Lazy Genius Mom

Working Hard So You Don't Have To

4 ideas for a fun and less stressful birthday party for kids and young adults...
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Fun and Easy Outdoor Birthday Party Ideas for Kids

Kids are expensive.

Feeding, clothing, housing, educating, sports/ hobbies, etc… Even if you don’t have any of your own, just knowing people with kids can get expensive. Gifts for birthdays, holidays and food (when they come over) can really wrack up.

One of the many, many expenses that can get out of hand fast are those associated with birthdays.

Not only can they be costly, they are also time consuming and stressful.

But they don’t have to be.

I pride myself in throwing totally rad, budget friendly birthday parties for my kids. This year I’m going to add less stressful to that description.

Don't you ever want to have a party practically throw itself?!? These 4 kids birthday party ideas are so super easy to pull off, you'll....

The Birthday Party Challenge

So how do you make planning and throwing a birthday party less stressful? —-> Make a list!!

They teach us that is Kindergarten. Lists on lists on lists for whatever.

The 2 lists you need for planning:

  1. List everything you don’t want to do
  2. List a few things your kid likes

Here’s what mine looked like

You don't need a long list to plan a stress free kids birthday party, but you do need to keep these 2 things in mind.

Now you know the parameters you have to work around.

One of the banes of my existence is cleaning. I like having parties at home, but I absolutely hate pre-cleaning and post-cleaning for them. One of the easiest ways to avoid this chore is to have an outdoor party.  Now it’s just simple straightening up, and the only thing that has to be truly cleaned is the bathroom and the path to it.

Fun Outdoor Themed Birthday Party Ideas – by Season

Just keep in mind that not all of these are low budget but they all are fun.

Spring

Plant your own garden: This one is a lot more fun than it initially sounds, for both a little girl’s or a boy’s party. This one is perfect for a porch or yard party.

1. Buy some seeds, mini terra cotta pots, permanent markers, and dirt. The kids can decorate their pots, pot their own plants and then take them home with them.
Birthday parties can be fun with just a little bit of dirt and seeds.
2. The cake is even easier. Either bake a chocolate cake or buy one already made and then just smash it up and put it in a bowl to look like dirt. The kids can scoop up the dirt cake into cups and add decorations like gummy worms/snakes/frogs, green sprinkles for grass, blue icing for water or chocolate rocks to them. You can even use ice cream cones as the cups, this way there was less waste to clean up at the end.

Let the kids do all the decorating with these super simple chocolate "dirt" cakes

 

Summer

Mud Mud Mud Everywhere!!: Depending on where you live, this one may or may not be possible. Having dirt delivered can get pricey and messy.

I can personally vouch for this party being the MOST. FUN. EVER.

Growing up in the country you can do a lot of stuff that seems weird to most people. One of the best times when I was younger was when my parents bought dump trucks full of dirt. Now they weren’t intended to be for us…but they ended up that way. My siblings, friends and I would use those giant piles of dirt to make giant pools of mud.

This was the inspiration for the mud party.

Just think of the things you could engineer if you had a child’s unlimited amount of energy and some of time on your hands!

  1. Mud slip and slide
  2. An actual mud slide!
  3. Mud pool
  4. Mud throwing competition
  5. Make mud pies
  6. Paint with mud
  7. Mud castle competition

All you need is dirt and water. How much easier can it get. And when you’re done, just hose the kids off.

Pro tip: You can always get creative and set it up in inflatable swimming pools or use plastic tarps to save your yard.

Fall

Fireside Feast: Who doesn’t love a bonfire?

Now I know, kids and fire don’t mix. All I can say is, having grown up around bonfires since birth, it can be done. Fire safety is a top priority. Sometimes it’s just as simple as giving a little talk before hand about the rules and expectations.

Kids love every second of a bonfire. From throwing pine cones or sticks into it, to roasting hotdogs and marshmallows. All of it is exciting to a child.

At our house, we’ve hosted a few child friendly fireside gatherings. The last one was for our eldest’s 9 year birthday bash. Just imagine a group of 10, 9 year olds gathered around a fire. It was a blast! They gathered the sticks, cooked their own dinner and dessert over the flames and then they just tossed their paper plates and roasting sticks into the fire at the end of it. NO CLEAN UP AT ALL!!!! The only mess to clean up was their cups.

Sit back and think about that. I threw an awesome birthday party and all I had to do was clean 10 cups at the end of it. Talk about lazy…

Winter

NERF Wars: This one is so stupid easy to do. If it’s snowing outside, it’s even better.

Supplies needed

  1. Extra bullets
  2. Cardboard boxes
  3. Box/packing tape

Before the wars begin, have the kids use the boxes and tape to make their own armor or forts. This one is a BYONGAB (Bring your own NERF gun and bullets) event. The extra ones are there because everyone runs out of ammo. You can even hide caches of bullets around the yard and make it even more of an adventure.

And before you ask, yes girls love this one too. In my experience, they are more ruthless than the boys tend to be.

Let me know what fun birthday parties you threw for your kids in the comments below.