Bat/Bar Mitzvah Parties

I’ve only been to one Bat Mitzvah and the party afterwards had food and dancing and talking. So I thought I’d go to the web for more ideas.

(In case you don’t know, the Bar Mitzvah is for boys turning 13 and the Bat Mitzvah for girls turning 13.)

Bar Mitzvah / Bat Mitzvah Planning and Resource Guide. This is a great resource with lots of ideas. The site also has info for Jewish Weddings.

Partyspot has good ideas on how to pick and apply a theme

Party411 one has some themes for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah

PartySpot.com announces Bar Mitzvah Party Trends

Bar/Bat Mitzvah Planning Guide from That’s a Wrap

Here's my favorite Bar Mitzvah card from our site. Click here to read more!

Elementary-aged Kid Birthday Parties

Wow, are there tons of possibilities for this age.

Hands on style are lots of fun. I remember my kids doing:
- Craft parties – making the craft is the main activity and taking the finished craft home can be instead of a goody bag.
- Build your own pizza parties – provide the pizza dough, sauce, cheeses and toppings and let them at it.
- Scavenger Hunts – in your back yard, a local park, or you can even hide items in your house.
- Fashion Show – provide lots of different dress-up clothes (check your closets for those out of style clothes you hung on to, visit garage sales and thrift shops for fun items), use a digital camera to take pictures of the models and the printed pictures can be take home gifts.
- Charades – have a basket of starter ideas and be prepared to explain this to children who have never played. Camera shots of the skits can be fun take home items.

Outside the house parties:
- Sports – swimming at a local pool (I found the high school pool had times you could schedule a birthday swim at a reasonable price), roller skating, ice skating, laser tag, bowling, etc.
- Movie – matinee prices or a discount theater to save you money, tell the kids upfront what you’ll pay for as far as treats (can do movie gift certificates) – just make sure you double-check movie times and, of course, pick an age appropriate movie. (I’ve heard horror stories of 8 year olds being taken to R movies!) Here are some fun invites for this theme.
- Video game parlor – Give tokens to the kids and tell them when they’re gone, they’re gone.
- Museums – check the museums in your area to see if they offer children’s birthday parties.
- What’s coming to town? Circus, carnival, dog show, air show, a fair? These can get expensive, so you may want to limit the attendance list to 2-3 friends.

More Ideas from the Internet
Buggy Birthday Party

Birthday Party Games Lady

Parties for School-Age Children

Boardman's Birthday Party Ideas

I know I’ve mentioned this one before, but it just is too good of a resource to not list again.
Birthday Party Ideas

Have a great time! Click here to read more!

Halloween Movies can provide an alternative for a party or to a party

Whenever I think of Halloween Movies, I always think of the classic It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. A movie I saw recently where I loved the witches was Stardust (may still be in theaters) – probably okay for more elementary age kids and up. I’m not much into horror, but one I saw that is probably out on DVD that was scary was The Prestige with Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. I’d say for teens and adults. The Seeker, in theaters now, was a tense and scary kids movie – couldn’t believe the one family that brought preschool children to it, as it is definitely not aimed at that age! Upper elementary and up could probably handled this move. The movie is based on The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.

I figured the best I could do for everyone is give some sites that have resources for Halloween movies.

All Family Resources provides a family friendly list of Halloween movies. Two they mention that I love are the new Phantom of the Opera and Little Shop of Horrors.

Kidz World offers a list of scary movies. (Some on previous list as well.) Be sure to click on More Scary Movies, which mentions some fun ones like: Night at the Museum.

Top 10 Haunting Halloween Movies for Kids (for the little guys) has a description of each movie.

Top 7 Halloween Movies for School-Aged Kids – by the same writer, Carey Bryson, as the above site.

Halloween Movies for Kids – animateds from Kids’ Turn Central.

Here’s a review of a Goosebumps movie. Links at the bottom to more movies.

Top 10 Horror Movies for Teen Parties

Have fun watching! Click here to read more!

Glow in the Dark

This week online I saw someone asking about Glow in the Dark party supplies. What a fun idea for a Halloween Party! Or a disco party – just add mirrors and flashing lights.

I bet you can find glow in the dark material at craft and party stores, but in case you don’t I’ve provided some online resources below. The only place I personally have ordered from in this list is Oriental Trading.

Resources

The Glow Inc site includes terminology, painting techniques, and projects to make.

Glow in the dark jewelry, part favors, etc. from these websites:

Glow Source

Happier.MakesParties.com

Cool Glow

Oriental Trading Company

Glow Stick Factory

And here’s an article just for fun: How does glow-in-the-dark stuff work?
Click here to read more!

Halloween Songs

I recently saw someone asking on the internet about Halloween songs. Of course, the Monster Mash comes to mind. Bill Lamb lists and comments on “Top 10 Halloween Pop Songs” including MM. But what if you want some sing-a-long songs, too?

So I went searching the internet and thought I’d share what I found!

For younger kids

Cute preschool songs – one even has actions – here.

Download 3 Halloween songs for free for early elementary age at Songs4teachers.com

These at lessonplanspage.com are sung to familiar old tunes and also have guitar chords to help out.

These songs unfortunately did not have tunes, but were Halloween songs from different countries which made them interesting.

Below the poems on this site you’ll find some songs.

For older kids, teens and adults

The songs at this site have familiar tunes – they’re all set to Christmas music! Lyrics are fun and the music plays when you click on the page.

Same idea of lyrics set to Christmas music at theteacherscorner.net.

And a 3rd site, alphabet-soup.net, using the same music, PLUS some other familiar tunes for their Halloween Carols. Click here to read more!

Halloween Treats

When I was a kid we had this one friend who made homemade maple bars that she gave us on Halloween. I remember my mother making popcorn balls. In both cases, they were not given to strangers. Of course, it was a big deal about not taking anything but store-wrapped candy from strangers. There were warnings about having your parents check what you got. Rumors of razor blades in apples, contaminated candy, etc. Is it true or not?

Unfortunately, yes, there is some risk regarding sharp items. Read this write-up for more info.
Poison, not so much; read this one. For further info you can check out a book called Made to Stick by Chip Heath & Dan Heath. And the FDA has advice here.

But enough yucky stuff. Let’s talk about yummy stuff. I’ve pulled together some sources for recipes to make your Halloween party fun and tasty.

My favorite at Halloweentreats.com was the Crunchy Eyeballs (under cookies)—quite impressive looking. Other categories include drinks, snacks, candy and cakes, although at the moment only one punch and one snack is listed in those categories.

This site is a motherlode of recipes. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have pictures, but there are more than 70 different recipes that include sweets, snacks and beverages.

Wow, the Vampire Kiss Martini is something else. This site says it has “frighteningly good” recipes and has good pictures of the results.

Forgot to mention that the previous site had some breakfast items. So, too does Rancid Recipes. They also include the following categories: Sickly Soups & Salads, Atrocious Appetizers, Delightful Dinners, Ghoulish Goodies, and Potion Sickness. Don’t know how tasty they’d be, but I sure like their titles! No pictures, but their descriptions make the results pretty clear.

Allrecipes.com has an Eerie Entertaining section. Some have pictures. I’ve used recipes from this website before with good results.

Signing off before I get more hungry! Click here to read more!

Halloween Party Games

One of the Halloween parties I remember from when I was a kid, was a haunted barn. It was dark inside and our guides told us a story about a dead cat and put our hands in bowls. This is the cat’s eyes (peeled grapes), his guts (cold spaghetti), etc. I also do remember bobbing for apples, both in a tub of water or hanging from a string (which is nicer as no one gets wet), and wrapping someone in toilet paper to make them a mummy, but I really can’t remember much else.

So I did some web surfing and came up with a bunch of resources for Halloween party games.

Children’s Halloween Games

Classic Ghoulish Games – as stated, those classics.

Everything Halloween: Games – this says games, but they also include party theme ideas.

Great Adult Halloween Games

Halloween Party Games from 1 Halloween net

Halloween Party Games from Pumpkin nook

Halloween Party Games for Everyone! – this site has suggestions for all ages.

Kids' Halloween Party Games – many of these ideas are good for school parties. Click here to read more!

Halloween Costumes

Going to a costume party later this month? Or need a costume for your trick-or-treater? I thought I’d pull together some online resources for easy costuming alternatives from what’s in the discount and party stores (i.e. latest popular movie themes). And now would be the time to order to you get your costume in time!

Animal themed costumes


The Jungle Store has animal costumes and masks for all ages.



An inexpensive costume can be made by using a mask or face paint with a headband, sweats in the appropriate color and a tail. i.e. White clothing and the owl mask below would be quick and easy.








The Jungle Store’s costumes are not limited to animals. Check out these two!







Small kid themes


ArsaToys has some cute frilly girl costumes.

Costume Hub had some cute costumes for either boys or girls.








Adult costumes


Lingerie Diva has some fun adult costumes for women. Though some are very risqué and you should reserve for the bedroom! Warning: many images on this site are definitely R rated! Here’s some G rated examples.





The PhillyBurbs site has men's costumes organized by themes. Reading the reviews on the costumes is half the fun. As far as I can tell each costume has a link to a site where you can buy the costume if you desire. Here’s a sample costume.

If you’re into making your own, fabric stores have easy patterns. I’ve also found pieces and parts of costumes at thrift stores (SHOP EARLY) for costumes for myself and kids.

Have fun!

Click here to read more!

Murder, you wrote

Ever thought of writing your own murder mystery script for a party? Halloween is still almost a month away, so there’s time. Or it could be an unusual birthday party idea. Try this site for help on the “how to”s.

Of course, you can buy mystery party materials. This site looked interesting.
And this one was especially aimed at kids.

Here’s a helpful article: “Host a Murder Mystery Party for Your Tween or Teen.”

And I know you can also buy mystery jigsaw puzzles. You put the puzzle together to solve the mystery story that comes with the puzzle. If you can’t find them at local toy store or bookstore, try this site.

This fill-in invitation might work for a mystery party. Click here to read more!