Your kids love the swimming pool out in your back yard.  They are always inviting their friends over to play.  So, why not have a party? Allow your kids and their friends to have a day of fun in the water. You’ve already got the best components – kids and water.  Just take care of a few details, and you’re all set.

Pool Party

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Here are some things to consider:

Send out invitations. If you were hosting a party for adults, you might consider email invitations, or using Evite – but what kid wouldn’t enjoy getting a formal invitation in the mail? After your child makes up his invitation list, call parents to gather addresses. Make sure the parents know they are welcome to stay. Also, ask if each child can swim. Then find cool pool party invitations, and have your child hand write the addresses. The kids will love it! Here are some sites with more great thoughts about pool parties for kids:

Consider safety. The reason parents might want to stick around is because the party is in the water – they’ll be concerned about safety. You could designate a parent or two to watch the kids – but who knows if they want that responsibility. You’re going to be busy with food and being a hostess, so you’ll be distracted. A solution that is becoming very common is to hire a lifeguard. If there’s a kid in the neighborhood who works as a lifeguard at the community pool during the summer, the kids will already be used to minding him – he has the power to make them get out of the pool. The parents will relax seeing that safety is well attended.

Decorate. There are lots of great pool party decorations. Decide on a theme, whether it is beachy or a tropical luau. You can also add in some pool lights, from floating orbs to underwater lighting, to make the occasion more festive.

Take care of food. Any party that my son has been invited to has one of two choices for food – burgers or pizza. The reason is simple – kids love those foods, and you won’t have kids turning up their noses about the menu. That makes the food easy to plan for the party. Have your child check with his friends to see which one they want. If pizza – arrange for a big delivery. If burgers, have your husband fire up the backyard grill. If they can’t decide – just do some of both. Have some pizza delivered, and your husband cook up some burgers, and everyone is happy. You can also get a snack variety pack to have on hand.

The kids will need to sit out of the water for a while after the meal, so have Frisbees and other games in the backyard.

Party games. Have you ever watched the kids play at the community pool? They don’t need instructions to have fun. They make up games that where it’s hard to tell what the rules are, and are always coming up with variations on old games like Marco Polo. The pool is one of those times where kids are learning social skills – how to work together (when they form teams), creativity (in figuring out gaps in the rules for the new game), and bonding with each other. Have a few games available to mention to them – Shark in the Water, or Treasure Hunt, but if they don’t need a new idea, just let them play. You can have a pool basketball hoop set up so that kids can play any time. There are plenty of other pool games out there, from simple dive sticks to ball games.

Consider the weather and lighting. If it’s spring, and it will be getting cool in the evening, plan the party for the afternoon, to take advantage of the sun. If it’s the middle of summer and brutally hot outside, have the party in the evening, to get away from the sun. If the party is in the evening, consider adding some lighting to the back yard.

When the last child has left, and your child turns to you with a big smile on their face, you can smile as well – your party was a success!

Becky Flanigan has lived near the beach since she was a kid. She gave up on surfing a while back, but enjoys walking the beach just as much as ever.