Help please! Kids party

[Partyhelpplease]

So it's DS 4th birthday party tomorrow. No idea how many kids are going to turn up. I have invited 38 but haven't got replies from all people and some are bringing siblings etc.

DS birthday is tomorrow so we are going out for the day and then the party is at 5 at the local church hall.

Entertainment sorted (bouncy castle, kids entertainers etc)

Food; we have bought a load of frozen pizzas and smiley faces and specifically booked this venue as it has a huge oven which you get the use of. Sorted. Arrive at the party, cook the food while the kids are being entertained and then serve.

HOWEVER..... just got a phone call to say that the oven is out of order 😩😩😩

I don't have the day to prepare food tomorrow as we've a day out booked (and don't really want to spend the afternoon in the kitchen on DS Birthday.) All the local caterers are booked up (obvs)

I've checked Costco, Sainsbury's, Morrison's etc and they need 2 days notice for the pre prepared party food platters.

HELP! How and what am I going to feed these children?!

cook the pizzas in the morning. cold pizza wont kill anyone. dont do the smileys just do cherry toms, cucumber and carrots sticks to go with the pizza. Also a bag of the cheesy nibbles.

Its what we did 2 weeks ago for DDs 5th birthday. Kids loved it.

Order takeaway pizza, if free then have delivered at 4.45. Then bags of popcorn and/or crisps. Kids probably won’t eat that much and you don’t need to really cater for adults.

Thank you so much for the suggestions!

Tomorrow is two for Tuesdays at dominoes!

How many kids do you reckon a large dominoes pizza would feed?!

Failing that I will cook some in the morning and serve it cold!

I agree with pp. serve cold pizza , salad bits, crisps etc.

Very difficult as you haven't confirmed numbers? Have you chased those who haven't replied ?

If you don't have that many coming, ordering pizza may be a good idea !

We serve cooked pizza slices, they were bit lukewarm but kids were hungry after play and nothing was left. How far is your home from venue? I did 3 batches and took them just 20 mins before wrapped in this aluminum serving trays. Is there a friend staying closer to venue who would be ok to lend use of oven?
I also got some bread, jam and soft cheese and made sandwiches up as needed. Lots of biscuits/crisps thanks to Mumsnet advice. Turned out to be great.

This is what happened to me - this is what I did.

I went to Birds and ordered 36 of their tiny oval dinner rolls and bought tins of the party hotdogs (tiny hot dogs).

I put the hot dogs in 2 large bowls and boiled a kettle and poured the water over hotdogs left for 10 mins - they were scorching hot.

Did 4-5 platters of hot dogs,
Bowls of hula hoops
Plates of carrot and cucumber sticks
Plates of mini cakes, biscuits for after

It went down a treat!!!!!!!

You see you can always rely on Mumsnet!

I have some great ideas now thank you.

Our house is a 2 min drive to the venue.

I can't chase up on replies because DS is in nursery and I don't know a lot of the mums as there are different pick up times. The teacher couldn't give me a class list because of the new data protection rule thing. So I literally sent in a bunch of invites with my phone number on for RSVP. To be fair quite a lot of them have replied

Just to conclude the story...

DH went to Costco and got a load of cold buffet nibbles and crisps. My mum who is an angel in a crisis made a shitload of sandwiches. Like enough to feed the 5,000 😂

In the panic and with people helping, we totally over catered and there was far too much stuff. Add to that that it was red hot and kids didn't want to eat much.

Then.....
Church lady turned up (party was in church hall) and apologised and said she'd forgotten that food bank was on this night and she would cancel it as we wouldn't want a load of people popping in and there'd be no room. But if any random people turned up that would be why.

We told her not to cancel and we put the left over buffet out for the food bank customers to help themselves to. We ended up plating up a load of meals for people and filling peoples bags with sandwiches/crisps etc.

Church lady came to us at the end and told us that one lady had cried and said that she now wouldn't have to worry about feeding her children for the next couple of days.

DS was excited that a couple of fellas came in realised that it was his party and wished him a happy birthday, he gave them a party bag (sweet cone) each and they were made up!

Everything happens for a reason!!

Oh, how lovely - what a fantastic end to the story!

Oh this is such a lovely thread ending, OP! I only came on to say 'cold pizza is fine'!

Aww this ending has made me really smile!

Well done OP all sound perfect x

What a lovely ending.