We celebrated my daughter's 8th birthday by having a Shopping Party at the Mall.  She invited four friends, so that made a total of five 8 year old girls, myself and one of my friends to help chaperone. The invitations were made on the computer explaining the party, what time to meet and where at the mall. Since my daughter LOVES being independent and buying her own things, the thought came to my mind to let each girl do her own shopping. When they arrived, they received a gift bag with gift cards and certificates for everywhere in the mall we would be going. This is where the party can go so many directions. You could do movies or skating or whatever your mall has to offer. We just did shopping. I went to the mall ahead of time and purchased 5 gift cards to Claire's, tokens for the mall game room, and gift certificates for the Cookie Company. We started at Claire's, then we headed to the game room where they used their tokens to play. Then we went to the Cookie Company. Each girl had a certificate for a cookie/coke combo. They got to get whatever flavor and drink they wanted. We went to the food court to sing Happy Birthday over our cookies and open presents. This was very inexpensive and the girls Loved it.