Hellobee Boards

I'll be following this thread, as we're in the same boat as you. One place we are considering is the local humane society. They let you rent our their conference room for free if you make a pet food donation, and they bring in animals for the kids to play with.

I am planning on renting a place this year, it's a local party space, costs about $250 for the day and it has a kitchen and a bathroom.

I like the idea of a get to know you party for kindergarten age, mentally saving that for next year.

We had the dinner portion of C's 1st birthday party at a local Mexican restaurant that he has always loved going to. We then came home for a big dessert bar and gifts. We only had family members (only 13 of us) in attendance or we'd have had the whole thing at our house.

We rented a pavilion at a local park for D's party last year. It was really great. Besides that, we've always had it at our house.

M's party will be at our house next year.

Probably will all be at our house until he's older and has preference on location.

@Mrs. Bee: we had Paige's 1st at a steakhouse. we will never be doing that again. WAY too much involved. Her 2nd was at KidsU which is in NJ but it's a HUGE space much like gymboree but it also has a quad cube for climbing and a small basketball area. It also had a toddler area for little children too so you can accommodate kids of all ages. Next one will probably be at a zoo or somewhere with animals.

When my DD turned 5, she had a party at a pottery painting place. Some of her friends have had parties at the museum of natural science, local bounce house place, etc... I think the skating rink sounds fun but my DD can't skate yet and she's almost 6..
My DS is getting his first friend party this year (age 3) but not sure where

DD's first birthday was at Jane's carousel. We're planning her second and we think if we move in time we will have it in our new apartment.

1st - our house
2nd - play gym at local community center - they had a giant bounce house, tons of ride on toys, trikes, scooters, balls, and small toys. There was also a face painting lady who mostly painted on the little kids hands bc the kids wanted to see the drawing. They also had dropped the hoop on one side for the bigger kids to play basketball. They provided tables, chairs, plates and utensils for kids, juice boxes, pizza, balloons and goodie bags. They allowed me to bring whatever food I wanted so I had snacks and food for the adults and cupcakes for everyone. I loved just packing my stuff and leaving the clean up for them. I don't think I'll ever host a kids party at my house again (unless it's a small slumber party or something). I loved it.

At our lake house. I imagine we will do this every year since we spend the majority of our time there in the summer and DS is an August baby.

Our house. But I would love to try:

Museum (natural, children's, or train)
Ice cream shop
Zoo
Gymnasium
Park, ideally with water (we have a few natural springs in our town)
Botanical garden