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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 11:25 am
Any suggestions would be so appreciated! We are looking for a fun and hopefully (kind of) inexpensive idea for a 9th bday party for my son. He wants to have a party AND sleep in a hotel. BUT I do not want to spend $300. I know a hotel room alone is going to be about $100. But then the hotels here want another $149 to rent a small room and let the boys go swimming for 3 hrs. And that is without pizza or cake. (He's 9 years old, so he can invite 9 friends.) Any ideas out there? I did check our park district and they do have swim park parties for about $150 which would include food but not the cake. Maybe we will do just that and skip the hotel. But I know the hotel idea would be so exciting for him....
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 12:42 pm
why does he want to sleep at a hotel? is a hotel going to let you have 9 boys and 2 adults in one room?
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 12:48 pm
For $149 they will! But that would be the small party room (plus swimming time), not an overnight thing. If you think I'd take on 9 boys overnight, you must think I am crazier than I actually am!! 3 hours of them is about 2 hours too long if ya ask me!! He wants to stay in a hotel with a pool for the fun factor of it.
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Rissa
Member
03-20-2006
| Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 1:05 pm
Is he set on the swimming for himself or for all his friends as well? My dd's (16 and 11) have discovered laser tag and are just addicted to it. It wasn't popular out West but it is sure a teenage fave out here. The places out here are very nice, clean, safe. The kids come out laughing hysterically and completely worn out. They have a party room which you can be busy setting up while the kids play (about 30 minutes per game) then have the cake, gifts etc. After boys are gone your family goes downtown for a nice dinner, stroll down the main street then head to hotel and have a swim before bed? That's the best I can do, I am thrown by a 9 yr old who WANTS to sleep in a hotel. LOLOL LaserQuest
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 1:07 pm
LaserQuest is a blast!! LOL ok, that makes sense. LOL
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Twiggyish
Member
08-14-2000
| Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 4:19 pm
Sounds fun!!
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Maris
Member
03-28-2002
| Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 4:35 pm
My son loved laser tag parties. Also, have you thought of offering him 100 bucks in cold hard cash and then taking him and two friends to the movies??? that worked for me at about the age of 10. After that my son always opted for cash and a sleepover of two or three friends.
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Rissa
Member
03-20-2006
| Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 4:40 pm
RFLOL Maris. I love the way you phrased that. We started doing something similiar when the girls became teens. Instead of a party we let them take one or two very best friends to a very posh posh dinner, then a movie and a sleepover. No fighting over whether it's a family party or a friends party (or god forbid, both),no grab bags, no squealing hoardes for hours on end and the girls love dressing up.
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Hukdonreality
Member
09-29-2003
| Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 4:51 pm
I'd spend 50 bucks on a nice tent and have them all spend the night in the backyard. Put a cooler with pop right outside their tent. Run an electric cord to the tent and have them watch some spooky movies. Donuts in the a.m.
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 5:06 pm
Hmmm, thanks for these ideas!!! I already tried the big gift vs. the party (even offered a wii) and he said no. He loves a party... I do like the tent slumber party idea, but not sure the other moms would. Plus it weirds me out thinking of my son (and others) outside all night. Alone, cuz I am NOT sleeping outside! (Hmmm, maybe dh will though!!) Food for thought!!! Thanks for all these ideas! Oh the thing about lazer tag is it is over in a blink of an eye. Plus it's so expensive (something like $12.50 per kid per half hour so 9 friends plus him equals $125 plus pizza plus room plus cake...) And the places they have it here have all the video games, etc there too, so the kids would all want to play the regular video games after their measley half hour is over.
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Chaplin
Member
01-08-2006
| Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 10:10 pm
What about doing the slumber party part inside and setting the tent up inside and having the kids sleeping in there. The rest of the party can go late into the night outdoors and can include some sort of Astronomy theme. There are various students out there and some science groups that will come into the home and give the kids an Astronomy experience geared to kids and you can gear the games and gifts towards that as well as the cake. Be more broad and include sci-fi or mad science types of things and you could go really cool and give an experience kids would really remember. I have set up that sort of stuff for kids and could give ideas. I used to be a Nanny. Also when I volunteered in the schools there was a company that came to the school and brought this Astronomy Dome to the school for the kids and it was like a giant igloo which was inflated and kept inflated by a vacuum cleaner. Everyone went inside and the kids sat and they projected the night sky onto the black ceiling and told the kids about how the sky changed in different seasons and pointed out different Star formations. Not one kid moved for 1 hr! It was amazing! This was all done in the school gym. One classroom went in at a time. The following day I got to help take all the kids to the University where they have 2 giant telescopes and where a friend of mine is the head of Physics and Astronomy and he got his students to gear some fun things for kids to see and do to understand simple Physics and Astronomy. All year the kids talked about the experience and these were Kindergarten Children. There is a show on TV and it is on Slice TV here so not sure what channel or if it is TV where you are on kids parties and they had a kids party in one room and the adults had their party in the other. They invited all the parents of the kids invited and they basically did a slumber theme with everyone all dressed in PJ's and robes. When the kids were all asleep the parents of all the kids invited went home. Then before the kids awoke the parents managed to all come back and they all had a huge buffet breakfast together. They did neat stuff...Ghost stories, Pinata, indoor tent, S'more snacks, junk food, games and then the adults did a more adult version of the same thing and then they all watched a family movie. They then did a teddy bear sort of theme bedtime thing and they also had run around backyard sort of games earlier so when bed time came about the kids fell right asleep.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 10:11 pm
That's a cheap laser tag. My DS took two friends out for his b-day a couple years ago, and the place wanted a dollar a minute per kid!! Needless to say, they only played 10 minutes! BAH! We had a "big" party for his 13th this year, but the boys were content staying home and having a wii tourney. He can have another party at 16 if he wants, but the in-betweens are one special friend and one special activity. I'm another who was VERY relieved when he finally outgrew the kiddie parties. ****shudder*** There's a reason I teach high school and not ankle-biters! LOL
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Rissa
Member
03-20-2006
| Monday, July 28, 2008 - 6:08 am
Holy Teach, that IS expensive. DD's have gone twice this week and it was $18 for three games (just over 1 1/2 hrs). That would have been $90 at the place you mentioned! Try Laser Quest, they have locations all across the USA and Canada and their prices are the same everywhere. Chaplin, I love your idea. We used to spend a lot of time staring at the sky when we lived in the country and could SEE the sky. LOLOL Even had a telescope but no clue what to see with it. I would have loved to have an astronomy party back them.
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Monday, July 28, 2008 - 7:39 am
WOW guys!! Thanks so much! What cool ideas! The thoughts/ideas are spinning around. Now dh has thrown a wiffleball tourney into the idea pot... Stay tuned. AND thanks a ton!!! All of you rock!!!
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Rissa
Member
03-20-2006
| Monday, July 28, 2008 - 7:49 am
Trying to think of places with party rooms. How about bowling? The places where you play in the dark with glow in the dark balls, pins and decor?
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Merrysea
Moderator
08-13-2004
| Monday, July 28, 2008 - 8:53 am
Wiffleball is a great idea! It's free and it wears them out - what more could you ask for!
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Monday, July 28, 2008 - 1:42 pm
My kids love the bowling alley for parties and so do we. Dakota's already asking if we can do it again for her birthday in September. No clean up, party host/hostess, and the kids are kept enertained and busy. Our bowling alley has a deal for parties on Friday nights, works out to about $10 if I remember right, but it's earlish, like 5 or 6. They also do parties during...dang, what is that called Rissa!? But it's a bit more expensive. Like Teach's son, Caleb had a Wii tourney for his birthday. Or rather, we had a birthday party where the wii tourney was the main activity. The kids loved it and had a lot of fun. Wiffleball sounds fun to (or any fun sporty thing the kids are interested in.)
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Pippin04
Member
10-26-2007
| Thursday, November 06, 2008 - 8:43 am
When she was younger my daughter was invited to several parties at a hotel. The kids all swam in the evening and the next morning and hung out in the room all night giggling. Pizza was delivered and they ate cake. She loved these parties and thought it was a great idea. Currently they go to someones (borrowed) country house and hang out. They have a big fire at night and tell scary stories and giggle all night.
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