10 fun places to host your kid’s birthday in Atlantic Canada

Treat your kid and her friends to a relaxing day at Spa-dee-da’s youth spa and yoga studio. Party packages start at $225 and include pedicures, DIY facials, access to the party room and free nail art for the guest of honour. Larger packages include manicures and time in the yoga studio too. 

1175 Bedford Why., NS 902-407-1899 spadeeda.com

There are three fun options for parties at Dalplex, a fitness facility at Dalhousie University. Up to 20 kids aged three to 10 can shake their sillies out with a birthday celebration in the Fun Zone with its ball pit, slides, tubes and playhouse. After an hour in the play area, they can enjoy refreshments and gift opening for one hour in a party room. The cost is $160 for non-members. Option two is a two-hour pool party, with the first hour in the pool, where up to 20 kids can splash around, swing on the Tarzan rope, jump off of the one-metre and three-metre diving boards, or if they’re really brave, the diving tower. Then, party-goers get one hour in a party room just off the pool deck for food and presents. The cost is $160 for non-members (food for both options is provided by the parents). The third package is a Dal Tigers party where up to 12 kids get reserved seating at a varsity basketball or volleyball game, a hot dog, drink and noisemaker, and the birthday child is wished happy birthday by the announcer over the loudspeakers. This package is available during the regular season, which runs September through February and costs $105 for non-members.

6260 South St., Halifax, 902-494-3372 athletics.dal.ca

Have a little one that has a lot of energy to burn? Have a birthday at The Island Gymnastics Academy and let her and up to seven friends (ages four and up) run around and play on the gymnastics equipment, all the while supervised by a certified gymnastics instructor. Parties are held on Saturdays from around 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and include one hour of gym time and 45 minutes in a private party room, for $160. The gym provides tables, chairs, napkins, cups and plates for any food you want to bring along.

40 Enman Crescent, Charlottetown, PEI 902-566-3935 islandgymansticsacademy.com

Hatfield Farm’s Cowpoke Birthday Adventure package includes a wagon or sleigh ride for the birthday kid and her friends, supervised playtime in the Rubber Rodeo—an indoor playground housed in a heated barn with bouncy castles, a box-and-bounce ring, a mechanical bull and more fun—as well as all-you-can eat hot dogs or pizza and drinks. Parents are welcome to bring in a cake or cupcakes. The cost for this party is $16 per guest with a minimum of 15 guests.

1840 Hammonds Plains Rd., Hammonds Plains, NS, 902-835-5676  hatfieldfarm.ca

This theatre-arts school, which has classes for kids, teens and adults, also offers a birthday party option at their studio. For $200, up to 15 kids will have tons of fun playing games and participating in activities at a party hosted by a character from one of the following themes: Frozen, Pirates, Minecraft, Princess, The Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland. For an extra $50, you can add a second character to the celebration. Parents can bring in any food they like, and party guests go home with treat bags supplied by the school.

251 Heather Moyse Dr., Harbour Quay Building, Summerside, PEI, 902-303-2780 spotlightschoolofarts.com

That Fun Place has three two-hour birthday packages available, starting at $150 for up to 10 kids to enjoy a fully decorated party room, birthday cake and the Jungle Room, an enclosed climbing space with a moon walk, slides and tunnels. For $130, you get the same deal but pizza or hot dogs are included. The Mega-Fun Party is $300 and offers up to 15 kids a party room, private access to the Jungle Room, cake, drinks and a wider selection of food. That Fun Place takes care of clean-up, so parents can just sit back and watch as the kids have a blast.

410 Mt Edward Road, Unit 10 Charlottetown, PEI 902-370-4386 thatfunplace.ca

Who hasn’t wanted to run away with the circus at some point? Let your kid live out his Cirque du Soleil dreams with a party at Atlantic Cirque School of Circus Arts. Packages start at $225 and activities are based on specific age groups, from age two and up. All parties include an hour of supervised circus activities in the gymnasium and 45 minutes in a private party room. Packages for kids aged seven and up also feature five or ten minute circus performances by the facility staff and craft activities where party guests can make their own mask or juggling balls they can take home as party favours. You can store any food, gifts or snacks in their facility’s refrigerator.

30 Oland Court, Dartmouth, NS 902-457-2227 atlanticcirque-halifax.com

New Brunswick Museum offers nine engaging birthday party ideas to choose from. Each party last two hours, and for the price of admission ($13) your child and his friends can, for instance, have fun as an “acting” night watchman checking out the museum’s galleries (like the Discovery gallery and the Our Changing Earth gallery) and having adventures (sometimes spooky ones!) in the Night at The Museum II party. Or they can don lab coats, learn how to become a marine biologist and check out the skeleton of a Bay of Fundy whale in the Whale of a Time! party. The interpreter-led activities element of the birthdays lasts approximately 45 to 60 minutes, and then children get to enjoy food brought by the parents as well as gift opening in a private room. A minimum of eight paid guests must be attending a party at the museum (the birthday child is not charged admission, and neither are two adults attending the bash).

Market Square, Saint John, NB, 506-643-2349 nbm-mnb.ca

Budding scientists will love a party at Science East, where they can either take in a science presentation geared to their interests (the Van de Graaff generator—a.k.a. the silver ball that makes kids’ hair stand up when they touch it—is a popular option), or watch a planetarium show. This last option lets kids explore the universe through projections inside a 15 x 15-foot pop-up tent, and can also be focused on your space enthusiast’s particular celestial interests. Afterwards, everyone gets to enjoy refreshments brought by the parents and gift opening and then explore the exhibits, including Atlantic Canada’s only outdoor science playground with a gyroscope that kids can ride in and a play structure in the shape of a ship. A minimum of eight children must be attending a Science East party, and the cost is $10 per child for the science party, and $15 per child for the planetarium party. Accompanying adults are free. Science East birthday parties are not offered in July and August.

668 Brunswick St., Fredericton, NB, 506-457-2340, ext. 129 scienceeast.nb.ca

The Fluvarium is an environmental education centre that boasts nine viewing windows that allow visitors to see what life is like underwater in Nagle’s Hill Brook. So, it’s not surprising that the two children’s birthday party options they offer have aquatic-life themes. Kids aged five to 10 can choose to celebrate their special day by learning about either Frogs & Fish or Bugs & Dragonflies. Parties are two hours long and begin with an hour of games and activities like a scavenger hunt or feeding fish or toads. Then, the second hour is spent enjoying pizza and juice in a decorated party room. The cost is $165 for the birthday child and up to 10 friends.

5 Nagle’s Place, St. John’s, NL, 709-754-3474 fluvarium.com

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