Bye-Bye Winter! Spring Party Tips for Outdoor Entertaining

After a long winter, you might find yourself craving some social time with your friends. You’ll definitely find yourself craving some time out in the warm sunshine. The time for staying in by the fire is over. It’s time to dust off the sundresses and Bermuda shorts. In short, it’s time for a spring-themed party!

To throw a great spring party, you really just need three things: an inviting outdoor space, refreshments, and activities for the kids. You and your adult friends can enjoy a party while you all stand around and talk in a beautiful garden with a few refreshing drinks. Your kids, on the other hand, will need some supervision and activities to keep them from getting bored and whiny and causing trouble.

Location, Location, Location

Do you have a beautiful garden that you’ve been dying to show off? Your backyard could be a great spot for your springtime party. However, if you’ve been working really hard on your garden, you might want to make sure that the kids don’t get too near your plants and flowers. They won’t mean to ruin your prized roses, but they’ll climb right in if they’re given the chance.

If you’re planning on having the party at home, but you don’t have a very impressive garden, you could hire someone to decorate for you, or you could rent flowering plants from a local nursery. You could also find an outdoor venue that allows daily rentals.

If you’re concerned about keeping the environment nice, you may want to hire a babysitter or two to keep the kids busy while the adults enjoy their party.

Refreshments

When planning refreshing drinks for your party, you should take everyone into account. Even if you don’t have any children in attendance, you’ll want to make sure that you have some choices of nonalcoholic drinks. Not everyone is going to want to drink, and you don’t want anyone driving home drunk. Make sure that you have refreshments for designated drivers and anyone who doesn’t want to imbibe.

To keep your budget low, but your guests satisfied, you can make a punchbowl or two of a signature spring cocktail and a punchbowl of regular lemonade or fruit punch, along with sodas and a few beers or bottles of wine.

Activities for the Kids

This is potentially the most important part. You want your party to be a success. If your kids and your guests’ kids are bored, they’ll start whining and creating problems. That’s just what kids do. If they get into too much trouble, their parents will have to take them home. If that happens, the party could end abruptly and early.

Pick out some games for the kids, and talk with the babysitters about keeping them busy and happy. You and the other parents can participate in the games and activities as much or little as you like. You can join in the games or stand by and watch, while you catch up with each other and enjoy some time hanging out with adults.