Birthday Party for a 5yr old

eliviajen

I would like to throw a birthday party for our to be 5 year old as she has never had a party but has been such a good girl :A
The "normal" options for the parties we have been to are :
1- the new indoor play area costs between £9 - £12 a child food included but you dont see much of the children and we have been to 8 parties here already this school year
2- the now neglected dirty basic soft play costs £38-£45 hire plus food, we have been to 4 parties here

I would like a proper party with games and things but our house is too small really, we have 10 children of between 2 and 6 that would have to be invited from family before Elivia invited any friends from school so needed a large space. I cant really afford/justify spending £10 a head at the indoor play place for perhaps 35 children (school classes are open and merged meaning her class has 67pupils!!!!)

What i am thinking, PLEASE TELL ME IF IM STRANGE! we have just had a new library built and there is a lovely large open clean room that the chamber of trade hold there meetings in, it has a small kitchen attached too, i was thinking about having the party here, it costs £25 a session which is 4 hours morning or afternoon and then having a party entertainer which i have been quoted at £105 for 1.5 hours games, magic, face painting and balloon animals - they provide prizes and music/lights/pa... is this a good price?

im a bit iffy in group situations and would rather not Do-it-myself from scratch plus we have a 5month old baby too am i being over ambitious suggesting this to the OH? could i do all the food, invites, thank yous, favours for less than £70 meaning the total party spend came in at less than £200 - we have already bought birthday pressies as i overbought for christmas :embarasse

Will people think im strange having a party at the library? especially when we are so used to going to play parties

Apologies for the long post

betterlife

i think it sounds like a great idea cant help with price for entertainer as havent had one, im sure you could do everything else for 70 quid, especially if you buy in sales, try iceland and supermarkets for reduced party food which can be frozen and cooked on day. hth

Kelly1981

My son had a friends party at the local village hall with an entertainer and they had far more fun than just tearing around the indoor play area like they had for the previous 5 parties.

wammy77

eliviajen - Firstly I have to say that I dislike softplay parties! Lots of the children at my sons school have them and think it's a bit of a cop-out to be honest (**gets ready for the attacks for saying that!**).

I love the kind of parties that I had as a child - my mum made a cake (no shop bought stuff!), made great party food (sugar mice - yum!), did lots of fab games - the memories of my birthday parties are just fab

I either hold my little ones parties at home (if the numbers are small enough) or in a little hall or room at a community centre, library etc like you have suggested, and if you get the room for a good price it won't matter as much how many kids you invite as it's not a per head price.

I had a magician for my sons 7th birthday and it was £120 which was one of the better quotes I got :eek: but he was BRILLIANT, so i guess it was worth it

It's my little girls 4th birthday in May and I shall be doing a Fairies & Elves home-made birthday in a small hall. We're setting up a cup-cake bar to decorate their own cakes, my hubby will be creating balloon models, my sister will be face painting and and I will be doing pass the parcel, musical chairs and sorting the food.

She'll have a wonderful time whatever you do

yummy.scrummy.mummy

this party sounds great, some of the parties get too similar as theyre always doing the same thing. if i was you and wanted something different i would hire out a big room, maybe a leisure centre has a spare hall going which you could decorate and turn the lights off then have the party lights going.. sounds like the £105 is a good price espec considering they include the lights and prizes - less things to worry about getting sorted!! once you have music going and other things it will be great its normally the little things in the parties which count the most to kids! make sure they all get involved and all have a chance to win something so no one feels upset at the end! do little party games and give the losers a prize just for taking part

Angelfeathers

£105 sounds great for an entertainer (my friend paid £200 for hers!) and you are definitely not weird for having a hall - all four parties we've been to so far this year have been in halls and they were great, including the one where they didn't hire an entertainer but just did loads of games like pass the parcel, musical bumps/statues/chairs, pin the tail on the donkey etc.

I am shelling out for the soft play area for my son for his purely because that's what he's been asking me for since last February, and it's his first big party, but we're also personalising it by having a pirate party. And next year will be a very small party at home to recoup costs! :-)

LolaLemon

wammy77 wrote: »

eliviajen - Firstly I have to say that I dislike softplay parties! Lots of the children at my sons school have them and think it's a bit of a cop-out to be honest (**gets ready for the attacks for saying that!**).

I love the kind of parties that I had as a child - my mum made a cake (no shop bought stuff!), made great party food (sugar mice - yum!), did lots of fab games - the memories of my birthday parties are just fab

I either hold my little ones parties at home (if the numbers are small enough) or in a little hall or room at a community centre, library etc like you have suggested, and if you get the room for a good price it won't matter as much how many kids you invite as it's not a per head price.

Agreed to an extent.

Do u have a recipe for sugar mice i could have? im doing an outdoors/woodland theme, and i am getting owls to come, all the kids can get a shot of wearing the BIG glove and holding one! The place im booking out is a 'play area' butits outdoors, made of wood, im doing trasure hunt games for cream eggs which will be covered with animal egg cosies, and a load of other stuff (the play area is a ibit of a trek from where the party will be, but their parents can take them afterwards)

Check and see what the room limit is, i booked a community centre last year and limit was 40 kids (i was inviting 45 from my side and his friends, his dad still wanted to invite 20 on top!)

yummy.scrummy.mummy wrote: »

make sure they all get involved and all have a chance to win something so no one feels upset at the end! do little party games and give the losers a prize just for taking part

Now that is a cop out! (ive noticed this 'practice' happening more and more, at parties, at school - no one wins for best costume at halloween anymore!- no competition = no losers is not a life skill i want to teaching children, but my wee rant is not for this thread, or even this site, just should keep in my head:p)

Angelfeathers wrote: »

£105 sounds great for an entertainer (my friend paid £200 for hers!) and you are definitely not weird for having a hall - all four parties we've been to so far this year have been in halls and they were great, including the one where they didn't hire an entertainer but just did loads of games like pass the parcel, musical bumps/statues/chairs, pin the tail on the donkey etc.

I am shelling out for the soft play area for my son for his purely because that's what he's been asking me for since last February, and it's his first big party, but we're also personalising it by having a pirate party. And next year will be a very small party at home to recoup costs! :-)

my son gets invited to a lot of parties - being in 2 nurseries and kept in touch with my aqua natal 'buddies', plus all the ones from the breastfeeding support groups and toddlers and swimming club...... and a lot of them are very repetitive, local soft play area or community centre with a bouncy castle, my cousin and his gf booked out a bowling club for their girls 3rd birthday, she bought face paints and got 2 older girls to follow the designs (they where abt 12/13 years old), some of her reletions sat at a table and made loads n loads of shapped ballons, she made a cd of music from 70/80/90's parties like a-gaa-doo, timewarp, superman, etc, and everyone was up dancing, playing games.
My son said on the way home, 'mum that was the best party ever!'
how am i to compete with a statement like that? hehehe p.s. he's never said anything like that about any other party before.


We had a pirate theme last year - i made treasure boxes from shoe boxes, covered in brown packaging paper (from poundland) painted signs on, like beware, do not open/enter, a packet of sticker gems dotted around, and filled them with sweets like, marshmallows, moams, haribos, put them on a table, with loads of junk jewellery from primark, poundstretcher, charity shops. i didnt have enough time to go and get other stuff i wanted like cups taht could be passed off as chalices, cheap crowns etc (think the prates bounty on the goonies), i was going to spray them all gold and silver, but just no time and only me doing it all.
I made a pirate cake - tin was from lakeland, well ebay hehe
i got gold coins cheap about now from lidl, poundstretchers, and any i found in the supermarkets... i sprinkled these around the tables too, i bought my party bags from ebay, 50 filled pirate bags, each had a mini lolly pop, mini packet of haribo, a mini telescope, eye patch, map, mini pack of crayons, fake pirate coinsa nd notes and something else... worked out cheaper than getting them all myself.... food was a mixture of the usual and a load of fruit.
also EVERYONE had to dress up as a buccaneer, including parents, nearly everyone did, only his stupid father and his gf and sister didnt.




This might be best added to the new childrens party thread, keep all the ideas and stuff together

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2962984

raineshoe

Have to say £105 for an entertainer who says they can do all that in 1.5 hours is a poor entertainer. You essentially pay for what you get in this game. I can tell you now as I face paint professionally, that he would not be able to do reasonable faces and entertain the children in the time allowed. It takes approx 2 hours to paint 20-25 children. Very under priced so would worry me as to what you were going to get.

If you are booking a children's entertainer of any kind try to find one on recommendation.

Also word of caution if you decide to buy face paints and do the stuff yourself (nothing against that, as many do and as I sell face paints I benefit!!) as someone mentioned above be aware that if anything goes wrong a parent will probably sue you in this sue happy culture. If you hire a professional face painter who does quality work they will be insured, will check that the children are okay to be painted, will only use quality products and proper cosmetic glitter, and will be quick so everyone will get done.

Whatever you decide have fun.