What food shall I make for dd's 4th birthday party?

[Nbg]

Never done this before so I havent a clue where to start.
Its a week on Saturday and so far she has had 9 replies, we might get more as we invited about 18 I think.

I have a friend coming to help the week before and she said she will make fairy cake things and that I should do some jellies.

Other than that, I'm a bit lost.
I dont want to go overboard and spend a fortune but want to have stuff that they will eat as its at lunchtime.

Any ideas much appreciated.
TIA

[Furball]

sandwiches ham, cheese, marmite
pizza slices
sausages
crisps - they seem to only eat the crips BTW


Then
Jelly
Fairy cakes

[WaynettaVonSlob]

Standard fare as far as I can tell is:
Sandwiches: some ham, some cheese.
Cherry tomatoes
Sliced pepper / carrots (and hummous)
Crisps of some sort
I usually do slices of pizza too.
If you have fairy cakes and jellies as well you'll have more than enough.

Kids will sit down for a maximum of 10-15 minutes, and won't eat a huge amount, even if it is lunchtime.
Good luck

[WaynettaVonSlob]

Oh - forgot the sausages: buy them pre-cooked as it's easier (Sainsbury's are best value IIRC)

[Nbg]

Right.

Was going to do cheese on sticks but is that a no no at kids parties?

[Furball]

you could do cheese on sticks along with sausages on sticks. But honestly, no-one will notice if they are not there.

[Surfermum]

I did jam, ham and cheese sandwiches
Grapes
Cucumber
Cherry toms
Cocktail sausages
I think I did cheese cubes
Wotsits and quavers
Choc rolls
Fairy cakes

Except make sure you know what's in the jam. I didn't, it was home made by my cousin's husband and I found out AFTER they had all eaten that it had brandy in it.

[IREPLYTOTITLESONLY]

Party food of course

[Nbg]

lol at your jam SM

Ireply, many thanks. I have taken it all on board.

[UCM]

I did this at the weekend. Was going to do jacket pots, sausage & grated cheese, but it went wrong as I had to many to do it.


Bread medium sliced. Then put ham/grated chees/egg mayo/tuna mayo/jam in.

Couple of big bags of crisps and put in big bowls.

Chicken drumsticks/Babybell cheese/2 big pizzas cut up into squares.

Buy little pots and make jelly, 1 jelly packet makes 6/7 little bowls.

Get a tub of vanilla ice cream and put a scoop on top.

Make fairy cakes yourself. On one batch substitute 25g/1 oz of flour for cocoa powder then you will have 12 yellow and 12 brown.

[WaynettaVonSlob]

NBG - all I would say about cheese on sticks (or anything on sticks) is that the sticks will probably end up being used as weapons for swordfights / seeing how much pain they can inflict....you get my drift!!!

[Nbg]

Yeah I did wonder

Might stay clear of weaponary.
I'm not paying to replace a bouncy castle as well.

[Wags]

Nbg, I buy those little party food boxes, you can get them on line or I get them from a local shop for 30p each. I find it easier to give each child their lunch or tea in one of those. Sit them all down in a circle, hand out the boxes and let them get on with it. When they have finished either bin everything or if they want to eat something they have left later close box up and put on side. Most wanted to take theirs home with them so put their name on in the beginning. I find its less mess, you end up doing a lot less food and not as much gets wasted. They love the boxes and seem really excited to see whats in it. This year for 4 year olds I did mini sub rolls from M&S with cheese and ham, a packet of mini pringles, a plastic drinking cup filled with strawbs and grapes and mini cornflake cakes (cheated got them from M&S as well). It really was a doddle, only thing I had to do in the morning was fill the rolls and wash/chop fruit and fill the boxes.

[Wags]

Just to add, if you wanted to do jelly etc, start saving little yoghurt pots and do the jelly in that, would still fit in a party box.

[Nbg]

Hmnmmm, that sounds like an idea

[Wags]

and quite often the mini subs in M&S are buy 1, get 1 half price..... they are yummy