A Fun, Inexpensive Party Activity for Kids 10 and Younger

So, a friend of mine was talking about his weekend and mentioned a kids' birthday party he had attended. He was just amazed out how much fun the kids were having with this one particular activity. This particular set of party goers were celebrating a 4th birthday. It really goes back to the old theory of you can spend a ton of money on a fancy toy that they'll play with for 5 minutes or just give a kid a box and let them make a day of it. This activity was built around just that -- BOXES! I know, sounds too good to be true! The premise -- The kids get to create an environment with these boxes that they will enjoy for hours. So, let's get started.

Boxes
First, make sure you have boxes. If you don't have enough in your garage (which I sadly admit that I probably do!), a lot of local retail stores can provide these. They generally have lots left over from shipments received of items stocked. Just ask someone at the front or maybe a store manager. You may also just want to check out back behind the stores.

Theme
Next, you pick out your theme. For girls, you may want to go with a princess theme, for boys maybe a train theme (which was the case for this particular party), or maybe for an older crowd, do something like a space station or Star Wars. The thought here is that it needs to be a theme that you can build around with your cardboard "blocks." Once you start thinking about it -- your mind may go crazy with options -- cars, trains, castles, space stations, the Empire State Building, etc. The list goes on and on.