School-Aged Children

What did you do for your child's 5th b-day party?

I'm not big into birthday parties, I don't really enjoy having them or going to them, but this will be DS1's 5th birthday, kind of a milestone IMO.  If we have 1 party with family and friends it would be around 50+ people invited (though I'm sure not all would attend).  Our house is too small to accommodate that many (we'd probably max out at 20-30).  I'm not sure if a park would be fun for all age groups.  His birthday is (Saturday) 09/15, I'd like to keep it within a week or so.  Should I split it up into a family party and have a separate friends party?

Re: What did you do for your child's 5th b-day party?

  • We had a kid party at a shelter area - it happened to be at our church - but a local park would work perhaps.  We had an family party a different day at the same place.  We kept them separate - we've only had a couple of kid parties.  Now as the girls are older and their birthday are only 2 weeks apart, we pick an extra special activity for them to each bring 1 friend.  We still end up spending the same amount on that  - but it's so much easier.
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  • Since you say that you are not really into birthday parties I would only plan one and get it done (and invite just grandparents on the actual birthday night for cake). I would choose a time that would mean you would lose alot of people (do people have soccer/baseball on Saturdays, are alot of people at church still at 11 on Sunday?).  The park has less cleaning required. It isn't going to be fun for all age groups because they all like different stuff. I would focus on having your son and his friends being happy. The parents will be happy if their kids are and the adults just stand around talking anyway. Have fun planning!

    Proud Mommy to Kaylie 12-04, Alaina 5-06 & Annalise 6-08 imageimage
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  • I personally would make a much smaller party - that many people is way overwhelming.  We do a friends party with a max of 15 kids (including my 2 kids) and then just do dinner with family (in town it is my 2 SILS/BILs one who has twin boys who are 6 months old, 1 set of grandparents and up until now, my sister, BIL and niece/nephew but they are moving out of state so it will really just be DH's family).  For parties, I think a relaxed afternoon at the park for the kids is perfect - they can play on what is there, if its warm, you can bring water balloons, you can bring other things like a bean bag toss or an art project.  You can do the party between meal times (like from 1-3 for example or 9:30-11) and just serve cake and ice cream.  If you, you could do a friends party in the afternoon at the park and then have family come later and do a BBQ dinner.  You can keep this very simple.
    Jenni Mom to DD#1 - 6-16-06 DD#2 - 3-13-08 
  • Forgot to mention what we have done for parties - older DD's 5th was at a bounce house place which is pretty popular with that age group.  For her 4th, we did it at the play she was taking soccer lessons.  We have also been to a number of parties the gym places (think Little Gym).  Only a few of her friends did at home parties and the number of kids invited was around 10 for those.
    Jenni Mom to DD#1 - 6-16-06 DD#2 - 3-13-08 
  • MY Daughters 5th bday was was very low key compared to the park party we had for her 4th. My best friends mother dropped and went into a diabetic sezure right in the middle of the cupcakes!!!

    So after that trauma lol and being that her 5th was about 2 weeks after My wedding to my now DH and she is in a new school in a very small town I had a party in her class with her friends and then we bought her 2 ponies!  

    Now i dont recommend that for everyone but I was tickled when I realized that My little girl can officially say I got a pony when I was a little girl! 

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  • We rented a bouncy house/slide for the weekend and put it in our church gym. Ben was able to play on it all day Friday and then we had his party on Saturday. We had about 10 kids his age plus parents, famiy, and friends. There were probably around 40 people there. We let the kids play for about an hour and then did cake, then pi?ata, then presents. The kids then played some more. He got to go back and play 2 more times Saturday and 2-3 times on Sunday. 
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