My little girl turned 4 and I wanted something different than a character theme for her party. I searched around and found  an ABC party theme. I had about 6 kids that were in the same age group with my daughter. When they first arrived, I had coloring pages with letters on it for them to draw and color.  In their goody bags were crayons, a coloring page with their first letter of each of kid's names. I used just plain brown lunch sacks and decorated it with their name and drew 2 pictures which started with their letter; for example, Payne Pp then drew pool and penney. Then, with their moms they had a chance to make either a necklace or a bracelet with their name on it (of course letters).  When they all arrived, we played "Search for Letters".  I had cut out little letters and colored them with different colors; taped them to objects that pertained to each letter.  Such as D for door, G glass, B book and so on.  The moms helped them and I asked if when they found the letters if they would say, " G for glass".  So at least the kids knew what they were picking up and their significance.  Then we played "Tell Me the Letter".  This was a team effort with their moms.  They had to come up to the basket where I had cut out 10" letters so they can see them in the basket.  I would call out a letter and they would have to find it.   Lastly, we decorated cupcakes with sprinkles and my little girl got a cupcake with a big #4 on it so she could blow it out. The kids dipped their cupcakes into the icing instead of them trying to spread it with a knife. They had so much fun that the 2 hrs went by quickly. By they way, the kids that were invited that had siblings, I had my sister babysat them and play with them elsewhere in the house and worked out better than any other birthday I had. My little girl definitely felt special that day with her friends and not with her sister's friends too.