I don’t know how it happened, but I turned out to be a Pinterest mom. Every holiday, birthday, and random occasion to start some DIY project, I am ALL OVER those stinking Pinterest boards going crazy trying to find some inspiration for how to decorate to make this holiday more special or fun. Well about a year and a half into being crazy Pinterest mom I realized one thing: IT IS EXHAUSTING! For my daughter’s 1st birthday I must have gone to five different craft stores to put together her “Valentine” theme birthday party, and the end it was cute for a few pictures, but in reality she won’t remember it and it sure cost me a lot of sleep and sanity.
Another year, and its time for baby birthday planning, round two. I had some DIY Disney Princess board started on Pinterest and was ready to begin the process of torturing myself staying up all night for the next month to hot glue decorations when my bestie texted me with a party idea. Our daughters have birthdays a few days apart and she had been looking at a local Children’s Museum as a potential venue. Her niece also has a birthday that week, and since the kids’ birthdays are so close together she had that idea that we host together to split the cost and make life easier for all the mutual friends we share.
The concept was super simple – the museum has a party room. We get some pizza and cake from Costco, feed the herd of children, sing a quick ‘happy birthday’ then set them wild to play for two hours. I felt super guilty for not having a ‘theme’, or an armful of decorations to hang. My friend put me in check a few times reminding me the kids were going to be going crazy playing the whole time and no one would even notice if I put in the effort, so it wouldn’t be worth my while. Plus, the venue only allowed decorations down in the party room, where we would only be long enough to eat a slice and take off playing. So, I held back my DIY urges and we moved forward with the joint party.
The venue local to us was the Imagine Children’s Museum in downtown Everett. They have a special program where you can reserve the whole place for your party after-hours, so we booked it on a weekend from 6-8pm. Setup was so simple! They had oversized bins on wheels we were able to use to carry everything inside, and within 15 minutes of unpacking we were ready to go! The short amount of play time we had scheduled seemed to get all our guests there on time, and the flow was perfect. Half an hour of food then an hour and a half for everyone to play! We had an absolute blast chasing each other all over the place, playing in the water tables, and climbing the treehouse. It was SO MUCH fun, and a hundred times better than I expected. With how brilliantly the place was decorated and all the fun things to do, I didn’t even miss having the decorations 🙂
Birthday girls blowing out their candles
A few added bonuses I hadn’t even thought of beforehand:
- You don’t have to clean your house for a party because no one is coparty ming over 🙂
- You don’t have to worry about picking up your house afterwards since you can just toss the paper plates in the recycle bin and head home to an empty sink!
- The museum guarantees that kids will have plenty to do without you having to come up with ways to entertain them (and honestly they will likely have more fun playing here than in your living room)
- Everyone will thank you because their kids just burnt off a TON of energy and will be ready for an early bedtime that night!
So, if you are in search of a birthday party idea that involves MAX fun for the kids and MINIMUM stress for you, I totally suggest trying this out! The Imagine Children’s Museum really shouldn’t be too far of a drive for anyone north of Seattle and I would TOTALLY recommend it if you are in the area! If you aren’t I suggest a quick google search and phone call to a Children’s Museum close to you to see if they offer something similar (I would imagine they do). It will be the best kids birthday party you have ever hosted! 🙂