Theme Free Birthday Party

Remember back in the day when you just had a party, your Mum sent out the invites and then on your birthday all your friends came over for a play. You all played in the backyard and then the grown ups served a cake, usually from the Women’s Weekly cookbook.

Such great memories and I don’t remember my Mum being particularly stressed about these events. Perhaps she was and I was ignorant of it.

Immy wanted to turn 6 with a party at home this year. After the ease of having her party totally outsourced last year I was a bit reluctant. I started by asking her what kind of party she wanted, but Immy kept not providing me with anything. It took me some weeks to figure out that she didn’t want any theme. NONE.

Gourmet Food for 6 year olds.

There were requests though. There was to be pass the parcel, pin the tail on the donkey and musical statues. There was also a requirement for a giant bowl of lollies and cupcakes. She wanted all the dress ups out so people could wear any thing they wanted.

She requested a cake in the shape of a dog.

Pinterest was not much help with any of the party planning for a theme free birthday. Instead I just had to sit back and accept that the party was going to be pretty basic. When it came to food Immy requested fairy bread, party pies and sausage rolls – it couldn’t get any easier.

It ended up being such a delightful party. Our house and backyard was filled with little girls just running around playing.

Miss 8 and her friend Mr 8 asked for a job to do so I set them up at the Nail Bar and Tattoo Station using some nail polish and make up that had arrived in the mail from Shop Naturally. I had a large packet of fairy tattoos which they all applied with gusto.

Once they had their fingers painted and learnt how to apply the tattoos, each of the kids really became quite creative with both the paints and the tattoos. The Dads joined in too, leaving with freshly painted toes. 

I took up the offer from a friend to help me out with the cake and she whipped up a dog that even had an I for Immy on it’s collar.

The most stressful part of the entire party was having to decide if I should put a gift in every wrapper of pass the parcel. I ended up asking what to do on my facebook page and the answer was clear, 95% of Mums are sick of  kids expecting a prize. They are happy for their kids to realise that there is only one winner. So with that support I boldly went for the one prize only option and the kids had no problem with it at all. Most had never even played pass the parcel.

Dress ups were a big hit with some kids wearing an outfit for the entire party. I also dragged out a CD player with a microphone which was used (loudly).

While some kids sang others sat and played Barbie and some went to play with the dog. A few others swang upside down on the swing set.

I left the chalk out and asked people to leave a message on our chalkboard wall.

I provided minimal direction for the entire party other than pointing out where the food and drinks were. The rest of the time I left it to the 18 kids to work out what they were doing.

Ten minutes before the end of the party I served the cake, it was delicious, and then most of our guests went home.

We continued celebrating all afternoon and then for dinner with more family and friends until eventually the birthday girl fell asleep on the floor beside the new Barbie Glamper Van.

The theme less party was nearly as stress free as the out sourced party. It might not ever get a pin on Pinterest, but I highly recommend it.

Your kid will certainly Tanck you.