Comments on: What Is A Simple & “free” Birthday Party To Host For Our 9 Year Old Son?

By: Cristina

Cristina — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:19:51 +0000

Bring them to your house and let them play the wii. (I’m guessing you have one). Buy him a drawing set for his present.

By: My two cents

My two cents — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:19:51 +0000

Hate to break it to you, but simple and free are opposites. If you want to save money, than it takes a bit more effort (packages cost money because of the convenience factor)
How about a “gammer” party? Have everyone come dressed as their favorite game character (a Mario costume can be as simple as a pair of overalls, a clean plunger, and a fake paper mustache)
Put out the Wii and other bored games (ask parents or friends to loan some if you don’t have many) and the Wii becomes a tournament and the other board games, entertainment.
A cake is real easy! bake a 9×11 rectangular cake and decorate it as a game controller: you could go classic Nintendo w/ two red buttons and a + sign; you could do X-box type by simply carving out some of the cake to get the handle-bar effect; or cut it in half to make a long, Wii controller (use white chocolate chips to make the buttons)
For a group game go to the dollar store and buy a small gift box and one or two white/ light colored shower curtain liner. Make these into a die and game board (dots in a circle are fine). You and your son can come up with lots of trivia questions, each kid becomes their own game piece. Roll the die and if they answer the question right, they move up a space(spaces).

By: Susan D

Susan D — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:19:50 +0000

I’d say a sleepover is a great idea. If he loves the Wii and his friends do, too, then just let them play the games that he already has. Maybe have a championship game for the top scorers.
For refreshments, most boys like brownies and chocolate chip cookies. You could have a birthday brownies or a birthday cookies.
Make your own sundaes. Vanilla ice cream. Chocolate Syrup, sprinkles, M & M’s, nuts, cherries, etc. They will have fun doing this.
Since we’re close to Halloween, you could go with a Halloween theme. Rent some scary movies. Maybe buy each boy a pumpkin to carve (or decorate with paint, fabric, etc, if you are more comfortable with that–grocery store is cheaper than a pumpkin farm). Have Halloween themed food (freeze spider rings or gummy worms) in ice trays for spooky ice cubes. Worms (slice hot dogs in long strips and boil in water and they’ll curl up and look like worms). Mummy Dogs (hot dog wrapped with breadstick dough and bake and then put eyes on with mustard). Caramel Apples (you can make these ahead of time or let the boys dip them-roll in nuts or decorate with M&M’s or candy corn). Drink hot cocoa with a floating eyeball (large marshmallow with Choc Chip inserted in the middle). Cupcakes or brownies decorated with Halloween decorations. Potato Bugs (tater tots inserted onto raw spahetti noodle and bake per directions-use catsup for the eyes. Wal-Mart has gummy eyeballs, worms, and spiders. There’s also a severed foot or hand in the candy aisle that’s gummy w/ some sort of hard candy in the middle-gross but good for 9 year old boys.
Pizza. Make your own, you can buy the crusts premade, use canned biscuits or make your own crusts and a wide variety of toppings. Or, Pizza Hut has the $5 Pizza Mia (a medium) but you have to buy at least 3 to get them for $5 each. They would be less mess and could be cheaper.
Do you have a yard? If so, a camp out. Pitch some tents, have the boys bring sleeping bags. Build a fire in a fire pit (if you have one). Roast hot dogs and make smores. Play horse shoes or ring toss or both. Hold sack races (you can use old pillow cases-can buy from Salvation Army for cheap). Buy some glow sticks or cheap flashlights for the kids to play with outside to tell ghost stories or play ghosts in the graveyard.

By: Spencer

Spencer — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:19:50 +0000

I think that if you just got a bunch of kids together… baked a cake or bought a cake, whatever is cheaper… Rented some games for the Wii the kids would have a blast. Kids from four to forty love Wii. Everyone loves Wii. I think that that would suffice perfectly. Kids would have fun and be contained and amused, and your budget wouldn’t have to suffer but $6-$20 for the cake depending on if you buy it or bake it your self and $20ish bucks if you rent 2 or 3 games, although Wii sports is the most entertaining game for the Wii and I’m sure you already have it since it comes with the Wii. Wii bowling would occupy 6 or 7 kids for hours.

By: Heavy Metal Albums

Heavy Metal Albums — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:19:50 +0000

Invite his friends to spend the night and let them have some junk food. Maybe let them stay up later than usual. They can play wii and just hang out. But for the drawing part, I wouldnt do it because if his friends arent good at it, its just not fun for them.