Need Ideas for a 5Yr Inexpensive Birthday Party, $100 or Less

I would go the park route and let the kids play-they love it. I second the idea of doing it at an off hour so that no one expects food. Being at the park I would provide drinks for everyone though, water, juice and you could begin buying those now one pack at a time. Walmart can do a Little Mermaid Cake/Cupcakes and they are def. not that expensive. For party favors/bags you could go to dollar tree and get buckets and shovels or beach balls and sunglasses etc.and give those out. Parents like it because it's practical and it's not lots of sugary junk. I would always much rather have one good thing that lots of little junk that we end up throwing away anyway. One last thing, you could check with Oriental Trading, since you have plenty of time, and get some good stuff(theme related) pretty cheap. HTH

My son went to one at McDonalds once. It was free to have it in the play area. When the kids arrived, they bought a happy meal for just the kids invited to the party (parents and siblings bought their own) and the kids played on the playland after presents and cake. A happy meal is about $3-4, so for 10 kids, that'd be $30-40.

My niece had one at an indoor pool at the YMCA, and it was $60 for 1 1/2 hours in the pool and 1 hour in the party room. I just had my son's at Denton Natatorium, and the total was $110 for up to 12 kids, each additional kid was $2.50 (our ages were 6 & 7, the 5 year olds that came were only $1 each) more and that price included all the waters and capri suns we needed as well as plates / napkins / forks which would have easily been $50 or so if we'd have provided it. We ended up having 21 kids total and I only had to pay an extra $10. I think there is a natotium in the Hurst or Haltom City area, so maybe their deal is about the same.

Another thought, does she have any friends or family members with birthdays around the same time? You could go together and split the cost of some place.

Also, I agree with the previous poster. . . if you have the party at an off meal time, no one would expect a meal. Something like 2:00-4:00. You could get away with a bowl of pretzels (store brands are $1 a bag), maybe some veggies or fruit depending on what's on sale, some chips and hot sauce, etc. Some inexpensive meals. Or, if you want to feed them, we did a hot dog meal one time for my son's birthday and it was very cheap. There is a brand of hot dogs at walmart that are about 68 cents for an eight pack and the buns are $1. You just fed 8 people for less than $2! Much cheaper than pizza.

Sno-To-Go's shaved ice parties start at $50 for 25 guests. We do a lot of parties at parks, which is free space! www.CandiSno.com

I would google kids crafts or look on FamilyFun.com for some inexpensive craft ideas. Dollar Tree often has lots of items for $1, so crafts for a lot of kids can be just a few dollars.

And I love the Little Ceaser's Pizza idea!

C.

I always have birthday parties at times that are not meal times, so I don't feel any obligation to feed the kids or the parents pizza or anything else.

As far as locations, you could use one of the parks in Keller. They are inexpensive to reserve a pavilion, and then let the kids play and maybe have a few games/activities for the kids. The Fort Worth Summerglen library has a room you can rent, and so does the new Northpark YMCA, but I don't know the cost. If you did that, then you could get a few mermaid/ocena craft projects from Oriental Trading Company, and you would have a fun party for not a lot of money. My kids always love decorating their own cupcakes (and save the Mermaid cake for the adults. Again you could go with an ocean theme on the cupcakes--blue frosting, gummy fish, etc.

Some of the most fun birthday parties my kids have been to have been those with the "old-fashioned" party games (relay races, etc). They love them because they are different.

Be creative and have fun!

I'd be interested in hosting your party at Meadowmere Park for $100 - we could set up archery, do a scavenger hunt, an obstacle course, and the kids could play on the playground or beach. We usually charge $225 for this party, but I would be willing to do it for $100 if you could help spread the word about our camps - www.AdventureDayCamps.com Hopefully some of your birthday kids would end up coming to our summer camp. Let me know if youa re interested.