Boys Parties:

Have a Ball of a Time
This is a great Summer Birthday idea; it can be done in your own backyard. Send out homemade invitations saying “Roll on over to our house where we’ll have a ball of a time”. Maybe print it out onto a sports ball printer paper. Let the children have free play for an hour, with a yard full of balls, soccer balls, baseballs, and bouncy balls, put up a net, have some bubbles out. Then have cake, the shape of a ball or their favorite sport type cake. You can have a piñata shaped as a ball of choice and then for goodie bags they get a baggie of candy from the piñata and a big bouncy ball. Voila a very fun party with very little effort.

Construction Party
Any party can be made simple with a little creativity, let the children have free play, pull out all the big trucks you own, some mega blacks, Lego, anything that they can build, some hardware stores may even supply you with little build it kits. Put out some pretzels or chips in the back of a dump truck; make some sugar cookies to put out as well shaped as trucks, arrows, and anything else that may represent construction in any way. A cake with a road with a little dump truck on it and a worker, maybe a sign or two from any little construction sets you may have or find at your local dollar store. The goodie bags can be a hard hat filled with toy tools, construction type stickers, etc… for putting in such little effort you are sure to get big results.

Hot Wheels Party
Decorate your home with blue and yellow balloons and streamers, print off some hot wheels coloring pages from your computer to put out for the kids to color during the party. The cake can easily be made by yourself, by placing a couple cars on a road, you instantly have a hot wheels cake. If you want to take decorating a step further there are many hot wheels party favors out there at your local dollar store or toy store. Goodie bags can be their coloring page that they colored during the party, a hot wheels car, and some candies.

Fear Factor Party
This party is for the daring only. The main activity at this party is the eating contest, make gross food for the party goers to eat such as eyeballs (peeled grapes) and other similar ideas, and just get creative. Also put out brains (cooked cauliflower) for them to touch while blindfolded, they could also touch boiling hot water (actually ice water but if the brain believes it’s hot it tricks them and the freezing cold actually feels hot for a couple of seconds) the ideas are endless. Make a worms and dirt cake. For goodie bags just fill them with anything slimy that you can find, they have those gooey bouncy balls, and candies such as gummy worms.

Girls Parties:

Luau
If it’s a summer party this can be done outdoors, but there’s no reason you can’t have a luau in the winter indoors. Have the kids come dressed in their favorite summer clothes, you can provide them with hula skirts and leis, play Hawaiian music and for activities you could have a limbo contest, a hula dancing contest, or play a game of hot coconut.
The cake can be made to look like a coconut, or decorated as the map of a Hawaiian island, maybe even just nicely decorated with Hawaiian type orchids. Goodie bags can be straw hats filled with anything tropical you can find, some ideas are a bottle of tropical punch, leis, cheap sandals, etc…

Bratz
Since these are the new Barbie’s it seems, why not give your little girl a Bratz party?! When the guests arrive they can all join in on a fun yet minimal makeover, then they can escape to the basement, play room, bedroom, whatever you have where they can dress up in feather boas, costume jewelry, fun clothes, etc… and they can then perform a fashion show. Have the cake be very simple maybe place a new bratz doll or two on top for the guest of honor to keep, then for goodie bags fill them with lip gloss, glitters, and jewels.

Slumber Party
If you’re brave enough to tackle this one, here are a couple of ideas to help you along. The planning for this type of party is actually quite simple because the girls normally just want to watch movies and snack. Keep snacks available like chips, cheese and crackers, veggies and dip, and pretzels. If you are feeling creative you can make a chocolate fondue, this will keep them busy for a good hour or so. Decorate the cake as your child’s favorite character or thing, if she’s into horses for example you could make a stable cake. If you need to find a way to keep them busy take them for a walk to your local store or ice-cream parlor, and then it’s time for movies and bed. For goodie bags a small bag filled with over-night goods works great, items such as a toothbrush, nail polish, a flashlight, etc…