.................................
I am soooooo with you! I just had my daughter's 5th bday party and saved so much money by having it at home. We invited 9 guests and only 4 showed. It was a princess party. I made cute invites on the computer that were in scroll style like they were going to a ball. The girls brought their royal dresses, and we had a few extras in case someone didn't have any. I layed out red paper for a red carpet when they got here. They made magic wands that I had pre cut the stars for. I served chicken nuggets,fries, & cool-aide.Treats were pretzel rod "wands", dipped in white chocolate and rolled in sprinkles, & candy jewelry. Then I sprinkled "fairy dust" (glitter)on each of their heads and said dreams really do come true...they went to change into their gowns. They LOVED this! Cake and ice cream was served, then presents. Then they watched a short princess video they hadn't seen and then danced to princess music until we made a stroke of midnight sound. That's when they had to change out of their gowns. We gave them a small pumpkin and it was time to go home. Everyone had a blast and it didn't cost very much at all! Posted by
Franci Davis on October 13, 2008 10:04 PM .................................
My daughter-in-law had a scrapbooking party for my grandaughter's birthday party. She took pictures through out the beginning of the party and then printed them from her computer. Papers,stickers, markers, paper punches etc.,all bought at the dollar store, were spread out on the table and the girls went to work. Each girl took home four pages in a small photo album that was also bought at the dollar store. The girls had a BALL!!!!! Posted by
sue on October 15, 2008 7:02 PM .................................
GreAT tipz thancs. Posted by
anonymous
on October 15, 2008 8:36 PM .................................
Don't forget about your city parks in warmer weather. We had my 5-year-old's birthday at a park with a playground and a duck pond. No planned activities at all. Playground time, a pinata (Go to a Carnival or Fiesta for these) and colorful bags full of cracker crumbs filled the hours the kids were together. IMO, kids don't needs all the structured play or gimmicks. Heck, our group ended up spontaneously playing tug-of-war with the pinata rope (and some of the adults joined in as well) Posted by
shannon3d on October 18, 2008 11:04 PM .................................
Don't forget musical chairs!...We also used two roles of unused crepe paper for two teams to race wrapping two daddies...they then became "mummies'..ha! The 5 year olds also used stickers to decorate "sparkley" boxes to hold candy and prizes from a pinata! So much fun and cupcakes that the birthday girl got to decorate herself...lots of different sprinkles on each! And of course a silly string race...on your mark, run to your can, whoever has the least on them at the end is the winner!!Everyone had a great time and we didn't spend much...almost everything came from the dollar store..Dollar Tree is wonderful!...they even have mylar ballons that they will inflate and all for $1.00!! Posted by
C's Mom on October 24, 2008 2:48 AM .................................
We are lucky enough to live in a town with a beach. My daughter's birthday is in August, so what a great party venue! The girls are only 7 so I asked a few moms to please come to help me make sure nobody went too far into the water - there were 6 moms and 12 girls that showed up. We had lots of bottled waters, juice box drinks, & popcorn & granola bars for snacks. We had a cupcake "cake"($9.99 for 14 cupcakes) delivered by the birthday girls' dad towards the end of the party (Icing & sunshine & sand do not mix well) No decorations required of course, but we did take helium balloons to tie to our cooler to spot our location on the beach for arriving guests. (The balloons were free from my office helium tank) I had NO planned activities but even if I would have planned something it would have been difficult to corral them all to do it b/c as soon as they arrived, they took off for the water, the waters edge, and the sand. I took lots of sand toys, buckets, shovels, sculpting shapes, etc. They spent 2+ hrs making sand castles & sand sculptures, hunting for shells, and in general having a super time. They all had so much fun, my daughter said she wants to make it a birthday "tradition" to have her party at the beach every year! And its a great idea, that will grow with them as they get older. The entire party, food, treat bags for the guests, etc., cost me only $40!!! As compared to her previous yrs $400 party at a $200 venue rental, plus pizza, ice cream, cake & decorations & treat bags all to the tune of an add'l $200! Posted by
Maggi's Mom on October 26, 2008 11:00 PM .................................
Hi. I am all for kids parties. We just got a 3 yr old foster grandchild and he never had a kid party so I invited 3 small kids from my church to help him have a party. We have a large concrete driveway so we used chalk from the dollar store, our old golf clubs to play golf and we colored pictures and just had a very good time. He is still saying I have my new friends and they came to my party. It is quality, not quantity! Thanks :) Posted by
sherri on November 03, 2008 5:22 PM .................................
I couldn't agree more regarding kids parties, they are so out of control. Last summer my daughter had a birthday party for her 7th birthday at home. She invited 7 friends. We bought canvas bags and flip flops at the dollar store and they decorated them with gems, stickers, and fabric markers. They all left with a new beach bag and fancy flip flops. They played some party games also. They had so much fun. Posted by
Karen on November 06, 2008 9:59 AM .................................
My niece had a "spa" birthday party for her 8 year old daughter and a few friends. They all brought their pajamas, and my niece and sis-in-law gave them manicures and pedicures, then they all put on facial masks and cucumber slices on their eyes and "relaxed". It was great! Posted by
anonymous
on November 17, 2008 9:12 PM .................................
FOR MY DAUGHTERS 6YEAR PARTY WE DID AN AT HOME MAKEOVER PARTY. I GOT 3 OLDER TEENAGE GIRLS TO COME AND DO HAIR AND MAKE UP THE LITTLE GIRLS AND THE BIG GIRLS HAD A BLAST AND THE HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS VOLUNTEERED THEIR TIME. Posted by
HOLLY on November 19, 2008 11:41 AM .................................
Help!! Everyone has great ideas for girls birthday parties but does any one have ideas for boys b'day parties on a budget? My kids are 8 thru 11 yrs of age. Posted by
anonymous
on December 03, 2008 10:05 AM .................................
I was lucky because my boys were all born in the summertime, so easy to have outdoor parties and let the boys be boys. One year I organized a field day of sorts that involved two teams and several different games: a 3 legged race relay race (all you need is rope), a wheel barrow race, a silly relay race (had them do silly things like the crab walk to the fence and backwards running back to the line, a water balloon toss (they loved this one and all you need is a bag of water balloons, of course it ended it a water balloon fight...)standing long jump, baseball throw and ended with a simple scavenger hunt--I wrote out clues and sent them off to find the prize - a cooler filled with ice cream treats. The kids loved it. And awarded each of them with a chocolate gold medal. Posted by
grammaj on December 04, 2008 10:27 AM .................................
My husband coaches the high school baseball team, so we always have plenty of helmets, bats and baseballs lying around the house. For my son's birthday we go down to the field and have a kids vs. the parents baseball game. Always a lot of fun. All I really do is supply drinks and orange wedges for each team and make sure there is an empty field to play on. When my son was younger we would play kickball. Posted by
lesleycrane on December 04, 2008 9:08 PM .................................
Just a note for those of us with very small houses. Sometime it is nice to rent out a spot. So far we have done no party at all or rented out a nature center. Really I find it best to not compare and do what we believe is fun for the child. Posted by
Tara on December 26, 2008 6:08 PM .................................
One of my most memorable birhtday parties as a kid was when my parents took me, my cousins and a few friends to the playground. Still one of my favorite pictures of us kids, all hanging upside down onthe monkey bars. It is the little things. Posted by
ktkat on January 02, 2009 11:34 AM .................................
this seems expensive but in the long run it pays off. For Christmas the only thing I buy my family is some kind of Pass. I bought Theme park passes for the seven members of my family that live near me, the younger children are free. I bought them by Halloween because they are nearly half the price of the pass at any other time of the year. They were $80.00 each. Posted by
Granny Cynth on January 02, 2009 3:55 PM .................................
To Nimmi, Posted by
oddfox1 on January 02, 2009 5:07 PM .................................
Kid's parties have gotten out of control! For my 5 year old's last party we put two blow up pools in the backyard along with water guns, sidewalk chalk and bubbles. We already had this stuff, but we did buy more chalk. We invited about 10 kids. I bought some postcard type invitations and told them to bring swimsuits and towels. I made his cake using the same cake pan as last year (turning the fire truck into a dump truck full of presents) and we had ice cream. No other food. We also gave out cheapy goody bags full of stickers, pencils, and erasers. Posted by
Michelle on January 02, 2009 9:13 PM .................................
----------------------------------------- Post a comment: To post a comment, please login Note: Your comment may need to be approved before it appears on this page.
