to need some ideas for my ds birthday party that we are holding at home

[elliemellie]

My ds turns 8 next week and he has decided that he would like a birthday party at home and has invited 6 friends so we will be having 7 7/8 yo's in the house for 3 hours (gulp!) I've never done an 'at home' party since he was really little (which is quite a different matter I imagine) and am at a loss as what to do. I want it to be really special for him. What works or doesn't work from your experience? We live in a medium size flat so no garden. Would welcome any suggestions as they'll be descending in a week! Thanks

Ds2 had his 8th party at home and it was really good fun - his birthday is late October so we also didn't have the option of using the garden.

They played a few games of 'Twister' which was loads of fun.
They played musical cushions - a version of musical chairs that is better in my small living room, which ended up with shrieking boys in a pile on the floor!
We played a version of 'pass the parcel' with silly forfeits in every layer which had them all giggling.
They played a team game which involved wrapping a team member in loo roll which went down well.

For tea I did hot dogs (with 'nice' sausages!), corn on the cob, potato wedges and a big pile of homemade cakes

Ds2 still talks about that party

Whenever I do a party we always play wrap the mummy.
Split the kids into two teams and one child in each team is the mummy,give each team a roll of loo roll then you play a song and they wrap their mummy!
Best wrapped mummy at the end of the song wins .

DS1's 6th party at home, got lots of arts and crafty things for sticking and making and salt dough for modelling. And lego. 8 kids entertained themselves while grown-ups ate and chat. But don't know if that works for 8YOs.

Best sort of party! Don't forget the chocolate game - buy a big bar of chocolate and they sit round it taking it in turns to throw a dice. When you throw a six you have to put on a hat scarf and gloves and then pick up a knife and fork and then use them to eat as much choc as possible till the next person throws a 6. We always have to have this one.

Also passing the orange under the chin/balloon between the knees.

Pirate's island - put a rug on the floor, play music, they dance around it and when the music stops all have to jump onto it. Keep repeating, except each turn you fold the rug in half so it gets progressively smaller. Generates howls of laughter as they try to all get on and hold each other on. Anyone who cant get on is out until there is a winner.

And do give them some 'free' time to mess about if you have the space.

Enjoy!

We did a craft party for DDs 7th and it went down very well. Don't know though if that will work for boys.

We also had a few games. They all liked "Who's under the blanket?" For that they have to dance around and when the music stops they curl up small and close their eyes. I would then cover one of them up with a blanket and shout "Who's under the blanket?" They then have to get up and guess who it is. Actually, though that might be a bit too easy when there is only six of them! It works better with a bigger group for obvious reasons.

BTW I noticed a previous poster mentioned hot dogs. When DD was 5 we had an entertainer and he was very experienced. Before the party he cautioned us not to have hot dogs because he had seen from the many parties he went to that most kids got completely hyper after that.

A silly game but it has always gone down well with mine - give each child 2 plastic cups and a straw. Put some smarties in one of their cups. They have to transfer the smarties into the empty cup by sucking them with the straw.