One birthday party my son's friends still talk about (16 years later) was when I brought in loads of refrigerator, stove, appliance boxes which I got from a local appliance store. I made them into a maze in our unfinished basement. I'd leave the flaps open rather than jamming all the boxes into one another so that they'd have open areas to peek out (yell, hoot.. do boy things).
At the time "Legend of Zelda" was very popular so I'd placed everyday objects in the maze they had to find. Each boy was given one object.. I gave some goofy explanation so it had meaning. A spoon for the kid who liked to stir things up, a whisk for the kid who was so fast, Indian corn for the kid who like corny jokes.. etc.. I had them go in one at a time to find their object. Once they'd all done that they got to have their own fun time.
I had stuff they could use to decorate it (uhhh.. didn't work so well), Silly String (worked too well!). I figure just think of fun things to do and go with it. They had a blast and ended up creating their own maze designs.
It's cheap, fun and tossable.
Another was a video game party where I rented/borrowed at least three different platforms for the kids to play with whatever the hottest games were on the market. The kids separated into groups. After a certain amount of time (and sharing that time) they moved to another station. When they got too antsy we played run around til you burn off energy games and I let them back in. This was in December. If they were old enough, it ended with a sleepover with a movie and fun stuff to eat.
Depending on they wanted, I had a ghost story or some funny story (I usually made up on the fly).
Now I'll return the thread.
*hugs*
They had a blast and ended up creating their own maze designs.
