Making Memories: Five Birthday Party Activities Your Kids Will Adore

“We’re so busy watching out for what’s just ahead of us that we don’t take time to enjoy where we are.” – Bill Watterson

There’s something interesting about the idea of living in the moment. When we’re in it and we’re having a wonderful time, we don’t want to let it go. We want to bottle it up and remember it forever.

Of course, it goes without saying that there are moments we’d rather forget, but the idea of living in the moment is about rejoicing in the smaller things; the times we have that make us feel lucky to be alive.

When you’re a parent, these smaller moments pop up often, but end too quickly. Before you know it, your baby boy or girl is off to school, off to college, starting their first job and – all of a sudden – having their own babies. It’s witnessing that cycle of life that makes family life so special.

It’s difficult to capture all the small moments in our memory banks, but it’s the smaller moments that add up to make us who we are. And we need to be satisfied with that and not feel the need to create a photo documentary of every experience.

It’s easier and makes more sense to at the very least capture the bigger moments, the significant milestones – like birthdays – and that’s why birthday parties are such perfect photographic playgrounds.

Here are five memorable birthday party activities, worth capturing on camera, that your children will adore now and into the future:

Birthday Party Activity #1: Arrange for kids to make their own super hero capes. All you need is cheap fabric off cuts, some scissors and a button for each cape. If you want to take it to the next level, you can pre-arrange a number of different stencils that can be temporarily pinned, ironed or glued on. Every super hero loves to play it up to the camera!

Birthday Party Activity #2: Hire a puppeteer, clown, magician or super hero. Sesame Street style characters, balloon animals and magic tricks bring life to any kid’s birthday party. The buzz, excitement and color is fantastic fodder for the camera.

Birthday Party Activity #3: Jumping castles are places where fun and laughter are born. They may be costly, but they are a crowd pleaser and a guaranteed place to find silliness and smiles. It’s a tricky shot to take, so you’ll likely need a DSLR camera. It’s all about the shutter speed, so try setting it to 1/400th of a second as that should do the trick.

Birthday Party Activity #4: Never fear if you’re on a tight budget, the old favorites will still impress with smiles galore. Think games like Musical Chairs, Pass The Parcel, Pin The Tail On The Donkey, Follow My Leader and Sack Races. Kids are uninhibited by nature and the awkward teen years will creep up quickly. So when else are you going to capture the perfect embarrassing photo for their 21st birthday party?

Birthday Party Activity #5: Cone shaped party hats. No party is complete without them.

One or some of the above combined with a special cake and cake-cutting moment will provide a great selection of photos when you’re ready to put together your next family photo collage. Check out our free photo collage maker that makes the process as easy as possible.

“What day is it?”

It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.

My favorite day,” said Pooh.”

― A.A. Milne