Surviving Kid Birthdays – Part 1

We just spent the past two weekends celebrating birthdays! One was mine (which was easy because, well, I don’t really like to do anything for my birthday!) and one was my daughter’s. Kid birthdays are tricky because while you want them to have a great time and enjoy a fun celebration with their friends, you don’t want it to cost an arm and a leg! And it can EASILY cost an arm and a leg.

Since putting all of the information into one post could get pretty lengthy, I’m going to turn this into a 2-3 part series.

The Place

Nothing can beat free! Your house, a park, the neighborhood swimming pool or splash park… all make great (and cheap!) places to have a birthday party. Plus, with a park or swimming, the entertainment is already built in!

Did you know that many local fire stations will let you rent out a room (sometimes for free!) and give the kids a tour of the fire house? How fun would that be!

Last year, instead of a birthday party for my daughter, we took her and a friend to Six Flags. What she didn’t know is that we got all of the tickets for FREE through their reading program! 🙂 Stephanie over at Couponing 101 has written a great post on all of the summer freebies… some of which you could turn into a birthday outing!

What about planning your vacation around your kid’s birthday? You’d be killing two birds with one stone – and not paying any more than you would have anyway! Kingdom First Mom has written a great post gathering together coupon tips for traveling during the summer HERE. Add a cake, and you have a celebration vacation! 🙂

The Cake

I think the best advice here would be to make your own! You can either make the cake from scratch or from a box mix. There are usually a few sales throughout the year where you can find cake mixes and icing for free (or close to free!)

Does your kid have their heart set on a themed cake (like Spiderman or Princess?) Instead of buying the $30 cake from Walmart, you can make your own cake and buy the decoration kit for around $5. Not bad! If you just absolutely don’t want to make a cake, then usually Costco or Sam’s have really great prices for plain sheet cakes.

Here are a few links to some great cake ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

Fish Mama has a whole section of her blog dedicated to homemade cakes HERE! There are some great ideas there, and she even has a 34-page e-book complete with pictures and everything for just $4!

Amy over at Amy’s Finer Things had an awesome idea for “Act Your Age” cupcakes! Wow! These are super easy and so adorable!

Getting Freedom has a great post HERE on themed birthday cakes (and a super cute Strawberry Shortcake cake!)

*NEW* I just found out that a friend of mine started a blog with all kinds of awesome do-it-yourself cake pictures! Sunflowers, racetracks, CANDYLAND!! Wow! You can view all of the cakes (along with directions) HERE.

And I just found this blog, Bakerella… and I really wish that I wouldn’t have! She has some amazing recipes for cake balls and cheesecake balls and all kinds of yummy, creative (and fattening!) treats!

Now it’s your turn!! What tips do you have for great places to have an inexpensive birthday party? Do you make your own cake? If you have a blog, feel free to leave any links in your comment to homemade cake pictures or inexpensive birthday celebrations!

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