Birthday Party Planning

Im enjoying this wonderful hiatus from planning yet another birthday party. My children all have birthdays from April-November, leaving 5 wonderful months (with the exception of Christmas) where I don't have to PLAN for anything big.

Noah's will be coming up next and although Im thinking about his birthday, Im not actually planning it, yet.

He's requested a candy land theme where the guests can feel like they're really playing the game. I had thought about doing the same thing for Jamie's 4th birthday but then decided against it due to the huge amount of work. Since Noah is turning 7 and will have actual friends from school to invite, I thought this might be the right birthday for it.

I stumbled upon this birthday party planning page and although it's not quite detailed enough for this party, it could work well for future ideas.

So far, all I've got worked out is:

1. that it should be held somewhere big like a local hall or something
2. I could use cardboard and paint giant squares to make a path
3. Id like to give out a candy land game to each child instead of a loot bag and so I've started to collect coupons from cereal boxes for $5 off each game. I know I can find candy land for around $10 so if I can get enough coupons, I think it would be reasonable.

Ive started to collect websites and pictures of other candy themed parties as well. I don't want ot get too heavy into the specifics of it just yet, but it does seem like a huge endeavor and so I should probably start in the next month or so.

What about you? Do you plan big parties or prefer more intimate ones? Or even better, do you have any ideas I could use?