dd - 8 what can we do for a different party?

[steppemum]

I usually do parties at home, with variations on traditional party games and about 10-15 kids.

but by age 8 they are getting a bit big for that.

at 8 ds had a football in the dark, dvd , pizza and sleepover. Sleepover was a mistake.

dd1 had Great British Bake Off with 8 kids in teams of 2 and cooking, cupcake decorating, competition and tea. That was a good one.
at 9 she had a spies party with a spy school for activities which was good too.

dd2 will be 8 soon. I need a party idea that will allow us to have it at home (budget tight) but be different to traditional kids party, so I can come up with games or activities that will keep about 10 kids going for a couple of hours. Cannot involve any buy in entertainment, but I am game for quite a lot

I am idealess, and so is she, Birthday is Nov, so we have had treasure hunt in the garden before now, but mostly inside.

We did a fimo party. We did have a fimo lady lead it but with some research on designs etc I could have done what she did.

DD also went to a red carpet party recently: they all dressed glam and paraded about and did each others hair and nails.

Craft - make your own bracelets/design a t shirt/build a bear (can buy kits of the internet)/painting pottery etc

£ cinema and macdonalds

Pamper party - nails, hair braids, temp tattoos etc

Sleep over without the sleep over so DVDs, pizza, popcorn etc in their pjs but go home at 9pm

Some kind of mini talent competition? If you warned people in advance they could practice a song or joke, trick or act of some sort .If people didn't want to perform then they could be judges. It might depend on what sort of group of friends your dd has .

Or, maybe you could go geo caching? As long as everyone was dressed appropriately that could be quite fun, like a more adventurous treasure hunt! You might have to go and check in advance that the caches near to you are actually there though and so you can give a bit of guidance if they can't find it.

Would love to do build a bear, but too expensive, even to do at home (I looked into it last year) same with the pottery workshops, (there is one near us) But we could do a craft event at home.

Quite like the geocaching idea, but if weather is bad we would be stuffed.

I know lots of people have pamper parties, but if it is me doing it, what do you do with the other 9 while you are painting nails of one kid? It doesn't really take up a whole party's worth of time. Experience tells me to have lots of activities to keep them busy.

lots of good ideas, keep them coming!

forgot to say, it is likely that half the invitees will be boys

Buy loads of cheap t-shirts and/or canvas bags, eBay or primark, get some fabric pens and let them loose then have a fashion show after food

I like the T-shirts idea.

Anyone got any ideas for a theme to tie to together and sell it to dd2 and give us a focus for some games?

Think I peaked with dd1 s GBBO actually. Nothing is going to match that.

What are they all into?
We had a minecraft party with crafty/tshirt decorating type things, they were in teams so 4 were on the minecraft, then they swapped out to do the crafts.

Then food and music with lots of balloons to pop.

I would stick with fashion show, could do things like make a hat out of newspaper as quick as you can, teams 'dressing' one person as quickly as possible (wrap in toilet paper or something) the chocolate game where you roll the dice and if you get a six you have to put the clothes on then eat as much chocolate as you can with knife and fork until next person rolls a 6 - could have two groups playing at same time

We did science parties at that age. If you google there are lots of simple things you can do at home - finishing with the old favourite of mentos in diet coke!

You could also do a willy wonka theme - sweet making and the DVD.

I second science party. There is loads you can do, and it is pretty cool. Dd2 had a science party for her 7th birthday (outside company) and it is still the talk of many of her friends, 2 years later.

science party sounds good.

I like the Charlie and Chocolate factory too

lots of good ideas thanks