party ideas

[flower76]

Anyone got any good inexpensive party ideas for a five year old girl in February, probably about 10 kids. HELP!

What sort of thing are you looking for? Venue, games ideas, party bags, cake???

This is a bit vague on prices etc as not had to do one of these for a few years but thought I would try to reply.

If you want to book a venue the King Alfred Swimming (training) pool is not too expensive and you can bring your own food for after.
A friend was recently pleased with MOnkey Biz - booked for a group and paid for drink and packet of crisps rather than big food and party package - saved a lot of money and the children were happy.(cost her around a fiver a head)
Duke of Yorks picturehouse do a Saturday morning kids club with a party package ( the film won't be one of the latest ones)included entry, drink and popcorn and a short visit to the projection room. Not an active event but I think a friend paid around £3.75 pp for that.

Local playgroups/nurseries often hire out their premises e.g. 5ways playgroup and local Church Halls (St Matthias Ditchling Road)if you want to organise games but not at home.

I often just had parties at my house - cheap - fun punch balloons and rocket balloons to play with on arrival. Traditional games - Sharks and Islands, Pass the parcel etc and sometimes a craft activity based on the party theme. (Had a Harry Potter one where we did some "magic" with red cabbage water and bicarb and decorated plastic wine goblets with stick on jewels and ribbon)just made sure had some extra games incase things flagged or icecreams fruit and sprinkles in freezer so they could make their own creations if got bit gamed out. Also don't make party too long little ones do tire.

Lots and lots of ideas for cheap themed DIY parties on the internet.

Hope this helps

Dd's birthday is in Feb too, it does limit your options a bit! We had a party at the King Alfred too but it wasn't swimming, it was in a hall with bouncy castles, slides etc so that is another option. They put tables up and you take your own food, but I found all the organising and supervision a bit stressful tbh. I'm not good at that sort of thing!

One year we had one at Portslade sports centre. It was a supervised one where the children are taken off to play party games while you set up another room for food afterwards,(but they do other kinds as well). That went quite well.

The least hassle was Westows, indoor soft play. The parties are quite well organised but might be more than you were thinking of paying? (though it's cheaper than some similar venues). All you have to do on the day is turn up with the cake (and your child!)and they provide a 'host' to supervise the children etc. They even cut up the cake for you and put it in party bags so you can actually relax and enjoy watching the children/having a chat and coffee with other parents. It's a set price for the first 10 children and then additional ones you pay per head which is quite good if you get extras invited at the last minute. We ended up having two parties there as dd enjoyed it so much and it was so much easier than any of the other venues we'd tried.

We did try having parties at home but we had very little space and in Feb you don't have the option of spilling out into the garden. We also found that the younger children lost interest in the party games that we'd organised quite quickly, which was tricky! I definitely agree that if you do a party at home, keep it short. I thought two hours would be easy to fill but I was a wreck by the end, never mind the children.

red jelly www.redjellykids.co.uk/ we had them for our daughter's party and it was great. quite chilled and kids had a lovely time.

shineyb how much did it cost? and do they come to your house or is it held at a venue?

i cant remember exactly but it was around £11 per child and they hold it in hove at the regular red jelly venue (hove methodist church on portland rd). we had a 2 hour block, an hour of art and then food, games and cake. parents provide food/drinks and red jelly set up the main room with all the art stuff, print invitations for you to send out and give out party bags at the end. the kids loved it and it was really relaxed and not at all frenetic!