Themes and Activities for Your Child’s Birthday

Use these themes and ideas to hold a party at home or at an Atlanta attraction.

On the Big Screen

Serve snacks for the movie in the Easy Movie Night Box Craft from Made to be a Momma. Wrap cereal boxes with wrapping paper. Use cup and juice boxes to create a template for the holes, and cut out with an Exacto knife. Then, fill your box with your delicious snacks.

Fill your box with Caramel Popcorn with Peanut Butter. Preheat oven to 250°F. Heat 2 tbsp. canola oil in a pot over medium-high heat. Add ½ c. unpopped corn kernels and cover. Cook for about four minutes or until the popping stops. Remove from heat and add 1/2 c. peanuts. In a medium saucepan, combine 2/3 c. brown sugar, 2/3 c. light corn syrup, 2½ tbsp. unsalted butter and ½ tsp. salt. Bring to a boil and cook for three minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in ½ c. creamy peanut butter and 1 tsp. vanilla. Pour over popcorn and mix to coat. Spread on a baking sheet and bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Rent out an AMC Theatre just for your family. See details on amctheatres.com/rentals. See a movie from the comfort of your own car at a drive-in theater at Starlight Drive-In, or enjoy a special viewing at The Springs Cinema & Taphouse.

Go All in for Pizza

Have a make-your-own pizza party! Use purchased dough and pre-bake mini crusts. Set out sauce, cheese and toppings and let guests make their own custom creations.

Reserve a table at your favorite local pizza spot and order a variety of pizzas for kids to share.

Party with a real chef at a kids’ cooking school! Flour Power Cooking Studios and Young Chefs Academy offer pizza-themed events.

Have an Artsy Party

Craft kits make it easy! Choose a theme, like jewelry making, robots or sand art, and buy ready-to-go kits online or at your local craft store.

Buy a box or two of assorted craft supplies (find them online or in craft stores) and let kids go wild with pipe cleaners, pompoms, beads, googly eyes and more.

Have a pottery-painting party at Just Kiln Time; make clay creations at All Fired Up; immerse yourself a painting masterpiece at The Splatter Studio.

Make It Splashy

Create a backyard water park with inflatable pools for splashing, sprinkler freeze dance, water balloon relays, Slip n’ Slide races and sponge wars.

Party poolside at your neighborhood pool, or reserve party time at a parks and rec pool. Bogan Park Aquatic Center has an indoor/outdoor pool, slides and play structures.

Go all out with a full-service party at Goldfish Swim School, or splurge on tickets to Six Flags White Water or Margaritaville.

Chill Out with Ice Cream

Set up a make-your-own-sundae bar with ice cream and all the toppings you can think of, or let kids shake up their own ice cream in a bag (find directions on foodnetwork.com).

Bring the ice cream to you! Rent a King of Pops cart, or go retro with classic treats with a visit from an Atlanta Ice Cream Truck.

Head to your local ice cream shop for a treat, or go fancy by booking an ice cream event with Sugar Factory.

iFLY

Fun with Heights

Make a toy parachute with a plastic grocery bag, a plastic or paper cup, string and scissors. Cut off the handles of the bag, and then cut in half, making two large squares. Poke four evenly spaced holes around the top of the cups. Cut out four 12″ pieces of string. Tie the string to the corners of the bag, and tie through each hole. Then, stand on a high place to see the parachute drop.

For a delicious snack, make an Airplane Propeller Banana Snack using bananas, chocolate chips, clementines and toothpicks. Start by placing a toothpick into the banana on either side. Cut up clementines lengthwise to make the propellers, and stick the clementines onto the toothpicks. Place a chocolate on top as the nose of the propeller.

See from soaring heights at Six Flags Over Georgia, SkyView Atlanta or iFLY.

Rose and Rex

Shoot for the Stars

Make a rocket out of recycled items, including a paper towel tube, cardboard cone, a mini paper cup, straws, cardstock, paper strips and cardboard scraps. Start by decorating the tube and cone with paint. After the paint is dry, decorate with paint, washi tape or stickers. Glue on the fins of the rocket and paint them. Add colored straws to represent the engine mount and a black circle for the control center.

Make pretty sugar cookies that resemble the solar system. Use a boxed recipe to make round sugar cookies of different sizes. Once cool, decorate to look like the different planets, the sun and the moon using colored icing, glaze and sprinkles. Or, search for “Out of this World” sugar cookies on kickinitinthekitchen.com.

See the stars at Tellus Science Museum’s Bentley Planetarium or Fernbank Science Center’s Jim Cherry Memorial Planetarium.

Fernbank Museum of Natural History

Dinosaur Dive

Reenact a fossil dig. Bury toy dinosaurs in sand and invite the kids to go on an archaeological dig using sand shovels or kitchen utensils. Or freeze dinos overnight in a shallow tray of water, and let kids drip warm water on them to “excavate.”

Serve Dinosaur Bones. You’ll need two 5-oz. bags of yogurt pretzels, an 8-oz. bag of yogurt raisins, Easter grass and natural cupcake liners. Start by placing the grass on a platter. Fill the cups with pretzels and raisins to resemble dinosaur bones.

View prehistoric reptiles from the Cretaceous Period at Fernbank Museum of Natural History.