Ideas for boy's 6th birthday party - cheap but fun!

[stayfree]

my ds's 6th birthday is in August and we are just going to have a few friends round to the house on his birthday for some food and a play (about 8 children in all). Was just looking for some easy/cheap but fun activities to keep them occupied, hopefully the weather will be nice so they can go in the garden (paddling pool?). I feel a bit stressed as finances are a bit tight and i never seem to be as 'together' as other mums, all their toys always seem to be mixed up, whereas everyone else always seems so organised :/. Just want my ds to have a good birthday as couldn't afford to do a proper big party this year.

What about a treasure hunt with picture clues? You could hide sweets or cheap toy type gifts in different places (Poundland is great for cheapy toys for kids parties). Water balloon/gun fights? Egg and spoon race?

8 children is a proper party. sounds lovely.

They would enjoy parachute games if you could buy or borrow one?

• throw a ball in the middle, roll it around
• cat and mouse; cat on top, mouse underneath, everyone shakes the parachute and the cat tries to find the mouse - takes ages as everyone wants a turn at each
• swaps: 'change places if you are wearing.... GREEN'

have a lego corner

put up a small tent (borrow one again?) sit in it with all of them and read a story, with another adult outside doing sound effects (not scary ones! Just a silly story)

Oh, do you have a hose/outside tap? Assuming there's no drought you could get them all to bring swimming things and spray the hose in an arc and they all have to run through it screaming? Ensure that you have a seat and a large drink for this as IMO they will happily do this for anything up to 30 minutes.

hide and seek

Blind man's buff and other party games. If you have a park nearby you could take them for a game of rounders.

You can organise it so you know what they will do over 2 hours or however long it is. Break it up into 20 minute slots so
first 20 minutes - an ice breaker and waiting for everyone to arrive = lego corner & prizes for the best inventions (everyone gets a little prize so nobody feels left out (could be small packets of sweets or something from poundland, or even a homemade certificate)
next 20 minutes = hide and seek
next 20 minutes = in the paddling pool/hosedown
next 20 minutes = next 20 minutes = food and cake
next 20 minutes = hunt the thimble/blind man's buff
last 20 minutes = another game (can't think what)
end of party - everyone leave with partybag/gift/piece of cake
mum and dc flop down, ds opens his pressies, everyone has a piece of birthday cake and mum has a glass of wine and congratulates herself on orgnising a great event

Just a suggestion - someone can proably think of better activites but I think if you have a clear but flexible plan of what you're going to do, time will whizz by and your ds will be a happy boy

Buy somersault cheap toy cars or animals and hide round garden. Have treasure hunt for them and they all get to keep one.

Buy squishy cream, digestives and hundred and thousands and let them decorate their own biscuits.

Make a piñata with papier mâché and sweets.

cheap and easy thing i did for a star wars party was buy foam insulation pipe from b&q, cut it up to lengths, put a bit of electrical tape round one end for the handle and then had a bubble machine, they spent ages popping the bubbles! :) and they got to take the 'light saber' home with them so that helped with party bag :)

I think I meant poundshop, not somersault!

stayfree - if you are doing the party at home then my top tip would be to put away / shut a door on 90% of your DC's toys - leave out only what is reslient and that you want to play with.

If you want to make it more "special" than just friends coming round to play (which is fine on it's own, of course), then how about theming it? What is your DS into? For example, if he is into Lego then you could get out all the Lego you can find, as long as you/your DC are not fussed about keeping sets separated (or search freecycle / ebay for a big mixed box of generic bricks) and get them having Lego building contests (with 6yos, I would make sure there are 8 different prizes (tallest/neatest/most colourful etc))

Lego idea is brilliant. Am totally going to use that in future.