We were recently invited to a birthday party for my daughter’s classmate. The party was really creative and I was seriously impressed with how the mom put it together. AND it’s an affordable birthday party that doesn’t involve your home…
Tour an Animal Hospital
We attended a “field trip” style birthday party at the animal hospital located within our local PetSmart store. The fantastic folks from the Banfield Animal Clinic gave the birthday girl and her friends a tour of their clinic.
They talked with the kids about all of the reasons people bring their pets to the clinic and how the staff at the clinic cares for the animals.
They even showed the kids X-ray images of pets and asked them to guess which object the pet swallowed by mistake.
[pinit]
The kids loved it. The fine folks at Banfield Animal Hospital also provided the kids with an animal stethoscope, a frisbee and some other goodies.
Okay, so if you are still reading, you get to hear the best part now…it’s FREE! Well, the mom who arranged this party told me she was planning to make a donation to the animal hospital, so it’s not totally free. But what a great way to host a unique birthday party that doesn’t break the bank or involve having a ton of people at your house. Plus, it gives kids an opportunity to see grown ups doing a job they admire.
A few things to note here:
- Do NOT contact PetSmart about having a birthday party there. They will tell you they don’t host birthday parties (because that is true). If you are local to Knoxville, you will want to contact the Banfield Animal Hospital directly. If you are located somewhere else, you could always approach your local pet clinic and see if this is an option for you.
- Obviously, this is not a normal service the clinic provides, they simply responded to a request from a parent, so keep that in mind if you are calling to request this kind of event.
- This is NOT a good party idea for small kids. In my opinion, this is ideal for kids who are 7-10 years old, who can stand quietly and listen to a tour.
- It is also not for the tender-hearted. Some of the kids were a little shy about seeing animals in need of medical attention.
- You cannot have cake and ice cream there. It’s not like there’s a partyroom, which brings me to the next part of this awesome birthday party…
Cake and Ice Cream
After the tour, the party moved over to a nearby ice cream shop. Did you know you can have a birthday party in the Baskin Robbins shop for free? It’s available on a first come first-served basis (so you might want to send someone ahead to save a few seats and roll out a table cloth and some paper plates that go with your party theme.)
The mom brought this really cute cookie cake to Baskin Robbins.
She ordered ice cream sundaes from Baskin Robbins made with cookies and icing to look like little dogs. Each child also got a stuffed dog and a chocolate pop in the shape of a paw. The whole thing was really thoughtfully done.
Hats off to Stacy Roddy for putting this party together, and Happy 8th Birthday to Olivia!
And if you are local to Knoxville and have an animal in need of care, you should totally consider the Banfield Animal Clinic. There are some really great people there.
That is genius. We had my son’s 5th birthday activity at the Fire Station. Then we went to Firehouse Subs to keep with the theme for cupcakes and snacks. I only had to buy 3 sandwiches and they cut them really thin for the kids. They had a table arranged and fire hats and other fun stuff. It was awesome. I love thinking outside of the box on parties.
Hah! Great minds. Check out my column in the News Sentinel today. http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/feb/26/heather-alexander-birthday-parties-on-a-dime/
Thanks so much for this creative post. We must get together soon and catch up. Can you believe my “baby” is now three?!
Thanks, Margaret! How are you? Hope you guys are doing great. Would love to catch up with you. I’ll shoot you an email.
Heather