The older the children get, the harder planning parties are. But same goes for the younger kids. A simple Barbie Princess party won't do sometimes but a dance party is a little too old than you thought. That's what I'm here for. Let me tell you something now, not all parties have to have themes but they have to have colors.  The colors I'm going to focus on today is my baby cousin's favorite colors: light green and blue. You can switch the colors if you would like. Now, first let's focus on decorations. If a boy, lots of balloons or confetti will do. If a girl streamers and signs and confetti will do nicely too! What I  love doing at birthday parties is hanging, for example, a light green streamer from one side and swooping it close to the ground, then attaching it to the other side of the room. Overlapping creates a cozy illusion. For my blue balloons, they don't have to necessarily be filled with helium, you can just blow them up and have them covering the ground or tape them to the streamers. For the place wear I would say to have the lighter color be the tablecloth and the utensils and the darker color to be the cups, napkin, and plates. Your table should also have a centerpiece, and you can make a very cute one too! What you do is take a colored box with the top, if not colored, wrap it in plain wrapping paper. Then attach a different colored bow. My center piece would look like a light green box, with a blue ribbon wrapped around it. Confetti on top will make it look shiny and dazzle the childrens eyes. Lets go on to invitations now. It's fun to have your younger child send out invitations that his friends can read by themselves. Try using a font called First-Grader it really looks like your child wrote it! Make it easy to read for their eyes, on the front it should say something like Are you coming to my party? or just PARTY!!! on the inside it should say __________ says he/she wants you to come to his birthday party! Its going to be at __________ house and it will be at 2 o'clock until 4 o'clock. It's 3 days from now, Saturday, and ask your parents if you can! Remember, bring a present for the birthday boy/girl! We hope to see you on Saturday! (include address and phone number at the bottom) Also, include a coloring page or two for fun to let the children know that the party will be fun! For the invitation, I suggest color themes of stripes or polka-dots would do the trick. Remember, when planning though, make sure it isn't long so they won't get tired out and invite 10 people max. You don't want the birthday boy/girl to fall asleep in their cake, would you??? Speaking of cake, food can get really messy for some younger kids. I suggest a more non-traditional cake, like cupcakes. You can arrange them on a platter and put candles in each of them, or only put 1 candle in 1 of them. The clean-up is really simple for this and it's cheaper too! Though it's harder to find some of them with your colors for the party but I guarantee you they have special ordered ones always! But for real food, I suggest ordering pizza or having sandwiches from your nearby deli. Sandwiches are a little more messier but, you can get platters and they stuff kids up very well. For drinks I think any drink will do well but if you decide to go with sodas or grape juice, give them straws to sip right from the can/package that way they won't spill as easily. Activities are one of the most important things. Taking them to a park or a swimming pool is nice. But try to have at home games too! You can make a treasure hunt and divide the teams up by colors (one light green team, one blue team) and you can plot clues that lead to a colored box with goodie bags inside. There should be 2 colored boxes (team colors) with goodie bags in them as everyone gets one. For the goodie bags, some nice velvet draw string bags could do for girls, or some colored paper bags will do for boys. Inside, mini coloring books will be cool, equipped with crayons will make it more extravagant. Pencils that are in bright colors also fit in, and add a few big erasers (like ones with smiley faces, or stars that go on top of pencils) and a little memo book and your done. If you want something else, some confetti in it, a thank you card (just for coming), and maybe even some water-colored paint will do the trick! Remember these are only some tips, let your imagination soar. Speaking of soaring, some other games are: pretend games, hide and go seek, pin the tail on the __________ (pick which thing they want), board games like candy-land, twister, and if you want you can rent a jumping machine for your kids to jump in. They're really safe and you won't have to worry how to entertain them for a while ¦hopefully! I hope your parties are the best and remember, a simple party doesn't have to be simple after-all.