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" I&amp;#039;m very happily exhausted as I write this. I am proud to report that I survived a birthday sleepover party with seven ever-energetic boys, seven sets of water guns and one endless popcorn fight that took place in my living room sometime after 10 p.m. Best of all, I did it on a dime and I can&amp;#039;t believe how much fun I&amp;#039;m having saving money! As you know, my son Matthew, turned 10 on the 16th and we celebrated on his weeknight birthday with just us and my mom. He kept begging to have his friends over the house for a sleepover party (since he opted out of a birthday party last year) and I relented. At least he didn&amp;#039;t want one at our local bowling alley which has upped its price to $15 per child, or at the local paintball alley that&amp;#039;s around $100 per hour (yikes). So I said yes to a good old-fashioned sleepover and I was determined to not spend a lot of money and to NOT use my credit cards at all. What a blast!  I forgot how much fun kids can have just\u2026playing. Remember those days? They sure seem like they&amp;#039;re in the distant past. The boys got dropped off at 2 pm and from the minute they arrived they played on our trampoline outside (thank God the sun was shining) and just had some good old fun. Next they played dodge ball, kickball and then climbed trees. Cost? Nada, and no one even got hurt! Next, my daughter Hannah and my friend and his daughter secretly filled a pack of balloons ($.99 cents) with water and ambushed the gang from the deck with splashes of fun. They got us back by pretending to be hurt and when we came running out, they threw cups of water on us! Next it was time for pizza. I scoured the local places until I found one that offered buy-one-get-one-free large cheese pizzas. Four large pizzas were delivered to the party for $20! I made a bucket of lemonade for about a nickel a serving and they had cake for dessert ($1.00 for the mix and $2.00 for the frosting). After cleanup the boys got into their pajamas and made a camp in my living room out of their sleeping bags and I made popcorn (already had it) for them as they watched movies. For breakfast, it was pancakes for all (with ingredients I already had) and pick up was at 10 am. And they didn&amp;#039;t leave empty handed. God Bless the Dollar Store! Each boy got a baseball-decorated bucket filled with a water gun, handcuffs and bubble gum from the dollar store, for which I paid a total of $22.00! All birthday and no bling equaled loads of fun! All for around $45! It just goes to show you don&amp;#039;t have to spend a fortune to throw a good party. Let them play! How have you saved money on your kid&amp;#039;s parties? Share your tips here! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/a46873/birthday-blast-minus-the-bling-291/>