Ideas for 5 year old birthday party?

[momofdestructobaby]

My daughter is turning 5 next month.

Typically we do a party here at our home for her and invite some kids shes known since she was a baby (about 10 total) and we don't do gifts.

This year she is in school and has been going to school friends' b-day parties. So, she now wants to invite these school friends to her party.

If I let her invite every one she wants it would be 10 from school, 5 from daycare, 10 usual crew, 5 other random kids....so 30 total :0 goodness me.

So now I struggle with allowing her to invite a large group, and prob renting a place to do the party? Or making her narrow it down and doing a small party here? Or, as DH suggested do 2 small parties, one with the usual kids and no presents, and one with the school friends...and not including daycare friends or other random kids at all.

WWYD in this scenario?

Also, does anyone have suggestions for crafts/games that are easy to organize and plan and appeal to kids aged 3-7?

[3Xblessed]

A good rule of thumb is they can invite the number of kids as they are old. So in your dd's case it would be 5 kids.

Does she want the kids she grew up with or do you want them? It was a harsh reality when our kids decided that my friends kids were not necessarily their first choice of kids to hang out with. This dawned on us somewhere around the 5th birthday.

[momofdestructobaby]

Originally Posted by 3Xblessed A good rule of thumb is they can invite the number of kids as they are old. So in your dd's case it would be 5 kids. Does she want the kids she grew up with or do you want them? It was a harsh reality when our kids decided that my friends kids were not necessarily their first choice of kids to hang out with. This dawned on us somewhere around the 5th birthday.

Weeeeellllll......she wants one little girl from the kids she grew up with....and one little boy. But she'd prob be OK with the others not being there. The other issue is that we always do 'no presents' parties with the friends she grew up with....and the school friends always do present parties.

So, I think I am going to do just school friends at the party and maybe limit it to only girls.

Then I will bring a cake to some event we were already going to do with our friends she grew up with and call it her "birthday party" LOL.

[mmmom]

I just had my sons party at a local park. There was lots of space. We brought a meat/cheese tray watermelon and a veggie platter with buns for lunch. Then water and juice and of course cake. I brought bubbles, skipping ropes etc but the kids didn't touch them they just played in the park.
Also our park has first come first serve picnic sites so we went early and got one so no cost other than food and gift bags but it was less than $50

[isabelsmummy]

Make it as small as possible. Seriously. I"ve yet to go to a 5yr old party where at least 2 girls didn't cry. the birthday girl ALWAYS cries. It's overwhelming. Keep is small!

Simple beading crafts or painting things is always fun.

[mmmom]

Originally Posted by isabelsmummy Make it as small as possible. Seriously. I"ve yet to go to a 5yr old party where at least 2 girls didn't cry. the birthday girl ALWAYS cries. It's overwhelming. Keep is small! Simple beading crafts or painting things is always fun.

Funny you say that. One little girl lost her **** at my sons party because the kid next to her had tomatoes on her plate and this kid didn't like tomatoes. I think the kid thought we were going to make her eat some or something. She of course was the only kid who's mom left.

[luvsviola]

DD goes to two different preschool classes and we invited all the kids so there were no hurt feelings. It was about 25 kids total, plus the usual crew, so we had invited about 35 kids total. About 20 of them came. We rent a preschool room at a local mega-church and do homemade cupcakes and juice boxes.