Ideas for 7 yr old bday party for DS?

[HIU8]

It's only July and I know I need to start thinking about DS's bday in November (isn't that sad that I need to start planning now....). Anyway, ideas for a fall bday party for around 10 kids (mix of boys and girls between 5 and 7)?

My thoughts:
hayride and farm (but not sure if it is to cold to do it in lat November)
movie
chuck E cheese (this idea I hate but DS really wants it)
ice skating
indoor soccer
indoor pool party (with parents there)

[soon2b4]

Bowling? We had the parents join in on their own lane - for as many frames as they liked...
DD loved her Chuck-e-Cheese party (at 5), and now I can say, "But you already did that, let's do something new..." Although, I actually missed it as I got a stomach virus the night before - I hated missing it!
Roller skating? big with DD's buddies - boys and girls - they love the races and limbo

[DietCokeLover]

I loved Catherine's DS' limo birthday party recently. I thought that sounded like so much fun.

[HIU8]

Hmmmm.... I don't even thing we have a roller rink around anymore.

I took DS to a CEC bday party yesterday. 8 kids parties at the same time. It was loud and chaotic and there really wasn't anything special about it (although DS did enjoy winning a rocket with his tickets).

We have done bowling but DS did like it so it's an option.

anyone done laser tag with 7 yr olds?

[ilfaith]

My own DS1 just turned seven and I'm thinking this might be the last year I can get away with a combined birthday party for all my summer boys (we do a pool party at the house). We have been to quite a few seventh birthday parties in the past year. Bounce house places are pretty popular around here. We've gone to a roller skating party (although many of the kids were more interested in playing arcade games after a couple of laps around the rink). Bowling is fun (our one non-house party was DS1's 5th birthday at the bowling alley...less than a week before DS3 was born...we were cutting way too close to my due date to do anything at home). DS went to a movie theater party just yesterday...they had a private party room, got a tour of the projection booth and saw The Zookeeper (which my 7YO found "hilarious"). We've done gymnastics parties, pottery painting parties, and we missed a party at this place http://www.junglequest.net/ when we were out of town for a wedding (don't know if you have anything similar to that where you are).

[HIU8]

bounce house parties are VERY popular here. We have been to 6 in the past year for kids ages 2-8.

Do you think pottery painting parties are to girly? There is a pottery place near us and DS wanted to paint maiter or buzz I think.

[hellokitty]

For DS1's 7th bday party, we did it at home with a lego theme. It was a lot of fun, and while only one girl attended, she loved it too. We had 8 kids all together.

[MolieMuts]

Hmmmm.... I don't even thing we have a roller rink around anymore.

I took DS to a CEC bday party yesterday. 8 kids parties at the same time. It was loud and chaotic and there really wasn't anything special about it (although DS did enjoy winning a rocket with his tickets).

We have done bowling but DS did like it so it's an option.

anyone done laser tag with 7 yr olds?

We did laser tag for my 7 yr old this year. There were about 9 kids and they all seemed to have a blast. Quite a few of the dads played also and had a good time. I liked it because the facility did everything and provided the cake.

[justlearning]

I think that a laser tag party would be awesome--my 5-yr-old and 8-yr-old sons LOVE laser tag!
Your other choices sound like fun too. Personally, I wouldn't do a roller skating party for your group because my 5-yr-old can't skate and I know some other kids that age that can't skate as well.

For my son's 7th birthday, like a PP, we also did a Lego party at our house that the kids liked. Most of the kids had siblings that were 4 or 5 yrs old then (also invited because we're good friends with the families), and it worked for everyone.

[HIU8]

Tell me about your lego party? What type of activities did you do?

[jse107]

DS just did an afterschool field trip at Shadowland and LOVED it. he really wants to do that for his birthday in August (he is turning 7). He did a pottery party with a friend last fall and really enjoyed it (it was for a boy). They did it at the arts place over in Rio.

[crl]

I loved Catherine's DS' limo birthday party recently. I thought that sounded like so much fun.

It was a lot of fun! I have been meaning to thank everyone who helped me with the planning. :bighand:

In addition to being a lot of fun for the kids, it was low stress for me and wasn't anymore expensive than renting a bounce house and buying pizza for the neighborhood would have been (that's the standard party on our block).

Catherine

[hellokitty]

Tell me about your lego party? What type of activities did you do?.


Here are some of the games/activities that we did...

First of all, I ordered the lego party printables pack from http://www.livinglocurto.com/2010/06/lego-birthday-party/ I was very pleased with how nicely they came out, and used it to make decorations for the cupcakes, cupcake stands, good bags, invites, etc..

1) Guess # of lego in the jar (I let the winner pick a prize from the goodie box, instead of giving them the jar of lego)

2) Lego relay race. You can do this two ways. You can have them line up into two teams, and then have them run to one end of the room with a lego and build a tower. You time it and when you call time, whichever team has the tallest tower wins. We also did another relay race, but with one of those hand clamps/claws that you can get for about $3 at TRU. They had to pick up a duplo with one of the claws and walk it over to a bin. When we called time, whichever team with the most lego in the bin won.

3) Pin the hat on lego indiana jones or star wars character, etc. DH blew up a picture of lego indy and then a bunch of indy hats and the kids were blindfolded and spun, like pin the tail on the donkey.

4) The big game was build your own race car and then we had a race track and did a tournament. We went to the lego store and bought the basic pieces (bulk bin) for a car, including wheels, bases, a steering wheel, windows and then I added a bunch of random pieces. The kids used their creativity to make their own racers and then we borrowed a lego race track from a friend (but you don't really need a real track, a buffet table with one leg up and one leg down would work just fine) and let them race. We set up a tournament poster and wrote down their names and then by luck, DS1 was the grand champion at the end. The kids had a lot of fun just playing with their cars and re-doing them. You can let them keep these as favors or not. We did not, b/c I gave them a pretty good, goodie bag. They all got medals though (walmart has these in the party section for a few dollars) and got to pick something from the goodie box.

5) For food, it was just munchies and cupcakes, b/c the party was btwn 2-4pm. I made marshmallow lego pops (so easy!), cut up fruit, pretzels, lego cupcakes, juice boxes, etc.. The kids really didn't eat that much, they just wanted to play. They did run around for about 30 min acting like sugared up hooligans, before we played our final game.

6) I timed our final game about 10 min before 4pm, b/c I knew parents would be showing up. We played musical chairs, but passed around a rainbow lego cube instead. I played music, and when it stopped, whoever had the cube had to step out. HOWEVER, this was not a bad thing, b/c they got their goodie bag.

7) Each child had a bigger goodie bag (empty), like the sack lunch sized (but I got yellow ones and put the living locurto lego heads on it) for the stuff that they won during the games. The goodie box that they could get prizes from were just a mish mash of pencils (honestly, I recycled all the pencils my kids have gotten and never used from other parties into this goodie box and the kids were fine with it), a few lego kids I got on clearance for $1 each at the lego store, lego stickers, candy (biggest hit), silly bandz, and some other little toys.

In each child's take home goodie bag, they got a set of genuine lego stickers (walmart had these on clearance after xmas), lego candy in a small baggie, a small lego kit (I bought the party kit, using the borders % off coupon), a lego bookmark (used the printables kit to make personalized ones), and something else small (can't remember what it was). I didn't want to put too much junky stuff in there, so opted for quality over quantity. I also got each child a helium balloon to take home, but forgot to give them out, lol.

Overall, it was a lot of fun and the printables made it look very nice. You may want to add an extra game or two, b/c the kids ran around for about 30 min releasing energy (party was in feb, so everyone had cabin fever being holed up inside), but I felt that it was just about right. I also felt that the # of kids we had was nice. I had to send out a second round of invites, when I wasn't getting enough RSVPs from the first round, but it all turned out good!

[geochick]

My 7yo ds would like indoor swimming or indoor soccer. He invited his class for laser tag for his 7th. I reserved the entire arena so no creepy guys would be in the arena with our group of kids. They all had a blast, and still talk about it.

[jse107]

Hmmm...I thought that maybe other kids wouldn't be into the laser tag at this age (despite what DS was telling me). Maybe it's time for me to commit to the laser tag party. How many kids did you invite? Did it cost a lot more to rent out the space?

[ett]

anyone done laser tag with 7 yr olds?

DS1 is almost 8 and has gone to probably 6-8 laser tag parties in the last several years. So they would be good for 7 year olds.

[geochick]

Maybe it's time for me to commit to the laser tag party. How many kids did you invite? Did it cost a lot more to rent out the space?

We invited 24 kids from his class, plus a handful of friends from the outside. We probably had 18-20 kids show up. We had to pay for the whole room, but we got a discount because it was a party. Still expensive, though. Call your local laser place and ask. Are you inviting a bunch of girls? We had 1 girl who was afraid of the darkness (not to suggest that boys can't be afraid of the darkness...but none of ours were). I had to stay with her. You might want to mention something about the darkness on the invitation. No one else that age had a problem. Maybe you could take your 6yo to play laser tag in the next few weeks to see how he likes it. It's a blast. Our family LOVES to play...even my 5yo!

[ett]

What about a gymnastics party? DS1 had one last year and it was a big hit for everyone.

[jayali]

DS requested bowling for his 6th birthday. I am not sure who had more fun the parents or the kids. Many of the parents had not been bowling in years.

For 7 we won a 'Raceway' party at a charity event. We decided to postponne, due to height restrictions, to next year.

The last two parties we had were movie parties and a sporting event (baseball). They were both big hits as well.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Quick question, are you sure that your ds will want that many kids? When my ds1 was turning 7 (and every year since) he has wanted just 2-3 close friends and that's it. Unexpected and I didn't make him have a bigger party.

Beth

[cilantromapuche]

We just had DS's party and we had a guy come with replica Medieval armour that knights wore. The kids all got to try it on and ask questions. It was great. There were 2 girls in addition to the boys and they loved it as well. That and some stomp rockets and people even stayed an hour and a half after the party to hang out with the water bottle rocket.
I think parties are so stressful and can't wait until it is a small group and we can just take them to the movies or have them come over and play and eat some cake!

[fivi2]

My nephews were about that age (maybe 6, though, can't remember) when they had the exotic pet guy come. They came a park, but I know one of our local exotic pet stores actually has a party room. They bring out cool animals (and some creepy crawly ones) for the kids to look at. The kids seemed to enjoy it.

[HIU8]

We did the pet guy for DD's 4th. We've done bowling, been to numerous bounce house parties and gymnastic place parties. We also did indoor soccer for DS's 6th. I'm not going to commit to any venue until school has been in for a month. DS's class has 7 kids (5 boys and 2 girls) so we may just have to invite the entire class (DS's will be the first bday of the year). so 7 plus my niece and 2 other kids--a total of 10. So my venue has to be ok for 10. I'm leaning toward the pottery party or the movies. My friends DS is ADHD and he is currently out of control (no therapies, meds or discipline of any kind) and he tears apart my house every single time he is over. Other kids will follow him (I've seen this), so I'm trying to avoid an at home party (DS loves this kid).

[fivi2]

I think my nephews did a rock climbing wall once. It is a big venue for kids parties with bowling, laser tag, arcade, glow in the dark putt putt, rock climbing etc. They did te rock climbing package one year and had a great time. (It might have been their friend's party that I took them to, can't remember)

[DietCokeLover]

We just went to a program at the library done by a mad scientist! I believe the website is madscience.org and all the kids loved it. I could see 7 year olds really getting in to it. They do parties and stuff and are nationwide from what I understand.

[*myfoursons]

My son went to his first laser tag party for his friend's 6th birthday. He LOVED it and plans on doing the same for his next birthday. They played laser tag, then each had a card with a pre-set amount to go and play arcade games. It was drop-off, but I imagine it was a little hectic for the parents and their helpers ;)

[justlearning]

I'm leaning toward the pottery party or the movies. My friends DS is ADHD and he is currently out of control (no therapies, meds or discipline of any kind) and he tears apart my house every single time he is over. Other kids will follow him (I've seen this), so I'm trying to avoid an at home party (DS loves this kid).

My sons love pottery places but there's no absolutely no way that I'd want to have a party there with an out-of-control child. If he tears apart your house, think about how many pottery pieces he might break! The pieces are always stacked close together on open shelves that are usually fairly close to the tables, so it seems like an accident waiting to happen (in addition to the possibility of him getting paint everywhere). If you've observed lack of discipline to be an issue, I wouldn't count on his mom staying and ensuring that he is careful.