Ideas for 5yr old dd's small birthday party/outing because big all class parties are going to bankrupt me!

[Wills]

For dd1's 4th birthday we ended up spending in excess of 300.00 on her birthday party (this does not include her birthday presents). 100.00 hire of local hall, then food, plates, plastic cutlery, party bags etc etc took up the rest. Don't get me wrong I SCRIMPED - tesco basic plates, ran the party myself etc but her class numbers 33 and then there's family and most of the class members parents stayed + bought siblings etc so in the end there were over 55 kids + their parents all expecting food and cups of tea/coffee (NO alcohol). I CAN'T/WONT do that again!!!!!

So.....

I need ideas that will so appeal to my almost 5yr old daughter that she'll prefer it to a party. She's planning her party already (beginning of March) so I really need some alternatives. Someone's suggested a few kids, bowling and Macdonalds - but I live on London's doorstep, surely there's some other ideas? Took dd1 to the ballet (Nutcracker) over Christmas and she adored it. What else have people done?

We've just done Paint-a-Pot for DD's 8th birthday which I thought was fantastic value at £7.50 per head. Children get to paint something up to that value; we provided food and cake. They were so absorbed in their work (11 children: 9 girls, 2 boys) they barely needed supervision, just the occasional bit of sandpapering of their mistakes

I took party bags (thank you Hawkins Bazaar and the Book People - a book and rocket balloons, total cost about a quid plus a piece of cake and a mini choc bar) but I wouldn't bother if I did a similar party again cos three days later I picked up their excellent works of art and took them into school

Tigermoth, I think I'd do as you suggest: hold one class party and then next year on start limiting numbers (this is for ds2, who's 5 I assume?). If you can't even face that I think it's acceptable to do a limited numbers one now.

I think I'd risk offence, and do what suits you and ds2 best. My ds2 will be 6 this year. He is in a class of 30, but there is another parallel class of 30 as well. He knew many of these children from nursery, and he also has friends from our street, from Sunday School, holiday club, and so on.

Most of his class have a 'class party' for 30. We haven't decided yet what we're doing this year for either of them; but whatever the numbers/activity the invitees will not be exclusively and primarily his classmates.

I think the easiest solution to tigermoth's problem is to make it something that clearly can't be applied to the whole class, like a theatre/cinema trip. Those are not good examples, as probably too old, but if you choose something where numbers are genuinely limited by the venue then no-one could possibly be offended could they? Well, you never know, but I would certainly try!

this is fabulous

good site slug. Organsing a party way over in stratford would inevitably limit numbers. I'm sure many parents wouldn't want to embark on an hour or so's journey to and from the venue perhaps that's the answer.

I do see many of the children's parents at school, church and cubs so I still feel iffy about not inviting all children. But I might have a single sex party only - something very boyish. No one can argue about that!

When is it tigermoth? Could you do a football party? You'd need some willing adults as referees etc but you could do it quite cheaply either in a park or a hall. You could have satsumas at half time, chips afterwards (or something! crisps and cake and squash?) It could easily take a couple of hours and, at 15 a side, use the whole class!

A trip to your local fire station. I don't know if this is good for 5yos, maybe boys only. But it should be free. The downside is that they might be called out on an emergency.