Today is my oldest’s 10th birthday so I thought it would be appropriate to write about the awesome birthday party we gave him about a month ago. A few months ago we decided to have a big class party for our son, especially since it is his 10th birthday. I asked him what he wanted to do. He said he wanted a dance party and that he wanted to invite the girls from his class as well. I totally thought we could have fun with it. Since his birthday falls in the summer, we decided to do it the Friday before school let out. It also worked because it was the week of their state test and we thought this was also a good way they could unwind and just let loose after 3 days of intense testing.
We first looked for an invitation. I wanted to find something unique and cool. I googled the phrase VIP party invitations. I found some cute ones on printvilla.com. Click here to view the one we chose. For a while we weren’t sure where we would have whether in our garage or in our house. After much deliberation we decided to do it in our great room. Since our floor plan in open with our kitchen and formal dining room, it was easy to just isolate that space. It was also plenty of room for 20 some 4th graders. Once we decided on the space, all the ideas for decorating came very easily. We decided to remove all our furniture in our great room except for the TV. We got black plastic tablecloths that we put all over the walls and windows in the great room, so it would look more like a “dance club”. We made a red carpet VIP area where I took pictures of the kids with my son as they arrived to the party. For the rest of the decorations we got everything in neon colors and we got a ton of confetti for the drink table and present table. We bought this really cool strobe light that really gave the dance club effect. It was on for the entire party. We also got glow sticks for the kids to wear at the party. They could make them into necklaces or bracelets.
My main concern for a while was, “What are we going to do with this kids for 2 hours?!”. I made a fun playlist (all clean versions of course), but I knew they were not going to dance the entire 2 hours. We decided to purchase a karaoke machine (which our son decided to pay for with his own money, because he wanted to contribute to his party). I wasn’t sure whether the kids would want to sing, but I figure we could ask. That karaoke machine made the party. That is what they did for most of time. I had other games planned (limbo, stomp and pop, name that tune), but the kids were having so much fun playing and signing that we only played musical chairs. Let me tell you that even at 4th grade they had a lot of fun with it. Another thing the kids loved were the loose balloon and beach balls we put on the “dance floor”. I bought one of those mini helium tanks. Let me tell you it was so worth the $30 we could fill up about 36 balloons. So much cheaper than if I bought them at the party store. The kids had so much fun running around playing and kicking the balloons. Thank you to my friend Meagan that came and helped blow up the balloons!
All the hard work, time and money we put it was worth it when our son came up and told us it was the best party he could have ever had! His classmates also had a fantastic time. A lot of memories were made. I was really happy we did this for him!
10th birthday party play list
Harlem Shake-Bauer, Jai Ho, I Gotta Feeling-Blackeyed Peas, Runaway Baby-Bruno Mars, Sweet Nothing-Calvin Harris (feat. Florence Welch), Fight For Your Right -Beastie Boys, Call Me Baby-Carly Rae Jepsen, Forget You-Ceelo Green, Titanium-David Guetta&Sia, Good Feeling-Flo Rida, On The Floor (feat. Pitbull)-Jennifer Lopez, Don’t Stop Believin’-Journey, California Gurls-Katy Perry, Cha Cha Slide, Party Rock Anthem-LMFAO, Thrift Shop-Macklemore, Can’t Hold Us-Macklemore, ABC-Jackon 5, Thriller,Wanna Be Startin Something, P.Y.T, Don’t Stop’Till You Get Enough-Michael Jackson, What Makes You Beautiful-One Direction, Give Up The Funk-Parliment, Give Me Everything, Feel This Moment-Pitbull, Gangham Style-Psy, We Found Love-Rihanna, Don’t You Worry Child-Swedish House, I Knew You Were Trouble, We Are Never Getting Back-Taylor Swift, OMG-Usher, Kung Fu Fighting, Glad You Came-The Wanted, Scream and Shout,#thatPOWER-will.i.am, Runs House-Run DMC
Ordinary Life is Extraordinary 
So cute! Love the red carpet!!
The pics of the kids looked so cute. I didn’t want to post pics of other people’s kids on the public website. I can pm you the shutterfly site I made.
Jason was SO jealous when I told him what you were doing for Nick’s party. Let me repeat that, A 32 year old man was jealous of a 10 year old’s birthday party.
You kinda are the coolest mom ever. 🙂
Thanks :)!
By the way, I’ve been watching Pretty Little Liars on your recommendation! It’s super cute and love the clothes. You were so right! I watched the 3 season ‘re-cap’ show that helped put things together and I think I am caught up!
Would love the Shutterfly if you want to email. You are so creative!!
Oh good! I love that show! The first season had me on pins and needles! I am going to watch Devious Maids b/c it intrigues me. My mom said it was borderline offensive, but the main character is named Marisol. So now I have to watch!
Oh yeah, let me know what you think of Devious Maids!! I watched and loved it!! I get that it could be perceived as semi-offensive with the stereotypical “spicy” Latina maids, but I think all the jabs at the self-centered rich & spoiled wives are absolutely hilarious and really make the show. It’s so “L.A.”.
The marketing is very Desperate Housewives – glossy, sexy, LBD – Marc Cherry definitely put a the DH stamp on this one.
And, yes, the Marisol character is awesome! Loved her in Ugly Betty too. Can’t wait to hear what you think!
I couldn’t get over all the maids being Latina. I gave up about 40 min in. I thought it was a pretty bad telenovela. Which is funny b/c that is what it is based on. My thing is that this is the first time you have the entire cast being Latino and you put them in a stereotypical role. I don’t know that’s just me. I also think they equally gave the stereotype back to BH rich people. I will give it another go. I gave up about half way through. It is very DH though.
I can definitely see that. I think I was focusing on different things when I was watching it, but the all Latino maid thing is a little too much. They should have mixed up the casting more with both the maids and the housewives as well. I think that would have added more interest and complexity!
Totally agree. They should have mixed it up more on the rich people too. I was just surprised that Eva Longoria being a Latina thought it was ok. I will look past all that and try it again. I do like the telanovela angle to it!