i need some help here if you can.

My daughter is 9 today:) She is having a sleep over party. This way I don't have to rent out anywhere or pay for bowling. I am making pizza and cake. I did buy a pinata and will fill it with some candy. For the games we are doing old fashion games. 1. Relay race with cotton balls on a spoon 2. sit on balloon and see who breaks their first 3. Scavanger hunt around the yard. I am also renting a couple of dvd's for them to watch so when it comes time to settle down I hope they do. I don't think that this will end up costing me much and I am sure the kids will have fun. If you don't want them to sleep over, just have a party at home for a couple of hours or even at a park where they can play on the playground.

A great party for not a lot of money is to Tie Dye! To save money on this one just ask the moms of the kids coming to bring an old white tee shirt. Then all the supplies you need is a few pails or buckets, a bunch of rubberbands, and some rit dye. Not too many colors on the dyes for kids that age will just want to keep dunking . . so the fewer colors they have available will actually create better looking designs. There are great youtube videos that can show you how to direct the kids to which design they want their shirt . .again I would limit this to 3 suggestions. And at 8 years old they are great at rubberbanding their own shirts. When I had this party for my daughter I made a poster showing them what their rubberbands could create - a starburst and a fan and the last options was just freestyle. This is a great party if you have a backyard . . the shirts can dry all around a fence or branches on a tree which makes for great no cost decorations. The proud look on their little faces when they see their creation is worth a million bucks!

we can still have a party without spending a lot. kids can still have fun without costing too much. i don't know how you made parties for kids before but here's a few alternatives you can do: instead of a big cake, you can have cupcakes and just make colorful icings on them and sprinkle with chocolates or other goodies. line them up in a circling pattern and you can have a round cake. line them up in straight lines and it would look like a rectangular cake. saves you a lot, and no slicing needed too. ;) spaghetti seems like a big hit for kids everywhere i go. you can reduce the meat and sausages by half the amount provided you use broth (chicken or pork or beef). this way, the taste is still there but the cost of the meat is less. aside from ground meat, corned beef can be an alternative. hotdogs on stick can be reduced in size. instead of regular or jumbo sized hotdogs, use cocktail or bite size hotdogs and add a small marshmallow on top to make it colorful. fruit punch instead of packed juices. there are easy to make powdered juice drinks and put fruit slices like orange and apples on it. one really inexpensive juice is the pink juice made of boiling sweet potato (camote) tops and lacing the water with sugar and lemon. the greenish water made from boiling the leaves of the sweet potato will turn green when mixed with lemon. for the games, just the traditional ones that are played here but i don't really know how they are called: "trip to jerusalem" is creating a circle of chairs, one less than the number of players. then the music starts, everybody dance around it. when the music stops, everyone will grab a seat. the one without a seat is disqualified and another chair is taken out of the circle. this goes on until there is only one victor. "bring me game" is also fun especially if you ask the kids to bring unusual items like a sock with a hole in it, or the biggest shoes, or the tallest dad, or the longest socks or the dirtiest hanky and so on. "treasure hunt" is a game of resourcefulness and skill. hiding the treasure in an unlikely place and solving riddles for the chance to have a clue on its whereabouts. by the way, where do you plan to hold your party and who are invited? some games are suited for indoors and a lot more for outdoors. the best way to have fun is to engage them while enjoying each other's company. prizes can be something like inexpensive school supplies like a pencil or coloring book or short story and crayons, or something related to school. hope your little girl gets to have some fun on her special day. goodluck and advance happy birthday to her on the 1st. :)