Son's 8Th Birthday Celebration

Take the train to Portland (Day Trip) and go to OMSI. Oregons Museum of Science and Industry. It rocks! Way better that Seattle's. Plus a cool train ride. Ride the dome car. A group of 20 (moms and kids) is incredibly inexpensive to do.

One really fun idea is Traxx in Mukilteo - they have a kids track upstairs with electric and gas powered cars for the kids to race, and video games. For a little more you can add the climbing wall and/or the basketball bouncy house. My kids had a blast there! You can find more info at www.traxxracing.com

If money isn't an issue - what about the zoo? They do private parties and that would certainly be different!

Amazingly enough, Home Depot does parties. They told me I could invite up to 400 kids! lol All the kids get to build a wooden thing (car, airplane, bank, birdhouse...)and age is not a factor. (My 3yr old built a bird house. She LOVED getting to use the hammer and screwdriver and actually creating something!) They supply all the kits, hammer, nails, wood glue and all that stuff. You bring the cake and plates and stuff. All you have to do is call and set up the time. As far as I know, all times are open except for the 1st Saturday of the month, when they have the kids clinics. I did this for my daughter's 9th birthday and she and the other kids loved it. AND they got to take home what they built. What a great party favor. They give you a person to help with the building, so you're not running around trying to keep the kids from whacking each other with hammers. lol Oh, and best yet... its FREE.

Good luck!
S.

I don't know what area you live in, but some of the farms around town have great party venues - the kids can explore, pick things...It may be too young for your child, but some of them have great activities (I love Remlinger's).

This year we decided to do something different for my daughters 10th birthday.Instead of the"norm"cake or chuckie cheese or whatever. We thought we would do ice cream sundaes we got a big container of ice cream(whatever flavor)then we got a variety of things to put on it all diff.types of candy nuts etc,and syrups. We got some bowls (that u can throw out when your done) and we put all the items in different bowls and let the kids make their own sundaes(with supervision).
Then after wards since it was so hot they had a huge water fight. The kids absolutly loved it,they asked if they could come next year and could we do ice cream sundaes again.
Plus I told a few parents about it and they are planning the samething for their kids birthday.
I got the idea from a friend of mine who had done it for ther sons birthday and said it was a huge hit.
It was a great hit,I highly recomend it,especially if you let the kids choose some of the toppings they want for the sundaes,and anything goes.Gummie bears,or whatever.
Hope you try it and enjoy it,its well worth it.
Good luck to you.

8 year old boys are so much fun. For my son's 8 year old party, I had him choose 3-4 close friends. We went to the Zoo for almost the whole day. They LOVED it! Here is how it went.
I had the parents bring thier child to my house (where we had the Cake). We were there maybe 5 minutes. We then went to the Zoo, looked at all of the exhibits that they wanted to see, and a few extra. We went out for Pizza (I can't remember where we ended up for Pizza). We went back to our house, had Cake, opened presents and the parents picked the kids up. If you plan ahead, you could probably arrange the cake to be at the Pizza place, and then have the presents in the car and do Cake and stuff at the Pizza place. I did have a "timeline" so the parents knew what time to pick the kids up.
My son is now 12 1/2 and the friends that went still talk about going to the Zoo for his birthday. They had a blast (and it wore them out).
Another suggestion is the Pacific Science Center.

8 is a fun age! They will have fun no matter what you do.

If it is a smaller party day trips are great. The Ape Caves (Washington) are awesome in the summer. You pay to park and no matter how hot it is outside the caves are 40 degrees (bring flashlights and coats).

Bagbie hotsprings are a great hike and play.

Floating the river is fun if you have enough adults too.

Renting canoes and paddling through downtown Portland is a blast as well (again with enough adults).

Not to mention a day trip to the coast.

Have a great party!! and Happy Birthday to your son!!

One thing I haven't heard mentioned yet, is a roller skating party. We did this for my daughter last year and the kids (boys and girls) loved it!

But pool party's are always great!

Good Luck.

My son just had his 8th birthday in February. We rented out the local pool in Anacortes, so we had the whole pool to our selves plus lifeguards. I did ask that, at least, one parent stay with their kids and swim with them. They even had a room where we could have pizza, because the kids were ravenous after swimming, and birthday cake. We had a blast!

A. there are some great ideas here and I have done some of them. One I have done too is also had a fireman party. You can call your local fire department and they can either come to your house (with the truck and medical) or they can sometimes go to the fire house. It is free and very cool for the kids and parents.

Also, in the Mill Creek town center there is a place called Young Chefs cooking school. If your kids like to cook it is great for birthday parties.

Have a great party!

My girlfriend had her sons 8th birthday party at a skate park! They arrived at 10:30am, my 15 year old son gave them instructions on safety and the basics of beginning skateboarding (he's teaching skate camp at the local parks & rec this summer), then they bbq'd, had ice cream and cake after. She paid my son $50 to do it. The kids were told to bring their helmets, pads & skateboards. I think they loved it! And she didn't have to clean her house!

Another idea- when my son was that age, he was into reptiles. We hired "Robert the Reptile Guy" to come to our backyard party and he brought all of his menagerie. It was a hands on experience and they learned all about the creatures (biology lesson here) and how to safely handle them. The boys thought it was SO COOL! They still look at the photos of them holding a huge python. Good luck & have fun!

We had fun at LaserPort playing laser tag.

My 7 yr old had a blast bowling. They had a party package and we just brought the cake. The package included pizza for the kids,shoes,ect. The parents had a blast too on their own lane.

Since the weather will be really nice you could have a picnic party at a place with water (i.e. a lake or good swimming river). You could just keep it simple with sandwiches or bring a BBQ and do hotdogs and burgers. You could get some fun water toys (foam "noodles", kick boards, water balloons, water guns) and let them eat and run themselves ragged. Have fun!

We recently went to a birthday party where the band Recess Monkey played. There was a range of ages attending but everyone seemed to enjoy the party and the music. The band members (who are local teachers) were great with the kids. And the music was actually something adults could enjoy too. You could hire the band to peform anywhere. Just a thought... Have a great party and happy 8th to your son.

We took our 8 year old and 7 friends to see a movie (Indiana Jones in our case). I brought extra lunch sacks and extra plastic cups so we could divy up a couple large popcorns and sodas and the kids had a blast. Then back home for cake etc. I've heard Wall*E is pretty good -- I know our kids want to see it.
Have fun-

Pam Russell

Hi there. My children are younger so I don't have any experience with 8 year olds other than our neighbor Maddy who hangs out with us frequently. What about a bowling party. You can do disco or black light theme where they shut down the regular house lights and have special lighting. You can have games with special color pins and if the child knocks down the pin or gets a strike off a colored head pin, they win a prize. There is also the Seattle Kid's Museum with several different themed party rooms, Remlinger Farms, etc. I'm sure whatever you plan your son will love.

Where do you live? You can do birthdays at the Zoo, Omsi, The Childrens Museum. There is this place in Hillsboro called Out of this World Pizza and Play it is awesome, www.outofthisworld.net.

You can do a pool party at the Firstenburg, if you are in Vancouver. I think you can do parties at the Clackamas Aquatic Park.

Thats all I can think of right now.

B.

A., you and I have something in common. My son is turning 8 at the end of August, as well. Joey has decided to have a backyard camping party this year. The weather is almost certain to be nice, and his friends seem to be really excited about it. We'll pitch a tent, make s'mores by the fire pit, and set off a few fireworks. Hot dogs on the grill are an inexpensive and easy way to feed a group of hungry boys. I must tell you, though, that we have a very kid-friendly house, and birthdays are very big deals for us. We pretty much let our kids call the shots, within reason. :) Why don't you ask your son what he would like to do for his birthday. After all it is his special day. Good luck and happy birthday to your 8-year-old!!

my kids love bowling! secoma lanes (the one we go to in Federal Way) is the nicest as far as parties go, nice people you can get the bumpers and you can even get the slide (the metal thing they roll the ball down if they are not strong enough to throw a ball) plus you can just bring 4 kids or 40... shoe rental isn't that expensive (if you have lots of kids make sure you ask for the kids shoe size BEFORE you get there and call them in (they will hold them for you!
have fun!

J.J. Jumps is awsome for active boys!

Hi A.,
I'm not sure where you are, but the "reptile man" is FANTASTIC!!! I have seen him in the portland area, and have known a few people to have him at birthday parties. He is informative and soooo much fun! The kids are even able to pet some of the animals, and they LOVE IT!!! He is about $200 I think. Here is his website. www.oregonreptileman.com/index.html

Good luck to you, and have fun!!!

We rented a public pool & room. They have certain hours available so the pool is for your party only it includes a lifeguard. The aquatic park in Clackamas is fun because of the ocean waves but is more expensive and I'm not sure about private times.

Another popular party was bowling alleys if you haven't done that yet. It's cheap and you can bring your own food too.

You are lucky the birthday is during the summer because there are so many outside ideas. Even though you've been to parks, you can enhance your experience by adding a theme, like treasure hunt, baseball game (soccer etc..),funny races(three legged etc..),obstacle coarse, circus skills, water-balloon fight and more...

I had a party at Marshall Pool and it was great!!! They set up and then clean up too!! What more can you ask for? Oh yea they were friendly and really afordable. They decoraated the party room and even had a person in there to help out with things. If you want to rent the room for m ore time you can do that too. We did the party first then the pool afterwards and all the kids had a blast! You get 10 kids included in the package and each kid afterwards is only $3.00 and all the adults are free. There is a great slide and even a todler pool. I never felt rushed and everyone was great. I was even told that I was not allowed to tip that their employees are there as a service to me. So I felt better inviting our planner to have some of our food and cake with us. We even took cake to the front desk people and life guards. We had ours on a Saturday afternoon and it was nice and relaxing. There are coin operated lockers and even a family locker room to use. If you want you can rent the game room instead of the party room, which has pool tables and such. I spoke with a Ron when I booked the apointment. Good Luck!!!!
C. B.

UltraZone Lazer tag ! It's a hit with the boys. My son has been playing since the third grade.
D.

Pietros Pizza is a lot of fun. They have lazer tag now and my son loves that. They also have miniature golf, and all the games.

For my son's 11th birthday we took him to Edgeworks Climbing Gym. They have a party package that is about $25/person. It was wonderful. We loved it so much that we ended up joining the gym. My husband goes to the gym everyday on his lunch hour and we take all three kids there 3-4 times a week. They even eventually talked me into climbing and now I'm addicted!!

Some roller rinks have party rooms that you can reserve and some even come with a party package with food and cake and drinks. Might be worth checking out.

We just had my daughter's party at the local Aquatic Center.
We rented the pool for an hour and the kids had so much fun swimming.
Afterwards we went to the park next door and had pizza on a big quilt on the grass and the kids ran around on the playground for another hour.
Two of the little girls came up to me afterwards and declared, "This is THE BEST birthday party EVER!"

My husband does DJ gigs as a side job so for my daughter's 8th birthday party this past year she wanted a dance party. We rented a room, ordered pizza and the kids got to dance. My husband also had relay races and games for the kids. He ran the whole party and I didn't have to do anything but show up and the kids had an absolute blast. They are still talking about it and now one of my daughter's friends wants him to DJ a pool party for her. Because your son's birthday is in August you could have it at a park so there would be tons of room for everyone. Good Luck!!

I was rather surprised to discover that my daughter and others (she is nine)think that bowling parties are GREAT!! Yep, I said bowling. My daughter is begging for her next birthday in October to have one. And I don't think it matters if they are a boy or girl, just seems to be coming back in style maybe? One of my sons went bowling with his special needs class and the kids had a blast. Anyway, just another idea. :)

Hello A.!

I have read some of the other posts and thought they were great suggestions. I am not sure how much prep you want to do on this but for our twin girls, we did a pirate theme party at a park that just happened to have a "ship" play area (Seward Park in Seattle). It helped to have a play structure nearby for the different ages to play on and expend their pirate energy! Everyone (adults too!) came dressed as pirates. You may even already have Halloween costumes to draw upon! We did a pirate map treasure hunt (the "goody bags" were the treasure); we had a pirate-themed pinata, we had snacks and a pirate photo cake, etc. I am not sure how much help you will have but it helps to have another adult organizing the hunt part. There is a lot of pirate stuff out there in the world due to Pirates of the Carribean and everyone liked to say "Arrgh" a lot. You could get some pirate flags to decorate with, some parrots, pirate coins, hooks for their hands (I would discourage swords!), etc. All can be found at costume shops or online. To go to the park, I just everything in plastic bins and then when it was over, we did have to clean up but "the crew" helped and we didn't have a big mess at home to contend with. Hope this was helpful! We took a lot of fun pictures that we still laugh about! The adults may have had more fun than the kids!

Last year we rented the local swimming pool for my daughter's birthday. That was alot of fun. We swam for about an hour and they let all the kids use the hot tub for the last 15 minutes, then we did the party out in the front yard of the pool. It was alot of fun.

We had my son's 8th birthday at the bowling alley. We got a couple of lanes that have bumpers, (rails that keep the balls from going into the gutter) and the kids had a blast. The bowling alley had a special rate for parties and so it didn't cost that much. You don't have to know how to keep score anymore, the bowling alley does all that for you and the scores are all projected overhead where they always have been. Parents and siblings that stayed at the party went ahead and rented their own lanes to play along and we had a big Costco cake and ice cream after we were done bowling. It was easy to keep track of the party goers because they were all in the two lanes and if anybody had wondered off, we would have known by the time his or her turn to bowl came up. It was like taking roll call every 5 minutes. I particularly liked that aspect. Sincerely, B. T.

are any of those places you mentioned a pool? some local pools will allow you to have a party there. Try contacting the nearby school pool - if this is not an idea you have tried before.

does your son like arts and crafts? That may be another idea.. check with a local craft store, like JoAnns or Michaels and see if they do parties (some do) Build a Bear workshops are another option.

I know what you mean about keeping it out of the house though. I have a hard enough time keeping it clean with my five... let alone getting ready for a party. I'd much rather pay a little extra for someone else to do the work.

Something my 9 year old daughter wants to do is go to a movie with some of her friends then have lunch at McDonald's. We've also considered meeting at a local park. Way less expensive too.

at least there some ideas to mull over!

For my 8 year olds party last year we had it at a gymnastic place. It was great! They got to rope climb, bounce, run, tumble, there was an obstical course, and of course a trampoline. Best of all, they kids had a blast and I had very little "work" to do. All I really had to do was cutting the cake. They cleaned everything up. My daughter had 15 kids there and it wasn't expensive. Good luck in your search for the perfect birthday party.

A.,
My daughter went to a birthday party at the Lego Store and had a fantastic time! They get an activity and each child can chose from some toys to take home.

Enjoy 8. It's a great age!!
Beth

Go to Out of the World it is in Hillsboro near the DEQ. The # is ###-###-####. I will be expecting my invite to the party!!! LOL It is a great place and lots of fun. It is a bit pricey but a good time will be had by all.

The big success for my sons' birthdays and their friends around that age involved a lot of actions such as gymnastic gym, skating, rock climbing and miniature golf (glow in the dark), if you can find them in your neighborhood. Usually about 1-2 hour of activity and cake and juice. Opening presents is optional when kids wanted to go back to the activity instead of looking at presents.
YMCA nearby my town also offer pool party and gym party.
Hope you will have fun.
K

Hello A.,

One suggestion might be to check your local YMCA. Ours has a youth room or a pool to rent for a birthday and would probably be great fun for your soon to be 8 year old son. It's not that expensive, you can rbing your own cake and ice cream and they clean up the mess. Since it's the end of Summer and before the start of another school year, this may be the perfect way to end the Summer! Good luck.

I think one of the funnest parties we had was this years. My daughter wanted to have a party at the park and play her favorite sports. So we rented the shelter at a nearby park and played soccer and baseball. We barbequed and had cake. We also had a soccer pinata that the kids enjoyed and that was their "treat bag". Not expensive, relaxing, parents got to visit, eat, and everyone helped.

And the kids all slept like rocks that night!

D.

Try Jungle Playland in Mt Vernon. It is so much fun for big and little kids.

S.

I live in Issaquah, and we've had birthday parties for my kids at the local community center and Julius Boehm pool, at Sun Villa bowling alley, at Gymnastics East in Preston, and Family Fun Center in Tukwila. Arena Sports in Redmond also offers birthday party deals. Or you can take your son and a couple of his friends to see a movie and then pizza or ice cream afterwards.
Good luck!

Do you have a park nearby. When I was at my daughter's house in Montana and we were at the park there was a birthday party and the mother bought the kids cheap water guns and the kids had a blast and you didn't have to worry about the mess. You could also do snack food or sandwiches and of course a cake and it's a lot easier to clean up at the park than at your home.

Depending on your son's interests, you could do a "sports day" at the park. Bring several different kinds of sports toys (frisbees, balls, bats, orange cones) and have games that you let the kids play. Or do a treasure hunt around a park (it would take a little more planning and set up, but could still do at a park). Or you could do a scavenger hunt. Have lists of things for them to find. Or do a photo scavenger hunt. Give them all disposable cameras and have them be on times to have to find certain things to take pictures of, then during cake and presents, have them developed at a one hour photo, and then compare pics at the end of the party. Then kids could take home pics of the party. You could have photo frames or even make some for them to put the photo in. A water party where you bring water guns or spray bottles and water balloon volleyball with towels could also be a theme.

Just a few ideas, hope you find one that works for you!

A.,

For a small party you might want to look into a Build a Bear party. My MIL did that with all her grandkids one year for her birthday, it was fun. I don't know the cost, or if you have one near you.

Melissa