Do you throw your own kids parties

LJM

both my girls had parties every year until they turned 5 i used to get a free hall to use family helped with food and a friend of mine is a dj who does his own pass parcel and goody bags so ive been very lucky that each time the parties have in total cost me approx £100 each usually bit less. i used to budget for these and save a few pound each week it soon mounted up. now they are older we either go out for a meal and have friends home for play and tea party and they like that too

Janepig

City_Girl wrote: »

Hi does your daughter have a friend who has a close by birthday so you could then do a joint party on a date in the middle, so half the cost;)

I'm surprised more people don't suggest this - it's the way forward!!!! Last year DD had her party with three others in her class (she's got a clique of about 6 or 7 best pals) in a soft play and skating place, a fab time was had by all (it was somewhere no-one had had a party before) and in all, with the cake, it cost me £22!!! Happy days!!

Jxx

Bubby

Becles wrote: »

You need to be quite loud and firm though. The children are excited and they run around and yell and some get up to mischief.

This is our problem neither of us are loud:o

She will be 6 and loves the usual High School Musical/Hannah Montana. Unfortunately there is no-one else with a party within a few months that she is friends with (or even in a class with which is strange)

The reason I can't do it at home is that I am very houseproud:o:o and can't stand mess:eek:, I must admit it fills me with dread. It wouldn't be so bad if all the parents didn't stay at their parties which makes me more nervous (even though I know them all well). I am very good at doing hair, kids makeup and nails so the idea of having a girly thing at home like a makeover party with some face paints with a little dance with a disco ball and a few party games might be an idea.............

I can't wait for when they are older (not wishing them to grow up though;)) and just want a few friends to go out somewhere, I did suggest this but the appeal of a crazy party was too much:rotfl::rotfl:

galvanizersbaby

Bubby wrote: »

This is our problem neither of us are loud

She will be 6 and loves the usual High School Musical/Hannah Montana. Unfortunately there is no-one else with a party within a few months that she is friends with (or even in a class with which is strange)

The reason I can't do it at home is that I am very houseproud:o:o and can't stand mess:eek:, I must admit it fills me with dread. It wouldn't be so bad if all the parents didn't stay at their parties which makes me more nervous (even though I know them all well). I am very good at doing hair, kids makeup and nails so the idea of having a girly thing at home like a makeover party with some face paints with a little dance with a disco ball and a few party games might be an idea.............

I can't wait for when they are older (not wishing them to grow up though;)) and just want a few friends to go out somewhere, I did suggest this but the appeal of a crazy party was too much:rotfl::rotfl:

Me neither - it was DD's 5th birthday party we had the disco party with most of her class and I'd arranged some traditional party games (pass parcel etc...) and it was very hard for me to get the kids attention.
Soooo I got my sister involved who is loud and quite imposing and the kids turned up to be putty in her hands (think she quite enjoyed it too)

I hope it goes well whatever you decide

galvanizersbaby

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Mine are teens now, but when they were little, they had special parties in a hall with an entertainer when they were 5 and 11 (last one with their primary school friends). I did the catering and made the cake and party bags. For other birthdays we had as many as we could comfortably have at home, with party games or a theme (bows and arrows, princesses, castle, make-over, etc).

Once they were at high school, we take 2 or 3 friends for a meal, cinema, sleepover, or skiing (DS's choice twice, and he agreed to a smaller gift ).

I never understood this party-upmanship

No I had been blissfully unaware of it until a recent comment from another mum

BeenieCat

I can't think of anything worse than hosting a kids party (for me), I'm too nervous and not at all fun. In fact i'm just a misery guts and would quite happily pay someone to entertain the kids while i hide. :rotfl:

So good luck! I think you're brave

tabskitten

I don't have kids....
But if I did I would defiantly Throw them......

tabskitten

........Out at the age of 13!!!

mariashi

Bubby wrote: »

As the title says I am looking for advice on throwing kids parties. My kids have had parties before in play areas and also some at home but my eldest is at the age where she wants a disco type party in a hall:eek::eek: as everyone else in her class has them (I realise that sounds incredibly brat like but she hasn't asked in that way at all) anyway we have said yes and have gone about finding a hall and thats all sorted but we are looking at around £150-£200 for the entertainment:eek::eek::eek:
We can afford it but we are trying to clear our debts and this money could seriously help us out so how many of you brave it? Is it as bad as I think? The hall is already £60 so if we could do it all in for £100 that would be great, we have a cd player and cd's they like but neither me nor my husband are entertainer type people.

Any advice would be great:)

Maybe you can have a family party, and try to make you and your husband entertainer type people.

pusscat

I don't think 6 year olds are expecting top end lights and DJ's! Their experience of clubbing will be somewhat limited (I hope!)

I would invite a few of her close friend round a week or two before and get them all to select the songs they want to hear at the party ( no idea on 6 year old songs so can't help!) That way you can ensure that "the majority" have chosen the songs so that teh "difficult child" who tries to spoil the party by saying they are not cool has to tackle the whole crowd, not just one persons choice!

Then I would burn them all onto a couple of CD's or discs and put a stereo in the hall with those songs playing. Hire or buy a few disco lights (look at Maplins website - they are actually quite cheap and can be resold or used in bedrooms! http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?menuno=70337&MenuName=Party Lighting)

Use some fairy lights or christmas tree lights, rope lights or anything else to provide background lighting. Raid everyones Christmas lights!

I suspect that you can fill an hour of dancing - especially some of those songs that they all seem to know the actions to - that "Charlie Brown" song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCEu_dFfw6I

Use this for a dance competition with prizes for the best dancer, the most origional dancer, most unusual, most enthusiastic etc (this ensures that everyone gets a prize!)

I reckon you could probably play that a good few times.....then move on to some of these if you get stuck
http://www.we7.com/#/album/Kids-Party-Songs!albumId=260184

Add in some Hannah Montana songs and some high School Musical stuff and you have a party....Karaoke machines would be great - try to borrow one and use for HM or HSM songs.

I would stick some hay bales down and make it a bit of a barn dance theme and provide a few glasses of wine for the adults who are staying, you may even get them up and dancing!

http://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/games/ Could you steal any of the ideas for games off here? Print off the faces of the characters, match them to facts or bands or whatever HM is about. Maybe use the game "twister" and stick an uptured face onto each colour spot - each face has a different prize or forefeit associated with the character.

Do a HSM lucky dip - big bran tub and you have to find a character or pull out something related to HSM or HM.

Perhaps steal some ideas off this guy! http://services.vivastreet.co.uk/event-planning+southampton-so15/hannah-montana-themed-kids-party-southampton/17938919

I would not go for too much in the way of food - they are kids and they want to be dancing, not sitting down eating.
Provide things they can eat on the run, fruit kebabs (not sharp skewers) small biscuits, mini hot dogs, almost like canapes.

I would also make a champagne fountain http://www.a1champagnefountains.co.uk/wine.htm
or a punch bowl like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000XO4EFU?ie=UTF8&!!!!!shopwiki-uk-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738

Buy, make or hire. Then fill with Schloer or sparkling grape juice (if they are sophisticated 6 year olds!) or some kind of horrendous coloured punch (if they are normal 6 year olds!).

For me the biggest question would be is it just girls, or a mixture of girls and boys? In my experience, 20 6 year old girls will happily play, sing, dance etc together.
6 year old boys want to be fighting, tumbling, bashing each other and are inclined to rugby tackle each other on the dance floor - so don't expect them just to dance! This is where games come in, if they are having to think about matching characters up then they may not bash each other so much!

Hope this gives you some starting points!

Puss
xx