I did something similar.... but for my daughter. She moved away. Most of her friends live near me. I invited them all over, to surprise her, at one of her visits. But, I really left it all up to the girls. I made smoothies, and then my son in law and I took the kids to a pool, and let the girls reminisce and enjoy each others company.

It was a smash. I made no plans, nor food for them. They went out and ate deserts at some restaurant.

I would do this again, in the same manner.

Moni

What fun. For entertainment I would set up a couple of craft stations. One could be decorating tshirts with puffy paints which come in pen style so no mess, a station where they could make door handle tags which are sold in packages of 8 or so at craft stores or even dollar stores along with pre cut foam decorations. These are both easy and don't require alot of adult supervision. As far as food maybe a girly type menu with little sandwhiches, cut up fruit kabobs, veggies and dip. I think your idea is a great one. I would do cupcakes or maybe cut out cookies in cute shapes.

Sounds like a fun party. They are friends and just being together again will be fun for them. I wouldn't go to a whole lot of extra trouble trying to please everyone with different flavors. Some people with have both chocolate and vanilla flavored cupcakes, but IMO, it's better to just get one and not worry about it.

For pizza, a lot of kids will only eat cheese so get a couple of those, maybe a pepperoni or two. The adults may like a bigger variety of toppings, but they will pretty much just eat what you have ordered.

For drinks, we usually have ice and soft drinks. I don't know if you are in the part of the country that does Coke products or Pepsi products. We usually get two bottles of 2 liter Coke, and maybe two Sprites and a root beer or Dr. Pepper. Some people also have bottled water available.

You can find out a theme or what the girl is interested in from the mom.

There is a lot of fun stuff for goody bags. Some people have just a bag of candy. I don't do that. I do like to give consumables. Since it's girls, you could go girly with flavored chapsticks, nail polishes, sample size lotions, bath bombs, etc. Or you could do sidewalk chalk, bubbles, cute pens and pencils, notepads, glowsticks, silly straws, or little toys. I somes add individual bags of microwave popcorn, granola bars, individually sized cookies, a full size candy bar or pack of gum. My daughter and her friends really enjoy Pocky. It's in the Asian food aisle and is a thin stick like cookie dipped in chocolate or other flavor. There is a Japanese soft drink called 'Ramune' also sold in the Asian food aisle that the kids love. It has a marble in the top. It's kind of fun if you are looking for something a little different to hand out. Here's the Wikipedia that describes it.

I was at a bday party last weekend and they had walking tacos. Loved them. Never heard of them before but they have been around for years.

Use single serve size bags of Doritos. Crush them in the bag then add to the bag taco meat, lettuce, sour cream, chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, taco sauce whatever you like I tacos. Mix it altogether and enjoy. Just toss the bag when finished.

Desserts: Ice cream served in disposable cups with an array of toppings set out for them to serve themselves.

Entertainment: Have the party at a roller skating rink? It was many years ago but my children enjoyed this.

How difficult would it be to set up a "photo booth"? Each child could have a pic with the birthday girl as well as a group shot in inexpensive frames as a permanent keepsake. Lots of really good suggestions!

I just gave on in December for 12 kids. I did an old fashion Birthday party with old fashion games, they loved it. We had a taco bar, bucket bonanza, pin the tale on the Donkey, unwrap a present that is layered with wrappings with oven mits on (big hit), Find the saftey pins in the rice blindfolded. Everyone got prizes for every game. Bought all of them at dollar tree or 5 and below. Also cupcakes for desert. We had a full 2 hours of fun, everyone loved it.

Kids also love chicken nuggets or strips with ranch dressing and raw veggies such as baby carrots, celery, broccoli and jicama (they like the texture) dipped in ranch dressing. I like the idea of fruit kabobs, but if you don't have time just something simple like sliced melon would be a nice addition.

If the weather is nice, you could hold it at a local park and bbq hamburgers and hotdogs. If there happens to be a community pool at the park, they could also go swimming.

For desserts I think cupcakes would be a nice option and less messy than regular cake. And ice cream station as suggested above is really fun for the kids to make it just the way they like it.

Drinks could be water, lemonade and apple juice. Sparkling apple juice might be fun too.

For entertainment, you could show one of the recent popular kids movies and make popcorn for them to snack on.

The painted t-shirts also sounds like a lot of fun. Besides decorating their shirts, they could also sign each others shirts as mementos of each other.

Little girls are pretty easy to please at this age. They'll be so happy to see each other that they'll have fun no matter what!

We've usually done pizza. A few times burgers and hot dogs on the grill. I like the suggestion of sandwiches. Depending on how many girls, they can make their own combos.

Chips and pretzels. This is a party. No need to feel that everything has to be healthy!

You can put out veggies and dip, but they might not eat it.

Do, lemonade, fruit punch or juice.

Cupcakes for dessert. Bonus if you can have them decorate them!

Girls this age like making things and being creative.

Wow! So many good ideas for me. Based on your comments, I will go with cupcakes. Niece loves butterflies so maybe they can be decorated with butterflies somehow. Many mention BBQ and since my plan was burgers and sausages with all the trimmings for the adults, perhaps adding hot dogs to the menu for the kids would work. Hmmm?

Love the idea of crafts. I'm thinking tees in girls size large, with the puffy paint mentioned and then signed. My thought is the tees can be used as a bathing suit coverup. Pictures are doable, so will see whats available in inexpensive frames.

Will have watermelon, assorted snacks and the drinks suggested. Ice cream in cups with toppings sounds good too.

My head is just spinning taking in all the great ideas. Thank you, thank you each and every one!

Popped back in. If you do the t=shirts, you will need cardboard to put in the middle, otherwise the paint will seep through to the back of the shirt. It also makes it a hard surface to paint on.

So many great ideas here, and as others have mentioned, at that age they will be happy to hang out and run around! My biggest advice would be to not have to many structured activities.

They will find fun things to do, groups of kids always do!

For my 6 year olds party last week, we set up the bouncy castle we own in the garage and put a fun sprinkler toy on a hose out in the driveway. We have a pool too and between those things plus the bikes, sidewalk chalk and bubbles we always have laying around, what was originally a scheduled 2 hour party ended up lasting until all the kids and adults were worn out and headed home around 7.

I went and picked up a bunch of pizzas to feed everyone on the fly but we have had plenty of planned parties like this where we grill burgers and hot dogs too.

An ice cream bar is great fun if you want to be a little more polished, or if you want stress and maintenance free, go with popsicles or other frozen treats with plenty of bottled water and Capri Suns etc to drink.

We get kids at my grand's (just turned 5 and almost 3) parties that range in age from infant in arms to around aged 10. Unless the guest list is limited to a few close friends of the same age with similar interests I agree with Texas Gem about not over structuring. The best parties involve free play, action and water. Plus bubbles. All ages enjoy bubbles. At grandson's last birthday held in their backyard squirt guns were the big hit. Not little ones, super soakers. There were water tables set up and also a kiddie pool with slide.

At his first birthday party which was held in a park the theme was old fashioned cowboy. Small squirts guns were provided there.

Grand daughter's party was also at the park this year. Son-in-law set up an area where he made balloon animals all afternoon. Food was simple, chips, goldfish crackers, fruit trays and croissant sandwich trays from Costco.

In the past they have grilled burgers and dogs and have done pizza. With pizza there is always cheese, pepperoni and a chicken veggie.

Coolers hold soda, juice boxes and water. It's a party. No one worries about who eats what or nutritional content. The parents who have children with allergies make sure their kids stay out of foods that affect them. Parents of ultra picky little ones bring snacks.

DD's friends still bring up her sweet sixteen party. Instead of the big milestone deal we went backwards in time. Held little kids traditional party. Musical chairs, pin the tail on the donkey, a scavenger hunt.

I was in Dollar Tree tonight. They have a lot of butterfly themed party ware this year.

Texas! Having a bouncing castle and a pool isn't the same as just having a yard.

So, yes if you have all those things, sure kids can run from one to another. No planning needed. But, I think that to just let a large group run freely is not a good idea.

But, I think that to just let a large group of 8-year-olds run freely is not a good idea.

You can always scale back, but you should still be prepared.

I think either pizza or tacos. Obviously pizza would be easier but kids like tacos too! And yes, I would do cupcakes -- you COULD let the kids decorate their own if you want as an activity but still have ice cream -- for birthdays you need both cake and ice cream. For the cupcakes, I'd keep it simple -- vanilla and chocolate -- kids like one or another (or both!) I'd ask your sis what kind of things you're niece would be interested in to play and a favorite character or theme that she's in love with so that you will have a theme for your party.

eld6161- I wasn't trying to imply that it was the same. I have also had parties before we got the bouncy castle and when the pool is closed and the kids still had plenty of fun running around.

My only point was that unstructured free play results in the kids having a blast and less stress on the adults.

8 year olds will come up with their own games to play.

As watchmelol said, bubbles and some kind of water. A sprinkler, squirt guns, we went to a birthday yesterday that had a water balloon fight.

I didn't mean there should be nothing, just that it shouldn't be too structured.