Forgo the disposable party supply table cloths and buy bold pieces of fabric.

Make your own birthday banner. Not only is it reusable for multiple kids it also makes a great keepsake for the child’s memory box.

When it comes to goody bags, skip purchasing the themed ones and decorate the bags yourself! Also, try matching the items inside the bags to the party theme and ensure they are age appropriate for each party-goer. For Example because my children are younger the hostess included Olivia board books in their goody bags.

As adults we often think to have fresh flowers at our parties, why not have them at a party for kids? Especially when you can tie it back to the party theme.

And lastly, I LOVE these custom water bottles. The hostess even provided red and white paper straws!

So, which one of these fabulous party ideas would you like to steal? How would you make it your own?

About Kelly Tirman

Kelly Tirman is the mom behind kellytirman.com and serves as Sr. Manager of Operations for Walmart’s Global eCommerce User Experience, Insights & Analytics teams. Kelly’s blog focuses on sharing ideas on urban living; including general lifestyle, raising multilingual children and organic beauty.

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And for my all time favorite… Make clean up easy! Stamp these paper Ace® Yard Bags with these cool stamps to easily collect compost, recycling, and trash items.

Special Thanks:
Just want to give a quick shout out to the following… Momma Janet for volunteering her brilliant baking skills while the rest of us finished making the party favors and drank champagne. All our family and friends who attended the party as well as Sunbow Sunscreen and Cascadian Farms for providing supplies for the goody bags. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! We couldn’t have had this party without you.

About Kelly Tirman

Kelly Tirman is the mom behind kellytirman.com and serves as Sr. Manager of Operations for Walmart’s Global eCommerce User Experience, Insights & Analytics teams. Kelly’s blog focuses on sharing ideas on urban living; including general lifestyle, raising multilingual children and organic beauty.

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Make your own banner out of felt. Stringing each letter up with clothespins will give you the ability to rearrange the letters – making it reusable for multiple kids.

Forgo the disposable party supply table cloths and buy bold pieces of fabric.

And I absolutely love the way she spelled out the kids names using these brightly colored alphabet stickers.

Every princess needs a crown. Why not use it to proudly display her age?

And for my all time favorite… Make clean up easy! Use these paper Ace® Yard Bags to collect recycling, trash and compost items.

About Kelly Tirman

Kelly Tirman is the mom behind kellytirman.com and serves as Sr. Manager of Operations for Walmart’s Global eCommerce User Experience, Insights & Analytics teams. Kelly’s blog focuses on sharing ideas on urban living; including general lifestyle, raising multilingual children and organic beauty.

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The following is a guest post by professional organizer and author Lea Schneider.

To organize your child, you first need to organize the right mind set.

1. Know  being organized is a learned trait. Children are not born organized but every child can learn to be organized. Just ask any three-year old to show you’re their pre-school cubbie. They were taught to put their things away properly.

2. You can not separate being organized and being responsible. An adult or child who is responsible for their time, belongings and space around them is organized.

3.  Have a place for everything. Just like your child repeats that naughty word you shouldn’t have said in front of them, they will repeat your actions. If you set stuff here and there, they will too.

4. Start organizing when your child is a toddler. A toddler can drop their clothes in the hamper and their toys in a basket while you clap and praise them. Have a much older child? Be confident  they can surely do something a toddler can manage.

5. Lose the mindset that it is just easier to do it yourself. Motherhood isn’t about easy. When you clean up their space or belongings, or organize their backpack for the next day, what have they learned? Is it really easier for you if it means you get to continue to do this until they are in college? (It’s a sure bet those are the adult college students who drag home a semester’s worth of laundry to mom.)

6. Don’t do any task for your child that you can instead do with your child. (Do of course choose age appropriate tasks.) Doing a task with your child allows you to show them how to do something but still puts the responsibility on their shoulders while you are there to supervise and teach.

7. Be willing to let your child accept the consequences of being disorganized. In a world where so many kids have begun to make the excuse that everything is someone else’s fault, it is a powerful lesson to accept the consequence of their own actions. If they have to sit out a ballgame, get a poor grade due to a forgotten paper or other action due to being unorganized, don’t run interference for them. Instead, work with them on organizing techniques so  it doesn’t happen again.

8. Establish clear expectations. Saying “clean your room” does not at all help your children meet your home’s standards. You really do have to spell it out. For example, work with them to make a room cleaning list which itemizes what has to be done. Have them hang it on the door and check each item off.

9. Demonstrate compassion. There’s no argument  children, and adults, have too much stuff from too many clothes to too many toys. Make it okay in your home to set limits and to teach your child to share your excess by donating it to children who have little. A child without limits to the number of belongings may grow into an adult who doesn’t know how to say no to themselves. They may end up with a lifelong problem with too-much-stuff and the inability to deal with it.

10. Know there are organizing solutions to every bit of chaos and clutter. As a mom, you are just not going to know the answer to how to organize everything. What you should know is  there is a way to organize everything. The answer is out there. From how to store toys, fix closets so young children can use them, have kids pack their own backpacks and lunches, to get teens to do laundry, to being on time in the morning, there are tips, tricks and techniques for everything. Take time to look for solutions and be willing to try something new. If that idea doesn’t work, try something else. You absolutely can teach your children to be organized.

About Lea Schneider

Professional Organizer Lea Schneider is the author of “Growing-Up Organized: A Mom-to-Mom Guide,” (Amazon.com, $14). The book was compiled by Schneider based on her own experiences as a mom and her experience working with other moms as a professional organizer.

A resident of Pensacola, FL, she shared her favorite must have items: hot coffee, pretzels, a weekly dinner menu stuck to the side of the fridge, yoga class and lots of permanent markers. Please visit her blog at www.organizerightnow.wordpress.com.

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I have always liked the look of good quality wrapping paper however I avoid purchasing it due to the cost and environmental impacts. My mom loves to tell people that even as a small child I would carefully unwrap presents in order to save the boxes, ribbons, and paper for later use.

Several months ago I noticed that walmart.com uses crumpled butcher paper instead of peanuts to pack their shipments. Although I was happy to see that they were using materials that could easily be recycled I thought it would be great to reuse/re-purpose this material before recycling.

After a few experiments I have managed to come up with several patterns that turn this ordinary butcher paper into amazing wrapping paper. I have wrapped all my holiday gifts this way and I plan on using this idea any time I need wrapping paper in the future.

Additional Tip: Have your kids decorate the wrapping paper for you – it is a great way to keep them entertained.

About Kelly Tirman

Kelly Tirman is the mom behind kellytirman.com and serves as Sr. Manager of Operations for Walmart’s Global eCommerce User Experience, Insights & Analytics teams. Kelly’s blog focuses on sharing ideas on urban living; including general lifestyle, raising multilingual children and organic beauty.

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