P.E.
Not sure of the time of year, but we've held birthday parties (and non-birthday parties) in a couple of venues.
Ottawa County's Hager Park has proven to be fun all year around. It's at the corner of Bauer and 28th Ave in Jenison. We've played on the playground equipment; one year my daughter invited friends to bring costumes and they made up their own play using the woods, bridges, stream and "castle" playground as their backdrop.
My son has also taken a video camera and they've created their own story, filmed it. The boys would talk about it right up through their high school years.
We've had treasure hunts at Hager, placing clues along the paths and letting the kids find a treasure box hidden (usually in a car trunk where it's safe or with an adult in one of the gazebos)...the kids have a great time.
If it's a winter party...sledding at the Soccer Bowl (Rosewood Ave in Jenison) or Johnson Park...Wilson/Butterworth.
Although we did this in St Joseph, Mich., it was a fun party idea that could be replicated in GR and that was an afternoon at the Children's Museum. You could likely eat the b'day treat there, but there's an adventure to eating it outside in one of the parks...and unless it's a blinding blizzard, having a picnic outside in the winter/spring is a novel idea that kids remember.
We've also gone to the 12th St Park in Jenison off Chicago Dr...there's a park there with a lake and trail that goes around it. Another place we've had treasure hunts...there's plenty of open space to make snow sculptures (or sand sculptures), fly kites
Rosa Parks downtown GR offers ice skating for ultra-cheap ... add a thermos of hot chocolate and rice krispie treats and it would be a memorable occasion.
Sometimes we look for activities planned at the museum or library...let them handle the activity...then we find a place that we can open gifts and eat treats...sometimes these places have rooms available.
Not sure your budget, but sometimes friends have had pool parties at hotels...or you may be able to get a decent rate at the new GR Family Y Center. I find that to be more responsibility than I want to have to supervise young children in a pool, but if you have enough attentive adults it works.
Another park that might be fun to take kids all year round would be Millennium or Blandford...there is water and woods so you need extra adults, but you can do theme parties based on outdoor adventures that the kids will remember.
Are you exhausted yet? One last idea tht we did that was fun. We had a birthday party in which everyone instead of bringing a "gift" brought something they could teach the birthday child. So kids taught the child new card games, how to make puppets, how to do a dance, how to sing a song, etc...it was a lot of fun...and everyone learned something but also got to be center of attention.
