Any ideas for an at-home 7 y/o boy b-day party?

[mamalle]

mine had a evening party last year. They played flashlight tag and kickball. They had a blast. It was so easy for me. Just ordered a few pizzas and made ice sundies. We roasted some marshmellows around the firepit.It was a fun evening. The year before we did the army theme out at the park. That was alot of work but fun.

 

[jultomzach]

I rented a popcorn machine for one of my son's at home birthday. Popcorn is really cheap (we could provide our own) so we made an insane amount of popcorn. My one nephew is still talking about it- 6 years later. Of course, I sent all of that popcorn home with the kids.

 

[dougsmom98]

We always have in home parties.
I like to have a craft so they can be doing something when they get there. Some of my kids have a birthday next to Halloween, so we have decorated black cauldrons from the dollar store with Foam Halloween stickers. They like sports so we decorated foam door knob hangers with sports stickers.

We always do a scavenger hunt. They love this. If it is nice weather, the scavenger hunt is outside and I hide clues in plastic Easter eggs so they don't blow away. I always try to make it fit the theme like one year we did Star Wars and so one of the clues was:
I hope it doesn’t upset a Wookie to find the next clue hidden where we keep the cookies.

One year we did Pokemon so one of the clues was:
Don't sit there and be as slow as a turtle, look in the playhouses and you might find Squirtle.

Another easy game is to print off several picture of two characters from the theme of your party and glue them on heavy paper or put them in plastic Easter eggs. One year we had Tinkerbell and Captain Hook. Put the eggs/paper in a bag/pillowcase and mix them up. We had two teams. One person from a team pulls out an egg and sees who they got. If they pull out a Captain Hook they would put it back, if there is a Tinkerbelle they keep it out. The first team to get 5 Tinkerbelles would win. Each person gets a turn. We also did this with Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, one of my sons has a December 26th birthday so we did Ho, Ho, Ho and Bah Hum Bug.

We have also done pictionary using two small white boards. I split them into two teams and show one kid from each team the item they need to draw. Because some kids at 7 years old may have difficulty reading or a learning disability, I print off picture cards with the word on it rather than just words. So I print off pictures of boats, baseballs, Basketball hoops, trains... Both teams try to guess the picture and whoever guesses it first wins.

Charades is fun too - We do easy things like "building a snowman," "surfing," "Fishing," "rock climbing,"...
We have done egg and spoon races and obstacle courses.
We have done trivia with a bell. Whoever rings the bell first gets to answer first. I ask easy questions like "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?"

Home parties are a lot of work up front, but they are also fun. I usually over plan the games and then end up using only a couple. Don't underestimate their abilities to entertain themselves. I never allow my kids to invite more than 4 kids each (they are twins so we have a total of 8 kids plus a couple of siblings). That is more than enough. We always do pizza for lunch and snacks for lunch. Trying to cook food (even if it is hamburgers and hot dogs) with kids running around is a nightmare. Good luck!

 

[RyJMom]

This is about the age that mine started having sleep overs. They invite 3 or 4 friends. We usually eat out and go to a movie then go home for cake and ice cream. They are happy just to watch movies and play video games. They also getting very excited just to stay up late.

 

[carebee21]

Before you make your decision, sit down and figure out just how much your "at home" party is going to cost by the time you buy food, drinks, party favors, plates cups and napkins; decorations; game supplies etc. DD's first three birthday parties were "at home" parties and I was shocked at how much I wound up spending on them between food and drinks for the parents and kids and all the other stuff that goes with a birthday party. Her last party was a "bounce" party. At our local facility, they provide everything except for the cake. They provide plates, cups, and silverware as part of the package. You order the drinks from them. The only thing you have to bring is your own cake. You can buy party favor bags from them, and they are MUCH cheaper than what I spent on the "at home" party favor bags, because the bounce place buys everything in bulk. If you want ice cream, they get it for you and if you want Pizza, they get that too, also at a discount, so it cost us less than it would if I bought it myself. The bounce party did not cost me any more than the at home parties, in fact I think it wound up being cheaper. Plus, the kids have loved them, and there is no clean up!

I completely agree with this. By the time you add in the cake, food, drinks, party plates, napkins, games, etc I don't think doing a party anywhere else is that much cheaper. We had my sons 7th birthday party last night at Chuck E Cheese. We had 5 kids and about 20 adults. We feed everyone and had tons of tokens for $200. Clearly you could go cheaper by only feeding the kids and limiting the number of attendees, but it was so nice to not have to worry about cleaning the house, cleaning up after the party attendees and keeping the kids entertained. Plus, the weather is iffy in the fall so that's a lot of people to shove into my house.

But if you add it up and think you can do it cheaper at home, here our some of the things we've done/seen at parties. Sams club/costco pizza, cookie or cupcake decorating party (put out already baked cookies/cupcakes, different frosting colors and lots of sprinkles and let the kids go to town, super fun but super messy!), various arts & crafts (such as shirt painting or ceramic painting)

 

[jkcyoung]

Thank you so much for all of the responses, I really appreciate your input. I think we have it narrowed down to either at home, Lego party or a reptile party(still waiting for a quote for a local place to bring some animals in) or outside the home, bowling or karate. I agree with some of the other posts that the at home stuff can add up, but for the bounce party it would be over $400 just can't justify that! Why o why are all my kids born in cold months, it would be so easy to do outside parties in the nice weather...I guess I can blame DH for that Thanks again!