The Budget Scooby Doo Birthday Party

My middle daughter turns 8 in a few weeks and she is Scooby Doo mad!  Her birthday follows Mr Wildes birthday by a few days and so May is a very pricey month.

I had said no party this year due to costs.  Each year I've hired a hall, an entertainer, done decorations, a big cake, food, party bags for 20+ children and easily waved goodbye to £400-500 in the process.  That is our entire budget for this month after bills.... For food, clothes, nappies, household stuff, petrol, Easter, 2 in house birthdays, 2 other childrens birthdays...  In short it seems like its impossible.  But I do like a challenge!

So first off Hall Hire... Why? I have a perfectly good venue here in Wilde Towers - Ok I cannot house the entire class but that also works in my favour! 8 friends invited using these wonderful invitations which arrived in record time and look the part!

Pre budget costs of invitations and hall hire £95 - This year £5!

Entertainer
I've worked with children for 4 years and been a mother for 10. Why pay out for an entertainer when I can easily do this myself. Ok, I'll avoid dressing up and pulling fluffy animals out of a hat. I would like my daughter to still be speaking to me after the party and avoid the added expense of counselling her through the trauma of her friends seeing her 32 year old tubby mother dressed as a talking dog.... or worse a sexy Daphne!!!  But I can facilitate a few fun tasks, games and dancing whilst keeping them in line.

I really want to theme the whole party and keep the thread going throughout.  So I thought a mystery would be the best.  Each game will unearth a clue which in turn leads to the next task/game. All to find the missing party bags...

Game 1 - Mummies.  Big sister (who at 10 is a great sport!) will need turning into a mummy.  Each child will have a toilet roll of bandages to wrap afore mentioned sister in! A word will be written on each roll to assemble into the next clue.

Game 2 - Charades.  How good are you at picking up clues?  Lots of Scooby Doo/Mystery themed things for the children to act out one at a time and the other to guess at.

Game 3 - Musical Statues.  Last person standing gets to open the next clue envelope! Using the Scooby Doo Theme tune music of course.

Game 4 - What is in the bag.  An old one but a good one. Mystery items inside the pillow cases for the children to try and guess.  Last one being a plate and cutlery.  Time for food!

Scooby Snacks! Has to be Hot Dogs - I just cannot go cheap on meat - Horse anyone?! So it will be a plate full of nice sausages, rolls, tomato sauce, crisps and a few cut up veggies to make me feel better! Followed by a home made ice cream factory - Vanilla Ice cream, a few sauces, raisins and sweets for them to decorate.  All on Scooby Doo plates and cups picked up from Amazon to keep the theme going £35 ish

The Cake - Now I will make her a cake on her actual birthday but middle daughter doesn't really like birthday cake.  She always peels the icing off, scrapes the filling out then picks at the sponge.  She loves blowing the candles out and that is all I'm really after for her party.  Something to stick candles in and sing around.  So when I spotted that Tesco did a cake in the style of a Scooby Doo Hamburger I was sold!  I do keep having to shrug off the feeling of guilt that I'm not making it from scratch for her but then I remember birthday parties past when I was up until 2am the night before making a masterpiece from sugar. The stress of it not quite going right.  The kitchen devastation.  Then the party on only 4 hours sleep and I feel much much better.  I now only lose sleep that they'll stop producing the cake the week before her birthday!  I'm sure she'll benefit from having a much more chilled out mother on the day..... ok ok less stressed!

After food, a rest to digest.  My plan is to watch a 20 minute episode of Scooby to allow the food to settle and stop it just as Thelma is about to reveal 'whodunit' and ask them to guess who it is... if they get it right they'll get an envelope which reveals the whereabouts of the party bags.

After that some music and a dance until the parents arrive.

What do you think? I'm hoping it goes really well and all for around £60-70 all in.  I'll update after the party with how it all went and hopefully with some photos too!

Mama Wilde


Belated update:

This party ROCKED!!!! I didn't need to do the episode watching as the party was going so well and all the children were really up for each challenge.  Birthday girl loved it so much she is still wanting to do it all again this year 5 months on :)