GainesvilleMoms.com

Tell us about some of the parties you have given for your children. Ideas area great to share and help to keep the cost down while still having a blast!

Yes! I want to know the same thing. Daughter's b-day is in a few weeks. Any ideas or tips to have a great party and save money?

Thanks SBM for starting this thread!

I feel like I spent a fortune on my daughter's 8th birthday. She wanted High School Musical, so I ordered the plastic table cloth rolls (I found it cheaper online than I had seen it in stores), and stapled it around my living room turning it into a red theater. I bought small white stars and made large red stars and taped them up. I also had red and white streamers and red and white balloons. Instead of buying the High School Musical plates and all, I bought red and used a white plastic table cloths. I built a shelf into the large doorway into my kitchen from my living room for the day and turned it into a concession stand for the theater. We did games that I made myself (a seek and find and a trivia game). For food, we had hot dogs with the small bags of chips served in the white styrofoam containers. We also served popcorn and boxes of candy from Sams. To top if off, I stood at the door and passed out tickets I had made for the food (each item had a ticket). For the cake, I just bought a Publix cake with high school musical on it. Of course, I went way overboard with the giftbags for the kids who came and prizes for the games. It took all night to set up and most of the next night to take down, but it was such a cool party. The staples are still in my walls. They watched the movie and played the games. The adults who came even played along with the tickets.

In the past, for much much cheaper, I bought streamer and balloons and hung them in the trees in the back yard. They would float when the wind blew. It was a sort of magical effect for her Barbie as whatever party (swan lake one year). For those parties, I normally had a pinata and some other game like musical dots (like musical chairs but on circles I cut out of poster board and spray painted) I have done chicken nuggets for the kids and hamburgers for the adults before.

For my son's first birthday, we did it outside as well. It was a cow party with blue and yellow accents. I had cow balloons, yellow and blue balloons with helium in them. They floated around the yard. There was a duck pond for the little ones to play with. I bought a cake from Publix and made a second one that was 3D (a cow) It was probably my most basic party.

I love throwing parties, but I tend to go overboard very easy. I will happily spend 50 on a cake (I love Publix's cake with strawberry filling and whipped topping).

I always have tons of ideas for doing interesting parties, but I have none for keeping it cheap, but I am sure that cutting back on some things would have made my parties just as successful for a lot less money.

Carrie

For my daughters first birthday last year we had a party with about 50 people at our home. Money is SO tight so I bought BBQ pulled pork at Sam's (2 trays for around $11 each) with buns, black beans & rice, salad, & french fries. To really save on money I made her big birthday cake & her own little cake from scratch. I spent about $50 on all of the food.

I made the invitations, decorations, and party favors from patterned paper. I bought favors from the dollar store (each child got several items but I spent less than a dollar on each child).

Making everything took time but it's something I enjoy doing & it saved us so much money. For pictures of everything you can go here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=21957&l=21365&id=708411955

SMB--

Okay, where do I begin?! I just looked at every single one of your pictures and have a few things to say:

1. Your house is gorgeous, just as your family is!
2. The cake - wow, the cake. Umm, can we have that recipe? Do you mind if I post a picture of it on the web site to show the other moms?
3. The party favors - how creative are you?! You made me want a plastic cup filled with goodies. What a GREAT idea!! I think I may just do the same thing.
4. My favorite picture had to be the last one. Hahahaha. Aren't men great?
5. We have a tuxedo cat, too.

Thanks for sharing! I feel like I know you better:-)

And thanks for the amazing tips. You will definitely see some of those at my girl's party. And I seriously want to attempt the cake. Although, can I pull THAT off? I am no "StyleMeBaby!"

Carrie--
Do you have any pictures of the stage or concession stand? What a great idea! My daughter LOVES high school musical!!

i think that whenever anyone here is planning an event, we should have an area to post it so we can share ideas...suzy can you jump right on that???

one time saving tip is to buy your cake from your local grocery store un-iced. i live in newberry and hitchcocks sells me one layer of a 1/2 sheet cake for $7. I enjoy decorating them and i like the one layer cake the best for big crowds. Still looks like a big cake but doesn't cost as much. I buy the cheapest can icing and dye for whatever I need. I'll try to describe a few:

Baseball Diamond: cover cake with green dyed icing. pipe on some clay colored icing for the acual diamond. white squares for bases and a big baseball in the top right hand corner as if it is going over the fence. then happy birthday "kid"

Frog pond: cover entire cake with blue icing. buy some plastic frogs from dollar store. pipe on green lily pads, a few floating flowers and place frogs on pads. then "hopping over to wish kid happy birthday

cake for luau: cover entire cake with white icing. take apart a pretty flower lai. attach silk flowers along all four outter sides. they will stick pretty well if the icing is thick enough. place a few on top and " Hau`oli Lā Hānau" (happy birthday in hawaiian)

my favorite of all time is the barbie cake. you need a pampered chef batter bowl. mix up a regular cake mix and bake in the batter bowl. it takes a little longer to bake, just keep checking it with a long skewer to make sure it is done in the middle. buy a cheap barbie and break off her legs at the hip. i like doing this part personally because she is just too dang skinny! stick barbie in top of cake as it comes out of the bowl. ice with pink or purple icing. you have to spread some on barbie to cover up her ample top...you can add flower candy or whatever else to pretty her up. the best touch is to make cupcakes and use the little girl barbies for each one of your party guests!

Suzy,
My parents took pictures of the party for me and, of course, never sent them to me. I will ask them for them and post them.
Carrie

Thanks for the compliments, Suzy!

I searched high & low for that cake recipe & I can't find it anywhere!!! It was super easy though, you couldn't even use a mix. The fancy looking part - all you have to do is take a cold chocolate bar & use a vegetable peeler to make shavings & sprinke on/around the cake. I'd be honored if you used a pic of the cake on your blog - feel free!

Oh, I finally added pictures of the invitations, too.

Okay, SBM--
I added "Event Planning" to the "Celebrations" category. We'll see how that works out. I think that is a great idea and I hope that the moms will use it....