Party on a Budget Ideas

[craftymom]

hi
i need some ideas for my DS 11th bday in July. I am on a very tight budget and i just cant think of anything to plan for his home party.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Sue

[Houston-Mom]

Sue;
Here's an idea that my friend did for her son.
She got a lot a balloons ( enough to fill her livingroom )
She then put little toys and candy in them. The kids got to play in the balls and towards the end the boys popped all the balloons. And what ever was in them ( the ones they poped ) they took home.

Another idea that we did for my son was...
We did a water party using the water balls ( you can get them at wal-mart 2/ $0.97) and water guns. We set water buckets around the back yard and let the boys have at it.
It was alot of fun. We let the big people know that they were fair game too, if they were in the back yard. We had alot of big people join in. It was soooo much fun.

Hope these help.

Houston-Mom

[craftymom]

I like the water party idea ... my son should have been born with gills and webbed feet lol he just loves to get wet and his friends just love a good water fight lol

It reminded me that my neighbours DH set up a homemade slip and slide for his sons party last year.. i think i will ask him exactly how he did it with the tarp and things and if he would mind being in charge of the slip and slide area ( his son is good friends with mine ).

I am also going to be using a Race Car theme ( just figured this one out LOL) as he loves cars as well ...... do you have any ideas for food ??

Thank you for your ideas

Sue

[Houston-Mom]

Sue;
Kids like foods that they can grab and run. A watermelon basket is nice. I wouldn't do icecream. To Hot! unless you want to take the mess inside. You can get small race car pans (I think I saw them at Michael's) Let the boys decotate them. ( instead of a cake) But check the price. Just doing cupcakes might be cheaper.
If you have to much food. I'm afraid it will be wasted. I would go with....
Fresh fruit
Hot dogs
Chips
Crystal- Light

I like Crystal-Light because you don't add sugar and it replaces the water that we need. I get the lemonade favor. My kids like it alot.

And remember the water balls are reuseable, Balloons are not. But Balloons are cheaper. I figured 2 balls per kid. Also if you go with the balls you can use them next year. and clean up is ALOT easier. I always worry about birds picking up a piece of a balloon and choking on it.

Hope this helps
Houston-Mom

[craftymom]

Sorry i didnt post sooner but i havent been feeling up to par lately ...anyway thank you soo much for your wonderful suggestions . I really love the water ball one.. i am going to have to go to the wal-mart two towns over to get them but i think it would be worth the trip Plus me and DH can always use them on the kids oops i mean WITH the kids .. yeah thats it lol
Thank you again for your suggestions of food and things to do

Sue

[lovestakingpics]

oh definitely hit the dollar store! If you have a sprinkler you can set that up. For my daughter's party we didn't do loot bags, we just gave everyone an inflatable ball. You can get them as cheap as around $5 a dozen on www.orientaltrading.com. I'd say that's a cheap alternative.

[nee_ni]

All So how did the party turn out?

[jimstac98]

I know this is an old post, but I thought it would still be good to post part ideas here.

I had one party for my daughter when she turned six at the mall. They roped it all off for me and everything. The only catch was that the food (with the exception of the cake) had to be from the mall. The reservations were free and they roped it off right next to the play area for the kids to play. It was great!

[jimstac98]

Oh! I almost forgot, that year we also did a party at a preschool/afterschool care building for $50 (however long we wanted the building for). The building had a built in kitchen so we could make food right there and it had furniture (couches and cafe type tables), it also had a kareoke machine and stage, dress up for the kids, video games, a bounce around and much more. The kids had a blast!

We had also checked into having a party at a movie theatre which wasn't going to be bad (we had actually planned on doing that after the party in the mall since it was in the same building, but decided against it for the sheer fact of 12 kids hopped up on sugar during a movie is not good lol).

[BuddyBeanieBaby]

How about a Scavenger Hunt...

Choose teams for the Scavenger Hunt...
Have a list of items that they need to find...
Either inside or outside and the team that finds everything wins a prize...the prize does not have to be anything expensive...