When The Seattle Times asked readers if home birthday parties still existed, the answer was an emphatic yes. Parents wrote by e-mail and letter to assure us that many families still opt for home bashes.

Far from being a lesser option to last week's article on kid's birthday parties outside the home, parents said home parties offer an intimacy and personal quality that celebrations at facilities can't match.

Plus, many said they enjoyed the creative challenge of finding fun themes and involving their children in planning activities and making decorations.

Parents can find ideas in dozens of books and Web sites devoted to themes, games and decorations. Here, three families share their party inspirations:

After reading "Swan Lake," twins Millie and Meg Reinhardsen adapted the story into a play for their parents. Each year, when they come home from watching Molbak's Garden & Nursery's annual fairy-tale production, they stage the same show. "That's kind of their thing," said their mother, Karen Hamilton.

So when the girls chose a theater theme for their recent 11th-birthday party at their Lake Sammamish home, Hamilton wasn't surprised.

After drawing names for parts, the twins and seven friends chose costumes from a dress-up box. Then, at the end of the four-hour party, they performed "Freedom and Friendship," an American Girl script, and "Caps for Sale," adapted from a short children's book, for all the girls' parents.

The twins, fourth-graders at Issaquah's Discovery Elementary School, created admission tickets, sent out invitations, planned the parts and, with their father, designed and painted large pieces of cardboard for scenery.

Hamilton always hosts the girls' parties at home; their father decorates a cake for each.

"I don't like the direction so many parties take, where it costs so much money to rent out rooms, directors, etc.," Hamilton said.

Vicki Smokoff of Gig Harbor spent as much on her children's home birthday parties - $200 to $250 - as she would on a bash at an outside facility. But that includes full lunches for both children and adults and elaborate party favors.

For her daughter Lindsey's third party, for example, the nine partygoers took home bags with tea sets, pretend pearl necklaces, rings and lace gloves. Instead of birthday cake, Smokoff served truffles.

Five-year-old Amanda almost opted for a party at a ceramics store but decided to stay home when she learned she couldn't play games around the breakable ceramic pieces. So Smokoff hosted 17 children for a "Little Mermaid" party where they ate in "boats" (card tables turned upside-down on a blue tarp, with rope tied around the legs).

Fare included boats made from a wedge of cantaloupe with a mast (skewer) consisting of cheese, raisins and grapes; seashell pasta; and candy fish suspended in Jell-O.

Children blew colored bubbles at fish-shaped paper, dipped nets in a kiddie pool for "Little Mermaid" figurine prizes and played musical balloons to the "Little Mermaid" soundtrack.

Smokoff says she spends an evening on the Internet and reading books to research ideas, an evening cooking and a day getting prepared for the parties.

"It's a hobby for me," she said. "I let the girls pick the theme and then take off from there."

While she enjoys the challenge of fitting activities and decorations to the theme, she's learned that young children are quite happy to play make-believe with what they're given.

"The kids were so into it," she said. "They wouldn't eat lunch outside the `boats.' Kids will have fun no matter what it is."

When Katherine Howlett (now 13) turned 10, she turned her interest in medieval times into a party theme by using calligraphy to write invitations on parchment and researching what food people might have eaten. She also shopped for costume items at thrift shops.

At the party, torches, candles and a bubbling stew in a cauldron in the fireplace set the mood. Guests made outfits to wear, including pointy hats made of paper with fabric stapled to the end.

Katherine's mom, Susan, served stew out of hollowed bread loaves and "mead" out of borrowed pewter tankards. Since they didn't serve cake for desserts in medieval days, Katherine made custard with candied rose petals.

Later, the girls concocted potions out of herbs and strung "lutes" with rubber bands over holes in small cardboard boxes.

Katherine's brother, Ben, picked a bird theme for his sixth birthday (he's now 10). He made little bird nests out of shredded wheat and honey pushed into cupcake tins filled with jelly-bean eggs. Guests filled plastic strawberry baskets with string and other nest material to hang in a tree at home.

Ben sewed drawstring bags out of birdhouse-patterned fabric and included favors such as bird stickers, tin bird pins and plastic bird whistles.

Both parties cost about $20, Howlett said.

"The goals of our family's birthday parties have been to spend time with our kids planning something that reflects their current interests and helping them learn to be gracious hosts," she said.

"The preparation process and thinking about their guests has taken precedence over getting presents. Down with extravagance. Up with activities that connect us with our kids and create engaging activities for their friends to share. Good parties shouldn't cost us anything but time."

Stephanie Dunnewind can be reached at 206-464-2091. Her e-mail address is sdunnewind@seattletimes.com.<>