7 y old birthday party without breaking the bank

[Anonymous]

My oldest has a summer birthday. We always had his parties at a playground with a splash pad. We chose parks where the picnic shelter could NOT be reserved & showed up early. Free venue. We got Costco cake (or made it ourselves) and served lots of snacks, brought a cooler for drinks, etc. Usually there was a theme for the cake, paper plates, etc. Cheap, plenty of space for siblings, and the kids always had fun.

[Anonymous]

I know the owners of nova wild very well. This seems outrageous. I just went online and priced out a bday party on a Saturday in may and the price was $550. It excluded a cake as I could bring my own. Not sure what your party was like op but that pricing is nuts.

[Anonymous]

Around age 6 or 7 my kids seem to stop wanting to invite the whole class and instead have a smaller group of kids- 4 or 5 friends. It’s much easier and honestly more fun for my kid. We have done all sorts of things- sporting event, zoo (but like take four kids to the zoo and buy lunch at the zoo- not rent the whole thing), our backyard etc.

[Anonymous]

We live in an apartment and my 7 year old has a winter birthday. Last year we rented a venue, invited her whole class, did a party favor, and served pizza / salad. On one had it was way two expensive but on the other hand I decided it was okay since she hadn’t had a friends birthday party since she was 3 (early Feb 2020). This year, however, I didn’t want to spend that much and she’s not that close to many kids in her class. We ended up taking her and 4 friends to see Kung Fu Panda 4 and then get ice cream cones. I bought a large popcorn for them to share and offered to pay for adult tickets too - only one parent came. All in, including tickets for my children (2) and DH and me - it was probably around $200. Not nothing, but a lot less than the party we did before and the kids all seemed happy.

Btw we typically do quarter sheet cakes from the grocery store and they will do some basic decorating or have a few themes you can pick from that are still a lot less than a customized cake.

[Anonymous]

My DD has a June birthday. If your yard is big enough rent a bounce house, order pizza, have fruit , snacks, juice, water, and maybe a simple activity for kids not bouncing. Cake from Costco.
You need shade as well if you don’t have trees or shade awning or something.
For an activity I do some kind of art activity that can be taken home. You could even have a huge bin of Lego or other toy outside though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD has a June birthday. If your yard is big enough rent a bounce house, order pizza, have fruit , snacks, juice, water, and maybe a simple activity for kids not bouncing. Cake from Costco.
You need shade as well if you don’t have trees or shade awning or something.
For an activity I do some kind of art activity that can be taken home. You could even have a huge bin of Lego or other toy outside though.

To add. We do ours in the morning because it gets hot in the afternoon. Like 10-1230 with pizza for lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- Yes, it was a custom cake(small, 6 inches) and 40 cupcakes. I know, I felt terrible as I paid it. I assumed it was the NOVA craziness, now I feel even worse

Whoah! I make custom royal icing cookies on the side in Nova and I charge $65/doz to start for 3-4” cookies. The most talented people in the area charge $95/doz. You could easily have done a nice platter of custom cookies I. Your theme and had 40 cookies personalized with kids names and individually packaged for $350.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid isn’t going to be able to tell the difference between a $600 cake/cupcake combo and ones you make at home using $6 cake mix. You did that to impress the other moms.

I swear I did not know. We moved to the states two years ago, I had no idea.

This will be a funny story some day. Forgive yourself, move on, and do better (less!) in the future.

[Anonymous]

My best NoVa “whole class” elementary parties under $1000 total to date -

1. I paid the “Captain cookie” food truck to come to a park and handed out coupons for our guests to get 1 item of their choosing. I borrowed or bought yard games we’d use again - corn hole, giant jenga, ring toss, etc. I had coolers of assorted Gatorade, water, and seltzers.

2. Rented the community room at a local church or pool. Paid performer - magician, Great Zucchini, snake and reptile guy, petting zoo, etc. Safeway cupcakes, Pizza Boli’s pizza, carrot sticks and ranch dip, apple slices, water.
Paid my teenage neighbor and her friend their hourly babysitting rate to cut the carrots and apples, assemble the goody bags, serve pizza, and clean up.

3. Game truck + Taco truck in the pool parking lot when it was not pool season. We are members of the pool and I arranged it with the manager.

4. Bought Kiwi Crate robots for 15-20 4th graders. Served pizza and ice cream sundae bar in my yard.

5. Hired a company to bring 2 ponies made to look like unicorns to my cul de sac and had pony rides. Served lunchables and ice cream sandwiches per BD kid’s request.

[Anonymous]

omg just go to skyzone like everyone else. $2000 for roer's is insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did a birthday party last year at NOVA wild, the old roer's zoofari. It was costly and not special. This year, I want to keep it simple as a backyard party, but would I regret it? its going to be in june, so I was hoping to have a low key thing but would the guests come inside? We just had another baby, do you think hosting at home would be difficult with the little one?

Last year, I paid 600 for the cake and 2000 for the venue. Is there a way to keep it lower than that without disappointing my kid?

Costco for the cake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did a birthday party last year at NOVA wild, the old roer's zoofari. It was costly and not special. This year, I want to keep it simple as a backyard party, but would I regret it? its going to be in june, so I was hoping to have a low key thing but would the guests come inside? We just had another baby, do you think hosting at home would be difficult with the little one?

Last year, I paid 600 for the cake and 2000 for the venue. Is there a way to keep it lower than that without disappointing my kid?

Costco for the cake.

If you want to splurge, Wegman's.

If you want to impress the moms, homemade.

[Anonymous]

That seems nuts!!! Cheap cake and pump it up, skyzone, or similar!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD has a June birthday. If your yard is big enough rent a bounce house, order pizza, have fruit , snacks, juice, water, and maybe a simple activity for kids not bouncing. Cake from Costco.
You need shade as well if you don’t have trees or shade awning or something.
For an activity I do some kind of art activity that can be taken home. You could even have a huge bin of Lego or other toy outside though.

I think OP doesn’t want people in the house. You can’t have a home party outside and not expect people to come inside for bathrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My best NoVa “whole class” elementary parties under $1000 total to date -

1. I paid the “Captain cookie” food truck to come to a park and handed out coupons for our guests to get 1 item of their choosing. I borrowed or bought yard games we’d use again - corn hole, giant jenga, ring toss, etc. I had coolers of assorted Gatorade, water, and seltzers.

2. Rented the community room at a local church or pool. Paid performer - magician, Great Zucchini, snake and reptile guy, petting zoo, etc. Safeway cupcakes, Pizza Boli’s pizza, carrot sticks and ranch dip, apple slices, water.
Paid my teenage neighbor and her friend their hourly babysitting rate to cut the carrots and apples, assemble the goody bags, serve pizza, and clean up.

3. Game truck + Taco truck in the pool parking lot when it was not pool season. We are members of the pool and I arranged it with the manager.

4. Bought Kiwi Crate robots for 15-20 4th graders. Served pizza and ice cream sundae bar in my yard.

5. Hired a company to bring 2 ponies made to look like unicorns to my cul de sac and had pony rides. Served lunchables and ice cream sandwiches per BD kid’s request.

Some of these don’t make sense. What were 21 kids doing while 2 of their classmates were riding unicorns?