HELP! My Outdoor Birthday Party Will Now Be an Indoor Party~ I Need Ideas!!!

I think you can still have the bounce house outdoors, just put it close to the garage on the driveway and the kids can run into the garage into the bounce and that way there socks won't get all muddy.

Hi D.,
Looks like you've got some great ideas from the other moms, but one activity I thought I'd add would be freeze dance. It works for kids of a variety of ages and they love it! Relax and enjoy the party -- the kids will have fun no matter what!

I'm sorry to say I do not live in your area but I have a suggestion. Look for Recreation Centers at parks, in the East Bay I have found some that range from $50 a day to $50 an hour.They provide restrooms, tables, and all the regualar amenties when they are opened to public except that it would be your private party. Also try the Boys and Girls Club...

Note that most rec. centers do not have websites but numbers to call.

Goodluck!!
J.

In our family an outdoor birthday party gets canceled due to rain. And when this has happened we have had a wonderful time celebrating with our family (grandma,aunts ,uncles,cousins) stress free. In fact maybe that was the begining of the end to birthday parties in our house. They should not be stressful. It is a joyous occasion your celebrating. So I say take the opportunity to let the big party go and enjoy the smaller more intimate option. You may never go back. We now celebrate with a bigger party for certain birthdays,it depends on the child and the age. I fill in for those missed birthday celebrations with my kids getting to invite a big group of friends over for a theme play day. My son has flag football and baseball trading card parties. My daughter would have tea parties and crafting parties. It's fun and stress free and the birthdays are really special, big or little. Have a wonderful time celebrating your special little guys birthday.

I just had a birthday party for my 4 yo this past Saturday. We had 7 children and about 15 adults show up. I too have a limited amount of space. Fortunately, the weather was nice and we did get to go out a little bit, but this is what we did. The theme was Thomas the train. I moved my living room furniture to the walls and traded the coffee table for his train table. The kids arrived and played with the trains until we were ready to begin. I guided them to the kitchen table where we made mini pizzas which would be their lunch. The adults stayed in the living room and chatted a few moms helped me. Also, daddy was setting up a cake walk game in the shape of a trian track on the living room floor while we were busy. When the pizzas were ready to go in the oven. The kids went in the living room and played cake walk (colors, not numbers). Once every child had won the game twice, this was about the same time the pizzas were ready, I guided them back into the kitchen/dining area. They ate. While they were eating, I put papa murphys pizzas in the oven for the adults. When the kids finished eating, I brought them back into the living room so my son could open gifts. The adults ate pizza while the kids did the presents thing. After presents were opened, we had cake. This was pretty much the end of the party, the kids were invited outside to play. Some did, but it was also about nap time for most, so most left. The party started at 11:00 and was ended by 1:00. It cost about $60-75 (Grandma bought the cake). I did not give goodie bags, the kids took home prizes from the game. The prizes were silly straws, dollar store prizes, etc.

When I do playdates/parties, I follow a schedule that is usually

1) play
2) make something
3) organized game
4) snack or meal
5) play some more

It keeps me sane to be organized.

Good luck.

J.

I just had a birthday party for my eight-year-old. We let the girls decorate their own cake. We got take-n-bake pizza from Papa Murphy's.

I like the idea of having football shaped cookies that they get to decorate that someone else suggested. Movies are a great indoor activity. Maybe a drawing/coloring station.

I would suggest some simple indoor activities (coloring, cookie decorating, movie, board game) that are always set up. The kids can go from area to area as they desire. At that age, keeping them focused on one thing for any length of time will be tough. The only structured part is the present opening, happy birthday singing, lunch/dinner (if that is offered), and cookie/cake time.

As someone else mentioned, the kids love the free time to just play. All you need to make certain of is that no one gets hurt or hurt feelings.

P.S. Congratulations on the arrival in April, an especially good reason not to worry about the party.

www.partygamecentral.com/ You can select age range, indoor/outdoor etc.

I also suggest a parade/marching band. The children can decorate paper plates, put some dried beans or rice inside and staple together for shakers. Also, you can get kazoos and recorders at the dollar store or party store. You may even find some bells or little drums. All this can be take home as the goody loot. Decorate the plates with markers or crayons and stickers or foam pieces. The kids will have fun with the craft and a movement activity afterwards. (Don't decorate with things that need glue without alot of parent help - kids that age tend to use way too much!)

Can you use the garage? We had a bounce house for our kids at a Super Bowl party in the rain and they all LOVED it!, just kept the warm towels comng from the dryer, kids got really worn out, all hd a great time.

If the garage is available you can decorate with sheets covering up the walls/mess to keep little fingers off and have a football toss like you would have outside.

The other thing you could do is decorate football shaped cookies. Have the cookies already baked and all of the different frostings and sprinkles ready to go.

No matter what, all will have a great time.

The most succeful parties I have been too have always done less. It sounds silly, but put something football related on TV, decorate and bring out toys. The kids will play and the adults will ignore them for the most part and intervene when necessary. Do some of the usual birthday stuff, like cake/ candles, presents, but remember that this age group loves free time. We just went to a party this weekend with that basic structure and the kids loved it.

S.

Hi D.,

We just had my son's birthday party at Round Table Pizza.

We had our own room with a flat screen TV. It was only a %50

deposit, which went towards pizza & drinks. They also had a

play area for they kids. But the best part was NO CLEAN UP!!

good luck :)

Consider moving it to a place like Chuckie Cheese or Johns incredible Pizza. If you call you local high school drama department you may be able to hire students to entertain the kids and do the face painting cheaper than professionals. They could use the extra cash for Christmas.
J.

Hi D.,

You already have a lot of great ideas from other moms, but I always had a very stress-free birthday parties for my daughter. I always held her parties at a pizza place, e.g. Roundtable Pizza. They normally have a little private area where you can hold your party. You don't need to worry about anything, or clean up either. You can hire a magician, a face painter, clown that can entertain the kids for an hour, the other other hour will be for eating pizza, cake and ice cream. If you want to save some $, instead of hiring a professional entertainer, you can have games like play pin-the-tale-on-the-donkey, musical chairs, and hot potato to name a few. Party should be no more than 3 hours. If you don't have a Roundtable near you, call your local pizzerias and see if they will accommodate you.

Good luck and I'm sure everything will work out just fine. Happy birthday to your son...enjoy!

Some ideas: Use butcher paper and foam balls to set up a ball-throwing game inside...hang the paper on two chairs with some holes cut into it (decorate with a goal post and other football things) and have the kids try to throw the foam balls into it from a marked distance for prizes.

Can you set up a small bounce house in the garage? If not, set up some active games in the garage? Like football-themed hot potato, musical chairs, etc.?

How about cookie decorating? It can get messy, but you can bake football-helmet shaped sugar cookies ahead of time, and have all kinds of frosting and topping colors so the kids can decorate them as their favorite team--or any way they want.

Good luck!

J.

What about doing some cookie decorating? You could make all of the sugar cookies in fun shapes ahead of time, and then just bring different colored frostings, sprinkles, etc.