Believe me, ask any kid and they will tell you that there's nothing like going outdoors to have fun. Recently, we had a kid whose parent went through a whole lot of trouble planning an ATV trip as a birthday present. It was a smashing success and during one of the many parent-to-parent conversations, we had lots of positive feedback about such a party! Indeed, it's one of the most encouraging things to hear for an enthusiast. ATV riding is not only a form of sport, but it's more than a healthy form of gathering and outing for both kids and adults alike. You will see that there's a lot of bonding done between friends and families as we get to know each other better. Understanding each other, working together and participating in such an activity will bring friends together easily.

How to go about doing it? OK, here's a simple idea.

Get your kid to collect all his/her friends' email addresses (or their parents), home numbers plus cell phone numbers

You might need some time to do this because kids, being kids, often forget and they're not very good with lists and stuff. Some kids might even take as long as a couple of weeks to complete the task. So, give them ample time to collect the information, especially if your kid is young. If your child is too young to do this, you might have to work with the teacher; either ask her for the list yourself or ask her/him to help you get the numbers.

Send out the invitations and get the parents' involved

Once you have all the information you need, it's time to send out the invites. First, send emails out informing the parents about the ATV birthday holiday trip and then back it up with text messages sent to the parents/kids' cell phones. At this point in time, it's best that you have all the details you need in the email but if you don't, that's OK. Just let them know that you will revert with the details as they are confirmed.

Reminder and safety rules

Usually, organizing something like this is a pain in the neck because we have to think about renting of quads for the kids and adults, booking up rooms or campgrounds and ensuring there's adequate supply of....well, EVERYTHING! And for a bunch of people too. So, what you should do is to write down a list of things that the parents and kids might need for the trip, print it out and ask your child to pass it along to his or her friends. You might want to print an extra copy so that the kids can back it up and pass it to the parents.

Remember to send the list, again, to the emails of the parents.

Reminder....again

Yes, there's a lot of reminding to you....unless you don't mind surprises! Remind the parents and the kids about the ATV trip about a week before the trip. This might be a good time to give the parents a rundown of what's going to happen during the trip and all other stuff you did not confirm earlier, like rental of ATVs, rooms rentals and stuff like that.

Get them roaring ready for the ATV trip

About a week before the trip, the kids might be a trifle too excited about the trip as it is and this is a good time to sit them down and discuss the safety rules. I think it is always best to enroll the kids together into ATV safety training courses together but I understand that something so extensive is not always possible. And you need consent from all the parents....hence, it could be a little tough, but not impossible. Otherwise, list down all the safety rules and precautions, plus a map of the ATV trail you're heading out to and hand them to the parents before the trip.

Cheer them on!

Some people like to do a last round of reminding the night before the trip but I think there's enough reminding as it is. You can remind them again when you're already at the destination. The night before the quad trip with the kids, I think the best thing you can do for them to remind them to HAVE LOADS OF FUN and take care of each other!