Birthday party logistics for small parties

[Turtleoo]

How do people manage birthday parties once you are past the whole class party stage? My son is turning 8 and still wants to do an activity like trampolining, climbing etc but only with a few friends. But if we go to one of these places without a party package, there's no place to have food and cake afterwards.

At the places my son wants to go to there's nothing on the same site apart from in-house cafes that don't allow your own food (because they have party packages for this sort of thing).

I looked at just booking a party package anyway to solve the issue but the prices are insane - £375 for a climbing party, £260 for inflatable party and I just can't justify that!

Why can't you order from the cafe for standard food? We did that a few times. So trampolining, followed by chicken nuggets or pizza from the cafe at whatever the regular price is for food per child - ordered 20 minutes before the trampolining ended.

We also did mcdonalds ac ouple of times as the activity was near a park so we went to the park after and got mcdonalds take out or took the kids to the local mcdonalds - works well if it's a small party and you can manage the transport. 8 and under we could squeeze into our two cars, or sometimes we'd ask one parent to help out and also drive. And as there's inevitably one child who wants their parent to stay a the party anyway, that worked well.

Last year we did an activity and there was a Mcdonald's on site, but we went in and it was rammed and we had to wait to get a table and it was just a bit stressful!

Most of the leisure centre cafes near us tend to do cakes and croissants but not full meals, but I'll look into it. Good idea to try to order before the activity ends, thanks

yeah, you do need at least two adults to manage this. One to keep eye on children, and one to be in charge of getting the food ordered in plenty of time. YOu can't be wrestling kids while trying to do an order for 10 people and find a big enough table. Also get kids preferences in early and don't offer too many choices - pizza, burger, nuggets!

Another tip I almost forgot is take a bunch of juice boxes, mini bottles of water and crisps/popcorn. The kids can have a drink/snack mid activity if they like and/or immediately after while you're sorting food if necessary. I find it also provides a calm-down moment - they all grab their juice box and snack and there's a moment of quiet that works for them and you.

At 8 I only did places with food onsite, from around 10 or 11 I’d do twin Center parties or a day at Thorpe Park etc.

I've actually just remembered - I think I had a spreadsheet one year. So all chidlren were asked in advance (via their parents) what they wanted from mcdonalds. Which I put on a bloody spreadsheet. Then DH was sent off to buy the food while me and a friend took charge of the trampolining, then he met us afterwards in the park next door!

It works well, but the point is that it does need a bit of organisation and planning. To get the drinks/snacks in, to think about the food in advance, to arrange with another parent if necessary to help supervise etc etc.

Good tips here, thank you!