8 yr old dd party ideas for clueless mum?

[cariboo]

Girls & boys, or should I limit it to girls? In previous years we've done the usual bouncy castle, make-up "artist", puppet show but this is now "boring". Last week dd went to a party where the (super-organised) mum had the girls making apple tarts . Another friend's mum is organising a fashion show where the girls dress up in their favourite clothes & model for each other. My imagination has shut down - I can't think of anything fun/cool/original. Please help, and fast, because dd's b'day is in 2 weeks.

desperate bump

What is she interested in?

Hire a karaoke machine?

Pony party
Picnic/paddling pool party
Circus?

A friend of mine haa pizza party where everyone made their own pizzas from the various toppings. Whilst they were cooking the children decorated large cookies for pudding with icingpens/sprinkles/smarties etc

had a

Craft party? Use whatever you can get hold of cheaply - paint an earthenware flower pot (with plant in it maybe) or mug; mosaics; ice a biscuit; design a pizza etc. I did one when my dd was that age, I loved it but it was jolly hard work.

bumpity

Cariboo, would you hold it in the Village Hall or at home ?

This will influence what is/isn't possible.

Does she like ponies/singing/Pricesses/insert here ?

DS2, age 6 had a go kart party at our local Leisure centre sports hall this year, for 20 children, boys and girls had a fabulous time.

we did a roller skating disco thing at a local place

Usually we have it at my mum's place as she has a large garden with more lawn than flower beds.

Plate decorating. We bought pens, cheap plates and they took them home with instructions. No party bag necessary...Also - HSM DVD game was a big success - my friend did that with them. Hotdogs and chips for food, easy peasy. Good luck

I don't know if you're anywhere near a Pizza Express but they do fabulous 'pizza making' parties. dd2 had one for her 8th, and it was an enormous success. Very reasonable too - much cheaper than I could have entertained/fed them at home.

I really wanted to do the Pizza Express party, but they wouldn't in December

I like the plate decorating idea. Where do you get the plates?

and all those games we used to play as kids like pass the parcel, duck-duck-goose, pin the tail on the donkey, umm... any others? and who remembers the rules?

or how about tshirt decorating - a chance for them to be "cool"!!

Try Woolies or BHS for the plates. Baker Ross for the paints. Woolies do an all-in-one paint your own plate kit but it does actually work out cheaper to do it yourself. From memory (we did this for dd's 7th) you'll need access to an oven as I think you have to bake the paint on.

Another great party game is:

Two buckets, two teams, a whole load of corks or something similar. Each member of the team has to hold the cork between their knees and walk up to the bucket and drop it in with their knees. After an allocated time the team with the most corks in the bucket wins. A good run up for this game works best.

And ... Two bowls, some cotton wool balls, a spoon, a blindfold. Divide into teams, set a timer for a minute and let each blindfolded team member take it in turns to try and spoon cotton wool balls from one bowl into another.

'Twill be fab .....

And blu-tack the little bottles of paint to the table they're working on!

Cariboo, sorry. We got the plates in Asda. Ikea do cheap ones, and we used felt tip style pens not paints. Craft shops do them.