Friend Birthday Parties

Re: Friend Birthday Parties

• Designermomma member

  September 2015

  We invited the whole class last year (18 kids) when DS turned 6. He hasn't really formed friendships at this point and having a Nov. birthday doesn't give him much of a chance to make friends with his new classmates. Only 3 kids from his class came so we invited some kids from his karate class as well. I think we will do the same this year. We just recieved an invite to a kids party on a Friday night at their house. His mom said they are just inviting "friends" and playing sports games. If my son had a good group friends, I would just have a friend party but he doesn't yet and he always wants a karate party which is minimum 10 kids. I guess it just depends on your kid and what they are into. Michaels has crafting birthday parties, there are gymnastics type places that have parties and chucke cheese is pretty affordable if you don't have many kids come. Event type places have minimums which are around $200 in my area.

  

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• JAP09-02 member

  September 2015

  Thanks! I think we're going to let her have six friends, since she's turning 6. Not sure what we'll do yet, but possibly SkyZone.

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• mrstrax member

  September 2015

  JAP09-02 said:

  Thanks! I think we're going to let her have six friends, since she's turning 6. Not sure what we'll do yet, but possibly SkyZone.

  That was what my parents did with us and I think it was pretty smart. I would also say that you don't *need* to do any of the big event stuff. What happened to the party with a few games, cake and presents?

   
  

  

  

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• JAP09-02 member

  September 2015

  mrstrax said:

  JAP09-02 said:

  Thanks! I think we're going to let her have six friends, since she's turning 6. Not sure what we'll do yet, but possibly SkyZone.

  That was what my parents did with us and I think it was pretty smart. I would also say that you don't *need* to do any of the big event stuff. What happened to the party with a few games, cake and presents?

  That's actually what we talked about today. New plan is to have the party earlier in the day on Halloween. We are just doing cake & ice cream and a few homemade games. I'm thinking pin the nose on the pumpkin, etc.

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• Meagain31 member

  September 2015

  We have always had friend parties for the kids. The cost of an out of house party is well worth my sanity and I won't go back to in house parties.

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• JAP09-02 member

  September 2015

  Yeah, I'm kind of torn on the in vs out of house party. I'm sure I'll go crazy prepping/cleaning, but I could hire out the cleaning. That way I can focus on decorating & making the cake. I love to decorate cakes! I guess maybe I want something a little more "homey" feeling.
  
  I felt like some of the parties we attended were kids all kind of doing their own thing and going different directions. I'm hoping that by having it at our house it will lend itself to the girls actually doing the activities together.
  
  I'm sure these will be my famous last words!
  

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• Disneygeek77 member

  September 2015

  We have small parties with close friends outside of the home.  

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• Spin313 member

  September 2015

  We started friend parties at 5 years old. The invite list is about 10-12 kids and 2-3 usually can't make it...8-10 is a manageable number for us for home parties.

  
  
  
  

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• mrsjones06 member

  November 2015

  My son turned 6 the first week of kindergarten so he didn't invite his school friends until his 7th party (which we had during the summer after kindergarten). We invited all of the boys in the class (10) and I think 4 came. We've always had a mix of family & family friends at parties. I did them at home when my oldest was little but have done the last 4 outside. To me it was worth the cost so I didn't have to clean/prep, have people at my house where I can't control when they leave & then have all the post-party cleanup. Their bdays are also in August & we live in TX so the high temps impact party options. Our house was in a subdivision with a very small back yard. My two oldest kids are 3 years apart but their bdays are 3 weeks apart so I've done a joint party for them the past 3 years which made the cost of an outside party not too bad in my mind. We recently moved to a new house on 20 acres in a very rural area so I will probably be doing parties at home now that we have room to do something outdoors (maybe rent a water slide) and there aren't a million party place options around.

  I feel bad having my son choose say 5 friends to do something fun because I know they will talk about it at school & other kids might get their feelings hurt not being invited. I'll have to play that by ear down the road when he wants to do something different.

  Married: '06 - Mom of 3 boys: '08, '11 & '14

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• JAP09-02 member

  November 2015

  We had the party & actually ended up having it at a pizza place. My home currently has a huge hole in the ceiling from a leaky toilet and then my kitchen flooded & the wood floor is buckled. Ugh! It worked out well, and I think a good time was had by all. I still got the homemade feel by making tutu's for each girl. They turned out super cute! I did learn a lot for the next time around. Thanks to everyone for their input.

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