The budget (and not-so-budget) Birthday Party Thread!

[Vacation Lover]

We had a dance party for DD6 over the weekend. Our babysitter is on the dance team at the local high school and she and 2 friends agreed to come to the party. The little girls LOVED that! The high school girls led them in some stretch exercises and free dancing, then taught them a dance routine. After that, they played "freeze dance" and Simon Says. Then the girls did a "performance" of the dance routine they learned. We had moved all the furniture in our den against the wall and turned the room into a big dance floor.

After the dancing, we had cake & ice cream and then did a pinata.

Costs:
Thank you payment & gift for high school dancers: $90
Pinata: $10
Candy for Pinata: $2, (Halloween clearance)
Cake & ice cream: $10 (homemade from a box)
Favors: 20 Tutus (Christmas clearance) $40
Bangle bracelets, tied together with a ribbon (Christmas clearance) $8

Birthday balloons (which I forgot to bring in from the garage--oops!) $4

TOTAL: $164.00

 

[lovesmurfs]

We did a Dora the Explorer party when DD was 5. Pretty cheap, but very time consuming to plan and execute.

When the kids came in, I had them put the gifts on a cloth sheet in the living room. Then I told them that they needed to decorate the dining room.

I had projected 7-8 characters onto butcher paper and traced them -- then painted. I hid them on walls throughout the house (even in the shower behind the curtain). When the kids found the character, they brought it into the dining room and put it on the wall.

Then we had a "backpack" game -- blindfolded one of the kids and they put their hand in a backpack -- they had to pick an object and then tell what it is. Common household stuff -- spool of thread, roll of tape, etc. We also played Musical Chairs with Dora theme music.

Food was next -- chicken nuggets, jello jigglers, pinwheel cookies (red/orange/brown swirl). While the kids were eating, I went into the living room and slid the gifts behind a corner chair so that it looked like the gifts were "stolen." One of DS's friends played "Swiper". I had drawn out a "Map" and made the kids follow Swiper and the map around the house and outside. "Twin Tree Forest" was the 2 trees in front, "Slippery Slope" was the swingset slide in the back. Can't remember what I'd called the living room. While they were outside, I slid the gifts back into sight.

We had a Dora pinata and I made a Dora head cake. Goodie bags were backpacks that I'd made out of purple felt and written each of the kids' names on with glitter glue.

 

[britfish]

I think this year is the first year I'm going to go all out with the theme (1 was Pooh, 2 was Curious George).

In your experience, when do parties stop being about the whole family? When do just the kids start coming (or kids with one parent)?

(ETA: This thread is timely because a neighbor just told me that if I wanted to have the party somewhere I better book now for April or they'd fill up. The MINIMUM for most places was $350!! Holy Moly!)

Last year at DD's 6th birthday was the first year the kids were dropped off and NO parents stayed at all. It was funny because for her 5th birthday party all the parents stayed.

Great thread! I love the garden/flower party idea, I may use that for our June birthday girl.

 

[kayrosek]

Last year we did BIG parties for all the kids. DD's then 11 and 13 decided to share a party (b-days are 3 weeks apart) so we rented a skating rink for the afternoon and invited about 75 people. We split the snack table area in half and had baloons and a cupcake tower for each girl on thier side. My MIL does pampered chef and loves to cook so she offered to do a snack buffet and I graciously let her. The whole thing was great and the girls and thier freinds had a blast. Then in October for my DS's 10th. birthday I went just as nuts. DS is Autistic spectrum and this was the first year HE wanted a real friend party so we reserved a pavillion at the park, collected sports equipment for catch and kickball and rented a giant bounce house/slide thing. We invited the whole third grade (both classes) all of our friends and thier kids, his scout troop and the neighborhood kids (I may have gone overboard). I'm glad they diden't all show though so I won't do that again I just got caught up in the "first" of it. DS was obsessed with Legos so cupcakes were topped with lego candies. It was a fun afternoon. This year we are being more budget friendly. DD12 wanted a board game day but the house isen't big enough and the local community center wasen't getting back to me (after a month and a half of calls) so she settled on that for next year and invited 15 people for lunch at pizza street. I iced the cupcakes in green (favorite color) and put hot pink (2nd favorite color) heart shaped picks in them. Gave each of the girls 10 tokens, favors were heart shaped suckers. Total around $125. Older DD14 was stuck on skating so we had a skating party during a regular session for 8 kids, brought cupcakes (purple frosted with Tink picks), drinks and ice cream sandwiches were include in $7 pp price, favors were really cool silly straws in thier drinks that they could take home. This was really cheap (about $60). Her best fried stayed the night at the house the night before. I bought them each reusable Disney cups and a sand art kit for an activity (about $15) food and snacks were just the same stuff I would have fed our family. Since her party was so much less expensive we treated her "boyfriend" and his mom (boys birthday is 9 days after hers) to lunch the next weekend and brought a balloon and cupcakes for them (about $50). Since Santa brought us all season passes to a local amusement park for Christmas this year I think we will go to the halloween thing at the amusement park for DS's 11th birthday and let him take two friends. Should be pretty inexpensive since I'll only have to pay two admissions and the Subway in the park isen't too bad price wise for lunch. Think I'l bring in Hostess cupcakes (DS's favorite) instead of a messy cake.

 

[american_mommy]

This past year was really the first time we did a party. It was my daughter's 7th Birthday.

She wanted to do painting at a local store that you pick out your ceramics, paint and leave them to be glazed. It was going to cost $25 for a small space, plus the cost of whatever the kids picked out, assuming I only let them do one, most of the cheaper ones are around $8-10. She wanted to invite her entire class plus friends from church.

I decided to do it at home, which she was more than fine with. We went to Hobby Lobby and bought a ton of Christmas ceramics that were 50% off, bought paint brushes and paint, the paint being the most expensive part. Also bought a spray glaze to protect the paint. We had pizza, veggie and fruit and kool-aid. We had 12 girls that were 1-7 years, a boy that is 4, 3 teenage girls and 6 adults total. All together, including the cake (I made that), it was about $150, but I had quite a few ceramics left over, tons of paintbrushes and tons of paint that we will use for other ceramics as well.

Here is the cake I made...second cake I have done, I ran out of the turquoise & green fondant (which is also homemade), and I put too much buttercream on the cake, which ends up making the fondant lumpy, so I have a lot of improving that I need to do, but my daughter liked it.

I LOVE the cake! It is beautiful. I love doing cakes for my kids bdays. I have only attempted marshmallow fondant though and it didn't turn out so well. Way too sweet. Did you make your own fondant? How difficult was it?

 

[TinkerbellTris]

WOW!!! Lot's of girl parties. LOL and they are all wonderful ideas, how creative.
But... for those of us with BOYS..... I have done a lot of parties for my son, he is going to be 12 next month and we have done some budget and not so budget parties. So for those of you with boys, or just looking for ideas here goes:
age 1: we did a winnie the pooh party at an indoor jungle gym play place cost $200
Age 2: We did a Thomas the Train party at our local Train Museum, had the party in a Caboose and toured the train museum. Cost $300
Age 3: Did a party at the house based on Jurrassic Park (my son loved Dinosaurs) and his gift was a 3 day trip to Disneyland in the Paradise Pier Hotel. Cost: well..... with his gift about a good $1,600
Age 4: We did a Build A Bear party at the mall Cost $200 plus his gift which was a trip to Disneyland for 3 days again so that was another $1,600
Age 5: We did it at Chuck E CHeese and it was a huge rip off at $320 plus we took him for 3 days again to Disneyland for another $1,600
Age 6: We did an Inflatable Spider Man Jump House in the back yard cost: $150 and again as his gift we took him for 3 days to Disneyland at $1,600
Age 7: We did the roller skating rink cost $300 and the 3 day trip to disneyland again at $1,600
Age 8: We did a Pirates of the Carribean theamed party at the house, we had the all the pirate stuff (invites, cake, goodie bags, decorations) we did a treasure hunt, I bought a small treasure chest from Michaels and filled it with treasure and chocoate dabloons, and made a map and led the hunt around our house inside and out, we had the pirates movie playing on the tv for adults, had pizza and everyone was required to come dressed in costume as pirates. We were the talk of his school for months. Cost $250 plus the gift of now 4 days at disneyland plus both sets of Grandparents showed up there to spend the time with us as an added surprise, and we threw him a party at Goofys kitchen and at Plaza Inn's happiest birthdays on earth for a grand total of $2,500
Age 9: We did a Movie themed party at the house bought all the movie theater decor plus a movie ticket cake (designed to look like a movie ticket) and did pizza, candy, popcorn and watched Goonies. for the adults we did a 3 course dinner that night that I cooked, cost $250 for the gift we got him a 4 day cruise to enesenada, catalina island and san diego and did 2 days at Universal studios hollywood and added on the VIP Tour. That added on a total of $3,000
Age 10: We had it at an indoor mini golf place called Monster Mini Golf cost $275 plus we designed a special cake that was Haunted mansion for $120 and his gift was a trip to disneyland for 4 days for $2,000
Age 11: We did a Mad Science Party at the house did the wizards and potions package and added on the cotton candy, we did Pizza, had a special cake made that was Harry Potter for additional $95 for adults we did subway sandwhiches cpst $300 plus his gift was supposed to be a trip to New York however the flight was cancelled the morning we were supposed to leave so as a last ditch effort I pulled together a 4 day trip to Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm in a metter of 3 hours and left the next morning Cost $2,800 thanks to the last minuite airfare.
Age 12: comming up.... we are doing it at a place called BounceU which is an indoor bounce house place, we are doing the teen party which is all glow in the dark for $350 plus we are designing him a nightmare before christmas cake at $125 and his gift which will be a huge surprise is a 7 night cruise outta New Olreans and 2 days in New Orleans. Visiting Cozumel, Belize, Costa Maya, and Roatan. COst $3,000 for all.
Hope that helps with some ideas. I know the gifts are over the top but he is our only kid and the first grandkid on both sides so he is spoiled and needs nothing, he asks for his gift to be a trip every year. This year we thought we'd switch it up on him.

 

[Liberty Belle]

For my son's 8th birthday party (in November), we told him he could invite two boys over for a sleepover. We took them to the dollar movies. They each got a kids movie snack pack (popcorn, candy, coke) and we bought a big tub for us and to refill each of their's when it ran out.

That was a huge difference from his usual parties. Usually we have them at a fun venue and have anywhere from 8 to 20 kids.

I lost my job last year, though, and things were tight. We were going to still do a big party for him like usual, but when we asked him how he felt about the other idea, he got really excited and said he'd rather do that! Win-win!

Past party themes for my sons:

Winnie the Pooh, bumble bees, cowboy, Spot the Dog, police, knights/castle, astronaut, army (x2), star wars, Harry Potter (the most fun!), farm, carnival, and a few others I'm blanking on right now.

We've had parties at our house, at a laser tag place, at a local farm (where the kids got to ride horses and go on hay rides), at a gymnastics center, Gatti Town, Kids Place (an indoor climbing/fun place), a city park, and an amusement park.

 

[figment3258]

I just helped out with my dd's bff birthday party. We held it at a library in the children's room. So that was fee the girls were asked o bring their American girl r another doll. For food we did pb and j cut with cookie cutters and we found at the dollar store white tea cups and we wrote the girls names on them and they drank out of them and then at the end we was he them and put thei goodie bags in them fo a craft we made cupcakes for the dolls out of mini cupcake lines with big pom pons glued in then a little red pompon as a cherry a nd h put glitter glue to add sprinkles. For a game the stacked sugar cubes on a popsicle stick and ha to balance them in their mouths for one minute. It was really cute and cheap.

 

[Liberty Belle]

We had a dance party for DD6 over the weekend. Our babysitter is on the dance team at the local high school and she and 2 friends agreed to come to the party. The little girls LOVED that! The high school girls led them in some stretch exercises and free dancing, then taught them a dance routine. After that, they played "freeze dance" and Simon Says. Then the girls did a "performance" of the dance routine they learned. We had moved all the furniture in our den against the wall and turned the room into a big dance floor.

After the dancing, we had cake & ice cream and then did a pinata.

Costs:
Thank you payment & gift for high school dancers: $90
Pinata: $10
Candy for Pinata: $2, (Halloween clearance)
Cake & ice cream: $10 (homemade from a box)
Favors: 20 Tutus (Christmas clearance) $40
Bangle bracelets, tied together with a ribbon (Christmas clearance) $8

Birthday balloons (which I forgot to bring in from the garage--oops!) $4

TOTAL: $164.00

Your house is beautiful. That's a great idea for a party. I've got two boys, but maybe someday I'll have a granddaughter and her mom will let me help plan the parties.