Yup, they are pretty much all expensive. Bowling can be a little cheaper. Our movie theater does bday packages that include a visit to the projection room, the movie with popcorn, and a party room after for pizza and/or cake.
Doing the party in the afternoon - like 2:00-4:00 - can reduce cost because you don’t need to serve a meal, just cake and maybe some fruit or something.
If you have the space, renting a bounce house for your yard is pretty inexpensive (usually less than $100) and can definitely keep the boys busy. Add a couple of fun outdoor games, maybe a scavenger hunt (you write clues and have a prize waiting at the end) and they will be happy and busy for a couple of hours. You don’t have to do anything fancy and they’ll still have a blast.
My son will be turning 6 this summer, I’m planning to have the party at my house. The plan is for the kids to just play, maybe have 1-2 organized games (relays, water balloons). Almost every party we’ve been to has been held in the home and been very low key and all fun! The last two 6 year old parties we went to were inside the home because of winter, a craft was out in one area for the kids to do if they wanted and other than that they just played with toys and each other, had cake and went home. They also did a pinata. These were not huge homes either, it’s amazing how little space you really need…it’s just a matter of getting them all together and they’ll have fun. 2 hours really flies by.
For my son’s 6th birthday this year we had a pool party at th local YMCA. They have a waterslide, and did the food. It all cost $170 which I thought was reasonable.
We always did sports theme in the backyard. Bowling was the only other thing my sons enjoyed. They even thought the bounce things were girly.
What I mean by sports theme, we had soccer balls and small goals. Baseball equipment and things to use for bases. Basketball net. So we just let them play sports in the backyard, fed them, caked them, everyone was happy.
My son’s 5th birthday party was 2 weekends ago. I have done all of my kids birthday parties at our house. I usually let the kids look at an Oriental Trader catalog and pick out a theme for their party. We have had some typical themes (my daughter has had a fairy party, a luau, and a monkey party; my son has had a castle party and a circus party for example). This year my son didn’t need Oriental Trader, he decided he wanted an Imaginext party. He has a lot of Imaginext toys, so I just set up stations based on the toys (Toy Story, Castle, Dinosaurs, Super Heroes and Pirates) with the toys out to play with and had activities for each theme as well. I made cupcakes and put an Imaginext figure (Normally $3 each at Meijer’s but I got lucky and they were buy one get one %50 off before the party and it was on a day they had 15% off general merchandise so I got each one for less than $2) on each cupcake. It was a bit chaotic with 15 kids in the house but they all seemed to have a great time and my son was really happy with the party.
I didn’t keep track of what I spent but with food and supplies and goodies I would estimate I spent about $100. I didn’t have a meal (no pizza like at the organized places) but I had a lot of munchies out like fruit salad, hummus and veggies and pita chips, pretzels, drinks etc. as well as cake and ice cream.
Don’t over-complicate things or fall into the trap of creating a “magical moment” for your child. I have an 8 year old and a just-turned-5 year old and you know what I have learned over the years? Kids don’t care about some overly dramatized big event for their birthday. They couldn’t care less, in fact. All they want to do us run around and play with their friends, then eat some cheap cake while everyone makes them feel special by singing to them. Truly, that is all you need for a magical birthday memory.
For my daughter’s 8th birthday, we did a Wizard of Oz themed party at home. I bought all the girls witch hats for like $1.50 on-line. I bought some cute figurines to decorate a plain store-bought cake and we put the move on the TV. They had a ball. For my other daughter’s 5th birthday this past weekend, we did a Frozen themed party. The girls danced around and sang to the soundtrack,we put the movie on, another store-bought cake with figurines, and I gave the girls sheets of Frozen stickers to take home. My daughter thought it was the greatest party ever. Cost me about $80.
Visit a Party City or other party store. They have an aisle just for boy themed parties. Pick something your son is into, buy some themed paper plates, a few decorations, and a couple inexpensive take-home items and have it at your house the good old fashioned way our parents used to do it. Believe me, your son will think it’s awesome. And so will his friends. Now you might not out-do all the other moms for the coolest party ever created, but that’s not what this is about anyway, is it?
What ever happened to having birthday parties at home, with homemade cake and treats, games, and free time to play? Now it seems that so many parents think that every single birthday has to be a major event at a venue in order to be special.
What makes a birthday special isn’t determined by how many bounce houses you can rent or spending $300. You can spend less than $100 for a Redbox movie, pizza, popcorn, and homemade cupcakes, and pile all the kids on the floor of the family room on pillows in PJ’s to watch Man of Steel.
Have a party at home.
ETA: Don’t have much room in your home? Invite fewer kids.
Bowling parties are usually less expensive if you need to have it out of the house. I LOVE home parties. We do the old fashioned games with a twist (Hot BeyBlade instead of Hot Potato for example).
We also did a swim party once at the local highschool pool. They have public hours . It was 2 hours, had a room for us to use right off of the pool, and was about $100 for up to 20 people. we only did cake and icecream and had some chips and pretzels set out (really, kids do NOT want to leave the pool to EAT!! LOL).
When our daughter was that age, we had an old-fashioned home party with the party games we used to play when I was a child (pin the tail on the donkey, duck duck goose, hot potato, etc) and homemade cake plus ice cream. The cost couldn’t have been more than $15 or so, and all the kids absolutely loved it. Some of them had never even played those games before, so what we think of as a typical party from our childhood is a novelty for this generation.
If you don’t want to have a party at home, what about meeting up at a park for outside games and fun? The only cost would be the food, which could be minimal.
I would just do a fun party at home.
Google cute young boy party decorations & go with that.
You can buy the items heap at the Dollar Store.
Buy some little rubber balls to kick around, plastic bats w/plastic balls,
several sets of mini plastic golf sets for them to play, a pinata, lots of
Matchbox cars (can get them for 84cents @ Walmart), capes & masks
at $1 store so they can run around & pretend to be Batman/Robin,
cowboy hats etc.
Have a water color station.
Have lots of snacks & drinks on hand.
When my son was turning 5, we had his party at a park.
Brought some balls and his bike. Had food, cake, games.
Nothing was orchestrated or “planned.” No itinerary. We just let the boys, play. And they did. And they had TONS of fun.
We also geared it to our budget. No inviting 50 kids. We just invited about 8 kids max. And they all, had TONS of fun. They talked about it for days.
The boys played with their imaginations, played with sticks and “hiked” around the park, we had us and grandma and Aunty there to supervise too. We had some simple games like egg on a spoon. Guessing how many candies were in a jar and the winner could take it home. And a Pinata. Just a hang loose, simple party. Nothing fancy.
And it was a hit.