I love giving my kids a birthday party, but sometimes the costs seem to creep up too high. I just found a great article online about planning a birthday party on a tight budget. It has some great ideas! If anyone else is interested, here is the link to the article:
http://funkidspartyideas.com/gpage35.html

I love ya for this one! Thanks!

I am planning a "Pirate" party for my 1 yr old (I have 3 kids so it is a party for all of them) Actually, most of the tips mentioned in the link are on my list to do. I always make my babies cakes and I am making a treasure chest this year. I planned on making my own pinata too! A skull pinata....real simple.

If you make your own cakes, you should check out allrecipes.com for buttercream fondant icing. It is icing that is like playdough and I love it!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Rolled-...nt/Detail.aspx

thank you mommies for sharing. my son is 15months old, we had his first bday at mcdonald's because my budget was tight and couldn't spend more $. but i promised myself and my son that i will start saving for his 2nd birthday so we can have it in a nicer setting. the links you shared will be a great help in my preps...many thanks again

call your local "international" airport. Believe it or not, some of them offer free birthday parties or tours!!! Tampa International Airport (Tampa, FL), offers FREE birthday parties. They supply the room & games, you just supply the cake & paper goods. One of the tours takes you to the airport firehouse, which is literally located on the tarmac. Really, really cool party. Only drawback is you have to pay to park!

Also, many local firehouses will offer free tours and give out freebies to the kids. We've also done the "free" birthday" at a local state park.

It's all about the free stuff. Scour your local newspaper and ask, ask, ask other moms.

apollo99, your tips are great. I'm going to call my local airport to see if they offer free tours/birthday parties.

For my daughter's 7th birthday we went to a YMCA arts and crafts center. It's completely run by volunteers and only open for parties. It costs money to book there (less than $100 for 10 kids) but they provide everything but the cake. All paper products, a goody bag, drinks and snacks, fun games. And you don't have to worry about clean-up. We make the cake and my daughter and her friends spent the entire afternoon there. Many of the kids were still talking about it a couple months later.