Albany NY Magician | Should I invite the whole class?

One of the big things that come up when planning a birthday party is whether you should send invitations to the whole class.  Schools have different policies and you should always follow their guidelines.  Personally, I would be more inclined to not invite the whole class and just invite a few key friends.  Do you really want 20 kids running around your house?  A lot of people think, "the more the merrier" but I honestly think it just gets overwhelming for everyone.  It can be especially overwhelming for the birthday child.  Having a smaller more intimate party is more relaxing for everyone.  An old rule to follow for children under 8 is their age plus 1.  If your child is turning 7, plan on having eight kids attend.  This is by no means a hard and fast rule and it definitely depends many factors.  At a minimum you need to consider budget and location.  Twelve is by far the most popular party size.  Over the years as an Albany, NY magician this is the size I see more often than not.
Being prepared and organized is your best bet no matter how many children you invite to your child's birthday party.

Albany NY Magician | Your Kids Party Agenda

The key components of most parties are activities, games, and refreshments. If you don't want kids to run around your house the whole time, you need to have a plan.  A typical two-hour party agenda might look like this: 

• 15-20 minutes - greet arrivals, free play, and unstructured activities 
• 30-45 minutes - organized games and activities or an entertainer 
• 15-20 minutes - refreshments 
• 20-30 minutes - additional organized games and activities or open presents
• 15-20 minutes - cake, free play and unstructured activities 

A three-hour party agenda would allow more time for games & activities, free play, or longer entertainment.

I hope this helps give you an idea of how you can organize your party schedule.

~Magicman

PS- Feel free to shoot me an e-mail or comment on this post and let me know what else you would like to know about parties and planning. 

Albany NY Magician - Great Theme Ideas

One of the best ways to get your child excited about their birthday party, as if they need help, is to let them pick out a theme.  It seems that most people pick a character or movie for the theme but there are lots of other ideas to choose from.  I was going to give you a few examples of great themes, but I found this website that is just chuck full of theme ideas.

http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/party_ideas.html

Each theme has many examples of ideas to incorporate the theme.  Of course, my favorite is the magic theme.  But I might be biased.  Remember, you can incorporate great entertainment into any theme.  Balloon twisting and face painting can be customized for any theme and a magic show fits real nice with lots of the theme suggestions.  Have fun planning you party!

~Magicman
www.magicmanalbany.com