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Wow, a firefighters museum! That sounds perfect for a 5 yr old guy! Have fun.

I wanna go to the birthday party at the firefighters museum

springparrot wrote:When Ryan was younger, everyone (except us) did McDonald's parties.....no muss, no fuss, they do everything.
And I'm sure you have inside playgrounds?

I'm really thinking about McDonald's too. The only downside to that is Victoria wouldn't be able to go because the risk of being glutened would be too great.

buffettbride wrote:

springparrot wrote:When Ryan was younger, everyone (except us) did McDonald's parties.....no muss, no fuss, they do everything.
And I'm sure you have inside playgrounds?

I'm really thinking about McDonald's too. The only downside to that is Victoria wouldn't be able to go because the risk of being glutened would be too great.

Well, that would never do.
On to the Firefighters museum.

This is going to sound cold, but really not intentionally
but... what about no party this year.

Time for kids to learn an economy lesson, but, honestly, how long is a 5-year old gonna be "devastated" by only getting
presents and love from his own family, anyway?

Having no party is NOT an option.

He's 5 and he's fabulous and deserves the best party we can give him. Fortunately, we CAN afford for him to have a nice party with most of his friends. We're just space constrained and don't want to totally blow the whole wad on it.

buffettbride wrote: He's 5 and he's fabulous...

..and I'm sure he'll appreciate his mother NOT saying that to his buddies at his party!

My son's fifth birthday party was his last big blowout with 16 kids. We had a pony party in the backyard, one pony for riding and one did tricks. Also, a guy who made swords and hats out of balloons. And we played pin the tail on the donkey and ate pizza and cake. Had video running the whole time. It is one of our favorite videos to watch, especially with both my parents there and participating. Dad wore a cowboy hat. We invited his kindergarten friends, his daycare friends and his neighbor friends. I say do it up right at the firehouse museum.

Sixteenth birthday is a big deal around here, but all my son wanted was two friends over to go skateboarding around town and spend the night. That was it. He's had low-key birthdays for at least five years.

My kids are all big, bad and ugly now, (13 thru 25) but when they were little we had two rules for b-day parties. With four kids eating us out of house and home we had to set some ground rules. First, you either got a present OR a birthday party and second, if you chose a party, you were allowed to invite as many friends as your age. It worked and they knew what to expect. Some years, if we could afford it, I'd bend on the rules, but for the most part we stuck to it. Two of my daughters birthdays are a week apart (and four years) (and in the beginning of December, bad timing) so when they were young I combined them and had larger parties.

We had a place called Kidsports, kind of a big, padded gym, where kids could climb, jump, swing, run, fall and all kinds of obstacles...and the best part was that they supplied a "party leader" for about 1 1/2 hours to lead the kids thru a bunch of games and activities geared for their age (5-6)...then you had a room for about an hour to have cake and snacks and for the presents....not too expensive and YOU don't have to do anything, kind of...and not terribly expensive.

Mal,
Again, no clue on $, but there is this place in Aurora.
http://www.amazingjakes.com/aurora/

Also, E&I have been to the Firefighters Museum in Denver. Pretty cool place.

SMLCHNG wrote:Mal,
Again, no clue on $, but there is this place in Aurora.
http://www.amazingjakes.com/aurora/

Also, E&I have been to the Firefighters Museum in Denver. Pretty cool place.

Oooooh....my son loves Amazing Jakes!

I like the idea of inviting as many friends as you are old. Wish I would have thought about that years ago. By the time they are 12, they only want a handful of their closest pals anyway.


I think we've decided to keep the guest list to no more than 16 and do the Firefighter's Museum. 16 is the max there.

We don't want to make our guests drive out to Aurora since most of them are his school friends who also live very near us. Downtown is about as far as we'll go.

buffettbride wrote:I think we've decided to keep the guest list to no more than 16 and do the Firefighter's Museum. 16 is the max there.

Actually, I'm sure Denver has lots of kid friendly museum's.
Dallas has the "science place" which has hands on stuff, and and the Dallas World Aquarium (which quite a few BN'rs have been to), it's kinda like an inside mini zoo + aquarium.
Every city has their own specialties...
Oh, we also have a flight museum near one of the smaller airports...
I'm sure Denver has something that would appeal to your son & his friends interests.

Dezdmona wrote:

buffettbride wrote:I think we've decided to keep the guest list to no more than 16 and do the Firefighter's Museum. 16 is the max there.

Actually, I'm sure Denver has lots of kid friendly museum's.
Dallas has the "science place" which has hands on stuff, and and the Dallas World Aquarium (which quite a few BN'rs have been to), but it's kinda like an inside mini zoo + aquarium.
Every city has their own specialties...
Oh, we also have a flight museum near one of the smaller airports...
I'm sure Denver has something that would appeal to your son & his friends interests.

We have an actual childrens museum that is a lot of fun and that is still on the table.

There's tons of indoor adventure/bounce/playground type places. I'm just disgusted at how inflated all of the prices are for how little you actually get.

My birthday is Halloween so my parties were always just a handful of kids going trick-or-treat together and it was wonderful. For some reason, Tony's party planning is always a thorn in our side.

buffettbride wrote:I'm just disgusted at how inflated all of the prices are for how little you actually get.

I totally agree...but if you go to one of the museums, ask for a discount for groups of 10 or more.
They'll usually accomodate you. Museums work on a different philosophy than some of those "other" places.

Dezdmona wrote:

buffettbride wrote:I'm just disgusted at how inflated all of the prices are for how little you actually get.

I totally agree...but if you go to one of the museums, ask for a discount for groups of 10 or more.
They'll usually accomodate you. Museums work on a different philosophy than some of those "other" places.

I wish that were the case. The zoo was actually in the running until we found out it was $300 for 10 kids. That's outrageous.

The childrens museum is $180 for up to 30 kids, but we have to set up and clean up everything ourselves.

Dezdmona wrote:

buffettbride wrote:I think we've decided to keep the guest list to no more than 16 and do the Firefighter's Museum. 16 is the max there.

Actually, I'm sure Denver has lots of kid friendly museum's.
Dallas has the "science place" which has hands on stuff, and and the Dallas World Aquarium (which quite a few BN'rs have been to), it's kinda like an inside mini zoo + aquarium.
Every city has their own specialties...
Oh, we also have a flight museum near one of the smaller airports...
I'm sure Denver has something that would appeal to your son & his friends interests.

didn't they use to have a program at Science Place where you could have a sleep over type party?

Dallas also used to have a indoor amusement type park that kids loved. Unfortunately it shut down.

Word of warning - if you've got a Chuck E Cheese NEVER go hung over. They do a good kids pizza party.

ph4ever wrote:

Dezdmona wrote:

buffettbride wrote:I think we've decided to keep the guest list to no more than 16 and do the Firefighter's Museum. 16 is the max there.

Actually, I'm sure Denver has lots of kid friendly museum's.
Dallas has the "science place" which has hands on stuff, and and the Dallas World Aquarium (which quite a few BN'rs have been to), it's kinda like an inside mini zoo + aquarium.
Every city has their own specialties...
Oh, we also have a flight museum near one of the smaller airports...
I'm sure Denver has something that would appeal to your son & his friends interests.

didn't they use to have a program at Science Place where you could have a sleep over type party?

Dallas also used to have a indoor amusement type park that kids loved. Unfortunately it shut down.

Word of warning - if you've got a Chuck E Cheese NEVER go hung over. They do a good kids pizza party.

Our Aquarium does sleep overs---not sure 5 isn't too young, but might be something to look into later.

buffettbride wrote:The top of our list right now is the Denver Firefighter's Museum.

That's cool!!