Birthday Party at Home for 9 Year Old?

I have had 2 parties where I rented a large moonwalk for the kids. That is all the entertainment you need. The kids love it. But I only invited about 8 boys - more than 8 the kids would have to rotate out of the moonwalk. If you have a huge backyard you can get 2 different types of moonwalk.
However 25 -30 kids is a bit much and for that many kids I might prefer going to a Sports/Games or ChuckECHeese place.

D.

I have a 12 & 13 year old. Over the years of throwing home parties I have discovered:
"Kids just want to be together"
Parties can be pretty nonstressful with this in mind. Free playtime first...games....cake & ice cream, gifts...free playtime (they will automatically incorporate the gifts into the playtime)...it's easy, it's fun, it's inexpensive!
:)
H.

Hi R.,
I LOVE to have my sons birthday parties at home. I have pretty much used a great web site to help plan and that is
www.birthdaypartideas.com. If you pick a theme, thn they will give you lots of ideas from food, to games. Your son is at a great age. Have fun! Another great resource of things is www.orientaltrading.com they have gift bag toys, candy and favors.
Good luck.

Hey R., We have 4 kids and have come up w/an almost standard b-day party. Pizza is the VERY EASIEST. Have the pizza shop cut each pie into 16 pieces because they don't seem to eat when there is too much fun to be had. We have a pinata and a game like pin the tail on the donkey or something. Have some music chosen by your child and let kids be kids. If you have a swing set or a trampoline or something, it will be a blast. If not, how about making something like that the gift for your son.
Good luck & have fun w/it. Let your child help plan and it will be fun. Kids are easy, it's the grownups who complicate things, right?
:) S.

Having a party at home takes A LOT OF WORK! I've done it for years as well as going out someplace. It is a lot easier to go somewhere else where all the entertainment is there. And you don't have to tidy-up your house/yard (if that's an issue)! Plus, since you work, it will be a time-saver to go outside the home. Try a pool or the town gym or YMCA-type place. I am assuming the party is for the 8 year old. My son will be 9 soon and we've done the pool, bowling alley, arts & crafts kids center and pottery over the years. I have also had parties at home for my daughter - with entire class plus friends invited. I always invited everyone in their classes until 1st grade. Then it was just the boys/girls. This year I will let them invite 5-6 of their close friends and maybe go see a movie, go out for pizza, and do a sleepover. Good luck and smile at the party - moms know what having parties are like!

What would your son like to do? I prefer to have parties out at the site, to keep the home mess at a minimum but see what he likes, I used to have my sons parties at the laser and game place on victory blvd by travis. Its called Fun station, I think, they had video games, lasers, batting cages. You would buy a "package" and have pizza and cake in one of their party rooms. Good luck
http://www.couponpages.com/page-view.asp?CouponPage=FUN-001

what month is your childs birthday in? If the weather is warm where you are I have always got a moonwalk. The kids LOVE it and keeps them busy. also, my son LOVES firetrucks, always has and he's nine too. A local fireman bought an old firetruck and brings it around and I've had him come to my sons party the past few years and he gives kids a ride. Hope that helps

Mary Beth

Hi R.. I just had threw my son's 3rd birthday party in my yard. His theme was a western style. i rented 2 live ponies for the party. This lady also did face painting, potato sack races, pin the tail on the donkey, hot potato, and sand bottles. Then I had a pinata and gave all of the kids plastic cowboy hats that I got on ebay to fill them up with the candy. The kids had such a great time and so did the parents. My party was talked about for a week or so afterwards on how great a time the kids had. Maybe you could use some of these ideas to make your party a hit. Make sure you research all party options before booking just anyone. There are alot of scammers out there.

Good luck and I hope the party turns out great!

HI;

For party ideas that are age appropiate, check out www.birthdaypartyideas.com. They have them sorted by theme; I contributed my party story for my 7 year old daughter (http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/harry_potter_parti....

Hope this helps,
N.

A bouncy machine, and some kid size sports (like plastic horseshoes and those big balls they sell at Walmart) have worked best for backyard kid parties. Anytime I have had more tham 8 or 9 kids i have also hired a babysitter for the day to help so I can actually host the party, and the other parents love that too, so they can relax and enjoy. The one I hire also does face painting so it works out well. Be careful though, if you plan to invite too many, and the weather turns sour on you, they will all be in your house. It's not the best time of year for an outdoor party....Have fun and good luck!

Hi
I've always done the parties at home. Yes, its a lot of work but my kids like the interaction with their friends this way. If you have it out, you don't get much of that. Luckily my kids birthdays are in the summer so we've done a number of things and they are always OUTSIDE (like swimming)! Scavenger Hunts for ages 8-12 are really fun for the kids. You can do a themed one. There are so many websites that give you ideas. Just search under birthday party ides and see what you come up with. Moonwalks for outside are great too. Kids enjoy crafts too or they even like Movie Night and you could put the whole theme together. You are dealing with a lot of kids so just don't make yourself crazy. If you can do it outside, then that's your best bet. Good luck.

Hi my name is T.. I am the co-owner of an entertainment company called Pizza Pals. Basically what we offer is a pizza making party for your guests. The kids decorate and create chef hats and aprons. Each are given there own dough to roll out to add souce and cheese for there very own pizza. We also play pin the pepperoni on the pizza with the children and offer packeages with favors, invites, and pinata. The host is only responsible for location, refreshments, and decorations. We also offer picture services as well. If you are interested please email me at ____@____.com

Thank you,
T. Giangaspro

Hi R.!
There is a place on Niagara Falls Boulevard near Ellicott Creek Road called ABC rentals. They have bounce houses, dunk tanks, football games, etc for rent. You may want to try giving them a call. Also, depending on where you live, you may want to call the local fire department and see if they host birthday parties. When we lived in Orlando, Fl the local fire department did and it cost $50 for 8 kids and included everything right down to the paper plates and drinks (yes, cake too). Birthday parties are just so expensive to have anywhere, I know, I have 3 kids and have done them at Discovery Zone, and other places as well. Another place you may want to consider is Cyber Jocks on Sheridan Drive in Amherst. Here in Kenmore there is a floor hockey place on Military Road near Sheridan and I hear the Pepsi Center also hosts parties. Good luck

For at-home parties, you can often find local magicians or pony rides to come to your home for a pretty reasonable fee! Also, the old stand-by games usually go over well if you feel like organizing that much!

I am not sure about 9 year olds-but I just had a birthday party for my daughter.

Seriously if I did it again, I would do it at Chuckie Cheese (very early in the day).
We just went to the one in Paramus and it was very clean and not very many kids.

By the time I was done with her party, I would of spent the same amount of money.

But this way, someone else serves food, decorates, cleans up and you can buy little thank you gift bags to send home if you wanted~This way you can spend more time visiting.

Have you considered a small sleep over?

I have a birthday book:
Birthday Parties by Vicki Lansky- $6.95
(but it only goes up to age 8)

It talks about: how to pick activities, themes, games to play and how to coordinate with 10-20 people.

Hope this helps~Good Luck

I have thrown birthday parties for about seven years back to back. There are serial things you can do, if you do not want to clean up afterward throw it in Chuckie Cheese or one those places. But you want something in the house hire entertainment, face painting, balloons.

As far as games: musical chairs, and if the party is theme play something that has to do with the theme.
Example: For your 2 years girl, Dora party -hide something in the yard and have clues so they can explore and look for the item. For your 8 year boy, Transformer – buy legos and let them made things.

Hope it works out, Good luck

Hello R.,

my daughter is now 7 years old, and I have always had her birthday parties at my house. I find that holding the party at my hosue cuts down on the stress and the cleanup/preperation time. The other benefit is that people are free to stay as long as they want. I suggest you ask people if htey could bring food (family members, close friends; things like potatoe salad, macaroni salad, cut veggies, etc) to help cut down the cost. I usually do some sort of home craft, like making masks, or puppets, or whatever, and then allow the kids to run around and have fun. Pinatas are always good, kids always like those. Also, I was jsut at a party at my aunt's house for my second cousin, and my aunt had tied strings to a clothesline, adn tied apples at the other end of hte string, had everyone kneel on the ground, with their hands behind their backs, and she swung the clothesline, making the strings swing as well. The object was to catch the apple in your mouth (like bobbing for apples, without water), and the winner got some sort of prize. Also, if the child is into sports, why not do a sports game? Football, baseball, soccer, whatever? Split hte kids and adults into teams, have them pick numbers inorder to have nobody get picked "last", and see who wins? the winning team can get some sort of small prize or whatever. You can also make cupcakes, and have the kids decorate them themselves, or ice cream sundae's. Scavenger hunts are always fun. It is october, so some sort of halloween cosutme party would be cool too, or maybe get some small pumpkins, and have hte kids decorate them. Sharades is always a fun game, or perhaps do your own version of who's line is it anyway, where you can write scenerios and put them in a bag or hat, and have people pick from the bag, whatever htey get they have to act out, and they can choose other people to help with their scene, the rest of the group has to try and guess what it is they are acting out.

If I think of anything else I will repost. I hope this helps.

I have a son that is almost 20 and all of his childhood parties were at home and my daughter will be 9 in October. The biggest thing to remember they just love to have fun, don"t over think it. What I have learned, stick to little party favors, cake and ice cream. Over the years I have had half eaten and much wasted food, not to mention the picky eaters who wanted to know what else there is to eat. Party should last about 2 hours, 1 hr is usually cake and ice cream, and opening gifts. I let my kids help plan with games and googled game ideas. Its been amazing every year. last year we did tye dye. got a kit at pacatans, everyone brought a white T. was easy fun and all the kids left with tye dye shirt and all wore them to school the next week.

my dd is only 2... but i did host her party here. although, it was only 3 other toddlers and about 10 other adults. we borrowed a bouncy house and i had activities planned, but with that age they weren't that interested. it was mostly just free play, eat cake/snacks, free play, gifts, free play.

i do remember reading somewhere that a parent had the limit of only the same amount of kids arriving as the child's age. Is it so big because you're inviting his whole class?

i definitely 2nd the idea of hiring a clown. they had a clown at a cousin's wedding for the kids and they seemed to love it!
and also i 2nd the idea of including your son in the planning.

maybe a pirate theme complete with dressing up? and then you could pin the tail on the "ship" or something else pirate related?

good luck! let us know how it goes..

Have a Young at ART party! Tie die Tshirts and have the kids decorate them. Have fabric paints and gems and markers all that set out...when they are done hang the shirts on a cloths line to dry...

The party can be Pizza and Punch easy. Games can include the theme of ART have a game of pictionary or some kind of art game-
Hope that helps...