What did you do for the 5th birthday party?

I need ideas and I'd like to find out what everyone did for their kids 5th bday party?

 

My boys 5th party (last year) was a big hit. We just did it in our backyard. We have one of those big inflatable water slides, so we had a 'water party'. We also had a slip & slide set up, and two kiddie pools. About 10 children came. I didn't plan any activities, just let the kids play, and they had a blast! I set up a round table with snacks - bowls of bugles, chips, pretzles, gummi fish, etc.... and I filled our gumball machine with blue and green jelly belly jelly beans (Nate's favorite color is green, and Drew's is blue, so those colors were the colors for the party). The gumball machine was a surprisingly huge hit! I had a little dish of pennies for the kids to use to get their treat and they loved it! We also rented a sno-cone machine. It was super-cheap, but was bigger than we needed. If I need a sno-cone machine again for this size of party, I will just go buy one. They aren't that expensive and a small one would have kept up with our needs just fine. We had ice cream cake from Coldstone Creamery.

It was a fun, fairly inexpensive, EASY birthday party. I went to virtually no work besides putting together goody bags, and shopping for snacks/decorations. It also seemed to be a nice number of kids. No one seemed overwhelmed and it was easy to keep an eye on everyone.

 

For the boys' 5th birthday, I had their party at a place called "Jubee's Little Dippers". They do age appropriate activities with the kids, serve pizza, and the kids build their own ice cream sundae's. It was a great party.

 

We had dh's parents over on their actual bday w/dinner and cupcakes and ice cream. My parents were coming from out of town so we had the rest of the cupcakes and ice cream with them.

Marissa

 

we took g&o to disney world for the 1st time for their 5th birthday. for their party we had a really cool pirate party the weekend before we left with a huge 3d pirate ship cake (we got it from target so it wasn't too expensive & looked great), a pinata, & a pirate magician (he was wonderful to dress up in a pirate costume for the party!). all of the kids came in pirate costumes & had sword fights. it was a great time & without a doubt the best party we've had.

 

We did my boys' fifth birthday party at home and had about 12 kids. We have a small bouncy house that we set-up in the front room, had a pin the football on the football field game (we are into sports), and had a piñata in the garage to end the party. In between, football game and piñata the kids took turns in the bouncy house (I think we decided 4 at a time was a good number so no one got hurt) and just playing with my boys' toys. My mom did set up the hockey/soccer goal at the end of the hallway and kids took turns shooting a soccer ball at the goal, and the gator golf game was set-up in the 4th bedroom for kids to golf. One of my boys likes chocolate cake and the other vanilla, so I made a chocolate cake and a vanilla cake and the boys got to decorate their own cakes (they love doing this and people love seeing them).

We have gone to a number of fifth birthday parties at places like Pump-it-Up, Little Gym, Sports complex and people's homes.

 

My older DD turned 5 in January, and we had a "princesses and pirates" birthday party at our house, with about 20 kids. I did a themed invitation and asked the kids to dress up, and I also provided bandannas, eye patches, necklaces, tiaras, etc. (Oriental Trading is great for this stuff, and cheap.)

We did a pirate-themed craft -- Ocean in a Bottle. And then, we played a handful of princess and pirate games. Mostly the kids just wanted to run around and play, though.

The party was in the afternoon, so we didn't do lunch -- just cake, ice cream, and punch. The ice cream was the birthday-cake-flavored Bluebell cups that come in a package of two dozen, I think. Very easy and tasty. And I totally splurged on a cake:

Castle Cake

 

We just had a family party of about 18people. We let the girls pick what theme they wanted which I think was Scooby and princess. So we had two cakes that my dad made one of scooby and one with a barbie on it. We are only doing family parties right now.

 

We are thinking about doing a decorate your own cupcake activity at theirs. Keep it relatively small and just let the kids frost and cover it w/candies. Them maybe a water gun fight. Keeping it simple.

On a side note, w/all the comments on pirate parties. Be careful with pirate patches, especially if they are not completly soft. One of my guys snapped one while wearing it and scratched his cornea. It was awful.

 

Mine didn't do a friend party until they turned 6 last May. We hosted 13 kindergarteners at our house. We did a baseball theme. First we gave them plenty of time to just run around and have fun outside. Then we came in and did "pin the ball on the baseball player" using a cute poster DH made. We went back outside for cake and ice cream and a little more free play, and then came in to open presents. We also did a baseball pinata in the front yard, and then we had a baseball uniform relay, using my older son's uniforms. There were two teams, and one kid from each team had to start by putting on baseball pants, run to the next station to put on a jersey, and get to the last station for a hat/glove, and then run back. Then we'd let the next two go. They had a blast, because they were often falling down from the length of the pants.

It was cheap and a lot of fun, and we were done in less than 3 hours.

 

I am done having parties at home because my family never leaves. This year for DS1 5th birthday we are having it at the bowling alley. They have a package with bowling for 1.5 hours then a party room for 1 hour. They provide all decorations and food. All I have to do is bring the cake.

 

Bouncers are always a hit with my girls. This year they turned 6 and May is a little iffy for weather in Northwestern Ontario so no bouncer, but we did a "picture" scavenger hunt and the kids all loved it. We called it a "super sleuth mystery party". And I made my own invitation with a picture of the girls looking through a magnifying glass. They invited 12 friends, so we did two teams, one lead by me, one by DH. They received a picture clue and had to find that spot in the yard which would lead them to their next clue. One clue was buried in the sandbox, one they had to reveal by painting the invisible ink to reveal a picture clue (a flower trellis that I had traced in white crayon). They had a riot. Each team had a different route but the two teams both had the same final clue...a huge storage bin which had a treasure chest inside. DH works at the TV station so they have a promotional treasure chest which actually beeps and lights up when you open it. It opens with a paper card key and when it opened it was filled with helium balloons and little bags of gold coins.

Then at the end of the party, we put the loot bags in it and each guest got to use the key to open the chest to get their bag (just plain white bags with Top Secret labels that I did up on the computer) filled with magnifying glasses and experiments to try and little invisible ink kits. It was labour intensive, but cheap and was a big hit with the kids and the parents.

 

Thanks everyone! You all have given me some great ideas!