Cleverly Organized Chaos: How I threw a GREAT bday party for $25 total.

This last week my "baby" turned 10. Ack! that means I have no more kids in the single digits. This Momma is not ready for that. lol However the fact is his birthday did come and since it was a landmark birthday we wanted to throw him a special birthday. Of course I went straight to pinterest for ideas. I found many wonderful idea there and amazing decorations etc. but honestly I have to admit kids birthday parties nowadays are sooooo lavish. I have thrown both the more lavish parties complete with hiring someone to come dressed as a princess and all that and I did enjoy those parties but they were a LOT of work and a lot of money. So this year we decided to do something different, plus we are trying to be more frugal as well. So instead we had a "summer splash" party. Now the part of the country we live in even in August is a crap shoot as to if it will be sunny enough, but it is usually warm enough and we are the one part of the country that has not been suffering under extreme heat conditions this summer so I figured it would be ok. Well not only was it ok but the weather turned out great! It was hot and sunny that day. The boys had a big water balloon and water gun war outside. After they did that for awhile they dried off and came inside and played for a bit then opened presents. One of the presents my son received was a nerf gun with a bunch of extra bullets. This was great as he had a bunch of nerf guns already but we had been out of bullets so he used his new one and all the boys used the other ones and they had a giant nerf gun war too. What group of 10 year old boys doesn't love that? lol. We served pizza and chips for lunch and I made an old fashioned chocolate birthday cake...and by that I mean from scratch. I used this recipe from the amazing Pioneer Woman. I had most of the ingredients I needed and only had to buy one thing. After it was over my son came up to me and threw his arms around me and gave me a big hug and told me this was one of his most favorite parties ever. Mission accomplished. He was happy and our wallet was not empty.
Here is the cost breakdown:
1 package of 100 water balloons: $1.00 (dollar tree)
2 bigger water guns: $2.50 each (summer clearance isle at Walmart)
1 package of 5 smaller water guns: $2.00 (summer clearance isle at Walmart)
Total: $8.00
Grocery store: (I used safeway)
3 large frozen pizzas: $3.49 each (with a coupon from Safeway)
2 bags of chips: $1.50 each (on sale)
3 bottles of soda: $.69 each (on sale)
1 carton heavy cream: $1.50 (on sale...for frosting on cake)
1 package of 30 paper plates: $2.99 (on sale)
1 package of 30 cups : $2.00 (on sale)
1 bunch of birthday balloons: $5.00 (on sale)
Total: 27.03
MINUS $10.00 (store coupon I had for $10.00 off my total purchase
Total: $17.03

Grand Total= $25.03!!
(ok maybe not exactly 25 dollars on the nose but close enough)

My son having such a great time at his party = Priceless :)

And there you have it, how I threw a great bday party without breaking the bank.