8 yr old ds2 wants his birthday party at home - aaarrrggghhhh

[lilibet]

Any suggestions or ideas? He wants 7 friends and I feel that they would be too old for the traditional party games and have visions of them wrecking the house and running wild. His suggesstion is that they play on his new x box, but thats only four of them, what do the others do in the meantime.

I feel like a chicken, every year since all of my children have had proper children's parties I have taken the easy route and gone somewhere.

I need a bit of inspiration from all of you who are brave enough to do this at home.

With a bit of imagination and bravery, they could have a great time! You'd be surprised at how big kids still enjoy party games (maybe you wouldn't be able to get away with Sleeping Lions any more ).

What about the chocolate game, a treasure hunt, race to complete puzzles, murder in the dark (can't remember if that's what it's called)?

Will carry on thinking. Otherwise, a big sleepover in the lounge with vast buckets of popcorn, sleeping bags and a couple of videos.

Like Stickynote I'd go for a sleepover for 5 or 6 children, with pizza delivered and plenty of sweets and popcorn.

Get a couple of dvds in and htem leave tehm to it!

Hi,
Basically because we couldn`t afford it we did a party at home for our triplets in Jan, they were 6 and we had 13 children here altogether and its not a big house! We invited every one to come in fancy dress which was hugely popular, most came dressed as knights and the girls in long dresses so they ended up playing rescuing the girls from towers etc! Another old game which went down well was to put them in teams of 2 and give each team a cheap toilet roll and one has to wrap the other up like a Mummy, it was so funny. Pass the parcel was still popular as we put gory slimy things in instead of the usual sweet. Basically it was a 2 hour party so by the time they sat down to tea it was home time! Good luck!

Hi,
Basically because we couldn`t afford it we did a party at home for our triplets in Jan, they were 6 and we had 13 children here altogether and its not a big house! We invited every one to come in fancy dress which was hugely popular, most came dressed as knights and the girls in long dresses so they ended up playing rescuing the girls from towers etc! Another old game which went down well was to put them in teams of 2 and give each team a cheap toilet roll and one has to wrap the other up like a Mummy, it was so funny. Pass the parcel was still popular as we put gory slimy things in instead of the usual sweet. Basically it was a 2 hour party so by the time they sat down to tea it was home time! Good luck!

oops!

Cor, I wouldn't do it either lilibet! But, if you must, then could you borrow another xbox and tv and set up 2 sessions? Or make a home cinema - i.e. draw the curtains and set up seats with tickets and popcorn and stuff? Dunno what - 3D agent Cody Banks? They might think that's cool and it's got great novelty value. Or Star Wars, are they into that? sorry, just realised someones already suggested that.

I have a plan for ds1 s next year.

we are going t have them at about 4pm, about 5 if them, take them all t o the park to play footie and then get pizza delivered and concoct ridiculous ice creams, and then park the in front of a dvd with popcorn whilst we have a drink with their patrents

We did an at home party for my dd1's 9th birthday -- in fact we've almost always done at-home parties. I love them, as they're a bit more personal.

For the 9th birthday we got the children to make plaster of paris masks in pairs, so each got the chance to have a mask made of themselves. It's incredibly easy, tho' pretty messy. You can buy the plaster of paris bandages in art shops (they're sometimes called Modroc bandages). The kids got really into it, and were thrilled to have something they could take home -- we gave them some extra strips of bandage to finish the masks off at home.

For food I bought plain small pizzas and put bowls of suitable pizza toppings out so they could make them up according to their own tastes.

Bowls of crisps, sweets and some fizzy drinks go down well, too.

( ds2 will be 7 next year)

ds1 even

what do you think?

I think it sounds good Coddy ... for most kids. Do you know them well, and are friendly with their parents? My ds1 tends to go rather loopy at that time of day, especially in a 'party setting', and never chills out in front of a DVD. He just gets more and more silly as the time goes on. Actually having picked him up from Beavers this evening at 6.45, I think he's not the only one who gets dafter as he gets more tired, not more subdued.

Anyway, what I'm saying is I wouldn't actually let him go to a party like the one you're describing, as I would feel it wouldn't be fair on the hosts ... That's presuming the parents were someone I liked of course