Combined party for 3 and 8 year old boys, possible?

[shroots1123]

Hello,
Bit of a dilemma. I haven't had a proper birthday party for my little one yet and thinking I should attempt it for his 3rd birthday. Problem is we like to invite the whole family which means friends will bring their 6-9 year olds too.
So we will end up with two group of 2-4's and 6-9's. How do I manage this? I'm looking to hire an entertainer, they do age groups, but I want the little ones to enjoy too. A disco would be nice but I'm afraid the older kids might dominate by being loud and crazy, I'm not good at telling kids to not be loud (give Little's ones a chance etc) at a birthday party. I can scrap the idea completely, but want to give it a real hard think before I do.
Please Help!!
Thanks

[HennyPennyHorror]

I've had a lot of these but the older guests were girls and they were happy with a big craft table...I used to put out stickers, paper, pens etc.

Another idea is to get them to decorate their own party bags and have a treasure hunt to fill them up.

I used to hide a load of cheap sweets around the house or garden and the younger ones...all you need to do is lead them about a bit and sort of show them where to look.

Have some in your pockets to plant them for the tinies who can't look effectively.

Then at the end of all that, have prizes for "the best decorated bag" The brightest bag...the most crazy bag...and whatever you can think of. That way they all get a little toy or something.

That can suck up an hour of time or even more. In my experience they love hunting for their sweets.

[wonkylegs]

Our boys are 3 & 11
The youngest ones birthday is around Easter so we've had a mixture of kids at his parties as everyone's off for the holidays
They tend to work well for us with the bigger ones helping the little ones with treasure hunts etc and then going off to play football
Our parties have always been outside though so there is a bit of space and the bigger ones can burn off some energy without bashing into the LOs

[wonkylegs]

Our treasure hunts also have different clues for different ages - usually making the bigger ones work for their prize by solving a puzzle whereas the little ones just collect chocolate eggs or coins

[shroots1123]

Thanks hennypenny and wonkylegs, I was going to hire an entertainer but a garden party with your ideas would be great. Maybe I can somehow club a disco with the crafts and treasure hunt that would be perfect 😄

[Ambydex]

Something like a magician should work really well for this age group.

I would be inclined to chuck them all in together. I've tried doing an area for the little ones at a mixed age party and they didn't stay in it, they just tagged along with the big ones.

Discos can be surprisingly tricky with 7/8/9 year olds. My son had one for his 8th and I hadn't anticipated that half the children - most of the boys - just didn't want to dance at all. We have very successful school discos but quite a few children just choose not to go. I would stick with your original plan and get an entertainer in to do a show and run a few games.

[HennyPennyHorror]

I agree a magician would be great. You can still do a treasure hunt after that...or before...so I'd do magician, food and then hunt for their party bag contents. Then home.

That is well organised so there's no moments where you've got 10 kids tearing around like frootloops.

[shroots1123]

thanks peeps I think you're right ambydex about the older ones not wanting to disco and trying to separate the little ones from the rest. Magician, few games and party bag hunt sounds really good :) might stick a small bouncy castle in a corner in case the little ones found it hard to sit through the magic show.