My son will be 3 in a few weeks. When you have a child with a winter birthday, you have to think a little harder about where you'll have the party. There are no backyard, pool, park, or beach parties for us.
I had his first birthday in our home. Yea, *that* was fun. I wound up cleaning for days! The clown spilled paint on my white carpet while face-painting and I am STILL pulling tape down from the different places streamers and banners had been hung. I think my exact words to my husband after the party were, "I'll never do that again."
His second party was more mild. A few of our friends came over for dinner and we all sang happy birthday. We don't have family here on the Island other than our friends.. so it was very nice and intimate and my son was happy with that.
This year is different. He goes to preschool now and has little friends at shool. This will be his first "real" kid birthday party.
I considered my options (no, the house was not one of them). There are many places around that will let you have a party. I consulted some other Moms in the area and asked what they did as well as made a few phone calls.
Here are some places to have a party:
Sports Plus
--For me this place is way too noisy, crowded, and not for little guys under 10: they'll get trampled. They are located in Lake Grove across the street from the Smithhaven Mall. A birthday party will be anywhere from 10.95/child to 25.95/child. Click here for more info:
Sports Plus at Lake Grove, New York - Party Paks
McDonalds
--this is great for little kids. If you really think about it.. your 3 - 6 year old would love some chicken nuggets and playing on the indoor playground. One Mom told me, "Claudine, my son STILL talks about his birthday party at McDonalds and I didn't have to do a THING!"
Chuck-E-Cheese
--This is a toned-down version of sports plus. There is one located in Commack. Little kids (3 to 6 year olds)will love it.
Click here for info on their parties.
I've decided to go with Fun 4 All
I like this place because my son's idea of a fun is finding a good playground and you can't find a better indoor playground anywhere. They have lots of different packages available. Prices are anywhere from 7.95/child and up. I'll let you know how it went after it's over. I do have a couple things I'm not crazy about so far:
They have invitations and thank you notes as a perk of one of the more expensive package. I really think the invitations and thank you notes are horrid. They are blatant advertising by fun for all and if *I* were running the business I'd be embarrassed to pass them off as suitable invitations. I wound up cutting the directions out of them and buying some invitations at CVS. You see.. it's not about not being fancy or pristeen enough: they are just ugly.
You can't bring your own food. They have to supply it. Now, normally I wouldn't care about this except that when someone tells me I can't do something I feel this awful compulsion to do it.
So far, those are my only complaints. I am excited about the party though and most of my guests haven't been there before so it should be fun for all of them.
Click here for more info on Fun 4 All.