Birthday Parties - Firestone,CO

Hello, for my kids we have done the indoor/outdoor amusment parks, chucky cheese's, swimming pool type parties all w/a sleep over. You could check w/your nearest pool & see what they do for parties. I don't know where you live, but there is probably an indoor/outdoor amusment park near by, the one we used had bumper boats, go karts & putt putt outside, inside was laser tag & all the games you find at Chucky Cheese's.

Then of course there are the home only parties: for the girls have them bring their make up & ribbons or bows so they can do each others hair & make-up & nails. Find the game dream date, a deck of uno cards. If you have a trampoline, they sell tents for them & they can sleep on the trampoline under the stars. Maybe have a bom fire & let them cook marshmellows (if you are out in the country).

For your son at home, camp out on the trampoline or in tents, a camp fire, have them bring their bikes for trick riding, send them on a scavenger hunt, have a baseball game, throw horse shoes, volly ball.

I don't know if this helps, but maybe you can use 1 or 2 of these ideas.

Good luck.

I think you'll get better answers than this, but I'll put my two cents in anyhow. Importance cannot (or should not) be measured by expenditure! Your aim for your stepson is a low-key celebration that he and his friends will enjoy. Your aim for your stepdaughter is a party she will feel is very special. If you can manage both, then both are getting what they want. Your mission is to manage both within your budget. It's not equal money, it's equal pleasure.

Do you have friends who can help you decorate your house or yard for an amazing girl party? Hopefully a party at home will be more in your budget than one someplace else. You might sit down with Miss Amazing Girl and list everything that goes into an amazing party (i.e., lots of friends, fancy decorations, certain music, certain activities); then have her pick the three most important items on that list and concentrate on those. That might make the celebration more do-able.

For your stepson, do the same thing. Make a list with him of what a great party means, and ask him to pick the top three.

You'll have two quite different celebrations, but hopefully both your children will be satisfied that they had what they wanted. They're two different people, and they can enjoy their own birthdays and appreciate each other's different tastes (as much as their maturity allows).

ok, i'm am so in this boat, all of my children are born in october, with-in 9 days of eachother. they aren't quite as old as your step kids (mine are 5, 3, 2 yrs old) but it can still be expensive for parties. so here's what we do. we have one party for the kids, bbq style-hotdogs, hamburgers etc, invite a dozen of our closest (or a handful of your children's closest friends) and, they might be a little too old for it, a large pinata. good food, good music, good friends is really all you need. or, you guys could go to a dave and busters type place in the area. of course that means, that your kids friends would have to bring their own money to play with, leaving you to provide food and drinks. hope this helps.
ps, tell your daughter that, in these economic times, we all have to make some sacrifices and so the big plans she has might have to wait, but that she can still have a great birthday, money is not required for great experiences. good luck!

First off, I think you are making an assumption that your stepson will be offended. Sounds like he is the type that really doesn't care and is happier with just a few kids at a waterpark. Why don't you just ask each of them what they want, set a budget and let them decide what to include and not include. Then you are being completely fair to the budget and their birthday wishes and there really is not room for complaining because they chose their own celebration.

As far as what to do for the daughter, believe it or not, even in the smallest of houses a slumber party is totally fine, even a big one at that. Kids, don't care, especially a bunch of silly, screaming girls, they will sleep on top of each other for all they care. Just have music, decorations, a cake, movies, and such. They will love it.

Good luck, I am sure it will work out perfectly.

P.S. what I have done with my sons is given them a $200 limit on their birthdays, if they spend it all fine, if they only spend a $100 they get to keep the rest in cash. My oldest loves this option and goes for the cash. So you never know what they will want.

Sounds like they are old enough to be given some choices. An ecinomical party with lots of friends and maybe take and bake pizza or a few friends at a water park or someplace special. Budgeting is a lesson they can both learn at this point, it takes $XX.XX to have 10 friends over and the same amount to take 2 friends to the water park. Also equalitiy in money is not as important to kids as you and I think I've learned on a budget my older son's presents cost more than my one year old and a budget tip that was given to me is look at the value of a gift not the cost. If both kids are happy the monitary value is not important(as far as it being equal). I'm sure your son would feel special doing what he likes to do with his close friends. As for a sleep over it's summer and if you have a tent a campout outside is always a hit even for girls have them bring sleeping bags and sleep in the tent or have a day party and just a few friends stay the night. Birthdays are special, but reality is reality in this day of "economic downturn" we all have to do what we can.

Depending upon your budget, it might be fun to take your SD and friends to a nail salon to get mini-pedicures (the salon near us does this on my kids for $10 each). They can have virgin mimosas (Martinelli's and OJ) to sip while they get their pedicures, and then you can have cake and ice cream at your house afterward.

If she likes to cook, you could always have a party where you provide pizza crusts and lots of ingredients, and have the girls make their own pizza. After everyone has pizza, make ice cream sundaes (if you're especially brave, you can have them make the ice cream from scratch). A friend of mine recently did that for her daughter's party (her daughter turned 14) and everyone had a great time.

Since your SS has said he'd like to go to a waterpark or skate park, I'd go with that. You can have cake afterward, or not, as he chooses, and he and his friends will have a great time.

I think your stepkids are old enough to understand budgets. My kids are 9 & 11, and they understand that if they only invite 2-3 kids, we do something special like the Dallas World Aquarium, but if they want to invite 10 kids, then they have a pool/pj party at home. Get them involved in the planning, so they can be part of the whole process.