Birthday Party - Girl age 7 - Please could you help with Ideas

[surreylady]

Please clever Ladies and Gents of Mumsnet your ideas please for a party to suit a 7 year old girl - I feel that everything I can think of has been done from traditional party games, swimming, perform, trampolining, bouncy castle, princess and related, dance, magic, etc - I would really like to do something different - and was wondering if you have been to anything that really struck a cord as different but fun - may (or may not) join with at least one other parent so could be more expensive as we have option to split the costs.

Many thanks

[JackieNo]

For DD's 8th birthday we did a belly dancing party, but only because a friend teaches it, and offered - I'd never have thought of it otherwise. Prob no good if you'll be having boys as well though.

[surreylady]

thanks - should have added - girls school and will be at least 95% girls

[Spatz]

we had a 'making' and 'baking' party at the weekend for 8 7yr old girls. It was fab - bought stuff from baker ross catalogue and they were very busy for over an hour colouring and sticking things onto a denim bag.
There wasn't much time for the baking, but they also really enjoyed icing biscuits.

[missblythe]

My best ever birthday party, when I was 7 too, was with a traditional Punch and Judy show, and then a normal birthday tea and games.

I also had a lady with a performing dog who was brilliant-actually we had them twice-but I suspect that would be considered un-PC or contrary to H&S or something.

Karaoke?

Arty-crafty things are good for girls too-do you have a pottery painting place nearby, as they will often let you take your own cake etc, to make it into a party.

[Bink]

I did something very like Spatz's party, at Christmas (fascinating seeing how very very differently the girls went about decorating their mini puff pastry mince pies).

Bowling?
Ice skating?

A batch of girls from dd's class are together taking the rest of the class to the theatre (so lots to split the bill between).

Ds (9) has just been on a time-travel party (at a museum) where you get to be a Victorian schoolchild. He seems to have really enjoyed it (especially the sums involving shillings & pence ).

[Spatz]

Bink - agree on amazing difference in style and ability to focus, although they did all spend alot of time on it. DH was wandering about in amazement at how little we had to do!

[geogteach]

where in surrrey are you? Gatton park in Redhill do fab parties, there are different themes to choose from and you get a bit of making and some outdoor activity. DD (5) had beetles, bugs and butterflies last week, they made badges and puppets and then went out with sweep nets to collect insects in the woods, it was great.

[ArcticRoll]

Irecently organised a cooking party for my dd's 7th birthday.It was spur of moment thing but went really well.
The children kneaded dough, rolled out pizzas and created their own toppings.
Decorated fairy cakes and rolled out and cut out biscuits.
Then children ate the pizzas in garden and took garishly decorated cakes and biscuits home.
There was quite a lot of clearing up to do but it was cheap and fun. Think parties at home are more friendly than big corporate places tbh.

[Bink]

You must have organised it better Spatz - I had to do tons - my own fault!

I thought we should do the mini mince pies from scratch (well nearly - puff pastry was ready-made), so I took 2-3 girls at a time (while rest were making peg-doll angels & stained-glass decoration) to do all the rolling/stamping/filling/lidding/squishing edges/painting with egg-and-milk for one batch - & then each little team would come back in, once their batch was baked, to do decoration with "Christmas sprinkles" I found in Whittards - infinitesimal trees, candy canes, snowflakes etc.

(How they were with the baking was also very individual - but without exception they were poppets. Most parties pass in a flash & you remember nothing, but this one gave me a really good sense of what dd's classmates are like.)

[Spatz]

I agree, also got to know the girls better - a good opportunity.

My good organisation consisted of asking a couple of other mums to stay and help with glueing!

[surreylady]

Cooking sounds interesting (and frightening at the same time) we will have a potential 20 young ladies - do you think this is just too many for a cooking party? Thanks

[gracemargaret]

More unusual parties my 2 girls have had/been to include -

Walk/Treasure hunt with Clues and prizes
Pottery party (paint a plate)
Party on a train (if near a steam railway!)
Party at a farm/animal sanctuary
Zoo party
Pamper Party
Sleepover party (If you're mad - I only did this once!)
Indoor ski party
Horse riding party
Bird of Prey experience party.
DVD Pizza and Popcorn party.
Disco.
Painting party with face painting (each other) and paint a Tshirt to take home (we hired village hall for this one).

Good luck with whatever you choose,

[Bink]

20 ... you'd need either (i) a very very big kitchen, masses of practice at crowd control & a head as cool as an iceberg; (ii) lots of time (so's to do cooking in relays like I did - though dd's party was only 12) - and someone to look after/entertain the ones who're waiting for their turn (and still a pretty big kitchen); (iii) a professional!

There's an outfit in London called Cookie Crumbles which knows the score - dd's been to a couple run by them. Expensive though.

[cece]

I did a making party for DDs 7th birthday. Only had about 12 children in total. Ordered loads of stuff off of Baker Ross (I did the peg doll angels too!) Did it at home around the dining room table (with an extra one at the end!)

All the girls loved it and had lots of compliments the next day from the other mums.

[cece]

Painshill Park do good ones, but never been to one, they just look good!

[Tas1]

Hi, I have four girls aged 23yrs, 13yrs, 11yrs and 5yrs, so have had many parties over the years.
Apart from all the parties already mentioned i have had a couple of different ones.

My daughter had for her 8th birthday a scuba party. We have a scuba diving class near us called the dive machine. They taught them how to put on the equipment, all the safety bits and then they all dived in the swimming pool. One of the instructors took underwater photos for us and we took photos from the side. They all had a fab time and we gave them all a photo to take home.

Another idea is a makeover party. This company came to the house and did all the girls hair, makeup and nails.

We also have a company near us who make chocolate. They do parties, the girls made their own chocolates and took them home.

Hope this helps.

[Moomin]

For dd1's 6th birthday last Sept we had a picnic at the local countryside centre. Had a treasure hunt first (a glorified walk round the nature trail in the woods picking up goodies dh had left along the trail). Then food, then games of tag and rounders on the field. Was easily the best party we;ve had for her and also the simplest/easiest to organise.

All you'd need to do is make sure enough adults stay. We;d invited mostly friends who wanted to stay anyway but you could try some bribery (food and a glass of something)!

[SquiffyHock]

Splat cooking - Expensive but they do everything.

We have a ceramics shop near us who do wonderful parties. You could have 20 girls in near silence as they get so engrossed in what they're doing - I went in for a coffee once (it's a coffee shop too) and didn't notice 12 girls at first!! They do food too.

[SquiffyHock]

That wasn't very clear - ceramics painting rather than throwing pots

[Guntrip01]

Check out Pop in parties website popinparties.co.uk. They have loads of parties and they run the whole event. I have had bear party and princess party so far and would recommned them, I have to all my friends. It's great all you have to do is sit back and watch much more relaxing and the girls (or boys if you have boys!) all go home with a lovely gift rather then the normal tat my girls get from other parties.(

[anabelbrre]

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[mumtoaninja]

I've just booked my DD8 an indoor tobogganing party at an indoor ski slope!
It was between that and lazer tag...she went with the ski slope as its not yet been done in her circle of friends.

[nataliewong1989]

blog.partify.co/turn-your-kid-favorite-book-into-party According to this blog, you can turn her favorite storybook into a party. It will sure make a difference.