5Th Birthday Parties

Hi D.,

You can have the idea we used for my son's bday party. June in FL is usually HOT! Look around for a zero-depth water park, sometimes called a splash pad. The city next to us has two of them with pavillions available to rent. We rented a large pavillion for $60 which allowed us to invite as many friends as we wanted...we ended up with almost 70 people and over 40 kids. The major expense then was the goodie bags (very simple, using dollar store bubbles) and food - we got pizzas from Little Caesars and bought 12 pizzas at $5 each. Really, much less expensive than Pump It Up or any of the other parties we have been to in total. We had a great time and even better - so did the guests! We had babies as young as 6 months and much older children also - everyone had fun!

Enjoy! C.

My son is also turning 5 next month. Here is a rundown of some of the parties we have had recently or coming up soon:

park with a bounce house and a visit from darth vader
tea party at home
bowling
indoor bounce house/inflatable place
Candy Shop (lots of organized activities)
toy store with party room, dress up & build-a-bear type activity
aquarium
arcade/mini golf/go karts
simple party at home with games, prizes, crafts, food, etc (much like parties when we were kids)

other ideas:
roller skating
ice skating
simple party at a park
swimming

For my daughter's 5th birthday we had a "Fairy party". We only invited little girls as my husband said that if I gave the little boys green hats and vests that he wouldn't come! I bought wings at Dollar General for $1 a pair, in pastel blue, pink & lavender. I bought elastic and made little waist bands, bought tulle in pink, lavender and blue, left it folded in 1/2 (the way it comes off of the bolt) and cut it into strips about 3-4 " wide, put the folded part behind the waistband, tucked the open ends through and then pulled them down. It makes really cute little fairy skirts! I made little halos from star garland found on a clearance rack @ Joann's, tied curling ribbon on the back, and hot glued little flowers around periodically. When the girls arrived at the party, they went to the "Fairy grotto" where I had a college student for $50 painting their faces, and transforming them into fairies. My bestie came and made little notes and tied them around. We started the girls out at one with one of her older daughters that could read, and they had to follow clues to the next note....in the end they ended up at a basket on the cake table. The basket had little fabric bags that held a couple of chocolates wrapped with Avery labels that I had printed with little fairies, a good luck token, and a tiny little glass bottle of "fairy dust". I found the bottles on EBay cheap cheap...and filled them with white /irridescent glitter and then hot glued the corks in! We had cake, passed out the bags, opened gifts, made a little craft and played. I had the party at a park where you can reserve gazebos, there is a children's playground, and lots of shady pine tree area. If you would like pictures...pm me your email address and I can email them to you. It was super cute, and the girls had tons of fun, and the adults (grandparents, unles, aunts etc) loved watching them have fun.

5 year old, have it at a broward park. Rent a paviliion near a playground. Have a nice cook out and let them run wild on the play ground. We get a pinata and cook hotdogs and dhambergers. Save all these indoor ideas for when she is a bit older. We always ended up with 30 kids because what 5 year old doesnt like going to the park

Screw the party... take her on a weekend trip. Instead of a generic party with generic crappy gifts, she (and the whole family) will get the gift of an experience, of memories in the making.

We did this for my DD's 6th birthday & she didn't even care that she didn't get a party. We took her lunch at school & she celebrated with her classmates with a cupcake cake & they all took a picture together. We took her to Chuck E Cheese with a friend & a couple family members for dinner that night. It was great & stress free!

nature preserve, ceramics shop, to the nail salon, the acquarium, a pizza parlor (with a make your own pizza party), the playground, your pool, a pajama breakfast.

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.