My boy just turned 3!! Time flies like speed of light, doesn’t it? I had been planning on his birthday party since last year. My son is a Winter baby, meaning I have to have the party indoor, and having a bunch of toddlers and school-aged kids running around my house is completely out of the question. My goal was to find a venue that my son could enjoy as well as the guests, whose ages range from babies to first graders with the majority of them are toddler-aged, all within $250 budget. Seems impossible? The average birthday party venues cost around $200 just to rent the space. So if you’d like to spend $200, you have to avoid lunch or dinner time so that you don’t have to spend money on meal. The very least you can do is providing snack for the kids and cake for the kids and parents. After doing several research, I made a list of options:
1. Inflatable bouncy house at local recreation center
Renting a room at a government subsidized recreation center at your local neighborhood (e.g. Lazelle Woods recreation center in Worthington) is very affordable. Check http://recparks.columbus.gov/RecCenters/RecCenters_59.asp for a list of recreation center in your area. An average size activity room costs around $25 for two hours. In addition to the room, I was going to rent a bouncy house that costs $175 for three hours from Cool Cats Entertainment. This is a good option if the kids are about the same age. Otherwise, you will have bigger kids that are being too physical and might end up hurting the younger ones.
2. Graeters Ice Cream
Graeters is another good option to have a birthday party. The one in Bethel rd actually have a fun play area. The party options are either decorate your own Sundae or ice cream cake party. The cost is $10.95 per child for up to 14 children. Visit http://www.graeters.com/bethel_parties.aspx for more information.
The above options were being strongly considered, but I still faced the same problem. I had way too many guest list than what these venues could accommodate. Therefore, I decided to ask one of my friend, who is in my guest list and her son’s birthday is 4 days apart, to have a double birthday bash!
She agreed and suggested Rainbow Recreation Outlet as our party venue. After visiting the place, I fell in love with it. The place is huge with tons activities for the kids to play. They have several Little Tikes toys such as playhouses, diners, cars, and even two roller coasters. They also have basketball hoops, big and small ones, trampoline, slides and swing set. The place accommodates kids up to 7 years old, which is perfect for my guests. You can also rent a private after hour party, which what we ended up doing. The cost for the after hour party is $249 for two hours. My friend and I split everything except the cake. We even split the goodie bags by guests, knowing that most parents don’t really like their kids having too much candies and trinkets that are typically found in goodie bags. I provided the paper plates and cups and my friend provided sodas. Since we split the costs, we have enough budget to order pizza. I’m so happy to be able to have this double birthday bash. Not only we both save money, we also make it easier for our guests. My total costs:
party room: $125.00
cake: 65.00
favors: 18.00
plates: 6.00
pizza: 60.00
Total: $274.00
I was a little bit over budget, but we all had a fabulous time. Perfect venue, perfect time, I got to invite everybody, my friend was a wonderful partner, it couldn’t be any better. However, this double birthday party only works if you and your partner invite the same circle of friends that you both hang out with, and I’m happy that my friend and I did just that!
