Childrens Birthday Party - questions & ideas (merged)

bindiboo

IT TIME FOR ME TO THINK ABOUT WHAT TO DO FOR THE KIDDIWINKS, BIRTHDAY PARTIES THIS YEAR. i DON'T THINK I AM BRAVE ENOUGH TO DO AT HOME (MESS,MESS, AND CHAOS)

ANY ONE WITH ANY IDEAS. I LIVE IN DERBY.

SO FAR WE HAVE HAD PARTIES AT BONNIE PRINCE & BREWSTERS FOR MY SOON TO BE 6 YEAR SON (END OF JULY) AND FOR MY SOON TO BE 10 YEAR TWIN BOYS( NOT TIL SEPT) WE HAVE DONE BREWSTERS & MEGABOWL.

I NEED SOME IDEAS OF VENUES ETC. NEED TODECIDE SOON AS DATES WILL BE LIMITED IF I LEAVE IT ANY LATER.;)

bad_mum

why have a party every year? it becomes expected. I have 4 children and have a 'birthday tea' most years but on the 6th and 12th birthdays go for the big party, the children look forward to it, its not going through the motions and it is far less stressfull than trying to come up with something new every year.

Pink.

Hi bindiboo,

Sorry, I don't live near Derby, so I can't give you any local help. It may be worth your while enquiring at local leisure centres to see what they have on offer. We can hire our local paddling pool (with a room for catering afterwards) for under 7's. For the twins you could think about cinema, swimming, barbeque or some other activity??



Hi bad mum,

While I understand your reasoning, I think six years is a very long time to look forward to something. My children are 14, 11 and 5. We only start 'real' birthday parties (ie when their friends are invited as opposed to a family birthday tea) once they go to school. In my experience children these days only want to have parties for a few years, then once they get to around 10 it becomes much more 'cool' just to do something with a few friends on their birthday.

The way I look at it is that If I can afford to have a party (lets face it they are very expensive no matter whether you do them at home or not), then I do.

These years fly by, and in my opinion, creating memories is well worth doing if you can.

Pink

bad_mum

Mado wrote:

We have moved back from abroad about 6 months ago and I am a bit in shock as to what people do around here (guess it's quite wealthy) for their kids birthdays...
My birthday rounds are coming in a little while but I'd like to be prepared.

I love my 3 littles darlings dearly but I am not ready to spend £12.5 a head (and invite 12) at a local pottery cafe + food +party bags (for a 7 years old) or have a disco party for my 5 years old...
I do however want them to have a fun party that they will remember for a long time.

Ideas on games/themes that really work but don't cost a bomb?

Why have an organised party? why not just a birthday tea, it sounds like you will be doing a party just because everyone else seems to be doing it. We always have a birthday tea, apart from the 6th and 12th birthdays when we have a party. Don't fall into this because you think of how others will view it, have a simple tea (cakes, games and fun) and watch when other parents see that it is what they should be doing too!
:T set a standard!

I have 4 children, and have no wish for them to grow up expecting a bigger and better party each year.

good luck with it

bad_mum

Pink-winged wrote:

Hi bindiboo,

Sorry, I don't live near Derby, so I can't give you any local help. It may be worth your while enquiring at local leisure centres to see what they have on offer. We can hire our local paddling pool (with a room for catering afterwards) for under 7's. For the twins you could think about cinema, swimming, barbeque or some other activity??



Hi bad mum,

While I understand your reasoning, I think six years is a very long time to look forward to something. My children are 14, 11 and 5. We only start 'real' birthday parties (ie when their friends are invited as opposed to a family birthday tea) once they go to school. In my experience children these days only want to have parties for a few years, then once they get to around 10 it becomes much more 'cool' just to do something with a few friends on their birthday.

The way I look at it is that If I can afford to have a party (lets face it they are very expensive no matter whether you do them at home or not), then I do.

These years fly by, and in my opinion, creating memories is well worth doing if you can.

Pink

Our birthday teas have freinds invited, I didn't mean they went without just didn't have a huge do every year. We just keep it simple.

bad_mum

Pink-winged wrote:

Hi bindiboo,

Sorry, I don't live near Derby, so I can't give you any local help. It may be worth your while enquiring at local leisure centres to see what they have on offer. We can hire our local paddling pool (with a room for catering afterwards) for under 7's. For the twins you could think about cinema, swimming, barbeque or some other activity??



Hi bad mum,

While I understand your reasoning, I think six years is a very long time to look forward to something. My children are 14, 11 and 5. We only start 'real' birthday parties (ie when their friends are invited as opposed to a family birthday tea) once they go to school. In my experience children these days only want to have parties for a few years, then once they get to around 10 it becomes much more 'cool' just to do something with a few friends on their birthday.

The way I look at it is that If I can afford to have a party (lets face it they are very expensive no matter whether you do them at home or not), then I do.

These years fly by, and in my opinion, creating memories is well worth doing if you can.

Pink

Our birthday teas have freinds invited, I didn't mean they went without just didn't have a huge do every year. We just keep it simple.
Don't all the big parties blur into one after a time? same as Oh yeah we used to have birthday teas? also don't they start to expect it?
I don't think it matters what you don't spend as long as they have fun and you spend time with them.
(after all this site is about saving money)
creating memories shouldn't be about spending money.

Pink.

I don't think that they expect it, but they do look forward to it immensely. The excitement in our house last month as our five year old counted down the days to his birthday was palpable and well worth every penny we spent (and that wasn't a lot, as it was a home party).

In my opinion they don't just blurr into one........my 14 going on 15 year old clearly remembers her birthdays because we always tried to do something different every year (she mentioned this last month when there was birthday fever in our house).

How old are your boys? I ask because you mention birthday parties when they are twelve, so I'm guessing that at least one of them is that age. Can you give me any ideas what to do for my son when he is twelve in December?

Sorry bindiboo, I really didn't intend to hijack your thread.

Pink

Mado

Hi bad Mum

I am trying to organise a home party anyway.
What I am really after is plenty of fun ideas for slightly unsual theme or games to make it unforgettable... but certainly not unaffordable.

2 years ago while we were in Australia, I had a fairy tale party for my DD (then 6), and I was a bit dispointed that the kids didn't do as I expected on the fairy tale hunt (I had put clues about in tne garden and they had to come back the fairy tales titles to get home-made fairy money that they could use to purchase drinks and get chocolate money as change... everyone was meant to win anyway but they just cheated without even looking!!!). I had made a carboard castle as a prop and a gorgeous (well if I may say so) cake, and my husband did a magic show(rehearsed painfully for the best part of the previous week' evenings).
I 'm thinking of trying some variation on the same theme again but this time she's turning 8.
And read something about a back to front party which sounds like just the thing for DS (turning 6)

Edinburghlass_2

Bad Mum, I really think you would be better starting a thread in the Discussion Forum regarding your views on birthday parties as the posters here and on other threads are asking for suggestions for upcoming birthdays and don't really need to be told whether they should have a party or not or the venue.

Yes this site is about money saving but as Martin always says it is also about making the most of the money you have.

jellyhead

i have a bad sense of geography, is the american adventure theme park near derby? we went there last month (we don't live there but using the free entry tickets from the newspaper promotion - i think it was the mirror meant just paying for petrol) and it was fun - i think your older boys would be a bit bored though, it's aiming for younger kids really. it all depends on how many friends you would be looking to invite, and how well you know the parents of these friends (would they let you take their kids for a day out?) and if you have anyone else with a car willing to take a few extra kids.

my boy will be 9 soon and i've noticed that most of the kids turning 9 don't have a large party, they just go to the cinema etc. with a couple of friends, or even just the family. spud's only been to 2 schoolfriends parties during year 4, both were at church halls/community centres with proper party games, loads of fun :-) when he was younger kids would hire the pool or play area (and a tea room afterwards) at the leisure centre and invite the whole class, or have ten or so kids at the wacky warehouse.

this is probably no use to you, as i said i don't know where derby is and i can't map-read, but this year we're going to alton towers for spud's 9th. he wants to go to cariba creek (the waterpark) rather than into the theme park (shame, the theme park is much cheaper with all my tesco clubcard vouchers lol!). it's going to be a bit of a nightmare in terms of organisation - getting enough adults and cars together - but spud's really excited. there's a dozen kids on the list but i'm only expecting half of them to come. i haven't spoken to all the parents yet, i know that not all of them will want their children to go swimming so far from home, especially if they don't know me. one woman is going to drive and come into the pool herself to supervise her son as he's not a strong swimmer and as i'll be 39 weeks pregnant she doesn't trust me to supervise kids very well. my hubby, father and father in law are all excellent swimmers though. anyway, you might be hundreds of miles away from alton towers, so sorry if i'm going off at a tangent. i was just thinking that your ten year olds might not need a bigger partyand may prefer to do something a bit special with fewer kids. let us know what you decide on :-)