19 answers

Birthday Party Ideas for a 4 Yr Old

I am in need of ideas of where to have a party for my soon to be 4 yr old daughter. Her birthday is at the end of January and wants to have a birthday party with all her friends. In past years we have had a small party with just a single friend her age. This year she is asking to have more of her friends, which would include atleast 5 more children. We unfortunately live in an apartment and our space is very limited. We can't afford to rent a special "expensive" venue as our budget is also very limited, but I would like to give her a party that she wants. Any ideas or suggestions? .... She's planning to have a princess themed party.

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I just had a birthday party for my 1 year old daughter and 3 year old son. We live in a small house and therefore needed an inexpensive place that was large enough to have a combined party. I found the community center in North Ridgeville to be very accomodating. It cost $100. I didn't really want to spend the $100, but it was nice having it at a different location than my house. We were allowed in the hall all day. They have table and chairs. Good Luck.

I am trying to plan my daughter's 11th birthday and it sounds like we are in exactly the same boat! I was thinking about one of the older bowling alleys which tend to be cheaper. My daugher really wants to go roller skating, and their cheapest package is $80. ugh! We did a pizza hut party a few years ago, and that wasn't too bad. If adult friends come, they can chip in for pizza, or get their own.

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You can rent out the Donatoes party room or Panera Bread party room. It does not cost anything. You just pay for your food.

J. R.

I have rented out Donatoes a few times for my Book Parties. I sell Usborne Books. These books are for kids Birth- Teenagers. Quite the variety if you need gift ideas. Here is my website.

Ubah.com/T2267

If you have any questions or would like to find out how you could host a party and get free books , send me an email.

Not sure where you live but a party at McDonald's usually works out for little children and isn't horrid. You might call the Danville Theater (the Royal) and ask them what they would charge to have the party there.
Chucky Cheese and places like that are very expensive and very loud.

Does your apartment complex have an activity room of some sort? Maybe they'll let you borrow it for an afternoon. Or how about a friend who owns a home, or grandparents who own a home?

Hi J.,
I just had a Princess party for my daughter that just turned 5. We had it at home & had about 13 girls.
Of course you could do it smaller in your apartment. I'd just recommend moving some of the furniture around to make more space in the family room.
I sent out a invite & asked all the girls to come dressed in their royal attire. Most little girls have dressup clothes already. They loved wearing their dresses to the party. I would then have a craft, like make a princess wand or crown. You can find a lot of ideas on the intranet. Just type princess party ideas on Google. Then have some princess theme games: Pin the kiss on the frog, or pin the tiarra on the princess. Pass the tiarra(like hot potatoe game). Also the girls loved having us play princess music & dancing. We also did some glitter makeup on each girl for a Princess makeover, which was a hit too.
Hope you have fun. Best of luck & happy birthday to your daughter.

Maybe you can limit it to 5 girls. I think that would be a "bigger" party and still small enough to be able to keep calm! (If that's at all possible! I have a boy, there's no Calm at birthday parties!)
I just thought a cute idea would be to get a big cardboard box and allow them to "build" their own castle. Or a few small boxes for them to make individual ones. Sometimes you can call local grocery stores or even places like McDonalds and ask them to save the boxes for you before they throw them out. Other than thinking your a little odd they do it and then it's a free craft!
You can buy some inexpensive foam and have them decorate their own princess hats with glitter and markers. Maybe you can even find some lace or pretty fabric on the clerance rack.
Factory card outlet has a great birthday party suggestions, and cheap ways to make treat bags. Just a thought, we just came home from a birthday party yesterday and the treat bag was mostly thrown away.

Does your apartment complex have a party room? Maybe you can use that. Then, your apartment stays clean and you have the space for the kids. Check some of the local party store's inventory...you can find discontinued items(because they change our last season's styles)and the price is really reduced. Even if they aren't exactly the same, the theme is still the same!
Hope this helps!
Good Luck!!

Hello, as for where to host the birthday party, I would suggest breaking out the local phone book. Check to see if you have a local complex in your area. Where I live we have a complex that you put a deposit of $25 down, when you reserve it. And it has the chairs, table, and kitchen. All you do is clean up your mess and put everything back to how you found it and when the advisor do a check later, they refund you the full amount back.

As for party ideas, since you already plan on the princess theme, I would get some construction paper in your DD favorite color/s and make handmade invites with some glitter paint pens, etc. Fold the paper in half and make a crown and cut it out or a heel. Then add all the information to it and get some plain evelopes to put them in and add some stickers to it. I would also suggest asking the girls to come dressed as princesses, excluding the crown. You can buy these foam crown shaped visor hats at walmart for cheap. Get enough for the amount of guest that you know are coming. Get a glitter paint pen or sticker foam letters and add the names of the guest to each crown for the party hat/favor. I think they even sell some foam purse crafts as well. That could be what you do as a actvity and it would make a nice party favor. Go to a dollar store and pick up a few of the makeup kits to add to the purses. Some ringpops. Get some big beads and yarn and make braclets. Make a pin the glass sliper on the foot game.
What ever and where ever you decide for the party will be fun. They will enjoy being together playing. Take lots of pictures and make a princess scrapbook with your DD a few days later. Best wishes and loads of fun.

Also here is a link for how to castel cake:
http://familyfun.go.com/utilities/global/feature/fftv-arc...

I also live in an apartment and do not have space for birthday parties. However Chuck E cheese has a party area but you do not have to rent the space. If they have open tables in that area they will let you use them. You can go on thier website and get coupons. We took my son there last year for his birthday when he turned 4 and there was like 5 or 6 kids with him. The nice thing is that they have someone at the door so the kids can kind of do thier own thing without haveing to be too supervised. My son and his friends loved it and I think we are going to do it again this year.

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