{"id":8165,"date":"2010-11-07T08:08:30","date_gmt":"2010-11-07T15:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dollarstorecrafts.com\/?p=8165"},"modified":"2010-11-07T08:51:11","modified_gmt":"2010-11-07T15:51:11","slug":"30-dollar-birthday-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dollarstorecrafts.com\/2010\/11\/30-dollar-birthday-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Our $30 Birthday Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

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My youngest son just turned 1, and we had a low-key birthday party for him. I like to do something special for first birthday parties, so this year’s theme was Smiling’s My Favorite<\/a> because this boy is so smiley, he started smiling socially at one month. I bought party supplies<\/a> at the dollar store and Target’s dollar spot. I decided to do a couple of funny photo activities that involve smiling:<\/p>\n


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Funny Hat Photo Booth (total cost: about $13)<\/a><\/h2>\n

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1. I bought funny hats at the dollar store and the Target dollar spot, including this funny clown wig…<\/a><\/p>\n

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And this cowboy hat. Other hats we had for the activity: Tom Sawyer straw hat, firefighter hat, jester hat, knight’s helmet, hard hats and a few others. We had several of these hats already on hand. I spent $7.50 at Target for three hats (they were in the $2.50 section of the dollar spot), and $5 at Dollar Tree for five other hats (I had to get doubles of some of the more boyish hats because I didn’t want my two older boys to fight over them!). Total cost for this activity: $12.50<\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea of the photo booth:<\/strong> make a station where you set out funny hats, then take pictures of the party-goers wearing the funny hats. (In reality, everyone was kind of under the weather on party day, so we only took a couple funny hat photos. I still like the idea, though!)<\/p>\n

The other photo activity was:<\/p>\n

Half-Face Photos (total cost: $5)<\/h2>\n

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I found this idea for funny photo party invitations<\/a> at Photojojo <\/strong>but instead of making invitations like the article suggested, I just had photos with partygoer’s chins made up, and set them out on a table for people to use and have fun with. It could be fun to do this, and glue popsicle sticks to the bottom back of the photo to make them into little signs your partygoers can hold up in front of their faces.<\/p>\n

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I had the photos printed in advance by uploading them on Costco.com’s website and then picking them up at the photo center the next time I went shopping at Costco. I got 39 photos printed up for 13 cents each, which was $5.07 total. (Actually, I used a coupon I had for 50 free prints, so they were free). Total cost for me: FREE<\/strong>, but a value of about $5
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Party Games (total cost: FREE)<\/a><\/h2>\n

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The party was really just our family and my parents so everything was pretty informal! I didn’t plan on any party games in advance, so I threw a few games together at the last minute. They turned out to be a lot of fun for the boys! Good thing kids are just as impressed by simple ideas as they are by show-stopping ideas.<\/p>\n

I wrote a whole post about these last-minute party games<\/a> at Make and Takes<\/strong>, but here is the quick rundown:<\/p>\n

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1. Stacking Contest (Total cost: FREE)
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I gave each boy a flat surface (diaper boxes!) and a plastic bin full of foam building blocks that we already had in our toy closet. The object: to build the tallest tower. There were no prizes, it was just a fun activity for the kids. The baby got to knock the towers over when they were built. We just used what we had on hand to do this activity.<\/p>\n

2. Clothespin Drop (Total cost: FREE)
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This is an oldie but goodie. I remember doing the clothespin drop game at my birthday parties when I was a kid in the 80s! If you don\u2019t have clothespins, substitute blocks or beanbags (or whatever else you have on hand). For his turn, the baby enjoyed putting clothespins in the container and taking them out again. We just used what we had on hand to do this activity.<\/p>\n

Supplies you need:<\/strong><\/p>\n