Bday Parties at Lifetime

We were just at a party in the Chann location... The actual pizza and cake went really well and I was very impressed w/ how they helped w/ the gifts, pizza, cake, etc.

That being said if you do have your party there I would make sure two things occur:

1) When they line the kids up to walk them to the party room I would do a Purell (SP?) cleaning of the hands right then and there. They walked us up stairs and had the parents wash everyone's hands in the bathroom... very disorganized and the kids were running all over the gym area (3-5 YO party).

2) I would make sure that the people assigned to the Play Hour organized the kids and did activities w/ them. They didn't do that at our party and my take away was that it really wasn't worth the $$ b/c all the kids did was bounce in the house. In following up w/ the Birthday Mom she said that the employees said the kids were having so much fun in the bouncy house they didn't want to stop it to start another activity. IMO $160 + tip for pizza and a bouncy house is a bit much...

Re: gift bags ... I can't stand getting a bag filled w/ junk so for our last B-day party we gave out $5.00 gift cards to all the kids. We bought them from a bunch of different places (Target, AMC, Toys R US, etc.) each child got to pick their own card out of the bag and there was a lot of fun/discussion re: "what did you get" . Both the kids and the mother's loved it. I hope that helped!

Yes, I just did a swimming party there for my 6 year old daughter. It went very smoothly. They assign two people to assist with the party. You provide, decorations, plates, napkins, forks etc. They set everything up. They will write down the presents and clean up everything afterwards.
For party favors I put a small bag with ponytail holders, hair clips, bracelets, and a couple of pieces of candy.
I scope out the clearance sections of Kohls, Target and Walmart for these items otherwise you can go to the party store and get everything you need.

The party idea sounds great. All kids need is a place to run, jump, and play, and they'll have a good time.

I, personally, refuse to do "party bags". One year, we gave the kids each a balloon to take home. One year, we had it at "Pump it Up" and the deal included plastic watter bottles for each kid. Otherwise, we skip it. I'm not sure when the idea occurred that we had to give party attendees a gift - the party itself is the gift.

My son has attended a couple of parties at Lifetime in Lakeville, MN. He had a really great time, the staff was very good with the kids and the parents who hosted were very happy with how it turned out. One party handed out baseball hats as a favor, the other did party bags with some candy, mini erasers, pencil, etc.

Good luck,
S.