What to Do for Son's Birthday

Hello,
I am a big fan of the Family Party for young kids. Why not ask all of the family members to bring a photo of themselves and/or their family and after dinner or cake and ice cream make a family scrapbook for the birthday boy with fun colored paper and stickers, paint etc.. and have the family write birthday wishes or memories. You could also have enough for everyone to make a scrapbook if you wanted. This would be a neat keepsake. Hope it is a blast!!!!
T. P

Make it a day ALL about him! I would have him sit down and tell you wants to do all day. Start with his favorite breakfast. Have him help you make the cake or cupcakes. Play the games he wants to play and fix his favorite dinner. As a mother of 2 I know that my youngest doesn't always play what she wants, so to have a day that she could do all the games she wants would be very fun(especially if I make her older brother play with her)! I've also done parties that we all wore the child's favorite color all day (it makes for great pics). I would enjoy not having to give a huge party, my son is now in the 3rd grade and I just had a party for him with 22 kids!!!

I agree, the Great Wolf Lodge is a perfect place to go. We did that for both of my boys, and they ended up wanting to do that again the next year. It was perfect. There are refrigerators in the room if you dont want to spend the money on their restraunt. There is a little cafe area that sells donuts in the morning and coffee all day. The snack bar in the swimming area is reasonably priced. We usually go on Thursday or Sunday nights because it is quite a bit cheeper. There are crafts to do if you can drag him out of the swimming area, and in the enteryway, there is a clock tower with animals that tells a bedtime story. If you go in the winter months, it snows too. The rooms are great, and the customer service is A+. We found that the whole experience costs about as much as we would spend on a party and gifts. For their birthday present, we gave them money to spend either in the gift store, or in the arcade.....arcade won. Hope that helps.

What we have always done for both my kids (ages 12 & 7) is on their birthday; or as close to it as we can get; we take that child and only that child (the other goes to my in-laws) out to dinner just them, mommy and daddy they can pick whatever place they want to eat (with in reason, Reb Lobster is a little out of our budget) then after dinner we take them to the store and they get to pik out a gift. We started doing this when my youngest was born, it gives us special time with birthday child.

My sister had a similar situation. They ended up having the "famiy" party at the Great Wolf Lodge. They got a room and stayed overnight. He invited one friend to go and then the rest was family. They had a ball. He has also done Worlds of Fun with just a couple of friends and family.

Throw out about three ideas to your son and see which one is most special to him. You will all end up having a blast.

If you wanted to have more kids and more of a traditional party, wait until school starts, then invite all the boys in his class. What a great way to start to get to know the kids in his class. You could do a family celebration on his actual b-day and then have the kid party after school starts. He would probably be excited to have "2" parties!!!

Good luck and Happy Birthday to your son.
S.

Hey T.,
You could go to the North kansas city "North Bowl". They have go carts, mini golf, batting cage, bowling, and a few other activities and is fairly reasonable price wise. We took out son, 5, to a T-Bones baseball game. Tickets start at $6, but it is a very kids friendly atmosphere. They are located over by Legends shopping center in Kansas. Also over at Legends is T-Rex restaurant my kids love it, but we only go once in a while because it is fairly expensive. There is the Tiffany springs water park (over by the airport) that is not very expensive, but alot of fun.
Ultimately it comes down to what he wants to do. We usually give our kids a few choices and let them pick. Birthdays are always special at our house even if we have little money to spend.
Good luck and happy partying.
Michelle