Anonymous wrote:For our daughter last year, we did a nice kiddush luncheon at the synagogue with family and friends. On Sunday, about 30 of us went to Pinstripes in Georgetown for an amazing brunch and all had a great time bowling and playing bocce ball. Everyone had fun and it was a nice way to wrap the weekend up with out of town guests especially.

Did you reserve a private room at Pinstripes or just reserve tables/lanes?

I know someone who set up a casino and had a magician come perform an amazing show for the party. It was a lot of fun.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are on FB there is a planning group. What time of year? Could do bowling, zavazone, ropes course, etc.

Thanks. She would love zavazone and ropes course. But I was thinking of a bat mitzvah party as more multi-generational and less very expensive birthday party. And the grandparents would not enjoy either of those venues. Am I thinking about it wrong?

Bifurcate it, do a luncheon with the family after the service and then an evening event at one of the places.

For our daughter last year, we did a nice kiddush luncheon at the synagogue with family and friends. On Sunday, about 30 of us went to Pinstripes in Georgetown for an amazing brunch and all had a great time bowling and playing bocce ball. Everyone had fun and it was a nice way to wrap the weekend up with out of town guests especially.

Our kids were the same. We did Kiddush lunch after and a casual dinner at home that evening for family. Kid-centric event the following weekend. We did not invite out of town adult friends, and local adult friends were quite happy to eat a bagel in the afternoon and be done with it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are on FB there is a planning group. What time of year? Could do bowling, zavazone, ropes course, etc.

Thanks. She would love zavazone and ropes course. But I was thinking of a bat mitzvah party as more multi-generational and less very expensive birthday party. And the grandparents would not enjoy either of those venues. Am I thinking about it wrong?

I don't know. But people on the FB group recommended it.

Those don't sound fun for grand parents.

Why not have a party at your home that evening for a few of your friends and a bunch of her friends. Hire a bartender and serve nice food. I don't really understand how a ropes course makes sense with the relatives in town.

Clearly don't have a party with noise and a DJ.

NP here. Has anyone had a party at their house? We are having a full kiddush lunch at the synagogue right after and we are trying to come up with a plan for the evening. We can't have a full party at the synagogue as part of the lunch because it's a conservative shul. We are debating either having a kid centered party (bowling or similar) in the evening or a party at our house with nice catering, etc. but didn't know if that would be fun enough for the kids.

One thing that I saw a few years ago when DD was of age was that many families had kid-centric parties in the evening and another affair in the afternoon. We did not, we had the traditional brunch.

But a Kiddush lunch-in for the families (or at the synagogue) may be a good way to go. Then, you can have a party primarily for her friends. You can invite a lot more kids without significantly impacting the price.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have been to so many. From the blowouts to the party at the house. I have to admit that our favorite over the years has been the private room at the local Mexican restaurant. There was a DJ, but the guy was great -- not dancing but more activity focused. Adults could talk and kids had fun.

What type of activities?

I can't remember the name of the DJ but I googled and found this one. We did some of these activities. Balloon ones, freeze dance, ring toss, etc.