Has anyone done an excellent boys only party and could share me the itinery?

[bluetrampolines]

I cant think how i can stretch 2 hours of entertainment with rowdy boys. It wouldn't be til December and I'm panicking already. Any ideas or tips at all please?x

What age?

How old are they? One of my grandsons, 10 year old, favourites was ten of them to the woods, build a camp, do various other male type things-?- ending with a barbecue and hot chocolate. Bear Grylls light without killing your dinner though.

Last year I organised go karting for 10 boys for my sons birthday party. Was great as the staff took over once they all arrived. Team sport was the company we used . It's indoors too so no chance of weather ruining any plans

Do you have a budget or venue in mind? (i.e. how much space will you have, do you want to organise everything yourself or pay for someone else to do this).

Nerf gun party if you have a garden. Sent a request for boys to bring their own Nerf guns or let is know if anyone needed them. Bought a lot of knock of bullets from eBay. Invited even numbers so ended up at 16 so could be split into teams.

Got camo stick and self adhesive camo tape from amazon for less than 10 quid. Everyone got Rambo stripes, camo head band and wristbands. We had stuck sticks with string across in the garden and arrange old cardboard boxes so they did some training. Jogging around the garden with nerf guns in the air scrambling under the string, jumping over string. Doing that American marching song.
I don't know but I've been told
Birthday boy is 10 years old
Likes DanTDM and martial arts
But blames the cat when he farts
Then we had five minutes battles, drink break and bullet pick up, then swapped the teams over. We served hot dogs outside and instead of a cake I did cupcake with a nerf bullets made from shop bought blue and orange icing. Boys seemed.to really enjoy it, DD has asked for the same party next year.

Attended/done that have went well - bouldering, go carts, woodcraft, Xbox, mixed outdoor activities, inflatables in the swimming pool, paintballing and shooting/archery.

Nerf gun party if you have a garden.

Would have thought an outside party in December might be a bit risky.

DS has attended a Nerf gun party in a hall. The parents hired someone who turned up with everything including the guns and large inflatable tanks, etc.

Took to park.hotdogs crisps etc.game of footie.cricket roundersmeat.back for cake and gaming or movie.tent and gazebo up in backyard for sleeping.

Local climbing wall with Mexican meal at Chiquitos afterwards. There were 8 guests including birthday boy’s older brother and his pal.
This was a 9th Birthday.

Thanks everyone! Ages 6 and 7 mostly. Held in the village hall. Small budget. I guess ill have to do my own games.

Last year I did an outdoor treasure hunt round the woods but the weather was grim and some of the kids (and parents) struggled.

I think im thinking a more traditional party. But the thought of it makes me shudder. I'm a teacher and know how long 2 hours can be if the activity is shit.

Soggy biscuit party? It's the only thing I can think off that would apply to boys only.

Training little children to fight with guns. Nice.

Tubetop Yes it was nice. The 16 10 year old boys loved it. Thank you.

How small is your budget? And how many DC? I held a birthday party in a village hall, and by the time I'd paid for the hall, a few balloons, food, entertainment - it cost far more than the year after, when I took them all to a local soft play thing (the more grown up type) and the company did everything for less than 10 per head … I think you had to have a minimum of 10 kids, though. We got a private room and they did the party bags and food, I just provided the cake. So they played for a while then ate, done in just over 2 hours. Someone I know just took her DS and 5 friends to one of these places, paid their entry, let them run around for an hour and a half, then bought them a meal each afterwards. It really is so much easier to do this sort of thing; the village hall party nearly killed me! It's the entertainment that's the real issue: my DS has been to a couple of village hall parties where there was a few games, but lots of sitting around, and tbh some of the boys (there were girls and boys there) didn't want to join in the dancing games (musical statues, etc) and so were running around like lunatics. I got a proper entertainer for DS's village hall birthday, but it wasn't cheap. She kept them entertained for an hour and a bit, though.

@KC225

That sounds absolutely inspired, and so creative! makes note for possible future offspring in years to come

When my son was that age, we did a 'How to Train Your Dragon ' theme - a bit of craft - decorate a dragon mask - actually Chinese dragons but close enough, pin the tail on the dragon, got fabric pens and they all decorated a pencil case to take home - his birthday is February so it's always indoors. The kids were really happy to have things to colour & stick - went surprisingly well!

A science party. Have 4/5 activities set up so they rotate.

We had a deep-sea diver activity, magic milk, sink or float pool and 2 more that I can't remember (da is 15 now). Party bags was a science book from the book people. We did this twice, once at home in the garden and when they were older in a hall.

Also we had a finale with coke bottles and mints (different brands). Was good fun

These all sound good. Thank you. How many games do you think you need for 2 hours?

And what time and for how long does the food part last?

Lots of balloons can keep DC that age amused for hours.

Food is usually only about 20mins, although there will be some who finish after 5 minutes and others still clearing the plates after 25 mins. Have a spare cake so you don't need to cut it up - have it presliced and in the party bags. Plan more games than you need. I would say 20 mins running around with balloons, 30 mins games. 20-30 mins food, 30 mins games, wind down at the end and vow to only make it 1.5 hours next year.

Ideas - don't eat Tommy's smartie, what's the time Mr Wolf, mummy game - wrap partner in loo roll, corners - running to different places, sleeping lions, wink murder, grandma's footsteps.

Every time I'm at a village hall party (I have a six year old and have been to what feels like hundreds), what strikes me is that the bit he and his friends (male and female) is the bit where I'm helping clear up, and he and his mini-gang are running around a large empty space, rather than the organised activity.

I think a village Nerf gun party minus the faux-military training bit is an excellent and cost-effective idea. I would save large cardboard boxes, or anything else you could use to make obstacles/barriers/things to hide behind, either tell the children on the invitations to wear red or green tops, or make or borrow some headbands/neckerchiefs/tabards in two different colours, and buy as many cheap Nerf darts as you can. Will assume most children can lay their hands on a Nerf gun of some kind, but have some to hand in case not. Have regular dart pick-ups, and maybe arrange some targets and mini-prizes?

I'm not wild about small children with guns either, but, slightly to my own surprise, I really enjoy playing with DS's Nerf guns

Allow half an hour for the food bit.

I’ve done a Lego party with boys that age.

Itinerary as follows: (apologies if this is long-winded)

• arrive and work together to build a control tower with Lego

• once everyone was there and settled (always allow about 15min for this) we asked them to listen while their control tower played a message for them. In advance of the party we had a friend (who has the best voice for recording!) record a message on our iPad which we played. It told the boys that they had a mission to complete which was to free their Lego minifigure from its rubber prison. They were then all asked if they accepted the mission and were given Lego ID cards on lanyards with their name, age and a colour. That colour was their key to completing their mission.

• We then dumped a massive amount of balloons in the room and the boys completed their mission: In advance of the party we had broken up basic minifigures (all the same - Lego used to sell a birthday pack which came with birthday minifigures in it) and put one part inside each balloon. The balloons were all colour coded, so for instance 4 orange balloons with 1 piece each inside, 4 red balloons etc. The boys had to burst their own colour balloons to free the minifigure and then put it together. The winner was the person who completed their mission first.

• Next they had to create a vehicle for their minifigure to travel in. We had a ton of Lego and let them loose on it. They were given some instructions like making it strong, ready to withstand crashes etc and then left to their own devices.

• We then took them outside and we had a track, ramp and crash mat set up (created from pieces of mdf type board and sample floorboards a friend had left over from when they decorated their kitchen). They raced each other and crashed into each other to see whose minifigure stayed the safest in their vehicle. We had a box of spare parts ready for them to use to make repairs and adjustments.

• Next we had some time challengers like tallest tower in a minute, strongest bridge in 5 minutes, most recognisable animal etc etc.

• finally finished with food and then they went home. They took with them their ID badge/lanyard, minifigure, the vehicle they had made, a paper cup full of random

Lego pieces and a piece of Lego themed cake.

We bought all the Lego cheap from eBay and a car boot sale - just a couple of job lots of mixed bricks - and the only extras we needed were some wheels to make sure we had enough. It was all cleaned before we used it and the boys loved having Lego to take away with them. The only other thing we bought (aside from food) was the birthday party pack from Lego with the minifigures, ID cards and invitations, and then the balloons.

I’ve also done a challenge party which went down really well, but the boys were 8 so a little bit older.

We basically had a ton of challenges that they rotated around and competed against each other in:

• dividing bowls of M&Ms into different colour piles using only a straw in their mouth and no hands.
• building towers with hula hoops.
• getting marbles out of bowls of icy water with their toes.
• building bridges with raw spaghetti and marshmallows.
• bursting balloons in the fastest time. (colour coded like when we did the minifigure challenge at the Lego party)
• rescuing jelly worms from the mud (smashed up chocolate cake mixed with icing, jelly and squinty cream) with their mouths (hands behind their backs).
• the minute game
• circuits workout to see who could complete the most circuits in 5 minutes

Then food - this all lasted 2 hours. It was mayhem but it worked. We used a church hall for it - too messy and too much space needed to do it at home. The “cake” was a chocolate piñata (made out of hollow chocolate with a giant cupcake mould, and filled with sweets.) Birthday boy took a toy hammer to it and they all then dived in to the sweets.

Party bags consisted of a certificate and medal for everyone for completing the challenges, prizes for the boys who had won the different challenges and a small metal/wooden puzzle each from the pound shop.

We had a Lego masters challenge at my boy's 8th party. Gave them each a bag of Lego and gave them 15 minutes to build whatever they liked and give it a name. Then gave prizes for overall winner, most creative, best name etc. Quietest 15 minutes I've ever had at a party.

Also we hid treasure (just printed bits of paper) round the garden and they had to find them, we had two teams with a different colour to collect each. They did it while I was judging the lego.

Also blew up a load of balloons and got them to stamp on them and burst them. Wasteful but fun. Our party was Mario themed so they had goomba faces.

That, a pass the parcel sort of thing and tea filled up two hours easily.