12 Birthday Party Ideas in Vancouver

In the spirit of helping moms everywhere keep their house intact and cake out of the rug, we've got the scoop on 12 birthday party ideas in Vancouver.

YogaMelle will transform your home into a yoga studio while you put the candles on the cake. Mélanie Doré, the owner and instructor, is a bilingual elementary school teacher and certified yoga instructor, who teaches weekly yoga classes to children. Her party package includes 45 minutes of yoga, followed by 45 minutes of crafts, for children ages 5 and up. The yoga will be tailored for the age of the party guests, and will include music and dancing, as well as soothing aromatherapy and breathing exercises.

We're thrilled to snowballs that Mount Seymour has snow tubing, tobogganing, and snowshoeing party packages available. A three hour party booking gives you two hours of snow play, followed by an hour in their cozy Yurt (how cool) for pizza or hotdogs. We recommend you bring your own birthday cake and decorations to personalize the experience. Good to know: Kids have to be 122 cm tall for snow tubing, but the tobogganing works for both toddlers and older children.

Scruffles the Clown is the most amazing balloon-twisting entertainer west of the Rockies. With 18 years of balloon-twisting experience, if you can imagine it, he can create it. Allow his true genius to sparkle by asking him to whip up a Harley Davidson your child can perch on, complete with a balloon helmet and goggles (safety first, of course). At cake time, Scruffles will also sing a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday complete with big band accompaniment and set off a confetti cannon (if mom okays it).

The Cliffhanger Climbing Gym is Vancouver's largest indoor rock-climbing facility with over 15,000 square feet of climbing terrain and 53 top ropes. Welcoming climbers as young as 6 years of age, there are beginner classes and drop-in times available at their Vancouver, Coquitlam and Richmond facilities. Kids 7 and up love their Vertical Birthdays.

In addition to rock climbing, Laserdome Plus in North Vancouver also boasts Glow-in-the-Dark Laser Tag (recommended for ages 6 and up), a pressure-sensitive Light Space (like tag, only the moving light on the floor is ‘It'), a 24-foot tall Space Jungle complete with a slide, rope walkways and a clubhouse for kids 10 and under (make sure to wear socks), and a party room with party leaders to keep everything flowing smoothly.

The Edge Climbing Centre has over 15,000 square feet of vertical climbing surface. Families are welcome here with no minimum age requirement. Birthday parties offer a 3:1 ratio of climbers to staff, which is the highest of any facility in the Lower Mainland. We like that they have a party room where you can serve cake and refreshments so there's no mess to bring home.

North Shore Bowl is hip to the glow-in-the-dark trend and kids love this place for celebrating birthdays because of the unique glow party room. Moms love it because the food set-up and clean-up are included in the price. If you have beginner bowlers, be sure to ask for bumpers on the lanes to avoid too many gutter balls. Then sit back and watch the tikes score some spares and strikes!

Find inspiration for budding gardeners at GardenWorks, where there's a special kids' corner set up for workshops and birthday parties, held here most Fridays. Coordinators catch the kids' imagination and teach them something new about nature. Then the children all take home a pot planted with something either pretty or yummy!

If you have a budding artist in the family, you might already know about 4Cats Art Studios but you might not know that the place that styles itself as ‘the best, most fun art studio ever' is now open for parties. From Pop Art to Dragons, Van Gogh to Paint Splatter, 4Cats has themed art parties for ages 3 to 16 that will please any palette. Each party starts with a one-hour art lesson, and each guest leaves with a genuine objet d'art.

If staying in, then stay sane with help from The Party Treasure. This company delivers a treasure box full of fairy, princess or pirate fun for 3 to 8 year-olds right to your door! You'll receive high quality costumes for 10 kids, beautifully matched melamine plates and cups, bio-degradable forks and napkins, a list of game and activity ideas and a themed-music CD. For $135 a package, it's not a bad deal when you include the themed goody bags that go with them.

If you decide to hit the road, head to Frosting Cupcakery in Langley. Melanie McDougall, owner and savvy mom of two, has a sweet spot for baking and kids, so it's no surprise she's hosting birthday parties. Budding pastry chefs start off decorating their very own chef hats, and then get a mini lesson on how to use frosting tips before decorating two cupcakes themselves. The one-and-a-half hour party package is $13 per child and also includes one or two jugs of ice tea and lemonade, depending on the number of guests (extra jugs are $5 each). You can bring your own food and do your gift opening right there.

To loot or not to loot, that is the question. The answer comes from a couple of Vancouver moms who came up with a solution called Bag O' Swag, which brings together a variety of themed loot bags to choose from, all from the comfort of your computer. Using cool toys of yesterday, each bag contains three or four gems and costs $10. Wrapped in a natural cotton reusable bag, we love these little treasures as much as the earth does.