At home Birthday parties

[Becc1]

For those of you with school age children, does anyone have birthday parties at home anymore? Every birthday party that my kids get invited to is at Chuck E Cheese, the bowling alley, neighborhood swimming pools, bounce around places, etc. etc., you get the idea. My DS has stated that he wants to do his party here at the house, he asked if we could get a moonbounce and I called and got a great deal on one (almost half off). Yes it will be December but the moonbounce place said people rent them year round so I'm not too crazy. We have a newly remodeled basement that has plenty of space for lots of kids, lots of things for the kids to do, air hockey, foosball, pinball machine to name a few plus a big playroom. I am also really into crafts and stuff so I would line up plenty of activities for the kids. So I'm 90% sure I'm going to do the party here but I just keep thinking that maybe we should just cave and do it at one of the usual places. I have an older DS whos 15 and we had almost every party here at the house but for some reason parents nowadays seem to be not doing at home parties. What's it like around where you all live?

 

[kirstenb1]

I always book dd's somewhere like CEC, the skating rink etc. I don't have the creative gene at all, so for me to plan all the activities in our home----it just wouldn't happen. Plus we don't have a basement (really wish we did!!), so the kids would be all over the house!

 

[mjkacmom]

Most parties here are out - mine are (except my oldest, born in July, swim party). I think people have them out because they're easier. I'm always very impressed with parents who have them at home. Dd9 is going to one on Friday, ds7 one next week, and I love that it's in town, easy drop off and pick up - CEC is 20 minutes away. My kids really like them, too.

 

[Magpie]

My daughter always has her birthdays someplace else - like mini-golf or laser-tag.

But my son has chosen for the last two years to have his birthday at home. It's no extra work for me, though, as all he wants to do is play video games with his buddies. What he does is drag both the TVs down into the basement, set up both the Xboxs and then get all eight kids on playing a shoot-em-up together.

I just decorate the room and provide snacks.

My son isn't the only kid around here who prefers at home parties, either. My daughter was invited to a birthday movie night at her best friend's house. And my son's best friend has been doing the "let's all play video games" thing for years.

 

[NHdisneylover]

My son's party will be at our house in two and a half weeks. He is turning 12. He wants a rock n' roll birthday. We are getting a couple of disco type lights and setting up the basement with plenty of music, food and the Wii with Rock Band out.
When it is time to settle down they can climb in their sleeping bags and watch School of Rock. I'd say about half of my kids' parties have been at home (maybe slightly less than half) and all of the out parties in the past 3-4 years have involved kids coming to the house for an overnight afterwards (DD is doing this in January--ice skating and the home for pizza, presents, cake and the girls staying over).

 

[Ceila]

Most parties that my kids go to are outside the home, but they've been to (and had) a couple of at-home parties as well. Personally, it is fun having them at home, but I have to say that when we have them at a facility I like that I get to "outsource" the clean-up, lol!

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

My kids had winter birthdays and my house is better suited for outdoor parties so we never did any parties at home. Also it was nice to limit the parties to 2 hours.

I don't see anything wrong with having parties at home.

 

[Colleen27]

Just about everyone has parties at home here, but we live in a little town 30 miles from the nearest Chuck-e-cheese, bounce house place, laser tag, etc. and 10 miles from the closest bowling alley and putt-putt course. We have my girls' parties at home, and the 9yo being the social butterfly she is that means hosting 15+ kids. My son is older and more introverted, so for his parties we usually take one or two very close friends to do something special like Dave & Busters or an overnight somewhere with a great pool.

I actually like hosting the kid parties. My girls are both summer babies, so we have a lot of fun BBQing and filling the kiddie pool with water balloons and cheap squirt guns for the kids to play with, and we have a pinata and talk to our ice cream man to make sure the truck just happens to come by that afternoon. If it gets too hot, our formal dining room is currently in use more as a playroom, and I set up some crafts, board games, and indoor activities. But we're used to a lot of kids around, and the noise and mess is just par for the course; we often have 7-8 kids (3 of them ours) at the house on a normal afternoon, so a party just doesn't feel like that much more.

 

[golfgal]

We did some at home and some away. DS18 has a summer birthday and we had a couple parties at home with a bounce house, sprinklers, etc. The kids had fun at those. For the twins, it was just easier to do something away because there were just so many more kids and we could do one party vs two . As they got older we had more parties at home because they got smaller. We stopped with "parties" at age 10 and after that kids just had a couple friends over for a sleepover or we took a couple friends out somewhere (waterpark, etc.). They got/get a big party at 16 too. We did DS18's at home and will probably do the twins' party at home too.

 

[simba20]

Well, since DD is three we've done all of her parties at home or at a pinic pavillion in the park (back when we rented a small home and just did not have the room).

The only party we have attended out, was this past August at Chuck-E-Cheese for a fellow three year old friend, and that's because her parents live in a small apartment/condo and did not have the room. I quickly learned to avoid Saturdays at CEC and espically Saturday parties.

 

[SaraJayne]

We've had all of our birthday parties at home for both the kids.

 

[Mrs.Toad]

Most parties are outside the home in my area, but the kids seem to like the novelty of an at-home party. My younger dd prefers to have hers at home, and they've always had a lot of fun. I find it best to plan a couple of activities and a craft (depends on your ds and his age if they would enjoy that). Sometimes, it seems all the activities take 3 times as long as you thought they would, and you're going crazy trying to fit it all in. Other times, it seems all the activities take a tenth of the time you expected and you're left scrambling for ideas. So a moonbounce is perfect, because they can jump in there as long or as short as they need to.

Good luck!

 

[Pigeon]

We've done both. I work out of the home full time. When we do them at home, I put a great deal of thought and effort into activities, etc. Honestly, by the time I'm done with the crafts, the decorating and the food, it doesn't cost much more to do something like Chuck E Sleeze or a bowling party, and it's so worth the extra $50 or so to save me the time and work and mess.

I'd say around here, it's around 70-30 outsourced v. home.

 

[PollyannaMom]

DS is 10, and his have been 6 to 4 in favor of home.

 

[zoemurr]

We've had all of our birthday parties at home for both the kids.

I love doing theme parties and we have a lot of fun. We have done:

Blues Clues, cooking, princess, HSM, around the world, arts and crafts, dinosaur, Wiggles, Thomas, carnival, treasure hunt, and Minute to Win it.

I spend a lot of time planning and probably don't save much $, but they are all original. (I'd love to share ideas if anyone is interested..)

My kids go to some "destination" parties, but mainly at home ones.

 

[PenguinWaiters]

I love doing theme parties and we have a lot of fun. We have done:

Blues Clues, cooking, princess, HSM, around the world, arts and crafts, dinosaur, Wiggles, Thomas, carnival, treasure hunt, and Minute to Win it.

I spend a lot of time planning and probably don't save much $, but they are all original. (I'd love to share ideas if anyone is interested..)

My kids go to some "destination" parties, but mainly at home ones.

Me too. My kids have had all their parties at home. We just did a Magic Tree House one for my DD that was a lot of fun. We have also done Fairy Tales, Fiesta, Dr. Seuss, Cooking, and Music.

Most of the parties my DD has gone to have been at home but the bowling alley is becoming a popular destination with her friends now.

 

[PatsGirl]

I had the majority of my kids' parties here at home and once they got to be about 8 or so they turned into sleepovers and I stopped planning activities other than a movie, pizza and snacks. When they did have a party elsewhere, I considered it their birthday gift. Here a bowling party runs about $150 for 8 kids, going out to the movies and Burger King ran me about $100 for 6 kids...the most fun birthday party we had was a scavenger hunt at the mall and dinner at the food court. The year DD turned 4 all she wanted was a new outfit and her pictures taken at Sears so I invited her two cousins that were around 8 and 9 to go with us and did some dress-up pictures of the three girls.

DD will turn 14 in March and I told her last year that was the last birthday party for her and she's been bugging me to take her to Carlos' Bakery (from the Cake Boss) show for a cupcake on her big day. I treated it like a joke because its a four-hour drive but it now looks like we'll be in the area seeing DS off to his deployment so I may surprise her

 

[DisneyScraps]

I have had every birthday party at home except one. My DDs birthday is Christmas Eve so we have another day during the year for a party. I usually try for June. One year we rented a room at the Y for the air conditioning and I didn't use their pizza etc. I brought in my own food and decorations. That was the year we had the Royal Princess Ball.

Honestly thinking about it I am the only one that does this in our circle. My DD hasn't been to another party at someones home.

I abhor Chuck E Cheese birthday parties. That pizza.....

Lisa

 

[Bren's Mom]

We've had all of ds's parties at home so far (he turned 5 his last birthday). His friend's birthday have been mixed, some at home, some at 'places'...but mostly 'places'.

 

[Robmom]

When my DS was younger, I had family parties at home. Now that he's 5, and has friends from school, I would rather have them at a place instead of my house. I can say goodbye in 2 hours, I don't have to get food together, I don't have to organize activities, I don't have to worry about people wandering around my house, and most of all, I don't have to clean up. It is worth the extra expense to me.