Childrens Birthday Party - questions & ideas (merged)

trader_girl

my son is 8 this week but some of his friends are 10, so this is what we are doing.

We are hiring a usa medic party ambulance from oddball limos @hotmail.com to pick them all up
drop them off at the bowlimg (paid for with vouchers)
then going across to macdonalds (paid for by grandad)
and then back in the party ambulance to go home.

The man Darren at oddball limos is very patient i must have rung him for help and advice at least 5 times

This seems a lot but all im paying for is the transport abd the cake

jane130

ok callme anal but i have spent the last few days researching and planning my son's 5th birthday party.... when is it you may ask....... January!!!

I want it to be perfect and by planning this early i can find bargains when they are available .

i am planning to hire the community centre hall and have a pirate themed party, he'll be inviting his whole class - new school in sept along with some of his other friends so we are going to split them into three groups - blackbeard's crew, bluebeards crew , and redbeards crew- i have freinds and family I'm going to rope into be the pirates.

we'll play some games as a group and then split into teams for some activites like xmarks the spot( pin the tail on the donkey but with a treasure map and an X) , walk the plank - walk the plank then pick a duck using a hook to get a prize, and skull cave - a tent covered in something black to make it dark inside, filled with small balloon and treasure( little bags of chocolate coins) each child takes it in turns to go in with a torch and find some treasure.

then back into a group for food and birthday cake followed by a game of cannon ball pop - black ballons some with (unbreakable) prizes in -pop the balloons to win the prizes.

then and obsticle race - pushing a balloon around the course using a sweeping brush

then that great pirate game where you shout out , port, starboard , swab the decks etc and the kids do the actions - gonna have my two teens up on stage doing the actions to remind the little ones what to do. hopefully we can play this until parents start to arrive.

I am also thinking of some kind of treasure hunt but not sure how to work it .

I'm going to make a treasure chest for his gifts to go in until we get home ,
after the first few games we are going to give eye patches and homemade bandanas to all as prizes - other pirate themed goodies like water pistols, blow up parrots, will be other prizes

i intend each child to get enough prizes that they won't need a goodie bag - but instead will put them into homemade calico bags with a pirate motif stamped on the front or a treasure chest made out of a small box eg kids shoe boxes -might try freecycle for these.

what do you think ?anything i have missed ?

Not really too worried if the costs add up a little as its only a couple of weeks after christmas so we won't get him a gift aswell and hopefully i can find plentyof bargains and do it a little at a time.

funnyfreckle

jane130 wrote: »

ok callme anal but i have spent the last few days researching and planning my son's 5th birthday party.... when is it you may ask....... January!!!

I'm definitely not going to call you anal - all your ideas sound absolutely fabulous - well done. I'm sure it is going to be brilliant fun ... it also sounds as though you have had lots of fun planning it. I must admit I have really enjoyed making up themed games for my daughter's party - always more fun thinking about it than doing the housework!

I was just thinking about pirate invites you could make and found this which might help - lots of good ideas for decorations, food and invites etc
http://www.boardmanweb.com/party/pirate.html

Have loads of fun
funnyfreckle

Do tell us about any themed partiesyou have done in the past - it's inspirational!

MidLifeCrisis_3

Looking for some ideas for another party game please for a 5th birthday party. Sharing the party and both boys mad on Spiderman, I've already found a game called Kangaroo that can be renamed where the kids are in teams and the next one jumps as the first one jumps on (they can do this with their mums!). Something quieter/sitting down might be an idea before this so they don't throw up before jumping around - any ideas please? Pass the parcel is a good one, but would like something a little bit different if pos.

There are going to be about 40 kids there and some are younger so games need to be suitable for under 5's.

Booked the village hall for a bargain £8 for a couple of hours and a bouncy castle as a member of local toy libray for £25, making Spiderman cake, but not bothering with spidy tableware, bags, etc as the kids won't care about that so it's plain old white stuff and the cheapest party bags available. Keeping it a simple buffet this year as made up boxes that combined as party bag last year and quite a few siblings turned up and it meant they didn't get any food at tea time.

Really like the certificate idea I've seen on here to go in party bags and will be filling bags up with some sweets rather than crummy plastic rubbish that always ends up straight up in the bin (it certainly does in my house) or yet another pencil/pen & pad to add to the collection.

Shame it's the wrong time of year as wish I could do what my friend did took a group of lads with her hubby to the park for a "football party" to kick round the ball for an hour and then after they were worn out took them home for tea and birthday cake (she'd toyed with a picnic, but that meant lugging all the stuff there). Simple, but they absolutely loved it! Saying that it's August now and is more like October out there!

MLC

coxy07

The easiest way to cater for a large number is to have party food boxes containing a couple of small sandwiches,crisps,piece of fruit, carton drink,small box of raisins etc.These you can prepare earlier and forget about.
Decorating biscuits is always popular. Plain rich tea biscuits with thick water icing. Let them loose with the 100s & 1000s etc which are cheap in Asda at the moment.
Hedgehogs is a good game. Everyone runs around,shout Hedgehogs. Everyone curls up on the floor. Eyes closed, no peeping! Cover 1 child with a blanket. Everyone kneel up and try to guess who the hedgehog is.
Corners: Name the 4 corners of the room to fit with your theme. Everyone run around, shout Corners. Everyone choose a corner to run to. Someone who isnt looking shouts the name of a corner. Everyone at that corner is out.
I will think of some more and post them later.

Melon78

Just booked my son's 4th birthday party, a tad early as his birthday is February lol. BUT he wants a bowling party and the alley only does parties on a Wednesday afternoon or a Sunday morning so i've had to book in advance. Anyhow, its really good value! Its £6.95 a child (minimum of 6) and tbh i'd be surprised if he even invited 10! That gives a game of bowling and food after (the usual nuggets/pizza/fish finger type food). All i have to get is a birthday cake and party bags, will look for bits in the January sales for them.

Sarahsaver

One of my fave party games but unfortunately not a quiet one.
getthe kids into 2 teams, each has a balloon. they have to pass it along the line without dropping it - else it goes back to the start...then the last one in the line has to sit on it so it pops. the winning team gets a sweet each.

scurr

I loooooove parties! Here's what we've had so far:

1st & 2nd birthdays were swimming parties which were v cheap to hire the pool with all the floats & things then just had to self-cater. Lots of wine for the mums & we were fine!

3rd burthday was an Ugly Bug Ball - basically a fancy dress with a few buggy games & themed food - again cheap cos in local Activity Centre.

4th was a Mad Hatters Tea Party - asked children to come wearing a mad hat, played pass the hat instead of pass the parcel, made & decorated hats out of newspaper, card, bits of fabric etc

5th was a Hawaiian Hula party - in December - kids came in loud Hawaiian shirts & shorts or bikinis and grass skirts. We had a Beach Bar for chilling out with Capri Suns (which were on BOGOF that week!), bowling coconuts to hit pineapples, parachute games, a pirate treasure hunt, and a take home CD with loads of feelgood songs

6th I cheated and paid a fortune for a fairy lady who brought shedloads of costumes for the kids to dress up in, then organised all the games etc. That was nice and restful!

7th was a Hollywood Glamour party - I asked the girls ( no boys this time) to come in their most decadent, glamorous dresses & had a team of teenagers to do their hair, makeup and nails then the surprise was a limo which took them cruising round the town. When we got back we had an Oscars ceremony and they all won an award for something.

8th was a Grease party - the girls came dressed up in 50s dresses, poodle skirts etc, I got my Pilates teacher to come and teach Rock n Roll dancing, then they had hot dogs and Coke in glass bottles while they watched the movie of Grease projected on to the living room wall with the projector I borrowed from work.

9th she decided she wanted to play teachers so it was a Too Cool for School party. I could see potential for disaster so invitations were like permission letters for a school trip. We spent about half an hour having different lessons then it was Science so we went to the local Science Centre. I gave them all v cheap digital watches and a timetable of where to be and when, so we didn't even haave to trail round with them - just sat in the coffee shop & checked in on them every half hour or so!

10th I managedto skip altogether cos we went to Disneyland Paris!

This year it's going to be a House of Horror party - I found out by accident that a 15th century house owned by the council with balconies, 3 floors including full kitchen etc only costs £12 an hourto hire! So at the mo I'm working out whether I can be bothered working out lots of spooky goings on or if I'll take the easy route and hire a disco (£75 but he organises games etc too - does the whole thing!) Think probably the disco will win - it would mean she could invite her whole class - and I think this will be the last party, so that would be nice. We made the invites during the holidays - gothic on parchment, burned round the edges and sealed with sealing wax.

I justify expense of parties by not giving her birthday presents - not as mean as it sounds, given that Christmas is 2 weeks after her birthday and they get inundated with presents at parties.

Hope something gives someone a spark of an idea

mikeffog

[FONT=&quot]There is a website with an amazing 1st birthday party ideas page. It's themed party ideas pages are the largest you will find on any site or book, guaranteed! Each theme is broken into sections for invitations, costumes, icebreakers, food, cake, favors, and games. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Each page is written in an easy to read and understand manner and is also full of important party planning tips and ideas that cannot be found anywhere![/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Go to http://www.themed-birthday-party-ideas.com/first-birthday-parties[/FONT]

karren

hi, im planning a roller disco for my little girl in april, i know this sounds a nal but last year we ended up having 2 one tea party in the house for all her girly friends from school, then on the sat a bbq for everyone at mine and they cost little but it was stressful and i ended up minding all the kids while the parents enjoyed, so this year im investing in a leisire centre party, £45 for an hour.
then £10 for the hall after, and thought id take hot dogs in flasks and do them there and some cup drinks, which ill pick up when i do my weekly shop so they should keep costs down, ie get something every week.
I hired a bouncy castle for my sons 6 so feel she should have something to for being 6.
shes really in to high school so thought a red and white them would be good, and the hot dogs are american themed? do you think.
anyone know of a site that i could copy the invites or something
and where can i get american themed party bags?
and thought the certificates were good, anyone know of a link?
i would really appreciate all your ideas, as this will probably be the last big party and then back to the usual house party etc from now on, thanks xxx