Birthday Party locations

Do people have birthday parties for their kids at their homes anymore?

DS gets invitations for parties at pizza places, the children's museum, the SPCA, gymnastic places but very rarely for peoples homes.

He has asked for a Magic Schoolbus Rainforest party for his 6th birthday, and I know I could do some really neat things with that at home. I am just worried that no one would come if its not at some "event" type place.

Thoughts, comments?

[SueC]

We do both, and honestly I think the kids have just as much fun regardless. Especially at age 6, I don't think the kids have extremely high expectations yet. I think a Magic Schoolbus Rainforest party sounds like fun. An added benefit to home parties is that you aren't so rushed, at destination parties they want you in and out in 90 minutes or less. Not that you want kids hanging around your house for hours, but if a certain activity is especially fun you can just go with it rather than having to rush them through the entire party.

We had both kids parties at home this last year. It is convenient to go somewhere but I think the kids had lots of fun at our house. And it cost less.

A friend here did a Magic School bus party of sorts for her son. She rented a room but it could easily be done at home.

Let's see...she gave Magic Schoolbus paperback books as a gift to all the kids (I think she got them in a pack at a school supply type place). They had a "mad scientist". Not totally like Magic Schoolbus but similar with the science bent. You could probably do some of the experiments yourself. There was some other stuff that I'm forgetting.

Here's the Mad Scientist link:
http://www.madscience.org:8080/portland/

[mommax3]

The last birthday party I did at home was with 7 7 year olds, a 4 year old, and a 7 month old. I had mastitis and was running a fever. If anyone knocked into me on the affected side, the whole room swam before me and I felt woozy. DH was on call. I vowed to NEVER do another party at home, and I haven't.

However, I know that my kids LOVE to go to birthday parties, no matter where they are being held. If you have the ideas and the energy, I say go for it.....I don't think attendance will suffer, and everyone will think you are super-mom! I think the trend towards destination-type parties is more about the parents than about what the kids want, imo.

Have fun!

Sally

[PrincessFiona]

Kids here do parties both at home and at 'destinations' and we've had them both. Last year, we did a Spiderman party for Alex complete with mask-making, a maze and a 'spray the green goblin with goo' thing....I pulled a muscle in my back the morning of the party while I was cleaning up the playroom, and I was miserable. Add to that that with younger children, parents tend to stay (up through Kindergarten) and I felt like the house had to be cleaner than if it was just the little kids. It was great fun for Alex.

At the end of the day, when we added up the cost for the pizza, cake (I didn't have time to make it on my own), decorations, pinata, etc we figured we had spent as much on the home party as on a 'destination' party.

This year, Andrew (age 11) had a small sleepover here at home with his friends. Alex had a party at a local gymnastics club...where they had an entire obstacle course set up, a huge ball pit/play area and provided cake, pizza, ice cream and all decorations...AND...they did the clean up. They even wrote down who gave which gift for us! It was worth every penny. Every picture that I have of Alex is with him grinning ear-to-ear! And...I didn't have to clean up the mess afterwards!

kris

[houseelf]

We've done it both ways. I have found that the home parties are only slightly cheaper. Our last party was at home and seven 6 year old boys ran wild through our small home for three hours. Fortunately, we came through with only two broken picture frames and one divet in our paint. It was all worth it when my son declared afterwards that it was the best birthday party ever.

Next year when the house is on the market, you'd better believe we're having a destination party.

Kelly