My middle child just turned 5, and we celebrated with a fiesta. Having some fun with her name and age, we called it Cinco de Maia. My favorite part of this party was how affordable the decorations were. Who knew you could get such big, colorful results from a simple pack of tissue paper?
Her favorite colors are pink and purple, so I tried to spin the fiesta decorations that way. I used pink, purple, aqua, yellow, and orange. With tissue paper in those colors I made bold, fringe banners that I hung everywhere. The remaining tissue paper got turned into big paper flowers. At the party's end, the kids got to choose their favorite flower to take home.
I couldn't find a pinata with the right colors, so instead I made individual pinatas as party favors. These were 2 Styrofoam cups hot glued together. (NOTE: if you have a super-hot glue gun, it may melt the styrofoam.) Then I cut fringe into lengths of crepe paper streamers and attached those to the cups with tape. 
For a party craft, we made God's Eyes. Again the materials were very simple and cheap- a pack of small craft sticks and balls of yarn in the party colors. This craft took a little more focus and coordination than some of the smaller kids had, but the bigger ones enjoyed learning how to make them.
So colorful. So festive. So affordable. Ole!
