Planning My Son's 7Th Birthday Party at Home - Small House, but Want an Activity

Can have an Indian Rock relay. Two groups get into a line and then each first person of the group puts a rock on their foot and races to a goal line.
Another game: You can let them make something out of a grab bag race too. They run to the goal line and get something at the end for a few sec

How about decorating a flower pot & plant some seeds or even a plant so they can care for it & watch it grow.

Go to familyfun.com They have tons of great, simple craft activities for boys and girls. I use this site all the time for activities for class parties.

I did an art party a couple years ago for my son. I set up easles outside with paper and paint. We had newsprint on long folding tables and colors. Their favor was a smok that they put their painted hand print on. I wrote their names with paint pens. You could let them decorate t-shirts or the like with foam stamps and acrylic paints. You could set up clay for sculptures or anything else. I had stations set up throughout the backyard.

I also gave out mini play doh, small box of crayons, kandoo hand soap and fun towel as part of the favor.

Good luck!

Why not bug catchers? Boys love bugs. Just get some emty jars with lids, drill holes into the lids and have the boys decorate them with stickers, foam pieces, etc. You could add gummy worms to make it a unique treat bag, too.

For my sons 6th birthday, we had a "treasure hunt." We made up a treasure map for him to find his gift from us. He had 4 or 5 clues that took him downstairs, outside and all through the house. It ended at the car. His gift was in the trunk.

This could be done like a pirate treasure map or like individual clues (more Sherlock Holmes).

At this party we had mostly little cousins, but if we had had older children, I had thought about making little treasure maps for each. The "treasure" would be their goodie bags.

Not a lot of mass marketing themes. I think we did find a pirate table cover and plates. But it just had a "map" on it.

This is still a party that he talks about 2 years later. He always asks if we can have another treasure search. (My parents did this for me one year. I loved it. It is great for a gift that is too big to wrap.
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I hope that this gives you another idea. Have fun planning!

T.

With Pirates of the Carribean being so popular, a pirate party might be a good idea. I had one, small house, about the same number of boys, same age as yours. We had the party outside. The birthday cake was made in a loaf pan and then made into a treasure chest by cutting off the top, hollowing out the choc cake, crumbling the part taken out, and put back in, along with choc coins, gummy worms, things to make it a treasure chest. Each of the kids got their own mini loaf cake decorated the same way. They loved it.

They received pirate hats, scarfs, eye patches, earrings when they arrived. We planned a treasure hunt with a treasure map they had to follow. At the end of the hunt was the treasure; a buried box with their treat bags inside. I don't remember what else we did, but they had a great time, and we really never had to go inside the house. If you did do it indoors, I think you could still do all this, maybe end the party with a pirate movie or a pirate story. Good Luck.

Try design a kite. Find out what you'll need material wise the wood sticks, glue, string & so on. I'm not sure what type of paper or plastic you'll need. Get some crayons, glitter, stickers & water paint & let them have at it! You can also try letting them design a shirt, towel, pillow case to wear or hang on a wall. Use your crafty ideas & try going to a Hobby Lobby/ Michaels & see what else you could come of with. Oh yeah get some of those wooden boxes & let them make safe keeping boxes for baseball cards, coins what ever they want to keep in it. I think you'll do grrreat. Good luck & God Bless!

For my son's 6th b-day I did a pinata in the back yard. Kids really enjoyed taking turns hitting the pinata.

I had my brother and his wife help with the activity to keep it safe with a blind folded bat weilding youngester.

Try this easy activity - you could modify it to make colored sugar in test tubes. When my son has a birthday party, we have a pinata. Each guest gets an empty treat bag, and when the pinata is broken, they scramble for their own goodies. I always set some candy and small toys
for the littler kids who might not get into the mix.

Enjoy!

http://childparenting.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi...

There are a lot of options. I have two sons who had really fun parties when they were 7 yrs. old. Consider a scavenger hunt which could be done inside or outside or a bit of both. You could also do a game like Clue (Who did it?)but involve each of the boys. Have crime tape around the house as they arrive. Take their finger prints and their photo when they arrive. Have name tags under each photo. Ahead of time, put clues all over the house for them to find and go from there. For food, have "scientific" food, eyeball punch using rubber eyeballs, cake in the shape of a brain, etc. Goodie bags could have a miniture magnifying glass, notepad and pencil, a card with a clue on it saying something about the game they played, etc. For another idea, you could get "icee" cups with lids, spray paint them silver and let the kids decorate them like robots (R2-D2 from Star Wars for example). We did this one year and the kids loved it. Hope you like these ideas. There are hundreds of fun games.

If you Google "children's birthday parties" you'll get more ideas than you could ever imagine...a ton of great ones that aren't all commercialized. Have fun!

I've had kids come in and go to a kitchen table and color their own goodie bags. It seemed kind of lame to me, but they LOVED it! I just used stickers, markers and brown lunch baggies.

I saw this space themed birthday party and saved it. I plan to use the idea for my 7 year old for his birthday. It looks really cool!
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/space-odyssey-birthd...

www.birthdaypartyideas.com
The website above has fabulous ideas. They have themed ideas, but not all of them are "mass market" themes.

I would totally do a scavenger hunt. It'll let the kids run around outside & burn off some energy. They'll be out of the house and whatever you hide can be the little trinkets they get to keep and take home with them. Draw up a cute little map or give clues about where everything is hidden.

C.,
I have found some great ideas (and come up with a few of my own based off what I found) on birthdaypartyideas.com. They have a huge list of different themed birthday ideas.
Good luck!
Jen

Just a couple of suggestions that my kids have enjoyed at parties. Let them decorate their own cupcakes. Give them each a dixie cup of icing and a popsicle stick to spread it, bring out your food coloring and let them pick the color they want. Have some gummy worms or sprinkles etc. for them to put on top.

Have them build cars out of lifesavers (for wheels)and a roll of lifesaver roll for the body, get creative with it.

Take their picture with the birthday boy, and get a cheap frame and have them decorate it with stickers etc.

Games--

put up a washline and tie a string through a donut hole and to the line (one for each guest), then when you say go they have to eat it without using their hands. Tie them so the donut is about nose level. You can also do this inside with a bowl and 3 or 4 marshmellows, but blindfold them.

If it is warm enough...give them each a balloon filled with water and they have to hold it between their legs and race to the finish line without dropping it.

This one is a little crude, but the kids loved it. Give them each about 1-2oz. of soda and see who can burp first. We did this using baby bottles, it was hysterical. (We have a girl and it was a baby shower theme)

get 2 superhero costumes and divide the kids into 2 teams, they have to race to the costume, put it on, do something (like 5 jumping jacks), take it off and race back and tag the next kid in line. If space is too limited have them dress and undress a build a bear.

Kids have changed since my time but when I was that age my parents threw me a birthday party in our backyard. They hired a clown and I had a blast. If he is interested it is definitely a fun time. I had a pinata and lots of treats, including a cake and treat bags for my friends!
Hope this helps,
--S.

What about making a kite or an airplane? You can find pre-made kits at the dollar store. It gives them something to put together, then fly in the backyard. (And if it crashes, no big deal, it was only a dollar....at that price you can have more than a few on hand.)

I have one idea that my kids really had fun with. Go to Hobby Lobby and get candle making stuff. It is really fun for the kids, takes enough time they won't be done and bored in 10 min and you will be the bomb mom for the next couple months. It's fairly inexspensive, just pick like three colors to choose from. My advice though, practice one before the kids get there.Then you will know how to do it and it will be almost stress free. They can take those home with them! Good luck have fun!...the bomb mom

Hi C.
Depending on how warm the weather is for you...my oldest son has an early June bday and we had a water balloon fight in the back yard. They had so much fun, I turned on the sprinkler after the water balloons and they all just ran and played. It was fun and my son thought it was great! It was very inexpensive as well. I must admit, filling up the balloons the night before certainly took longer for my husband and I than it took to use them all up but it was fun! Good luck.

My friend did a "CSI" party where they found clues to find out who stole the birthday cake. They took finger prints and pictures and collected hairs that they found in the kitchen. They made it a scavenger hunt and her husband dressed up like a detective, fake mustashe and all, to help lead the way. Turned out the dog did it. Pets are always fun to blame. You can also find "lab kits" in toy store.

The most fun "at home" birthday party my boys went to was a pirate theme. They made eye patches and pirate hats that they could decorate. Then there was a scavenger hunt that led them to different places all over the house and yard. The next to final clue had them indoors and while all the kids were inside, the dad brought out a "treasure chest" and placed in the final clue spot. It was filled with "treasure" and the kids were just thrilled! You could put anything inside pretty much...candy necklaces, ring pops, etc. or stick with mardi gras beads, etc. Good luck!

Try orientaltrading.com. They have HUNDREDS of ideas and craft kits and are really cheap, too!

I have 3 boys and we do all our birthday parties at home. I find most of my ideas online. Just google whatever your son is interested in and party ideas--there's tons of ideas out there.
One of my favorite tried and true themes is Pirates. I've done it for all 3 of the kids and it's always a hit (even for the kids who come to each party). We've done scavenger hunts (this is a great way for them to find the goodies to fill their goodie bag). I've bought treasure boxes from Oriental Trading Co and the kids decorate them, stringing skull and crossbone beads to make bracelets. The favorite activity that has been loved by kids from 2-10 is hunting for "golden nuggets." I spray some pea gravel with gold spray paint..aka-gold nuggets. Then, bury them in big boxes full of sand. The kids will spend 20+ minutes hunting for the gold nuggest. With it, I've done a castle cake, a pirate ship and sword cake.

Target has bug catchers for $1 right now :-)

Scavenger hunts are cool. If you're friendly with your neighbors you could make them part of it. Or you could do a photo scavenger hunt - send an adult with a digital camera with each group of kids to take the photos and then play them back on your TV or computer.

Or you could do a mini field-day with three-leg relay races, egg tosses and "potato dump" (you get a chair at the start and a bucket at the finish, put a potato on the chair, the kids sit on the chair and pick up the potato between their thighs then "waddle" to the finish where they have to "sit" over the bucket and dump the potato in... I'm betting 7 YO boys would think this is hilarious)

You could hand out ribbons and trophies... maybe even let them make "team jerseys" from plain ol' t-shirts... a track & field theme, if your son's athleticly inclined!

Have fun!!

T.

do some sort of races outside. Hopefully the weather is nice. Egg and spoon race. Do an obsticle (sp?) race and at the beginning have them put on something like overalls, hat and clown shoes and run the course. Then take them off and the next person runs. If it is inside get some liter soda bottles put a little weight in the bottom of the soda bottles and a ball have a bowling tournament or take a plastic shower curtain and make a tick tack toe board on it and have the boys toss X'x and O's. Also Familyfun.com has some great party theme ideas. if crafting is what you want boys might like to make and or paint a birdhouse. hope some of this helps

My second son's birthday is May 3rd, and we kept everything we could outside because boys are ranbunctious, we had a water gun fight, a pinata (big hit) and a watermelon seed spitting contest. Not in that order, we "washed" the watermelon juice off with the water gun fight, and the pinata was right after the cake and ice cream, kind of a finale.but Tim loved it. For an inside craft, the dollar store has punch out wooden dinasaurs and bugs and cars that they put together and can then paint for like a buck a piece, that was a hit with my 3rd son, but I don't remember how old he was, it may have been for younger kids. Anyway, that's a great age!! enjoy him! My oldest graduates from college next year, and I swear I was just planning HIS 7th birthday party.