Sometimes the party just has to be held indoors and the thought of all those gleefully over-the-edge children running around your house can make any Mom frazzled.  A little forethought given to planning eco-friendly activities can keep the kids entertained and you calm!  Plan a combination of energetic activities with more quiet ones to keep the kids from getting out of control. Relay races, treasure and scavenger hunts and physical challenge games will all get their little hearts pumping.  Start with these then move onto quieter activities before sitting them down to eat.  Try a storytime for the younger ones and some crafts for older children to settle them.  

        In addition to the tried and true party games we all know, here are a few ideas for eco-friendly activities that are suitable for indoor parties.  Choose according to the age of the children, the theme of  your party and the preferences of your own child.  We'll be updating our ideas monthly so check back often!

• Treasure and scavenger hunts work indoors too.  Set boundaries so you don't havae children wandering into every room of your house.  You can make it as simple as "find the lost puppy" making use of your child's stuffed animal collection to a series of clues that send them around the house looking for hidden favor bags!
• Cooking is always a fun activity, especially with the current popularity of of network food shows.  It can be as simple as decorating cupcakes to overnight breadmaking at a sleepover party.  Little children can assemble their own mini-pizzas.  Older children can make spaghetti and meatballs.  You can't lose baking cookies.  Pass out chef's aprons, have a rehearsal and then video a cooking show!
• Invite girls to come dressed up for a tea party and fashion show or movie.  Set a pretty table and serve fancy cakes and tea sandwiches on real china.
• Make sock or paper bag puppets and put on a puppet show.  Select a favorite book, make the characters into puppets. Read the story aloud and the puppets will make the story come to life. 
• Invite little girls to come dressed up as princesses or garden fairies.  Read a fairy tale and have them act out the story complete with music. 
• Have a scrapbooking party.  Ask guests to bring some photos and set up all they'll need to create some pages for a scrapbook.  Be sure to recycle the papers and embellishments you already have on hand....beads, feathers, buttons, ribbon...anything goes!
• Science experiments can be mesmerizing for the young scientist in your family.  Test magnetic v. nonmagnetic objects, have a sink or float guessing game using just a large bowl of water and objects you have around the house.  Check out this site www.kids-science-experiments.com/ for easy, fun experiments that will entertain and educate. 
• Art projects can be as simple as creating a handprint poster with every child's handprint and signature for the birthday child plus smaller versions for each child to take home.  Or create collage or mosaic self protraits by cutting up old magazines (suggest guests bring some from home too)
• Create a time capsule where eveyone brings something they think is worth remembering about this year to put into a container they then decorate themselves with whatever recycled goods you have on hand:  papers, fabrics, ribbons, etc.. Or have eveyone bring a shoebox (if you don't have enough!) to create treasure/memory boxes of their own.  They can make lists of what to put in them when they retun home.  Photos of the party can be a good start. 
• Mystery Bags are always challenging fun.  You can write each letter of your child's name on individual bags and have everyone guess the contents that start with that letter.  Or a set of bags where the chldren are blindfolded and must guess the contents only by touch.  Change objects and try to guess by smell only, or by taste.  These last two are great for cooking parties.
• Memory games have been around forever but tailor it to your child's interests and it becomes a new game!  Set related  objects (animals, kitchen utensils, sports items, etc) on a tray and after 1 minute, remove the tray and have everyone write down whtat they saw.  A variation is to gather everyone in the room, instructing guests to observe one another closely.  Then randomly choose one person to leave the room and the remaining guests must write down as much as they can remember about them, head to toe.  Whoever remembers the most, accurately, wins!
• Have your own fashion runway.  Collect fabric scraps or clothes you won't mind cutting up, plus scarves, belts, hats, shoes, purses, etc and divide the girsl into small groups to design an outfit on one of the girls.  You can suggest a category (prom dress, funky, beach, etc) or just let them choose their own.  Have a fashion show at the end.  Repeat if you have enough materials to create more outfits.
• Girls love a spa party.  Set up stations where they can soak their feet in epsom salts and then have a pedicure and manicure.  Wrap hair up in towels, put cucumber slices on eyes and don't forget to take pictures!  Have the girls do each other's hair...suggest they all do braids or upsweeps or funky styles and have a competition.  Pictures are a must!  
• If you have a "backwards" party, make sure that everything  you do is backwards:  walking, talking, dressing,  Award the best backwards outfit, speaker, walker, eater, etc. You'll be amazed at how creative they can be!   
• If the weather doesn't cooperate for you outdoor nature party, bring Mother Nature inside for a while.  Paint pet rocks. Make bird feeders with pinecones, suet and seeds ( go to www.enviro-explorers.com/pinecone_web_page/pineconefeederindex.html ) Plant seeds in a pot.  Make  sculptures with small items you have already gathered from the yard or park:  leaves, twigs, grasses, etc. 
• Name that tune!  Works for younger children who will recognize nursery rhymes to the tween party where you and your child can work together to select tunes that are popular with her age group.  You remember how to play don't  you?  Just play the first notes of the song then increase by a few more at a time until someone recognizes the song!  All that is really needed is someone who is fast with the cd player/ipod to do all that starting & stopping!
• Who am I?   Using old pictures from magazines, cut them up into puzzle like pieces.  Pin them one at a time to a board until someone recognizes the person, place or thing.  Depending on the objects chosen, this can work for all age groups.  Animals are best for the young ones; older ones can also recognize people, and not just movie stars.  Include famous people from history or current events.

        Have some of your own eco-friendly party activities that you would like to share?  Please email them to customercare@onemomandaparty.com and we will post them here!