Veronika chose a Princess Jasmine theme for her 4th birthday party, having fallen in love with the Magic Carpet scene and song! That meant a palette of turquoise and silver, and a big surprise in store on party day!

The birthday girl opened her first present of the day – a chance to look just like her favorite princess.

To start, we sent an easy fill-in-the-details Aladdin invite (amazon.com). Decorations included a Jasmine-themed set of plates, cups, tablecloth, and napkins. We added turquoise balloons in bundles, as well as a few Jasmine dolls!

I kept activities super-simple for this age group. Kids could draw or write a wish and put it in the magic genie lamp…

Or decorate an armband “bangle” (cardboard tubes snipped open) with jewel stickers for a Jasmine-worthy bracelet.

Since the party was at the park, food was quick snacks like pita chips with hummus, clementines, dried fruit (apricots and dates), and veggie sticks. Add mint iced tea for the grown-ups!

The big surprise of the day was an arrival from Princess Jasmine herself. We used a local party production company who couldn’t have been more helpful getting us the perfect Jasmine. She read stories, sang songs, played parachute games, and blew bubbles for the birthday girl and her guests!

The birthday girl blew out candles on her vanilla cake before guests had extra time to play at the local playground and then head home!

Turquoise gift bags included princess slime, a sparkly bouncy ball, pop-it bracelets, and sweets for the magic carpet ride home!

For Travis’s eighth birthday, he requested his first slumber party. We went with a Marvel-ous sleepover theme, for a Marvel-tastic night of fun for him and a few friends!

The invitation was a printable template from Etsy, which was helpfully customized to include the sleepover aspect and all the details. Don’t forget to suggest that friends bring their best Superhero pajamas!

Decor was easy with this theme, with many readily available Avengers items (Party City) including plates, tablecloth, napkins, cups, and hanging decor.

Continue the theme with easy sleepover-ready snacks. Red Vines or Twizzlers quickly become Iron Man’s lasers, and pretzels rods with Marshmllows (Dandies) were Thor’s hammer. We served pizza and fruit salad – in the shape of Captain America’s shield of course!

The activity of the evening? A Marvel movie of course. Based on the age of your birthday child, you can find a ranking of appropriate Avengers movies here.

Face masks added to the fun!

After that the superheroes were free to stay up as late as they liked (full disclosure: 2.45 in the morning!).

Send them home with Marvel-ous loot, including Avengers wrist bands, bubbles, slime, tattoos, and pencils.

The Perseid meteor shower is here!

If you’re not familiar with this annual event, here are a few key things to know: The Perseids are debris leftover from a comet, and once a year the Earth passes near their path. The best viewing time is between midnight and 4 a.m., which means kids might get a special stay-up-late treat to see them, or early birds can head out before dawn!

Thanks to some stellar space-themed ideas in Parents magazine, we set the stage for our night of meteor viewing with a few activities. First up, we needed to launch a rocket into space, using “rocket fuel” made from baking soda and vinegar of course.

Tape four pencils around an upside-down empty bottle, which will secure it upright on its “launch pad”. Next, flip the bottle over and add 2 to 3 teaspoons baking soda. Add 1 cup vinegar, then very quickly pop in a wine cork and flip the bottle.

Did yours soar into the sky? We were a bit slow getting the cork in, which meant the “launch” wasn’t spectacular, but all the bubbling jet fuel sure was!

Now we wanted just the right clothing for our night, with glow-in-the dark shirts made from glow fabric paint. I made a star, moon and spiral galaxy for Travis.

Veronika had a decidedly more abstract splattering of stars on her shirt!

The next component of our night was space-themed snacks: we cut slices of vegan cheese into stars with a cookie cutter, and apple wedges were “crescent moons”.

Next up, we secured a sheet of red cellophane over flashlights with a rubber band, then headed out into the night. The red filter supposedly helps eyes adjust to the dark!

Before long, though, it was time to turn off those flashlights and turn our eyes upward to the sky.

In between watching for meteors, Travis and I checked out the other stars in the sky and came up with a few of our own constellations.

Finish all that starry fun with storytime of course. Check out Storytime from Space which features astronauts reading from – you guessed it – the International Space Station. Wow! The kids were enthralled with a read-through of Give Me Some Space by Philip Blunting.

After all that, it turned out that probably headed out a little early (10 p.m.) and didn’t have great viewing. We intend to check out Jupiter on August 19, for our next star party!

A few things we didn’t get to this time, but that have stellar hits in the past: marshmallow constellations and tracking the moon.

It has been all things Ninjago in our house this year, so it was a no-brainer when it came time to plan Travis’s seventh birthday: Ninjago it was!

As always, a party starts with the invitation, and this year we went with a homemade card. Cut an upside-down kidney bean shape from the front of green envelopes, then insert a yellow index card to cover the opening, taping to secure on the inside. Draw the trademark Ninjago eyes with a sharpie for an instant ninja face!

I then inserted an additional yellow index card into each envelope with the party deets. Thanks to babyccinokids.com for the idea!

The birthday boy sported a Ninjago t-shirt of course.

For decoration, we turned our living room into Master Wu’s dojo. I ordered plain red pillowcases which slipped over pillows in our house for seating, and arranged these around a low coffee table. Red lanterns on the ceiling, red streamers, and red and black balloons added pops of color to the room (all from Oriental Trading).

Travis has an army’s worth of Lego Ninjago figures, which easily became decor arranged around the room.

Ninja plates, cups, and napkins came from Amazon. For food, fill clear mini Chinese takeout containers (also Oriental Trading) with green jelly beans to look like edamame!

I then added a few lollipops into each container. If you have time, you can draw the Ninjago face mask on the lollipop wrappers, too, to mimic the invitations, although I skipped that step. We rounded out the party noshes with pretzel rod “nunchucks”, cantaloupe “throwing stars”, and slices of pizza (both vegan and dairy). Use extra takeout containers as the holders for plastic forks and spoons.

Don’t forget the perfect drink for your little ninjas: fruit punch. The homemade sprinkle party cake featured a marzipan Ninjago face mask.

The guests arrived and it was time to let the activities begin! The first test for the aspiring ninjas was a round of Fortune Cookie Toss. Tape large Chinese takeout containers in a vertical row and label each for 5, 10, or 15 points. Take aim with fortune cookies!

Inside, the ninjas tackled a laser maze (to set up, simply run black yarn through a room in your house, or an area outside, until it forms a tricky web). Then each ninja was presented with an inflatable sword for target practice against half-deflated helium balloons. (Hint: fill them the night before and they’ll be perfectly hovering by party time).

Time for a round of Ninjago bingo! The kids used their jelly bean “edamame” as playing pieces on a template I found online.

The capstone of the party was watching The Lego Ninjago Movie on a projector screen.

I also provided a quieter art activity, where guests could draw themselves as a Ninja. Foam picture frames (Oriental Trading) made this the perfect keepsake to take home.

Goodie bags repeated the face mask cutout from the invitations, this time with a yellow index card taped inside red bags. Each ninja received: a ninja rubber duckie, throwing star erases, extra fortune cookies and lollipops, and a mini beach bucket, that last one because it’s summer after all!