Kids birthday party ideas & keeping party costs low

The format of this hub I am hoping will cover every aspect of children's birthday parties. Kids birthday parties don't have to cost very much money to be extremely fun! Try and remember when you were a kid and what you remember the most - think about it; out of every party I ever had, I have so few memories of them and the memories are not about the gifts (I can't remember what I got for presents from age 1 up!)

We can stress out pretty bad about the gifts but in the end; that isn't what makes a party fun. And for the kid, that's the MAIN thing - FUN!

The only thing I'm NOT covering is the *surprise party* (and gifts) - I mean come on - what kid doesn't KNOW they are having at least a *something* for their b-day! (At least I should pray so.)

Here are the things to consider - what to do and how I do it:

#1 - The guests. What's a party without a few friends? Family and friends are the most important ingredient to any party. I am working here with say ages 3 -- to -- 10 in a general way, so please keep that in mind.

I always allow the child to make the guest list. There is NO way I am going to force an invite or say no to one. Mind you - if you kid invites (for some reason?) the town bully; well, that's another story but I've never run across that problem. What I have discovered is this -- They LEARN ALOT by doing this. I am not going to go into the semantics of that...not what my hub here is about. So - you decide to phone them all up or give them an invitation. We phone. That way I can talk to the parents, find out the scoop, get it all squared away and none of that, RSVPing or *MOM - I lost so an so's BD invite!! And I don't KNOW their last name mom, waaaaaaa!" and on and on.

Phoning - logical, more simple and free. Hard copy invites, you can print your own or get them at the local dollar store. I believe ever town in N America has one by now. I will be mentioning the Dollar Tree, store, buck or two, whatever throughout.

#2 - Party Decorations

Again, I let the child decide 100% because it's their party. Usually it will be a theme of some sort. When they are little, you can mention some ideas and they can choose one. The more things they are in charge of - the better. They feel important - they MADE their very own PARTY! Total cost of most themes - $20.00 or less. There are a LOT of things you can simply make up at home. Ex: Martin Party - a roll of tin foil for martin hats is groovy!

Once again, off to the Dollar store; there is Very little that cannot be found at the local dollar tree to decorate with. This year we did camping and put up an enormous tent we already had up in the yard and ran and extension cord to it; so they even had TV for the late night movie!

#3 - Party Favors or - the famous *treat bags*

Back off to the - you guessed it - the $$ store! Age appropriate items by the truck load. Once again - let the kid pick out what they want to give. Tell them to choose 4 (or whatever) items and to make sure they are relatively the same and one for everybody. When they are done *shopping* - just do a check through to see that it's all ok, nothing broken and if there is something you really don't care for for some reason; talk about it with them and at the same time, always have another item in mind to replace the one that's out.

We had 4 kids for the tent out and the treat bags cost us a whopping $22.00 and that was being VERY generous. As this was for a 10 year old, we chose purses to hold the contents; they were very very cute and so instead of a paper or plastic bag; the item container was also a gift.

#4 - GAMES!

While the games you decide on may or may not be associated with the theme (if you have theme) - there are probably several hundred games to be played that cost -- NOTHING. My own personal favorite (ya, one of those *things i do remember*) was called *kick the can* - If you haven't heard of it, look it up online. I am sure you can find tons of free to play games that don't cost anything. Another really fun one for nearly every age (just adjust as needed) is the scavenger hunt! Send Rover right over; word scramble, charades, Who knows the birthday boy/girl? (list of questions)...etc...All of these are 100% Free and 100% Fun!

#5 - What to Eat!?

Again - let the child choose. This may or may not be your most costly item. Take out pizza is usually a hit. We roasted hot-dogs and sausages over a fire pit as we were *camping*. Hamburgers, funny shaped sandwiches, pickles with faces....you can be really creative here. Watermelon when in season is a smash and then have a seed spitting contest.

The cake is the "piece de' resistance of course! Cheap - make it; anyone can pull off a sake mix. Decorate it to go along with the *theme* or what ever (again) the child wants it to look like. We like DQ ice-cream cake so we get those and they chose what they want on it. This year is was a frog on a lily pad, I put "Hop on over to 10" on the top and the HB XXXXX on the bottom.

One year I did a shiny red guitar that really ROCKED; it was, by far, the kewlest cake I've ever seen! For the guitar player in the family - it was a smashing hit - she wanted it to be a surprise - so, that was still *her choice*.Cake mix and decorations - 7 - 10 $. DQ cake - 18$

#6 - Then - there is always the *let's go somewhere* party*because A - mom doesn't want to clean up the mess and B) the kid is just *dieing* to go to XYZ. No problem - parts of it are easier (like the no mess) parts of it are not - (like toting everything but the kitchen sink to the place). These types of parties we've all had probably at least once. The general sots these days totally depends on where you go - say to the movies - 4 kids @ *4 each plus 5$ each for junk food to a hotel sleep over poolroom, etc. @ 180$ to bowling (reasonable) @ around 10$ per person.

#7 - GIFTS

I'm not going to touch this one with a ten foot pole!

I think I've covered everything. I think....lol

Oh and half my photos wouldn't load...so all I have up here is cheap food - oh well...what ya gonna do?