We just celebrated our youngest daughter's 7th birthday, and it was so much fun!  She chose ahead of time to have an American Indian theme, so the whole affair evolved into a Pow Wow of sorts. I bought a canvas painter's drop cloth for about $9 and my husband turned it into a very cool little teepee, just the right size for Jessica and about four of her friends. Then my dad fashioned a very imaginable canoe out of long and sturdy cardboard boxes.  He cut, pinched, and taped it into shape, and it is still playable after a month! Two kids can sit in it comfortably.  Before the party our girls decorated the canoe with markers, drawing symbols they had found on the internet, etc. During the party it "floated" down a river made of a blue tarp (for lift) and covered with an old bed sheet that had been dyed irregular shades of blue for a previous bash.  Hubby again added to the atmosphere by building an indoor firepit using an electric fan taped up with fire-colored streamers and covered in real twigs.  (Looked great!)  For games, we played "Pin the Horn on the Bufflo," using a great buffalo mural drawn by my mom on a very inexpensive piece of craft paper, again bought at a paint supply store. The kids made dream catchers out of found sticks and extra lengths of yarn.  This was especially fun because we learned that dream catchers were a traditional way some Indians celebrated births and birthdays!  Perfect!  For food, we called hot dogs "prarie dogs." Oh...  invitations were simple and cute: On preformed cardstock invites that came with their own envelopes (only $2 for 12!!), just glue red, orange, and yellow "flames" of construction paper atop tiny brown "sticks" of paper and then glue bits of torn up cotton balls above.  This is your "smoke signal" invitation...  We just put a little prose on the front and the party particulars inside.  If you use a computer to do your printing, look for fonts that look primitive.  Lots of fun! And for added atmosphere, we found lots of music that features flutes, drums, etc.  Speaking of drums, we also let the kids decorate coffee can drums that had been covered in craft paper. Some were filled with beans for the rainstick sound.  Cheap, fun, and an instant party favor!  This is what the kids used to collect candy from the pinata.  The final party favors were bows my husband made from found green breanches and red raffia.  No arrows though. lol... All in all, a very memorable and fun party for our little girl!