Another birthday idea request!
My daughter is turning 10 and she wants to invite both boys and girls to her 10th birthday party. We gave her a limit of 5 friends to invite. How do we make a small party a fantastic party for this age set? We have a small house and limited budget. We also live in New England so outdoor parties are not ideal for this time of year.
Thank you for the ideas! I really wish we had a Wii, but we don't! That would make our party planning much easier, lol. We've been leaning towards a bowling party, but I'm still looking for more ideas.
UPDATE:
Months later, I am now updating! We ended up getting a Wii (for my birthday which was just 10 days before my daughter's, lol) so we had a loose game theme going on:
1) Wii play - Just Dance, Sports Resort, Wario Ware - we gave out little trophies for things such as "Funkiest Dance Move"
2) Scavenger Hunt - husband made up clues and the kids had to search for a "prize" which was a Wii game for them to play
3) Nerf Gun fight - fun, fun, fun
4) Pinata - fun, fun, fun (we made our own and it was almost indestructible, lol)
5) Photo wall - put a couple sheets of wrapping paper on a wall and took pix of the kids wearing wax lips and wax mustaches
The kids had an absolute blast. My daughter proclaimed it "the best birthday party ever!"
Thanks for all the ideas!
Have a 60's party. Ask each child to bring a t-shirt to tie dye. Serve fondue (chocolate) with fruit pieces. Play a game or 2 of twister and put on some sixties music for name that tune.
Good Luck!
I just LOVE that you are keeping parties small and doing them at home. It's cheap and it's different. The kids get tired of all those arcade parties, frankly, and they've been doing them since they were 4 going to Chuck E. Cheese! We're in New England too, so I totally get that you are doing an indoor party! How about a scavenger hunt?? Give them clues to find things you have scattered about the house - they are reading well at this age, and you can give different kids different lists, or split them into 2 small teams. The clue can be a mystery about a location - for example, write if you hide something near the fireplace, write "you can't get the flu near this flue" or "follow the red brick road". If you're really clever, write it in rhyme. If you put something near the stairway, say something like "step by step you'll find your prize." The things they find can be household objects, or they can be small baggies of snacks or candies (a brownie, some Smartees or M&Ms) or even a $1 coupon to an ice cream place or McDonald's - and then these become the goody bag they take home. Saves a lot of expense, gives them an activity that moves them around the house. You can color-code the things for each kid or for each team - just use those colored labels for garage sales or file folder tops, whatever you have. If someone spots a prize while searching thru the house, they can ignore it if it's the wrong color (and try to be inconspicuous so they don't tip off the other players!), or if it's their color, they still have to check their clue list and check it off so they know what else they have to look for. It's fun, uses some brain power, takes up the time, and doesn't require a Wii system.
My son LOVED these things and so did his friends. When he was into dinosaurs, we used those plastic Easter eggs and called them dino eggs - we put treats or small toys in them, and hid them around the house or yard. Your daughter is past the dino stage, but maybe you can come up with another theme for something like that. Maybe call it EGG-citement or EGG-cellence.
Good luck and thanks for resisting the pressure to throw high cost gift-fests with 25 kids!
A popular theme in our town (and we've done this for our 10 year old) is a Wiiza party. I guess it would only work if you have a wii - but may be adaptable to another game console or you could borrow the console from a friend or family member. The kids play multi-player wii games, like Mario Party 8, Mario Cart, Boom Blox Bash Party or Wii Sports (could be rented from blockbuster or even perhaps the library). We made our own invitations by putting the Wii logo on the front and then printed below it "Wii would like to play..." and inside we put "Would you?" along with the party information.
At our Wiiza party, we got a bunch of pre-made pizza dough (could be done with boboli) etc. and the kids built their own mini pizza (we did this in small groups taking turns).
You can make your own cake and frost it to look like a wii console. For a grab-bag gift, you could make sleeves for king sized candy bars and make them look like wii controllers or just head to your nearest dollar store and buy simple games for the kids to take home.
Hope that helps! We've done a Letterboxing party as well, but that's definitely an outside party event! Good luck!
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Another affordable idea is the store chain "Michaels" actually hosts bday parties. I haven't done one there, but it looks fun and if I remember correctly, inexpensive http://www.michaels.com/art/online/static?page=Its-My-Bir...
If it's going to be boys and girls, I'd make it a cool theme. We had a science party for my daughters 10th. We got the book totally irresponsible science experiments and did 5 or 6 of the experiments. Her cake had a big Flask on it (the science kind!!) and each kid got a magnifying glass and notebook for a favor. A few weeks ago she went to a mystery party for a classmate. It was like a human clue game, they each had characters and they had to figure out who took the puppy I think it was, but you could do whatever. I'd stay away from crafts, not usually the favorite of boys that age!
Go with the basics. Organize a scavenger hunt. Play freeze dance (the music play, it stops, they freese where they are). Do a craft. Let them make their own pizza's or ice cream sundaes or cupcake decorating.
www.familyfun.com - has ideas for everything.
What is your daughter interested in? Perhaps the Jonas brothers - you could have a trivia game and award prizes to the person who gets the most right, the most wrong, etc. (I usually like to have a prize for each child in attendance). The prizes can be a lollipop, a bracelet, -simple stuff.
Check out your local dollar store. They have unusual items.
If no one has a latex allergy - you can get some small balloons, blow them up, cut up some newspaper, make a paste of flour, water and starch - and make their own pinata's.
You can have a guessing game - get a bunch a paper lunch bags - put rice inside, lollipops, blocks, pick some crazy ingredients. Have 3 tips written on an index card - see who can guess the most correctly.
You have endless possibilities here. Good luck! Remeber that 10 year olds don't need as much entertaining as 5 year olds, so don't get too stressed. Have fun!
How about a bowling party?
Have fun!
J.
find a laser tag place near your house ...that is so much fun....
My nephew just turned 10 and had his first boy/girl party too! My sister had it at the local Pizza place with an arcade. It was easy, fast, relatively cheap, everyone had fun and the clean up was the best!
My sister's rule is if you want a friend party that's fine but it takes away from actual gifts from M. and Dad...just a budget thing...kids understand and can make that choice. FYI- My nephew invited 8 friends and it was $150 + tip for the food and tokens.
At that age they like to chat and play...so if you have it at your house maybe you could make it a "Movie themed' party...whatever her favorite is...and put it on, make some popcorn, have some snacks and your golden. I think they pretty much want to entertain themselves at this age-well, my nephew and his friends did anyways! A Wii dance party would be fun if you guys are into and have that sort of thing...some of those "Just Dance" games are fantastic!! All the kids were stuck to it like glue at my house this Christmas!
