Desperate plea for help organising ds1's 7th birthday party!!

[citronella]

I have 6 left on the calendar but 3 weeks in reality as we will be away the last 3.

It is the weekend after they go back to school but have had to send out invites last week as obviously no one would be around in between.

I have managed to book a venue (with a kitchen) for mates rates

I am on a teeny weeny budget. I mean I can't really go over £100-£150 incl. entertainment, food and party bags

I really would like to use some sort of party entertainer as amusing 25 6-7 year olds on my own could be a bit challenging to say the least.

So, what I need are some suggestions of entertainers (not face painting though -he's really not into that, party games, easy food,
organising tips etc etc.

PLEASE HELP ME BEFORE I RUN OUT OF TIME!

[DottyDot]

Hmm - I'd be tempted just to have loud music playing, disco ball if you can borrow one and balloons everywhere and let them go wild!

Can you hire a bouncy castle to go inside?

Then usual food on a table - make your own sandwiches etc.

Party bags don't need much in - Tescos do loads of bits and bobs for party bags.

For ds2 this year we got a load of books from Borders - buy 2 get 1 free and just gave everyone a book and slice of cake - no party bags!

[nickschick]

IME all boys of this age will do is run around wildly and get red faced and then eat a bit and drink like hogs!!

If I were you id make a tonne of hotdogs have loads of wrapped gifts for prizes (any random game you can think of - musical statues blind mans buff etc) and just let them run freely!!.

pound shops and home bargains have some great stuff in for parties.

Just remembered loads of balloons they chuck em about sit on them and generally have fun.

[Hulababy]

Bouncy castle? Cost us about £80, and very little ther stuff needed.

Or a couple of small nets and some soft balls and have a football party.

Mini olympics? At ELC you can buy things for doing stuff like egg and spoon race, sack race, stilts, etc. Could have skipping and running, three legged race. Have them in teams of say 5.

Food - keep it simple. I like to do food boxes as I find it easier, although this year did it more traditional on platters, etc.

Sandwiches
Cocktail sausages
Some veggie strips such as carrots, cucumber and peppers
Crisps
Biscuits
Cupcakes

[Hulababy]

Instead of party bags, how about a lucky dip. Get a big box and fill with shrredded paper. then put in a selection of pocket money stle toys such as the glider planes, man on parachute, whopie cushion, etc. They then take it in turns to grab a lucky dip toy, and take a slice of cake in napkin home.

[snice]

Hire someone to come for an hour and teach them something - much cheaper than a traditional entertainer. I have hired a dance teacher for DD's birthday at £20 per hour. How about a football coach to do dribbling/shooting type games?

[Hulababy]

£20 for a dnace teacher snice? That is very good. They charged me about £80 for DDs party last year and they weren't very good in the end either. Never again!

[snice]

Oh God hope this one isn't crap!

[Hulababy]

I am sure they won't be - didn't mean to worry you. We just didn't do our homework properly and missed the aarning signs beforehand I think. To be fair the girls did enjoy it, but my sister - who danced til she was 18y - could have done the same and better for less. I just felt ripped of for £80

[citronella]

ooh some good ideas coming!

[Hulababy]

What are your DS's interests?

[citronella]

He likes nature, science,paper aeroplanes, transformers, Ben10, bionicles, in that order now but who knows by then...

Sorry for the delay in replying. I was at work and had to leave to collect dc. Am at home now.

[citronella]

Don't think there is room for a bouncy castle and running around.

[spicemonster]

Oh do you know any science teachers that you could bully persuade into coming along and doing some experiments with them? You could do the mint + coke thing (although it's a bit messy) - kids love stuff like that.

[citronella]

I saw something on the internet about puzzle parties but have no idea how much it is. Have emailed for a quote.

So food wise if I do:
Cocktail sausages
baby tomatoes
cucumber and carrot sticks
Crisps
pizza slices

will that work? How much should I buy for 25 kids and a few peckish parents? Should I offer a choice of sandwiches or just one filling and which one is the most popular - cheese, ham?

[citronella]

what's the mint and coke thing?

[MiniMarmite]

These party bags seem like pretty good value:

www.allaboutpartybags.co.uk

Not sure I could actually make them cheaper if I did them myself (but then I don't have very much party bag experience as DS hasn't actually had a birthday yet)!

[MiniMarmite]

Oh, just did the calculations...that adds up to quite a lot for 25 kids...I'll get me coat!

[citronella]

Minimarmite they look really good value and are attractive as well. I have bookmarked that page.

[stealthsquiggle]

TBH, for that budget to include food and party bags, I think hiring entertainers is probably out. Possibly better to rope in as many (ir)responsible adults as you can to help - ideally I think you need 3-4 people entertaining, plus someone doing the food. You could probably hire a willing and able teenager to help at baby-sitting rates.

Then you have to decide what to do. I tend to do very highly 'themed' parties, and did a secret agent party for DS (for his 6th, in fact, but lots of 7yos there) - most 6-7yos seem to be fairly in to that sort of thing? I can dig out lots of ideas for games etc if you are interested but I would warn you that the lack of financial investment is countered by an investment of your (and your helpers) time...

[MiniMarmite]

and some DIY science ideas too...

familyfun.go.com/parties/birthday/feature/famf1001_sciencebday/

[citronella]

Stealth, how did you do the secret agent party?

[ingles2]

Baker Ross have lots of cheap toys for party bags

[citronella]

I think I am going to have to find some adult help somehow.

[stealthsquiggle]

minimarmite I hate to admit it, because I love doing them myself, but I don't think I could do those party bags myself for the price they are charging.

[stealthsquiggle]

Citronella I will copy and paste some of my notes later but we sent out invites in mirror writing, issued them with agent IDs (with photos) as they arrived, had them doing code breaking, mazes, and basically 'themed' lots of party games - each game collected each team another piece of a jigsaw. The jigsaw when completed gave them a code. When all the teams entered their codes, they opened the "safe" which contained their party bags.

I have somewhere on my PC some very complete notes on a science party from another MNer which I plan to use for DS's next party.