The Park

• Throw an outdoor birthday party at your local neighborhood park. Check with your parks and recreation department to reserve a pavilion that includes picnic tables and cooking facilities such as a grill.
  
  Decorate the pavilion with streamers and balloons before your guests arrive. Cover the tables with plastic tablecloths and secure the corners with tape in case it's a windy day. Grab several large coolers to hold food, drinks and ice for the party.
  
  Reserve one cooler to be filled with ice for drinks. Include a plastic cup so guests can scoop ice without using their hands. Reserve another cooler for kid drinks such as juice boxes and water. Keep a separate cooler for adult drinks if you plan to include parents.
  
  If you plan to cook a meal, place meat and vegetables on ice in a cooler and keep cold until it's time to grill. Bring bags of chips, pretzels or other snacks and pour into large plastic bowls at the park. Don't forget the condiments, paper plates, napkins, plastic silverware and the cake.
  
  For extra fun, hire a bounce house company to provide a large blow-up bounce house or water slide that the kids can use. Or you could create games and activities such as a two-legged race, pin the tail on the donkey or bring a piñata.
  
  

Laser Tag/Bounce House

• Host your child's next birthday party at a laser tag or bounce house venue. Most bounce house and laser tag emporiums offer special birthday party package deals that include a pizza party for your guests, soda and cake cutting. You can also arrange to have the venue create and assemble goodie bags too.
  
  Because these parties are physical in nature, most bounce house and laser tag companies ask that each guest's parent sign a waiver before allowing the child into the bounce house or laser tag room. Be sure that you include this waiver with each invitation, along with any special instructions that the parent needs to know prior to the party.
  
  Because children need to wear socks at many bounce house party places, bring a few extra pairs of clean socks for the kids who forget.
  
  

Bowling

• A bowling birthday party is a classic tradition for many American families. Because of their popularity, many bowling alleys have special birthday party package plans that include food, drinks, cake, decorations, shoes and goodie bags. Because bowlers need to wear socks under their bowling shoes, bring a few extra clean pairs for those who forget.
  
  For an extra special party, include a few game tokens at the end so the kids can play video games if the bowling alley has a game room.