My dd just turned 11 and we did a birthday weekend. The ideas would work for a boy too.
My mom bought Carowinds tickets for dd's gift and we went there Saturday and ate at Jack in the Box after the park closed (dd's fave, not near home).
Sunday we had a small pool party at my moms. DD had a friend, ds had a friend plus us. Ring pops for favors. We cooked out and had Oreo ice cream cake for dessert.
Monday, I took off work and we went to Sciworks ($20 for 4 of us, living social deal), Toys R Us ($3 TRU bday q + bday $), Chuck-E-Cheese ($15 printable q for 95 tokens, plus they emailed me a q for 20 tokens for dd's bday). We finished up with dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I forgot the bday q for a kids meal, but they have specials M-Th before 6pm and dd wanted to sit on the saddle.
My son will be 10 in Dec and we're going to invite the neighborhood boys (mostly ds's age) over for nerf war. He wants a zombie theme? Not sure how that's going to work. Last year we had him a skating party.