Last Saturday we celebrated Mason’s birthday with his school classmates with a Policed Themed Birthday Party. We had 8 kids over for some fun and games. The weather was iffy so I set-up the food table inside and everything else I put outside. Smart move on my part as it started to rain with about 45 minutes left of the party! All available printables are at the bottom of this post.

On to the details! I created the invites in Adobe Illustrator and had them printed as 4×6 photos.
Since the 4×6 invitation was simple, I decided to jazz up the envelopes. I used brightly colored #10 envelopes, sealed them, and trimmed them to 8″ high, which made an opening at the top. I inserted the invite, and then punched a hole at the top and used a ribbon to secure it shut. I used my Silhouette to create the badge and used foam tape to adhere it to the envelope.

Our chalk outline drawings greeted our visitors and the parents got a good laugh out of them.

I made this Cityscape background for the food table using cotton fabric and felt. I used painters tape and taped it directly to the wall and then used crime scene tape to make a border.  To finish it off I hung a stars bunting that I made out of paper.

 

I STRONGLY suggest doing a donut cake if your child will let you get away with it! It was cute AND easy, plus pretty mess free. I still did ice cream for those that wanted it. Seriously, every single kid enjoyed this cake. I went with mini-donuts too so it wasn’t like they were getting huge serving sizes.

 

For food we had fruit and rice krispie treat kabobs, a fruit salad, water and juice boxes. For the kabobs I used pre-made treats and cut them out with a star cookie cutter.

My son found the crime scene tape and went to town around the house, which I got a kick out of! He also barricaded off the gates to the pool.
When the kids arrived I had wanted posters and markers waiting for them. They each made an evil doer and then we hung them on a line next to the Wanted Photobooth where we took funny pictures of them as the bad guy!
I have the goodie bags out as the kids left. I used popcorn boxes I picked up from Pick Your Plum and filled them with Dollar Store notebooks that I covered with duct tape and washi tape – these were the kids “ticket books”. I included a pencil, whistle, badge and a magnify glass – all tools a police officer would need! I topped it off with Copcorn, smarties and a police car cookie.
Let’s take a moment to look at these amazing cookies, shall we? They were created by Bailey’s Dozen Cookie Co. and are a nice soft, cake-like traditional sugar cookie. They taste delicious and are kid-approved. I personally have never been a fan of black icing, I taste the food coloring I guess, but the kids had no problems wolfing these down. And of course there were lots of siren noises as they drove the cookies around the table! It wasn’t easy finding Police Car cookies but I found Bailey’s Dozen doing a search on Etsy and am so glad I did! I highly suggest joining Bailey’s Dozen Cookie Co. Cookie Club too! Cookie Club members enjoy monthly, holiday and seasonal specials via email. You’ll receive discounts such as BOGO, 50% off deals and more. Plus, it’s FREE to join! You can also follow them on Facebook (let them know I sent you!).
I also made this great Police Hat for the birthday boy. I purchased the shape from Silhouette.
For games we played Freeze Tag and Red Light/Green Light. They also had free play – climbing trees, swinging and so on. Once the rain came we all piled into the playroom where all the kids had fun exploring, coloring and playing with toys.\
I must say, I was exhausted after this party. I think having a few parents stay threw me for a loop because I felt like I needed to entertain them, plus make sure to keep the party moving and keep an eye on all the kids. But I did enjoy chatting with them and getting to know each a bit better. It is definitely a different dynamic than our usual family/friend parties, but my son enjoyed seeing his school classmates and had a wonderful time.

Simple and inexpensive Police Themed DIY Birthday Party!

FREE POLICED THEMED BIRTHDAY PARTY PRINTABLES

All printables are pdf format and are sized to 8.5×11 unless otherwise noted.
As always, free for personal use, do not alter.
Donut Cake Topper
Water Bottle Labels 
Welcome Sign – 12×12
Wanted Poster – 13×19
Wanted Coloring Page
Copcorn Favor Topper – fits sandwich ziplock bags