FEATURE
Secrets to Throwing An
EPIC BIRTHDAY
Party On a Dime
BY CHERYL MAGUIRE
W hen I received the invite to my nephew’s pirate party,
I was worried. The event was being held at his house
in the wintertime, so all the 5-year-olds would be
cooped up. How would more than 20 kids be entertained in a
small area indoors? Would I hear so many chaotic screams of
“Arrr” and “Ahoy” that I would want to walk the plank?
sister, Tara, and brother-in-law,
Mike, have hosted. They’ve had
other parties for my nephew and
two nieces. The themes of their
parties have included knights
and princesses, western cowboys
and cowgirls, fairies and gnomes,
Star Wars—and of course, pirates.

For all their parties, they created
a life-size cardboard center-
piece, such as a castle or western
town, for the kids to play in
and games centered around the
theme, along with a favor to take
home. Homemade treats and a
cake are abundant at every
gathering. The best part is that these
parties didn’t break the bank. So,
what is their secret to throwing
an epic birthday party on a dime?
Planning In
Advance The Stull family is already
planning their next party—
unicorn-themed— for June.

They get ideas from Pinterest
and other crafting websites.

Sometimes, they brainstorm
ideas on their own. This planning
helps them to have enough time
to create all the activities and
cardboard centerpiece.

12 Washington FAMILY
MAY 2023
Potential Savings: $25-50.

Advanced planning allows them
to buy sale items and use coupons.

Homemade Almost everything at the Stull
family’s parties is homemade,
from the cardboard center-
pieces to the games, food and
favors. This signifi cantly cuts
down the cost of the parties,
which were all under $200.

Potential Savings: $50-75 by
not buying a store-bought cake,
games or favors.

Teamwork Tara and Mike Stull work
together to create the life-size
centerpiece, games, favors and
homemade baked treats. They
also include their kids in the
process of coming up with
ideas and creating items. By
working together, they don’t
become too overwhelmed with
the planning and creating that’s
involved. It also makes the
process more fun for the entire
family. Potential Savings: $25-50;
the more they work together,
the less they need to purchase
items. Old School Games
With A Theme
At their parties, Mike and
Tara Stull off er simple games
that everyone loves, and they
incorporate their party’s theme
into the game. For example,
instead of a typical water gun
fi ght, they created a water gun
shooting range for their west-
ern-themed party. Or instead
of pin the tail on the donkey,
it was pin the lightsaber on
Yoda for the Star Wars -themed
party. Some other games they
included were a pirate scavenger
hunt for gold coins, relay cow-
boy horse races and a “beware
of the shark” cardboard bean
bag toss game.

Potential Savings: $100-200
by not hosting the party at
an outside venue such as a
play gym, bowling alley or
laser tag arena.

Finding Free or
Discounted Items
Tara and Mike asked local appli-
ance stores for free cardboard
boxes to create the centerpiece,
games and favors for each party.

They also got deeply discounted
“mistake paint” for a quarter of
CAKE: RUTHBLACK; PIGGY BANK: MALERAPASO; PARTY HAT: DOMIN_DOMIN;
COINS: PAMELA_D_MCADAMS; ALL IMAGES ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES PLUS
My fears subsided when I
beheld the enormous card-
board-created pirate ship in my
nephew’s living room. If the boat
hadn’t been so crowded with kids,
then I would have jumped inside
of it myself. When I noticed orga-
nized activity stations set up
throughout the house, I knew
all the kids would have a blast.

The party was such a huge suc-
cess that my kids still talk about
it four years later.

The pirate party isn’t the only
impressive at-home event my