My sons going to be 4 this year and its his Golden Brithday. We are super excited and want to do something really fun for his party. i was just in the need of any awesome ideas that wont break the bank. we are tossing around the idea of renting a blow up castle and doing the party at a park. As my friend pointed out we will prob get kids who were not invited trying to jump. our yard is not big enough for something like that. Help :) Thank you!
Do you have a YMCA near you? Our YMCA charges $70 to do a birthday party. You get use of the bouncer, the indoor playstructure, the rock climbing wall, the pool, the various gym equipment (floor hockey, basketball, dodgeball, scooters etc) and a private party room for 2 hours. All you need to do is provide the food and supervision.
Look into whether or not you can have a bounce house at a park. You may need to have a permit (liability issues), so you will need to factor that into the cost. You can easily "get around" the non-guest issue by giving all of the party kids a wrist band and having an adult monitor who comes and goes.
My son is turning 5 this year and we are having the party at our house. There are only 10 kids in his Pre-K class, so it's not really cost effective to have it at a party place. Here's what we're doing:
1. Small bounce house (3 or 4 kids at a time); my sister has one, so this isn't costing us anything
2. Classic party games (pin the tail, relay races, musical chairs, Lego car building/racing, bean bag toss, etc)
3. We have a swing set, so that will be "open"
4. Deli trays from our local grocery store (chicken tenders, sandwiches, chips, fruit, macaroni salad, birthday cake and ice cream)
5. Goodie bags (Lego "mini" sets $2 at Target and a chocolate bar)
Last year we did a party place and it was great, but pricey. We had a newborn, so it was worth it. Plus he had 20 children between the two preschool classes, so it was also more cost effective.
Get creative and check on the permits! At that age 2 hours is great and if you aren't paying "per person", you can feed the parents too!
My great niece's mom rents a small bounce house for her DD's parties. We have never had anyone crash our bounce house. If you do a bounce house, why not do it at home vs at the park? They make small 4 yr old sized ones.
My DD's 3rd birthday was the first I tried "games". We did a dino dig (cheap sand from Home Depot and some rubber dinos from Oriental Trading), and the kids went on safari with plastic hats and "tagged" a dino each (masking tape on an inflatable dinosaur). They had a great time.
ETA: I just looked up or local park and rec site and the local nature centers do 2 hour parties (with set up and clean up time) with themes. Might something like that be good for him? Ours accommodates 20 kids for $250, including an hour with a naturalist and both indoor and outdoor activity themed to the event.
We did a bouncer castle for my son's 5th many years ago and it was fun, but a few precautions. They are not supposed to be used if there is any amount of precipitation. What time of year is your son's birthday? My son's was in July and as luck would have it that day was 94 degrees and humid. They still had fun, but not as much fun as I had hoped and I was a nervous wreck that someone was going to get heat stroke. Also, be sure to check with the park first. Many cities will not allow them on public property without a permit or something first. Our city did not even allow us to put anything in our cul-de-sac. If you need to switch gears, Edinborough, the indoor playground in Edina used to have really fun party packages. Probably no more expensive than renting a bouncer. They have a bouncer in the gym area too, or at least they used to.
A bounce castle sounds great. As long as all the kids follow the rules -- no shoes, only so many kids at a time, who cares if a few extra kids crash the party? Just relax and celebrate.
we just did a bounce house - very reasonable and the kids loved it! Call and ask about size, they even will set up indoors or in a garage.
