron-on transfer paper from Wal-Mart using my computer and printer. Ironed the transfer on the t-shirt. Now he had a special fan shirt to wear at his party as the guest of honor! He was delighted.

Quite a few people were invited so I made two cakes. One cake was our square fan and the other cake was our upright fan. I am not an artist, but the cakes turned out like decent fans. This way I could make a chocolate cake for chocoholics and a marble cake for others. I will post both photos of the cakes. I used purple as at the time that was his favorite color. Tip: I used box cake mixes but with homemade cream cheese frosting people can not tell the difference! (Recipe at bottom of article.)

For our main game we played Pin the Blade on the Fan. I took a large piece of strong paper (also found at Wal-Mart) and drew a fan on it with a missing blade. Then I took construction paper and made up a lot of blades. I taped the back of the blades. The kids were blindfolded and spun around three times. The closest one wins!

I don't give extra prizes for the child that wins the game. I did research and even if children get a goodie bag, they feel sad that they didn't win the separate prize. So games are all in good fun. The adults even took over this game! They played longer than the children!

Lunch was easy build-your-own fantastic taco per my son's request. I made a vegetable tray and put the carrots, celery, broccoli and green peppers in a fan display. Windy chips and osculating Jell-o was also served.

Each child got a goodie bag filled with candy and a small hand held battery operated fan that I found on clearance.

Just take your child's favorite item and think outside of the box. You will be surprised at all of the fun things you come up with to make your child's birthday party a very special one to remember.

For inquiring minds, at age nine, my son ignores fans now but remembers his fun birthday party.

*Cream Cheese Frosting
1 box confectioners' sugar
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Beat until smooth and creamy.