Monday, March 28, 2011

Birthday Party Ideas needed

Can I pick your brains for a minute?

My oldest daughter, Arielle, is going to be 8 in May. Eek, my baby is going to be 8. And then she'll be 13, and then 16. Yowzas, where does the time go? But I digress.

Anywho, I'm tapped out on birthday party location ideas.






We did Chuck E Cheese for Arielle's 5th, and Jasmin's 3rd birthday parties.















Arielle's 6th birthday party was at the bowling alley.



















For Jasmin's 4th birthday, we took the girls and my parents to Medieval Times, and then had cake and presents at home.


















Arielle's 7th birthday party was at the skating rink.
















For Jasmin's 5th birthday, we bought tickets to Mickey's Rockin' Road Show, and then did cake and presents at the house.







So, those are the parties that we've done. I really don't want to do a party at the house. We have a decent sized house, 2200 square feet. But once you invite 8 kids, and they all bring at least one parent and possibly a sibling or two, it gets small really fast. Plus, I did a party for Jake last year, and even though it was all close friends we invited, and all of their kids are pretty well behaved, we still ended up with some damage to the house (the joys of flat builder's paint that shows every scuff and finger mark. So I had to do a lot of touch up painting after the party). Plus, the kids always want to play with my parrot, which I understand. But then he gets all squawky, and he's never bitten but I don't want to take the risk.

We normally spend about $150 when we book a place (bowling alley, skating rink, etc) and want to stay around that price range. We talked about renting a bounce house, but then we'd have to have it at the house.

Any suggestions on location, dear readers? I know Arielle wants a rock star theme (pink, black and white, with zebra print accents). And hubby will make the invites, he's going to use the same layout that he used for my Rock Star themed baby shower (the joys of being married to a graphic designer, he made my invites look like backstage passes). And I have a few ideas for the party, like getting bright color hair extension clip ins for their hair, stuff like that. But if you have any ideas for rock star themed parties, I'd love to hear those too.

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Leontien said... [Reply to comment]

Do you know that show, minute to win it???

We just had a meeting where there were over 30 kids and we played some of the funniest and kid friendly minute to win it games and they LOVED it.

Of course it takes a little bit of preparation, but the kids seemed to have great fun.

Good Luck!
Leontien

Jill Cornelius said... [Reply to comment]

What about a gymnastics party at ASI? We did that this year for Haidyn and she loved it! So much that now Maddie wants the same party for herself this year... ;-)

Athena said... [Reply to comment]

For my daughters birthday last year I rented a conference room at Holiday Inn. It was $89 and the room we got was great, I think it was able to fit 50 people! We got the room for the entire day which meant I was able to go and decorate it before the party and it also meant I didn't have to do ANY clean up. They would only let me bring in the Birthday cake for outside food but their food and drink prices were fairly reasonable. It might be worth checking out, my daughter thought she was pretty cool to have her party at a hotel and her name was on the board and everything

Anonymous said... [Reply to comment]

Take her and a few of her little girlfriends to the nail salon...get mani's and pedi's, and then take them out to lunch...it's like a BIG GIRL birthday. My friend did this for her 9 year old and the girls LOVED it.

Unknown said... [Reply to comment]

Is there a nice park in your area? Most parks will have a picnic area that you can reserve, and they'll allow permits for a bounce house.

dwhalens said... [Reply to comment]

Do you have any type of indoor bounce places? I think Monkey Joe's is one of the bigger chains and it is a favorite of our three year old as well as my 8 year old niece.

For older kids I would consider a swimming party, gymnastics party, children's boutique party, "spa" day where they go get mani/pedi's and lunch, putt putt, laser tag...etc.

NicPic Photography said... [Reply to comment]

My aunt owns a accesories store in NY (i know you probably don't live in NY...but check your neighborhood)...and she throws girl birthday parties. They have a pizza party...and cake/cupcakes...and you can have up to 10 girls...and do makeup/nails/fake tattoos/ and then I take my camera and take pics of the girls with all sorts of cool looking items (hats/sunglasses/boas/cheeta print).
Maybe you can do something like this at home? Girls pampering party!!...and get a bunch of your girlfriends together to give girls at home pedicures/manicures/makeup...and take pics! Get lots of dress up fun things...and have pizza!! :) Just fyi, found your blog, and i'm a new follower!! ;)

Erin W said... [Reply to comment]

FYI... you can possibly guess that they didn't have those boots at my Target. They had no boots at all. HOWEVER, I am working on a VERY small scale Rock Star party in Pink, Black, and Zebra tonight for the Children's Home. I'll post about it in a few days when I get the pictures uploaded. I'll share some of the ideas with you.

As for location?? Do you have a club house in your neighborhood... or a friend that does? That might help with the bounce house idea and keep you in budget.

OurForeverHouse said... [Reply to comment]

You could do a party at Michaels and have the girls make their own rock star shirts or another glittery rock star accessory.

Dance studio to teach the girls some rock star moves.

recording studio or at home have the girls play rock band.

Have fun. love the theme. so many great ideas!

Lesley said... [Reply to comment]

Oooh, I like that idea! See if a dance studio rents out per hour and learn some cool hip hop moves!