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Some of our successful parties for a crowd were at arcades(with laser tag and bowling), roller rinks, ice skating, and swimming at the Y. The easiest party was at a movie theater. We went during off hours, paid $5.00 per person, including a small popcorn and drink. The theater allowed goody bags to be handed out with additional candy in them. Two hours, and done!
Some of our successful parties for a crowd were at arcades(with laser tag and bowling), roller rinks, ice skating, and swimming at the Y. The easiest party was at a movie theater. We went during off hours, paid $5.00 per person, including a small popcorn and drink. The theater allowed goody bags to be handed out with additional candy in them. Two hours, and done!
I did that a year or two ago, when my middle daughter wanted to take some friends to the movies. Kellogg's was having some promotion where you collected codes from boxes of cereal and Pop-Tarts. (We love Frosted Mini-Wheats.) You turned the codes in online for movie ticket and $5 concession vouchers. There were also good coupons inside the boxes, and I'd wait for big sales at the grocery store (10 boxes for $6 after coupons, etc.). I collected codes for months and ended up with three or four vouchers and $15 for concessions. When a movie ticket costs around $10 and a few concessions can quickly rack up ... this was great!
Add to that a few siblings, neighbours and cousins,
Have a princess cake and a few siblings, neighbors and cousins. To a 4 year old, that would seem like a big party. To a child anywhere south of 10, that would look like a big party.
If you start out with 35+ people, you're setting yourself up with about 14 years or more of expectations of large, expensive parties, and the older the child, the higher their expectations.
I have a friend who has 6 kids. Regardless of when their actual birthdays fall, she has ONE birthday party per year for all of them together. She makes it a big day and does things like renting a bounce house and other pretty big stuff. She has the kids stagger their guests, so all the guests are not there at one time. The first wave of guests comes for the first kid and he gets celebrated, then his guests leave and the next set comes for the next kid and he gets celebrated. It lasts all day and is crazy, but she only has to do it once per year!
Anyway, I was thinking that maybe the time stagger thing would work for you, so that each kid can have their own party/guests, but all on the same day. That way you don't have to have so many people all at once, and each kid can feel like they had their special time.
I can not for the life of me imagine eating anything from an establishment with a name like chuck e cheese.
Down here "chuck" means vomit. So every time I read that name I just want to ....
So as I read this, the kids want lots of friends and the house is not large enough and it is the middle of winter. Hmm.
How about renting a church hall and have games. Or the school / playgroup centre.
If it is snowing then if they all wear their outdoor clothes, go somewhere and build a huge snow man, have a huge snow fight, drink hot chocolate and then send them home.
The easiest party was at a movie theater. We went during off hours, paid $5.00 per person, including a small popcorn and drink. The theater allowed goody bags to be handed out with additional candy in them. Two hours, and done!
I did that for my 21st! Went to see The Crow in my own rented movie theatre (yes I know that ages me!). It was great because I had so many different groups of friends- economy and sociology students from college, fencing buddies, religious friends who do not drink, so this was the easiest to get everyone together and have fun.
My daughter works at a Children's Museum. They have birthday parties. Lest this sound boring, let me explain that they have lots of activities for the kids. It's not really so much of a museum as it is an educational activity place. Probably a little "old" for the two year old, though, come to think of it, but possibly something to consider in years to come.
This may sound mean, but I wouldn't worry about the child turning two this year. She won't even know what's going on, may get overwhelmed. (She'll probably be overwhelmed anyway by all the hoopla from the older kids.) You can put off that problem for another year. By the time kids are in elementary school, you don't have to invite the whole class, and the parents don't stay.
My DD's birthday parties are crowded even without adding her friends into the mix. Just having my immediate family there (my parents, siblings, nieces & nephews) makes it 25 people. When we add in her friends from school and her friends from day care (before & after care), we have a list of over 50 people and that doesn't include close family friends. So far we have always had it at my house (1,000 sq ft), but are lucky that her birthday is in November in FL which means PERFECT weather so it is mostly outside. When we started the kids parties, we started having multiple parties in one day. We set up in the morning, have one party for school friends, have a second party for day care friends and a third for family.
The cake is easy because I have gotten cheaper and more creative with the cake. I make a few dozen cupcakes and leave them un-frosted. Then, I throw down a plastic tablecloth on the ground and one on the table and let them frost their own. I have bowls of sprinkles and small candies that they can use to decorate. You can bring out a new batch for every party and not have to worry about having a new cake or no cake at some of the parties.
Breaking up the parties over one day really does make it easier and less stressful. I haven't had a party away from home just because of how expensive it can get for that many people.
I would definitely look into Pump it Up and similar places. In my experience, though, they often limit the number of kids, or only include a certain number of kids for the base party price, and let you pay for extra kids. That could add up quickly.
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