Kids lolly bags

[Doing my best]

Wow sounds like I'm the only one she doesn't mind my kids having lollies in their lolly bags

Nah, I don't mind kids getting lollies, but my kids are fussy, and don't like most of them.. We normally only buy natural confectionery ones, so they often don't like the flavors of other brands, but happy for them to try them..

When I put lollies in, I only do the individually wrapped ones though, but lollies aren't the main focus of ours.. My DD just had a pamper party, so I gave a red tinted moogoo lip gloss to all the girls (the party cost had gift bags included, but I added it as an extra). For DS who turned 4 last year, his bags had a little book that I got for 50 c each at target, a little stationery set (pencil, eraser, notepad and something else) that I paid $1.50 each at kmart, a choc frog, a sticker page (i got a book on sale), and DS hand decorated the paper bags we used..

[Beach Mama]

In the past I have made softy robots, crayon rolls and then gone with more traditional stuff but I tend to put in 1-2 little freddo type lollies and a few snakes and that's it - I'd rather give them a few decent chocolates and lollies than a full one of the cheap nasty stuff , then we usually get things like mega bouncy balls. balloons stickers, and little packs of crayons etc.

[Swamp princess]

I put curly straws, pencils, erasers, note pads plus a few lollies in the bags for DD party. Party food wise I don't have super junk food. Fruit kebabs, vege sticks, mini quiches. Drink is usually punch made with juice and soda water. The cake is enough sugar.

[Country_Mum]

Last year we did a farm theme'd birthday party for the kids (with 50/50 and kids born within 9 days of each other it's hard to have separate parties for them at this age

) so I bought eco biodegradable giftbags from Spotlight for $2.29 for 5 (so I bought 6 packs to make sure we had more then enough) and in them each kid got a bubble wand, temp tattoo, pencil with animal pencil topper, silly straw, cow print balloon, party blower, sticky horse (like those sticky hands), bag of chips, lollipop and a cuddly farm animal. All up I think each bag came to about under $7 each as I bought everything in bulk and the most costly things were the bubble wand and cuddley farm animal @ a whopping $1 each..

The kids weren't even disappointed that there wasn't a bunch of junk food! They dug straight into them and didn't bother with the lollipop or chips but pulled out the bubble wands, balloons, blowers, cuddly thing.. they were swapping the different colours among each other and everything, was super cool My DD is allergic to chocolate and orange so I have to monitor what she has..

This year they had a MLP and Avengers themed party (again joint joy of split parenting when the other parent wont work with you for birthdays) so we had half of each room the theme colours, I ran out of time for the bags so they had plastic loot bags but in the pink ones there was a MLP hairbrush, notepad, pencil, balloon, party blower, MLP crown, lollipop, candy heart bracelet, necklace, a MLP keychain and keldiscope (total was $8 for all MLP bags) and the cutest little themed rubber duckies (Dinosaur though not MLP, pink/purple for girls). Avengers one's had a large Avengers reusable cup, red star sunnies, crazy straw, avengers S.H.E.I.L.D rubbed bracelet, mini flying disk, rubber ducky dino (blue and green for boys), Iron man face mask, Lollipop, Candy Hearts, iron man party blower one of those pop dome things (a little rubber dome, you turn it inside out and put it on the ground and it pops up at random) and little Styrofoam planes.. HUGE hit with the kids. Think the favourite was the rubber duckies.. Kids had a blast, I was asked about the party bags by a few of the parents.. DS one cost me less that $5 to make each one as I bought everything in bulk and on sale (a pack of 12 rubber ducks cost me $1.04, glasses were $1.99 for 12, Pop domes were $2.90 for 25).

Next year no idea what to plan but I'll do the same.. I prefer the kids to have something fun to take home with a few lollies..

[milka]

At my son's jungle party (3-4 year olds) each child got an empty cup and then they made binoculars (toilet rolls) and decorated them with jungle stickers. Then they were let loose in the garden to search for hidden animals and treasure (choc gold coins) and they filled up their cups with all they could find and that was what they took home with them! They loved it. Plus I had a giant long worm balloons (thanks EBay!) that I had blown up and they got as they left.

[lee_bee]

I usually pop in a little bottle of bubbles, a glow stick (bracelet ones that you get in multi packs from woollies etc), stickers, a packet of rice crackers and a mini box of smarties or something similar.

[OceanPrincess]

My sister recently went to one where the mum had made rainbow crayons in butterfly shapes - she broke up some cheap crayons, different colours, into little chips, put them into a silicone butterfly shaped mini muffin tray and heated them up. Crayons melted, swirled together, set into butterflies.

She saw it in Pinterest. Of course!

For my DS2's birthday recently, I did glow stocks, bubbles, magic wands, small toys like cars and bugs, a mini pack of cards... And some lollies. My kids don't eat tons of rubbish but I don't mind it at parties. I figure parents can monitor their own kids' eating!