Birthday party for an 8 year old

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My daughter just turned 8 and next Saturday I said she could have a party. The custom here is to invite the whole class-22 kids! She has been to several of these parties and I kind of feel that its time to host one ourself. Many parents go all out for these parties-like have the McParty at Mcdonalds or rent the rollar rink. While these are fun, our budget is pretty tight just now. My first question is -does anyone have any good ideas for Fun low cost kids parties-yes I have the three part tightwad gazette, but I'd like some more imput-up til now, we've only done family parties.

The second part of my question is this-this part of the country is pretty clannish, which can be good, but most of the parties we've attended where largly made up of extended family members. While we are blessed with grandparents, we are short on kids! I'm afraid that we will invite the class and very few will show up-the weather right now is ify. Any good suggestions on dealing with a newly eight year old who wants every body at her party, but perhaps only a very few show up?

I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions or advice. Thanks!

-- Kelly (homearts2002@yahoo.com), March 03, 2002

Answers

my advice is to have a family party , and only invite her favorite class mates. Most kids arent best friends with every kid in the class, so she will have all her pals. You could even let the "pals" sleep over after the grandparents , aunts and uncles are gone. This would make it even more special for her. Serve popcorn, chips and dip, and let them make biscuit dough pizza's. You could even have a fun craft they could do in her room without parental supervision. Like making necklaces or braclets out of beads, or other glueless activities... hope this helps.

-- Kristean Thompson (pigalena_babe@yahoo.com), March 03, 2002.

I really think that most children of reasoning age handle the truth very well. While planning her party with her, there would be nothing wrong with letting her know right from the beginning that the weather etc. might make it a small party but the big point in parties is to have fun with who is there.

My daughter's favorite parties were always big sleep overs with pizza, and lots of snacks and watching a bunch of movies with popcorn etc. Makes for a rather long night (or short which ever way you want to look at it) but they usually have a wonderful time.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), March 04, 2002.


I like to do lots of games. Most kids that age enjoy them, and it is fun. We always do charades, you can pick a theme for these. We play Bingo, if you don't hve a Bingo game they are very cheap at Wal-mart, only $3-4 and can be used over and over. But I have also made kid Bingo cards using shapes and numbers. The fun if this is that every kid has every shape, color and number, just in different places. They like putting the markers on, just use beans for markers.

Other games might be the tray game, put a bunch of odd stuff on a tray, let them look at it for a while and then take it away and have them write how many things were on it. Prizes for these things can be simple, I usually spend $5 and the Dollar Tree and buy gum, suckers, pencils, little books, hair items, whatever I see that looks interesting.

If you still have snow, you can try oin the nose on the snowman, of if you are looking at warmer weather, pin the tail on a rabbit, just draw one on posterboard, and use white paper or cottonballs for the tail.

I will think of some more if you want me to. I would invite the whole class, so no one feels left out. But most probably won't come, and she will understand if you explain that people have many other activities on the weekends.

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), March 04, 2002.


I realize that I am posting late, and you have probably already made your plans, but since this goes into archives for future reference, I will suggest making a "game" of eating, such as build your mini- pizza, make your own taco, or build your own sundae.

-- Cathy N. (homekeeper86@sympatico.ca), March 06, 2002.

This probably would go under future reference, too. I am not sure about the party thing. I had a not-so-great experience at a party for a 3-year-old. We were kind of "cornered" at church by someone we hardly know, who said, "please come, you don't even have to bring a gift, we just would like some kids her own age at the party." Of course we brought something, but the "loot bags" (what they used to call party favors) and the party games probably were 2-3 times the cost of the gift, at least. What ever happened to cake and punch and a few games with real friends?

Needless to say, because of this I take a very dim view of parties with outsiders, and probably will not encourage her to go to any, either-- they are like weddings now, invite everyone you can just so you can get a bunch of stuff. I mean, nobody has 100 "close friends".

Now, what might be easier is if instead of a party with all those kids, you could have your little one make or help you make a goodie for the class (say cookies). We actually did this at work, and it is a nice change.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), March 06, 2002.



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