To ask for party ideas for a lazy mum

[Trixiebelle16]

Dd is five in a few weeks and really wants a party. We have been to lots of soft play/ bouncy castle in thd church hall type things and fancy doing something a bit different but not at home!!!

Bowling

I hired the screening room of a cinema once. It was bloody superb, they all sat there in silence watching Home with their food in a lunchbox, we sang Happy Birthday then their parents collected them

Our favourite when they were around that age was the local gymnastics centre. So easy and cheap and they absolutely loved it - I think we did it 3 or 4 times in total.

Hire the local community centre, they're usually really cheap (our local one is £35 for four hours hire). Hire a children's entertainer related to whatever your DD is currently into. The latest thing here seems to be Disney princess impersonators, they come to the party and do singing, games, dancing, etc so you don't need to do anything at all. Don't do a buffet or lunch boxes or any of that just do either snacks on a help yourself table (a fruit bowl, a catering sized multipack of crisps, catering sized box of biscuits, two million cartons of juice) or pizza delivery.

Our best easy ones were football/multi-sports or gymnastics. Also I noticed as time went on that parents got wise, and timed these kind of parties mid afternoon, so that instead of doing a whole party spread (say it was at the local leisure centre) they would just give everyone a drink (juice carton or bottle of water) and a piece of the birthday cake/doughnut/cupcake , maybe a packet of crisps or popcorn as well.

Are you going down the party bag route? Totally not necessary to do so, but if you are - Easier is one small gift each (bouncy ball/hairband/notebook). Bear in mind the gift/partybag giving out is a good 'I need you to go home now' signal for small children and their parents.

We've had success with scooter parties. Hire a space in local leisure centre (ours costs about £35), everyone brings along their scooter and they scoot like mad for an hour.

Towards the end you bring out a cake and sing happy birthday, provide drinks (it's thirsty work!) and party bags. A good time is had by all. They leave.

Is there a jumptastic place near you? That would be great.

Pizza express pizza making party?
Ice skating?
Pottery painting place?
Ice cream parlour
Panto
Build a bear

DS was invited to a great party recently that was a hired hall, a few disco lights, music, inflatables and glowsticks. The parents who stayed stood and chatted in the kitchen and the kids had a blast dancing and chasing eachother round with giant inflatable hammers.