9 year old Fun & Games party My daughter turned 9 this January and she wanted to plan her own birthday party. We decided to try something new this year...We gave her a budget of $200 and let her brainstorm. Having 3 children all with birthdays between November & January, and with Christmas thrown in there as well, makes for a very expensive 3 month period!  We typically spend around $400 per party and decided that we needed to put an end to that madness.  Kelsey was thrilled to be given a budget and couldn't wait to plan her own party.  We sat down together with a calculator and figured the cost for different ideas that she had. She had a list of 15 guests and refused to cut it, so she was limited with her activity choices.  She wanted a long party (4 hours) and she also wanted to have the party over the dinner hour, which would take a good chunk of her budget. She finally decided to have an old-fashioned fun and games birthday party.    For invitations, we purchased some party themed stationery. Kelsey used the computer and typed in her choice of text and printed these up herself. The activities were the following: 1) The Kesley Quiz: Prior to the party, we made up a questionnaire with questions all about Kelsey.  These were things like, "What is Kelsey's favorite color?  When is Kelsey's actual birthday? What is her favorite flavor of ice cream? Etc. etc." We had 15-20 questions.  Each guest was given a gel pen and had 15 minutes to answer the questions.  Kelsey filled one out too, and at the end she read off her answers. There was lots of laughter and the girl who had the most correct answers won a prize. 2) Next, we had an ABC Scavenger Hunt.  The girls were split into two teams (each led by an adult).  They were given a clipboard with a sheet of paper with each letter of the alphabet on it and a pen. The teams went door to door in the neighborhood asking for items that began with each letter of the alphabet.  The rules were that each house could give them a maximum of two items and they had to sing their ABC's to each house that contributed. Again, lots of laughter! They had a 45 minute time limit. Both teams tied (nobody got anything that started with X) and the girls had so much fun doing this.  While they were out on their hunt, I called in the order for the pizzas.  3)  Next they played Pictionary.  We hung a huge pad of paper on the wall in the family room. The person who was the designated "drawer" stood up, picked a Pictionary card, chose one of the 4 words, and then illustrated the word for the rest of the group. They couldn't use words or sounds, just their drawing. The girls had a blast with this and we continued until each had had a turn.  4)  Dinner time!! The pizzas arrived and the girls proceeded to have dinner.  Pizza, fruit salad and shirley temples. Yum!!  5)  After dinner, it was karaoke time. We hooked our karaoke machine up to the television and the girls took turns belting out their favorite tunes.  Some doubled up, some even formed groups, and some brave souls sang solo! 6) After karaoke, we had dessert. Kelsey is not a cake kind of girl, so while the girls were singing, we set up an ice cream sundae bar. The girls formed a line and built sundaes using every kind of topping imaginable.  They didn't even miss having cake and now other girls are talking about doing the same thing at their own parties! 7) At this point, we were actually running short on time and Kelsey really wanted to open her gifts with her friends. She proceeded to do this, even as parents were arriving to pick up their girls.    For the game prizes, I picked up 2005 puppy & kitten calendars for $1 each at JoAnn Fabrics.  I also bought $1 photo albums with fun, bright covers at JoAnn's.  Kelsey chose funky striped notebooks for each girl at Target, also $1 each. For a special party favor, I burned a CD for each girl.  This was a compilation of some of Kelsey's favorite songs. Kelsey typed up labels that said, "Thank you for celebrating my 9th birthday with me. I hope you enjoy this collection of my favorite songs. Love, Kelsey".   When all was said and done, Kelsey had stayed within her $200 budget and she and her guests had a really fun time being together.  In fact, the morning of the party I added up all of her expenses and she had $12 to spare. I drove her to our local party store and let her choose two dozen helium balloons to use for decorations. I also allowed her to use anything that we already had at home. Fortunately, I had purchased two confetti printed tablecloths for New Years Eve, so she was able to use those on the tables. I also had purchased a huge box of recordable CD's from Costco a couple of months prior to the party, so I let her use those as well.   Kelsey really enjoyed planning her own party and it was a great lesson in money managment for her as well. My husband and I felt that $200 was a very fair amount and we were so proud of Kelsey for sticking to her budget. Most of all though, it was a fun party enjoyed by all!