Birthday party for 3 year old

[vez123]

So DS will be 3 next month and I guess this is the age when kids start to have a proper birthday parties. What is the 'done thing' at that age? I don't want to go overboard but I want to turn it into a nice day for everyone. My idea so far was to hire a small venue ideally in a pub or church hall, invite around about 6-7 kids with parents and maybe a couple more other adults and have a brunch, as I thought that this is when the kids are all rested and it would leave everyone time to do other things in the afternoon. Is it normal to hire toys? I am not sure about bouncy castles as I don't want to take over responsibility for health and safety. How much do people usually spend?
Ideally I would have the party at home in our garden but we are currently in renovation hell..
Thanks in advance.

[DrSeuss]

Soft play?

[IWillOnlyEatBeans]

Ds turned 3 in February. We had a party at home for ten of his playschool friends. We hired someone to come and do some singing and dancing with them (could have done it myself but ds2 was only a couple of weeks old and i did not have the energy!) There was balloons, bubbles, a party tea and party bags. Everyone had a lovely time!

Not all of his friends have had parties. The ones we have been to have either been in soft play places or leisure centres with a bouncy castle. All have worked well!

[Iggly]

Best party I went to was at the kids home. Free play with toys with a bit of structure every now and then (pass the parcel and painting plus pizza making). Was like an extended play date and ace!

[DanniiH]

We had our ds's 3rd birthday party in our local indoor play centre, it was a joint party with my neighbours ds who was born the same day. There were about 15 kids all together, cost £7.50 per child. They all played in the climbing frames for about an hour, had their tea, sang happy birthday and blew out their candles then played some more. They all loved it and I loved it too because I didn't have to clean up afterwards! x

[pamelat]

for dds 3rd we hired a school room and had gymnastics type equipment out and a bouncy castle, there were about 25 children which was probably too much

i wouldnt do a party at home, messy and stressful, but then if you have garden it could be nice

for ds's 3rd we are going to soft play, £7 each, 10 children

[vez123]

Thanks for your messages. My latest idea is to have a picnic in our garden as it will be the end of May so hopefully it will be warmish!

[mrsmusic]

We had a picnic in the garden for our dd's 3rd birthday last summer and it was lovely. 6 little ones; we took a load of her toys outside and they all just played/ chased round the garden/ rolled each other around the garden in her wendy house... we had a couple of games of pass the parcel and then a little picnic.