Over the top birthday cakes, parties and such

[emma'smom]

I'm thinking about my dd12's last birthday and we probably spent about 300.00 on it. She wanted to take a group of friends to an indoor water park about an hour away. I ended up "winning" a pack of 6 day passes at a charity auction for about a 150.00 (so that's nice deal that the charity benefited too). Then there were "day observer" passes for DH and I at 20 bucks each. Then there was pizza/drinks/snacks at the park and a stop for dinner for the whole group on the way home (and gas/transportation). This was a bit more than I usually spend...but it was a pretty cool way to do a birthday.

For dd9, I think I spent about 200.00 total for a skating party that came with cupcakes/pizza/soda. That was the admittance/skate rental for 15 kids and then we made t-shirts as party favors.

The year before, we did a trip to a local stadium that was about 150.00 for 8 kids...and the party favors/food were included. I think we bought a few extra drinks for everyone.

So about 150-200 bucks seems to be pretty typical for a party for kids....

 

[texasroni75]

When oldest DD was an only child, I admit to spending a lot of $$ on parties (way more than I would spend nowadays). Mostly it was for the venue though Skating rink, funzone, movie theater etc. for 20 kids or so can add up.

The cakes that are so popular right now really are like works of art - but they taste terrible! You can't eat the decorative fondant since it's pretty much a thick layer of sugar paste with no flavor. And because they take so long to decorate, the cake is usually 2 days old. Bleh. I much prefer fresh cakes with basic decorations. If I'm paying a ton of $$ for food, it better taste amazing!

In recent years we have smaller, family parties, and that party $$ I would have spent goes toward a nicer and more useful gift.

I ask DD now if she wishes we would have big parties again - guess what - she hardly remembers them. The most memorable party? A pizza party that was the least expensive one we ever did outside of the house.