Don't spend a ton of money...just order a couple dozen custom-decorated cupcakes and some helium-filled balloons. Kids love the cupcakes and you don't have to mess with decorating a cake. You can also bake the cupcakes yourself ahead of time, freeze them, then on the day of the party put a little white icing on each to be a blank canvass. Then put out decorating gels, sprinkles, chocolate chips...and let the kids decorate them! Just have lots of paper towels around to clean up any messes...and you can always give out cheap party supplies in a Chinese take-out container...including a mini-toothbrush & toothpaste to encourage the kids to brush after eating the sugary birthday cupcakes.

Good luck!!

The best birthday party I ever had has a child was my 11th -- when my mom threw me a "dress-up party". I had five or six girls over, we got dressed up in hand-me-down party dresses and my mom curled our hair while we did makeup for each other. When we were all ready Mom took "glamour pictures" of each of us in our getups. Mom and I had prepared the meal ahead of time -- chicken pieces rolled in butter and crunched-up potato chips and cooked in the oven. She got fancy plastic champagne glasses and we ate in the dining room on the fancy plates.

While this exact theme might not appeal to a boy, my point is that i wasn't a big deal for my Mom to pull of but I still remember it 43 years later as the best party I ever had.

Birthday parties drive me crazy too - My son wanted to take a bunch of friends camping and roast marshmellows over the fire. Who wants to spend the weekend with five 7 year olds camping? Plus - we are not a camping family, we've only been once.

I told my son we would put the tent up in the backyard, buy a small fire pit and roast hot dogs and marshmellows. He thought it was the greatest idea in the world.

No...you are not the only one! I can't stand the whole petting zoo, clown, make your own pottery, $500 - $1000+ parties that have become popular. With my two kids, I try to alternate between large and small parties so it isn't always a big thing.

Our standard budget for a party is $150, I will give the kids a choice between few kids (like 2 or 3) or more kids (no more than 10). They know that they will get to do something special if they have a small party, or get to have more games and friends with a large party.

Easiest party ever?? One year my 13 y.o. son chose to take his two best friends to the mall and spend the party allowance with his friends. He let each friend pick out something they wanted and he bought it for them (a t-shirt, a cd) and then the three of them played video games, ate food, saw a movie, used the massage chairs, etc. He said it was the best because he would normally never get to have a 'mall run' like that. And talk about ZERO fuss or planning!

My daughter just had a fairly large party with 10 guests. She wanted to have a costume party, and since she's October it worked. Buying decorations and a costume was a two-fer since we would have bought most of it anyhow for the coming holiday. We played freeze dance, telephone, guess how many candy corn in the jar, pin the nose on the pumpkin (paper triangles, tape, and a poster board), and had a leaf fight in the yard.

There is nothing wrong with having 3 kids over to spend the night, make your own pizzas, rent a movie, and camp out on the living room floor! It is actually more fun and more memorable!

CM