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Youngsters from 4-8 typically love dinosaurs and will enjoy learning about what real paleontologists do. 

Set Up: You’ll need to get lots of plastic dinosaurs. If you’d like to make it an educational party, you should read up on the names of some of the most common creatures, and be ready to give a little lesson on them. Before the party you should bury several dinos in a sandbox or wading pool filled with dirt. Hide enough that each guest will be able to find 3 or 4. You’ll also want to provide some large spoons or small shovels to dig with.  

Sometimes very young children are afraid of clowns, but most over the age of three will have fun with this party. 

Set Up: Visit your local second-hand store to get a collection of bright colored shirts, pants, dresses, and even shoes. If you find some wigs or funny hats, that’s great, too. You should also buy some costume make-up, be sure to get plenty of white. You can often get red, stick-on clown noses at party stores, and they are fun, or you can just use lipstick to give the kids their red noses. Print off a few pictures of clowns to have on display, and ask some teenage helpers to attend. 

This is a great party for warm days and provides a lot of entertainment for school aged kids.

Set Up: You will obviously need a collection of squirt guns, balloons and a way to fill them with water. You should set up targets at one end of the yard. Some can be made of colored construction paper that will change color as soon as they get wet so kids can tell if they hit the target. Others can be made of tissue paper stretched over the open end of a box, with the object being to squirt enough water on it to break through the paper. Targets for the water balloons can be buckets or barrels, or holes in containers to aim the balloons at. You should also put marks of some kind at different distances away from the target to offer more challenges. 

Kids from about 3-6 love cowboys and horses and will enjoy this party. They’ll get a chance to stretch their imaginations and pretend to be riding the range. 

Set Up: You will need to gather as many stick horses as you can. If you can’t find enough store-bought ones, a yardstick with a mop head fastened on the end will satisfy most imaginative pre-schoolers. If you can build an actual campfire at your party spot…great.

This party is for elementary aged kids that enjoy playing board games. They will get a chance to try out several different games and challenge their friends. 

Set Up: You will need to gather many different games together. Those that require two or four players will work the best. Some good choices are Checkers, Chess, Mancala, Parcheesi, Sorry, Trouble, Battleship, and Rummikub. You will also need a timer and a whistle or bell to indicate when the next round of the tourney is beginning.

Kids of all ages will have fun at a snow party. The main disadvantage is that the weather can be a problem. It it’s too cold, everyone is miserable and if it’s too warm, the snow will melt, but a nice winter day is perfect.  

This gathering will be fun for kids from about 3 to 10 and even older if they are fond of drama. You can look forward to a lot of creativity and imagination with this theme. 

Set Up: Before the kids arrive, you will need to provide a space for a puppet theater. This can be as simple as letting the kids hide behind a table covered with a floor-length cloth. You could also hang a sheet on a cord strung across one end of a room at about waist height. This might be a good choice if you will have several puppeteers presenting at one time, because it will allow more room.

Lots of moms are enjoying rubber-stamping these days and their daughters will like it too. Little girls love to mimic mom so this type of party will make them feel grown up when they make something that is usually done by adults. 

That is especially true if they can get together to work on their projects. Use your friends who like to stamp as resources for borrowing stamp pads and supplies, and for teaching girls how to do some basic projects.

The safari is a party where your little boy or girl gets to go out and explore the jungles of your backyard with her friends, finding exotic beasties and finding fame and fortune at her party. 

Your little kid will love the girl safari party, in this party you give each kid a net, a safari hat and a critter cage and send them in search of insects. Create a picture of 5 or more Beasties that you want them to look for. Put each critter card behind a prize, and let the kids compete to see which big game hunter finds the right exotic insect on their backyard safari.

A Sitting Pretty Party is a dress up party for little girls. At this party your little girl will get to explore her creativity by creating her own signature look, and her friend will have a great time too.