dd 8th birthday party at home - ideas please

[Caillou]

trying to keep dd 8th birthday party on a budget this year,

she wants to invite 6 friends at home, I will also have a 2 years old and a 4 years old with me (dh will be out of the country), we do not have a garden,

does anyone have any idea on what could keep them busy (and me sane)?

thanks

• DIY pizza and film party
• Craft party (with a vague theme/aim, such as making doorhangers/necklaces/pencil holders etc)
• Baking/biscuit decorating

Cake decorating.. buy some pre made cupcakes and a load of decorating stuff. Buy a plain white tshirt for each of the girls and some coloured fabric pens.. let them design/create their own tshirts to take home with them. See if you can rent a karaoke machine. Lay some blankets out and have a mini pamper, nail varnish, nail stickers etc.

Hi, how about a bake your own muffins and pizza party. If you need a craft type activity to fill gaps my 8 yr old recently enjoyed painting and decorating (with sticker gems) a jewellery box? Or masks are always good???

If she’s particularly into something, you could combine various elements - I.e. if she loves Harry Potter you could craft wands and watch a bit of one of the films, and make some kind of HP food?! Or play guess the Bertie Botts jelly bean flavour?!

T-shirt decorating is a good one. Or tie-dying?? Not quite as immediate though.

Split up your place into areas - General toys in bedroom,
Blank poster & pens & stickers in a corner, get kids to decorate it in theme of party.
Craft at table. Someone on here suggested decorating plant pots. We did that last year and it was a hit! Pottery pens, buttons, sticky eyes, sequins and glittery bits, glitter glue and fake tattoos. They come off really well on the pots and are good for the less crafty kids. Plus they spent the rest of the party decorating each other with the left over tattoos.

decorating their own paper party bag is a good first activity while you wait for everyone to arrive.
Cake decorating is always a big hit - if you can't be arsed to bake, you can buy a dozen Basics fairy cakes for about a quid.

treasure hunt

One year we did a Build a Bear rip-off. You can buy the stuff your own bear kits and plain t shirts, which they can decorate at home - I think we used Be My Bear.

thank you I knew that excellent ideas would be suggested. so I asked dd and she wants

t shirt decorating, we do have fabric pens so just need to get the shirts.

and cupcakes decorating

followed by food, she is already making the invites :)

thank you again, you have made it so much easier for us to plan.

At 8 it might be your last chance for the traditional party games, pass the parcel, musical statues, pin the tail on the donkey kind of thing.

And we used to love a game of Nelson Eye at that age!

We've had a lot of home parties. The most popular was cupcake decorating. I made cupcakes in advance and put coloured butter icing into piping bags with large nozzles, then bought lots of sweets for them to decorate. I bought the paper cupcake presentation boxes from Quality Save for them to go home in.

Baker Ross sell lots of cheapish crafty stuff which is great for a crafty party or filling time.

Movie party always nice and easy, pizza, popcorn etc..

We did a karaoke party at age 8, would not recomend!!!!

Party games Still loved. Two pass the parcels work well, one when they first arrive and one later. Takes a while and they all enjoy it.

If you can rope in another adult or borrow a helpful teenager it will be much easier though. Good luck!

i am surprised so many are recommending movie parties for this age. the one we had here for DC1 went a bit feral - they were too excited to sit and watch, and needed something more engaging.