5th bday party activites???

[alansrock]

Should I rent a bounce house? Or just let them play? Or come up with some theme games? I mean I really only need something to hold their attention for about an hour so is it worth the $80 to rent a bounce house????

HELP!!

Oh and we are looking at 7 kids at the party plus my twin boys, so 9 kiddos.

[Rae's World]

No one th bounce house! You will never get them to do anything else!!! $80 for an hour!! wow! Any way, I love the Pirae birthday for 5yr olds. Oriental Trading has some super cute hats and eye patches. Also bandanas and stuff. You could go on a "tresure hunt" with the kids. Invitations can be on maps. It is just super cute!! Good luck! I have 3 birthdays comeing up here too. Their gonna be 10, 8 and 2!!! crazy!

[meganmecrazy]

I'm desperate for 5th birthday party ideas too. We don't have much money for anything super expensive but I wanted to something "different" for their big "5"! LOL! I think the idea of renting a bounce house is awesome! I'd do that but I don't really want to have the party here at my house at all...toooooo small!!

[rachelv]

My son just turned 5. We just had a few friends over. They played the wii and just played in the house. I had after school snacks out and then we had cupcakes.

Surprisingly, the kids were totally fine with it. Not one of them asked if there were party games. I set the time to two hours. Seemed just right. I sent them home with party bags and just in time for their dinner.

[alansrock]

No one th bounce house! You will never get them to do anything else!!! $80 for an hour!! wow! Any way, I love the Pirae birthday for 5yr olds. Oriental Trading has some super cute hats and eye patches. Also bandanas and stuff. You could go on a "tresure hunt" with the kids. Invitations can be on maps. It is just super cute!! Good luck! I have 3 birthdays comeing up here too. Their gonna be 10, 8 and 2!!! crazy!

We are having a space theme and the Bounce house is $70 for the 1st 2 hrs and then $10 each additional hour. So the $80 is for 3 hours.

But I figured they'll get to play for about an hour then we'll do cake and presents and then the kids would likely go home. :confused:

[alansrock]

My son just turned 5. We just had a few friends over. They played the wii and just played in the house. I had after school snacks out and then we had cupcakes.

Surprisingly, the kids were totally fine with it. Not one of them asked if there were party games. I set the time to two hours. Seemed just right. I sent them home with party bags and just in time for their dinner.

Party starts at 1 so it's after lunch. I just don't want the kiddos to be bored!

[Leila]

We did t-shirt decorating for D's 5th birthday party. The kids had a blast and it took up the better part of an hour.

[ColleenSwerb]

Yea, I think if it were me I'd do a craft instead of the bounce house. It will keep them occupied for a while, and they'll have a little something to take home with them at the end of the day. It's also a little easier to keep track of kids than the bounce house. I hate those things, kids go insane in them!

[alansrock]

Yea, I think if it were me I'd do a craft instead of the bounce house. It will keep them occupied for a while, and they'll have a little something to take home with them at the end of the day. It's also a little easier to keep track of kids than the bounce house. I hate those things, kids go insane in them!

Each kiddo will get a book that has space facts in it that is in 3D with 3D glasses and I am making some rocket lollipops.

Keep the ideas coming ladies, the party is on 4 April!

[iJenny]

For Cam's 5th b-day, we had a starwars party. I even made simple little Jedi costumes for the kids complete with foam lightsabers! lol We played a few organized games, let them just "free play" for a while, and then they decorated their own cupcakes (which killed some time lol).
Home parties don't have to be expensive OR insane. Just a few fun games w/ small prizes, and plenty of space to run around and be kids. :D good luck!

[Laura_A]

I used to do bouncey houses for my girls' parties... didn't have to worry about keeping them occupied at all. Now that we're in an apartment I can't do that anymore. The one thing I've found that is a hit every year and keeps them occupied for about 20 minutes is, instead of a cake, I do cupcakes. Leave them plain and set out a ton of different things for them to decorate with. They LOVE doing their own! You could even go a step further and do little mini cakes for each kid.

[heatherdumas]

Yea, I think if it were me I'd do a craft instead of the bounce house. It will keep them occupied for a while, and they'll have a little something to take home with them at the end of the day. It's also a little easier to keep track of kids than the bounce house. I hate those things, kids go insane in them!

I did this when sara was 5. I did a scrapbook party. I was always srapping and she was always trying to join in. SO I found some scrapbooks at Walmart with stickers in them and alphas. SO all the kids brought a picture with them. Then we took picturess when they got there and my best friend went to Walmart and got the developed. We did presesnts first, then cake, then scrapped until parents came back. And everyone was happy and left with 2 scrapbook pages.
I am a huge fan of No planning actually.Everytime I planned some big party all the kids just took off to play. Other peoples stuff is very interesting you know.

[CA Dreamer]

My 5 year old and his buds like to play bingo(OMGosh, La's Rainbow ABC kit would make great picture bingo cards!!), freeze dance, and 'hot potato'. Also a bean bag toss

They also like to do a craft. I did picture frames one time--the foam ones and they got to decorate them with the sticky foam pieces and other doodads(no glue). The also decorated foam door hangers the same way. Then, we decorated cupcakes (or cookies one year). One year, we decorated foam snowflakes with their pics. I took pics of the kids as they came in the door, then, printed them while the guests were arriving, Punched them out to the right size(I just made a sheet of wallet size) then had them ready for the kids to put in the middle of their snowflake. They decorated these with glitter glue--need to do early to give glue chance to dry.

A party that we just went to yesterday, they had everyone bring a book in lieu of gifts. Along with a goodie bag, they each brought home a book.

[cynthia1900]

I have gotten great ideas for birthday parties from here before:

http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/space.html (these are the space party ideas but it covers tons of themes). I found at that age stations worked great - lots of different things and then went from one to another - like tattoos at one, coloring or simple craft at another, game like toss somewhere else. They won a piece of candy or small toy at each game and were always entertained. Some games that are always a hit - freeze dance, mummy wrap (could be space suit making), Space race could be a group hitting balloons with a rolled up newspaper section to get it over a line first and you could decorate the balloons like little spaceships (I did pigs one year), You could have a treasure hunt with different places named for planets and clues that led from planet to planet....



Have fun.