Situation: a birthday party for a turning-seven-year-old. Magic-themed; a very friendly, inexpensive local magician has already been booked (and has sold me a life insurance policy, but that’s probably beside the point). We’re not sure how many guests, though it will probably be a smallish group.
Location? Keep in mind that the host’s house is small, though it could probably accommodate five or six child guests; if we are able to do it outside, that would be awesome, but inside might get crowded. Also, we suck at housekeeping, so it’ll be a major stress to get (and keep) the house at party-readiness level.
Church? (Will they let us?)
Park? (If it rains, it’ll be a problem, since the one with the building costs over $100 an hour and may be unavailable even at this point.)
Entertainment-oriented business? (The kids may not be willing to focus on a magic act.)
Where?
I hate this part. 
I’m doing this race as my first 50K/ultra in July 2012. I’m so tardy to the party but...
Some of our local pizza places have a back room that they’ll let you use for free, if you are buying pizza. Takes care of food and location in one fell swoop….anything in your area like that maybe?
Good luck!
Emily
I heard Jo Jo’s Toys on Main is using their back room for parties. No idea on the cost though.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was just a plain old party room you could rent for a flat fee but it didn’t come with strings attached? Like the old Whimzee’s Building. No need for all the stuff even, just the space and use of the kitchen….
We used Crawford for John’s b-day last year. I don’t remember the cost but it was not per hour, it was for the whole day. It’s covered too. It would be great to just have a space for stuff like this.
Up until last year we always risked it at the park and been rewarded handsomly for it. Last year, we just had everyone over to our apartment. We only had about 20-30 guests so it wasn’t too bad and we have a relatively large living room.
So tell me about this magician – it must be some act if he has to sell you a life insurance policy before he performs. Aren’t you a little nervous?
We used to have our parties for the kids at parks with covered eating areas. No fees, the kids can play on the toys before/after the magician act, and you can cook up hot dogs/hamburgers – or just have cake. Always worked well, and it was free!
It is tricky to give advice on this type of thing since I live in Australia and I don’t really know what types of places you have available…. I’ll give it a go anyway…..
Does a local school have an indoor centre you could hire?
Any children’s petting zoos near your house?
Any kid-friendly book shops that offer children’s parties?
Most churches here who have a hall are happy to hire it out so I’d probably look into that one first since it would be pretty easy to call around them all.
We have just met in a pretty park for my childrens’ birthday parties. We have been blessed with good weather so far. I figured that with big trees we would have enough shelter to stop the adults from getting wet and the kids would probably have loved the rain anyway.
So good luck with whatever you end up doing
We’ve done the park thing before, but Sam’s birthday seems cursed with bad weather. We’ve had insane wind, rain storms… It’s risky. If only I had a way of knowing! I’m going to call a local lake park today that has a beach house; maybe we can reserve that for a couple of hours, if it’s not too expensive, so we’ll have a fall-back shelter. I’ll also call our church, but the problem with places like churches is that they’ll be a big, empty place; we’ll have to bring more “stuff.”
Todd – LOL! Actually, this guy’s an agent, but he does magic as a side business. He was working at a restaurant, entertaining the tables of kids, and handing out his card; Eric decided I needed more insurance, and Sam fell in love with the act!
Community building? Local restaurant’s back room? Good luck!
I so-very-much encourage the off-site (away from home)birthday parties. We have a local dance studio that hosts themed parties, including a sports theme for boys. Our bowling alley hosts them, too, on their non-smoking days. And, then of course the local pool is a hit. With those options available, I hope to never have a kids birthday party at my house again!
Is there a rec center near by? We rent out a room with kitchen every summer for Sibshops, and I don’t think you need to live in the town where it is. We don’t, at any rate. *g*