My son's 10th birthday party is this weekend. There will be 4 ten year olds and 2 five year olds. We're having it at the house with a bounce house. The only activity I have planned so far is a craft with t-shirts. I need more ideas on what to do with these kids. Bounce house, t-shirt craft, pizza, cake and presents are all I have planned so far. I think I need at least one more activity or game. Any suggestions?
Thanks mama's. After telling my husband (who was in charge of coming up with another activity) what you all said, he said he thought we didn't need one either....why didn't he just say so in the first place? Anyway, I'm going to have the balloon game handy just in case. The one where the kids have to sit on it to pop it. It may be hard for the 5 year olds but they will have fun. Thanks agian for coming to the rescue.
The kids are going to want to play in the bounce house. Doing the t-shirt craft, eating pizza, having cake, opening presents, and playing in the bounce house is enough. We had a bounce house 2 years ago and a friend commented it was genius, the kids were occupied the entire time, we had to order them out of it to feed them and serve cake, lol. I think you're fine.
You do realize that the kids are not going to want to come out of the bounce house at all, right? The less you plan, the better.
By age 5, most of my kids are free play kids. You can do a few simple games like tag and hide-n-seek but I stopped structured parties after a few years because I saw other parents do structured parties and I suddenly realized how futile it was when the kids just wanted to play together. If you want to do water balloons, just give them water balloons. I had one time the parents were trying to organize "the game" so badly that the kids lost interest. Just have fun, the kids will too!
potato sack races with pillow cases
egg toss
egg relay race where they separate into two teams and walk quickly to the fence and back holding an egg in a spoon, trying not to drop it. when they get back to the side where the team mate is, they pass off the egg and spoon to the next person and so on until one team finishes.
kickball
home made obstacle course using household stuff like chairs or hula hoops
an active game is always good especially with boys and where sweets are involved.
I don't think you need anything else but...
You could play a game "How well do you know Xxxxx". Questions could be... Would x rather have a pet giraffe or elephant, how many times has X been on a plane, favorite color, favorite sport, etc. I did this at my daughters's 10 th birthday party and gave out prizes (candy and hand sanitizer from Bath and Body Works, nail file, nail polish etc.) when someone answered a question.
That's all you need!
We threw my daughter a party with a bounce house when she turned 10. I planned all sorts of games and we didn't do ANY of them! You can try to get them to do the t-shirt craft--good luck. As soon as they see the bounce house they'll be running toward it! My daughter and all her friends (of assorted ages) played in the bounce house and then they made up their own games. We did cake, presents and then they were running toward the bounce house again. You do know you'll have to drag them OUT of the house for the cake and presents, right? And drag them out when the party is over? LOL!
Have fun! Happy birthday to your son!
that's all you need-you're done!
good heavens, it sounds as if there's tons to do already!
i honestly think sometimes eager, loving parents go overboard with the activities. little guys just like to play! give 'em some free unstructured time to run wild.
if you really want another TTD, just go tried and true. pin the tail on the donkey, the beep-beep (or hot/cold) game, or a pinata.
have fun!
:) khairete
S.
That's really enough. Just let them run around.
I think it sounds like you have plenty. It is always good to have a few things planned, but kids like to just run around and play when they get together. If you want a back up activity, I would put together a scavenger hunt or obstacle course. We have done both of those things at my sister's house for boys age 8-11 and have been a big hit. They don't have to be anything elaborate. You can scatter things around the yard for the scavenger hunt and make obstacles out of chairs, hula hoops etc. Good luck!
Dance Contest
Scavenger Hunt
Bingo
Twister
Balloon relay - divide into two teams. Each person has two balloons. Line up behind a line on the ground, run to a chair (one for each team at the other end of the yard), sit on one balloon until it pops, run back and tag the next child in line, then they go do the same. All members in the lines will go twice. First line finished wins. Very popular with that age group! :)
Start off the party with make your own pizzas, buy some store pizza dough and break it down to personal size pizzas. Have a variety of toppings and lots of cheese. These cook while they either bounce or do their shirt project.
Have them make their own treat bag out of duct tape. They then do a scavenger hunt around house and yard to collect the coupons to fill them.
Pinata
and for the smaller children, musical chairs is always fun... at that age, they like that kind of stuff...
good luck
