Just cake and ice cream?
Themed parties are more popular than ever, and — with a little planning — aren’t too much to handle

From left, Zachary Hargrave, Jackson Wood and Bailey Smith dress in character as superheroes for a birthday celebration.

With three children under the age of 7, Chrissie Kaufmann of Taylors has her work cut out for her each time a birthday rolls around.

About a month in advance, Kaufmann thinks about what her children like to do, gives them a couple of options, and moves forward from there. These days, themed parties are all the rage.

Rule No. 1, according to Kaufmann: Set a budget.

“You don’t want to spend a whole lot,” she said. “I make a list and as I have spare minutes, I’ll do what I can on the list.”

For her daughter Cecily’s third birthday, she chose a ladybug theme. She asked guests to wear red and had black stickers to apply to their clothes.

“We took red balloons, red plates and put round black stickers on them,” she said.

Cecily especially liked decorating Mom’s red sweater. As an activity, the children were given inexpensive magnifying glasses so they could look for ladybugs in the yard and do some exploring, but Kaufmann kept the theme going.

“We did outdoor exploration with notebooks with homemade ladybug stickers on them,” she said.

To top off the celebration, cupcakes were decorated with maraschino cherries and black icing to look like ladybugs.

Another party for Cecily, who is now 6, required guests to dress in their royal finery. The theme: princes and princesses. As party goers arrived, they had the opportunity to make decorations for their own costumes. Glitter glue, paint and stickers were available for decorating.

“Everybody made their own crown,” said Kaufmann. “I had a pad of big construction paper and used a paper crown from Burger King as the template.”

During the party, the children were sent on a treasure hunt for gold coins, which were actually foil-wrapped chocolates. All the treasure was gathered together in a foil-wrapped shoebox, and, at the end of the party, the children split the bounty. The coins, Kaufmann said, did double duty as party favors.

Kerry Dover, manager at Party City in Greenville, said no matter the theme, cake molds are available to carry a party’s theme right to the dessert. Themed cascade centerpieces can add some pizzazz to tables, and door and yard decorations further help set the mood, she said. Dover said pirates are a popular theme right now with boys.

It’s something to which Kaufmann can easily relate. When her son Michael’s third birthday came, a pirate party was a must.

“I took bunches of newspaper for the kids to fold and create hats,” she said.

For the guest of honor, Kaufmann bought a special pirate hat with a skull and crossbow on it so he could be the pirate captain. Shark Bites fruit chews carried the theme to the food, and cardboard tubes were pretend telescopes as the birthday guests played in the yard. A baby pool with inflatable fish and sharks in it set next to the picnic table added to the fun.

For parents planning a pirate party — or almost any themed party — plenty of decorating and costume accessories can usually be found to help set the mood. At Party City, for example, Dover said the store carries pirate eye patches, hoop earrings, pirate flags and pirate-shaped piñatas.

Greer resident Melanie Richardson is also familiar with themed birthday parties. Last year, 3-year-old daughter Abby had a Dora the Explorer party. Richardson got a Dora cake and all of Abby’s gifts — which were Dora-related — were wrapped in Dora-themed paper.

“Dora’s very popular,” Richardson said. “Abby asked everyone, ‘Are you coming to my Dora party?’ It wasn’t a birthday party, it was a Dora party.”

To make the event planning even easier, Richardson and her husband ordered a Birthday in a Box through the Internet. At the Birthday in a Box Web site, parents can find a theme and order the complere box.

“Everything was great.” Richardson said. “It comes with things you wouldn’t even think of. The favors were things you couldn’t find in a local store.”

The Dora box came with cups, plates, balloons, invitations, thank-you notes, a piñata, favors and banner that was printed with “Happy Birthday Abby.”

“The party came together really easily because we didn’t have to search for anything,” Richardson said.

Abby is already looking forward to her next party, which will be Scooby Doo themed, her mom said.

Melissa Robison and her oldest child, Matthew, celebrated his most recent birthday with a painting party at Color Clay Café in Greenville. Robison said she particularly enjoyed the fact that there was no need to decorate — and no cleanup duties to worry about.

The room was decorated with thumbprint pictures for all the birthday children. Matthew chose a skeleton to go with his thumbprint and they added his name and the date of his party.

“They gave us a room and all the kids got to paint 6-by-6 tiles,” she said.