Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Over 50 Children's Birthday Party Ideas for Mom and Dad!


Last year, after Acadia's birth, we decided to have one big summer family party instead of expecting our family and friends to come from hours away 3 times per summer for each girls birthday. In having one party, I thought we could make it more grand and special for the girls, so I started researching ideas on the internet (of course). I quickly realized that was no one source for New Hampshire birthday party ideas, so I spent hours picking over different sites to find entertainers that would come to our home or places we could go have a birthday party. We ended up with a face painter and a caricature artist at our house and the party was a huge hit. We will be having another one this year which means I need to start planning now; a lot of the places/ artists book really early for the summer. And as a favor to my friends, I thought I would post my list of ideas here to save someone else the trouble of researching like I had to.

This is a pretty comprehensive list broken into 3 categories: In-home entertainers, chain locations and local NH locations. If we have any experience with the entertainer/ facility, I have included a note after the name. Otherwise, do not hold me accountable if you try a place and hate it since I am making no specific recommendations here, got it?

Enjoy, and if you have kids in New Hampshire, you should seriously bookmark this page since it will absolutely save you hours of time and headache. Also, please let me know if I have missed something that you recommend.

Birthday parties at remote locations (NH locations):
The Children's Museum of New Hampshire
Chuckster's: (Awesome outdoor fun with mini golf, a climbing wall, jumpsters, batting cages and more!)
Charmingfare Farm
Whales Tale Water Slides
The Currier Museum of Art
Fun World
Fisher Cats: Baseball
NH Monarchs: Hockey
Cranmore Fitness: Rock climbing wall, pool, bouncy houses and more
Party Playland
Flipz Gymnastics: Concord
Concord Sports Center: baseball, softball, wiffleball, kickball, flag football or soccer
Chunky's Cinema
See Science Center
Christa McAuliffe Planetarium
For Kids Who Cook: Derry NH
Vertical Dreams: Rock climbing wall.
Imaginations to Treasure: Themed parties in Salem, NH
Rumble Tumble Gym: Portsmouth
Kaleidoscope Children's Museum: Manchester, NH (Great for ages 5 and under)
The Discovery Stop, Londonderry, NH. (Indoor play facility, great for ages 5 and under)
Space Center, Hooksett, NH (Homepage says now serving beer and wine... what more could you ask for?)

Bring the animal adventures to your home:
Reptiles on the Move
Curious Creatures
Critters and Creatures

Invite an entertainer to your party:
Liane Leblanc: a caricature artist (She is fantastic- we used her at our party last year and it was a huge hit. See one of our caricatures here.)
Jujubee the clown
Trading Faces Face Painting (We have used her and she is great!)
Make A Face 4 U Face Painting
Anderson Magic
Steve Thomas Magic
Amy Conley, Family Musician
Princess Parties
Noah's Arc Work Shop: Children can stuff their own stuffed animals.
Ultimate Treasure Hunts
Mad Science
Steve Blunt, Family Entertainer
Kids Party Productions: Balloon twisting, magicians, face painting and more.
Remarkable Blackbird: Henna Artist
Musing Henna


Birthday parties at remote locations (chain locations):
You're Fired: Pottery
Smitty's Cinema (Ariana attended a birthday party here and loved it.)
Build A Bear
Bounce U: Bouncy houses
Michaels: Craft store


Some more ideas that can be found all over the state:
Bowling
Glamour shots party
Lasertag

2 comments:

Shawn said...

Wow! You have really done your research! Amazing---and such great ideas.

And I may have given you a Awe-summm award on my blog! :)

The Sugar Mommy said...

Thanks for the great ideas! Always looking for creative suggestions and this definitely helped.