A Perfect Kids Birthday Party for $125?

We go to , and a lot of times, Pastor Rick Warren cracks jokes about how people seem to handle their finances nowadays. He says that too many people in Orange County spend money they don't have on things they don't need to impress people they don't like. He also says don't try to keep up with the Joneses—because they just filed for bankruptcy!

I'm not ashamed to admit that we don't have a lot of spare change. It's tough to make it in this economy in South Orange County, especially when it's one income feeding five mouths. My wife can't work due to the special needs of our 7-year-old son Jack, who is severely autistic. We learned long ago that there's a lot of things we can't afford and we learned not to worry about what anybody might think.

One easy way for us to burn through money trying to keep up with the Joneses would be with our kids' birthday parties. Between the food, activities and entertainment, parties seem like they cost $500 nowadays. However, earlier this summer, we threw one for my 10-year-old for $125 and I have to say, in my 36 years, I don't think I've ever had a more fun birthday party.

There were no entertainers and we didn't go anywhere. There wasn't any fancy catering. We had 10 10-year-olds spend the night and get wild, making marshmallow guns, eating junk, watching a movie and acting like kids acted when I was young.

One of the kids told me it was the "funnest" birthday party he'd ever been to, and I agreed. I had a blast, too. So, here's the breakdown:

• Marshmallow guns, $40. Here's the video I watched to learn about these. You don't have to follow the video exactly to make it work. The most important thing is that there are only two openings. I went to Home Depot, bought the pipe, the connectors, the caps, plus colored electrical tape. The boys had fun using the tape to decorate their guns. I'll admit it, I did too. This includes the $5 we spent on mini marshmallows to shoot with the guns.
• Pizza, $35. We ordered online from Pizza Hut and got four larges for the 10 boys. I ended up having pizza for lunch and dinner for about three days afterwards. Three would have been enough.
• Junk food, $20. My wife bought all sorts of junk food and candy. It seemed like a great idea until the kids were still wild at 11 p.m. Oh, and we didn't need all those leftover peanut M&Ms.
• Donuts, $12. We had a sleepover, so we had donuts for breakfast. I don't think the boys were interested in my oatmeal.
• Cupcakes, $8. Benjamin wanted these instead of cupcakes. His party.
• Decorations, $10. Streamers and stuff like that. I don't know—that's a mom thing to do. But she did it. 
• Movie, $1. Thanks Redbox!

Oh wait, that's $126. Well, close enough.

The kids came over and were playing in the backyard for a little while, playing basketball, chasing each other, talking—you know, playing like 10-year-olds. I went and picked up the pizza and after they ate, we had a gun-building competiton.

They all got into it and were pretty creative with their designs. We had a target-shooting competition, but they became disinterested in a hurry and just wanted to run around the backyard firing marshmallows at each other. That must've lasted a good hour or so, beyond the time it got dark. There were so many marshmallows on the grass that it looked like there were snow patches.

The boys came in and had a sour candy eating competiton. The winner was the one who could keep a straight face the longest. That really helped calm them down. Well, maybe it didn't.

While they did the presents/cupcakes/eat even more sweets thing, I went out and picked up a movie from Redbox. We thought the movie might slow the boys down, but we thought wrong. They were rambunctious the whole time, although I suppose that in the long run, that was a good thing. I went up to bed at about 11 p.m., because I had work the next morning.

My wife Tiffany stayed up as they rocked away Birthday Eve. At 11:59 p.m., the ball dropped and they counted down to midnight. Sometime relatively soon after that, rumor has it they kind of went to bed. They were up six hours later, playing outside, shooting more marshmallows.

After I got up and got ready for work, I went to fetch the donuts, just in case too much blood got back into their sugar stream. I went to work and sometime mid-morning the celebration ended. Those boys all had a blast, more fun than I've ever seen at a birthday party. It reminded me a lot of when I was a kid. There was nothing fancy or spectacular, just a bunch of kids running around, playing with each other, using their imagination, having a ton of fun.

It proved to me that it is possible to to have a great time on a budget. All it takes is a little bit of creativity. And a lot of sugar.

Check out my autism charity at operationjack.org and follow me on Twitter at @operationjack.