Entertainment for 6 Yr Old Boys Birthday Party at Home, or Other ideas-Glendale

Hi,

On my son's last birthday I had to get really creative and it paid off because all the kids at school were talking about how wonderful it was the next day.

Actives:
1) Treasure hunt. Hid a price in your yard and make a treasure map and let the kids find it.
2) Mummy wrap -- in teams of either two or three -- one child is wrapped up as a mummy from head to toe (no covering eyes or mouth) by the other two. The first group done wins.
3) Water balloon bull’s-eye toss. Fill up a few water balloons and draw a bull eye on the ground make a line 5 to 10 feet away from the bull’s-eye and let the kids (one at a time) throw the balloons. The child that hits it closest wins.
4) Present bingo. Make out a little bingo card different gifts that he might get. The first child that gets bingo wins. This keeps the kids entertained while presents are being opened.
********You can get cheap prizes from the 99 cent store.

For Food:
Snacks
1) Watermelon race cars with fruit inside the watermelon. 2) Strawberries and melted chocolate and I let the kids dip their own strawberries.
3) Punch with star ice cubes that I made myself from a candy mold.
4) Goldfish crackers, cheese, and some veggies with ranch dip.

Main
1) Pizza

Hope that helps

Wow - no wonder your son's birthday snuck up on you. Sorry you are having such a challenging time, but I'm impressed that you're choosing to look forward to the positive!

As for party ideas, how about bowling? It's something that's fun for kids of all ages( and adults!) and you don't have to worry about hosting, cleaning, etc. Some places even assign you a hostess who stays with your party to work the scoring computer and serve the food. Roller skating, ice skating rinks and mini-golf are fun too. I know when we get invited to a birthday party, we get so much more excited if we see that's it's someplace where we'll be able to be active and do something fun.

Good luck with everything!

You're lucky if your child wants his party at home. It's a nice change from the birthdays "in a box"--more personal, no hall to rent, and if there are other parents, a yard to set up games in. In this area you can pretty much bank on great weather.

My friend's 9 year old just had a pretzel themed party. she made up the dough and all the kids made their own pretzels... they had twisty pasta made into big trays of mac and cheese and played all kinds of games that were related, like Twister. Kids love to play.

We didn't have a large yard when my step daughter wanted a sweet 16 party, nor did we have the money for a huge hall and catering etc. We rented a covered picnic area at the local park (still around $200) and had a big barbecue and jump house and music for them to dance. They were 16 but enjoyed acting 9 for a few hours.

I had a nephew that wouldn't get out of his superman costume except to go to school (no capes allowed in the classroom). Would he love it if everyone came in costume? As a divorcing mom don't stress yourself out over spending money you may not have to spare, instead there are so many ways for your son to have the best day ever in the company of his friends, showing off his great mom and home.

The best part of any birthday is cake and ice cream and gifts and friends and family.
Hope it's great!

Hi M.,
Guilford Adams, from Los Angeles Clown, is wonderful. I recommend that you hire him to lead a nature tour of Beachwood Canyon. He won't dress up as a clown (unless you want him to) but will lead a very educational and entertaining nature hike that will leave the kids laughing and loving the outdoors. Guil leads's Eco-tours for TreePeople (a nonprofit) and he is really, really funny, smart and entertaining.

http://www.losangelesclown.com/

I work with Guil at TreePeople and plan to hire him for our 6 year old this year or next (depending on what our child wants).

Have fun! L.

The "whole class"? That does sounds like a lot of work, but I am sure worth every bit for your son. If you opt to have it at home there are many things you can do although I am sure they will also be able to entertain each other. You can always rent a bouncer, popcorn machine, cotton candy machine. Games you can play are hot potato, musical chairs, or have a pinata. You can also hire people to come and bring a show. Like a puppet show or I have been to ones that bring all kinds of different animals from horses to reptiles. As for food the easiest would be to order Pizza from Costco or buy buckets of chicken from Albertsons or Kentucky or sandwiches from Subway. Don't be afraid to ask for help from family or other kids parents. It can be some as simple as bringing in a small side dish like a fruit salad, pasta salad, or potato salad. You can also either order a cake or make/buy cupcakes. My son's b-day is also in October and I usually throw in a Halloween theme. We do pumkin carving or decorating. This is also makes for a great goodie to give instead of a goodie bag you can buy small little pumpkins to give for each child that attended and they can take it home and decorate on their own.

I am not too familar with places to have a b-day party in te Glendale are, but one that does come to mind is Travel Town in Griffith Park. We went there for a party and it was a lot of fun for all of us.
Good Luck and Happy Birthday to your son!

Hey M.--have you thought about not inviting so many people to his party? That seems really expensive and pretty crazy. Do you really want to have to write all those thank you notes--ugh??!! I have a rule for my children that works really well. They are only allowed to invite 1 person for every year of their age plus family. this accomplishes many things: 1)it really forces them to think about who are really their true friends that they enjoy spedng time with 2) they actually get to see and play with everyone at their party--with 20 that will never happen, 3)it saves you a lot of money and stress and teaches your child about having limitations. I have done this with each of my kids ( I have 5) and all our parties (with the exception of 2 ) have been at home and very fun. My 9 year old opts not to have parties anymore because her other option is to pick 1 friend and go to the amusement park of her choice--usually Disneyland or Magic Mountain. We always have such a blast too. But anyway--there are some good party entertainment that I have used that are great for boys. The Reptile Family is awesome--they come to your house and bring a menagerie of turtles, spiders, huge lizards and of course snakes--one is a 20ft. python. Also there is the Mad Science Co. who come and do all sorts of cool science stuff with the kids and set off rockets at the end. They even help you sing happy birthday and do cake. Also there is a guy who does magic--totally involves the kids too-named Dan the Magic Man (he is actually a deputy who does this on the side for fun) and he is fantastic. You should be able to find all of them through the internet, but if you can't let me know and I can get you their numbers. Good luck! Let us know how it goes! D.

Hi M.,

You could check out Oriental Trading Company for goody bags, party favors, party decorations, etc. They have large quantities of stuff for super cheap. Go to www.orientaltrading.com and they might actually have entertainment ideas, too. Hope this helps.

A. K