I've Messed Up My Kids Party

[FixItUpChappie]

Last year we had very low turn out for our youngest son's party and I ended up padding it out with some of our elder sons friends. So this year I over-invited expecting similar attendance issues. Then to add to the problem I panicked when we got almost no response in the first few days after the cards were sent out, and invited some additional children.

With a flurry of late responses we now have 17 kids in total (including our 2) coming to the house on Saturday in our not huge bungalow and who knows how many parents. If anyone else RSVPs I might cry. These parties are a minefield - feast or famine apparently. It's extremely cold and snowy here so I can't open up the garden to disperse the crowd it do have basement toy room.

I think this many kids will overwhelm the activities and games planned. And 17 gifts!! Can you imagine? I'm going to be decried as a greedy glutton of a mother 😳 I ordered special plates and cups online for my sons "wizard" theme with extra just in case and I've exceeded the number. There is no way to get more now. Our dinning room table seats 8 at a push 11 if I add a card table.

Please tell me I can salvage this mess! My husband thinks I should text parents and request they drop off - but that seems very awkward to me...as I expressly stated parents were welcome to stay or drop off considering the kids are mainly 5yr olds.

What a dummy I am! Has anyone has this problem and pulled off a party their child and guests still enjoyed?

I have been there too, OP.

Yet another vote for picnic/pizza/food on blankets on the floor. Plus Musical Coats (rather than musical chairs), which also solves the problem of what to do with all the coats, even if only for a short time. Sleeping Lions is also good, as it gives you a few minutes of peace and quiet.

My mantra every year after a house party for small children was: never again. Yet I kept doing it.

Also ended up with all the parents, as I was friends with them. Some of them did make themselves useful...

Tea / coffee / milk / mugs / plates of cookies etc all out for parents in one room. Make sure they have as few questions as possible. Stick a sign on the loo door so you don’t have constant requests.

Pre make the lunch like they do at cafes? In box or paper bags? That way no need for a table to hold food. They just grab a bag and sit

Move every thing you can.

Splitting them up sounds like a great plan.

Simple games of musical statues or best dancer will be great.

Pair them of Inn2 and get them to says spells

Get yourself a children's entertainer (a magician should go well with a magic theme!) pronto!

I've never played pass the parcel - that sounds pretty easy to set up.

My neighbour is going to lend me a standing coat/hat rack and we have one too - so I'll compile all the winter gear in the downstairs spare room.

I'm going to google wizard colouring pages too - I think that would good to have on hand.

Am feeling more optimistic - thank you for sharing your collective kids party experience

There loads of bugs going round at the moment, you’ll have lots of drop outs due to illness

you could do a wizarding photo booth

Oh I feel for you. We had a similar issue this year after last years disaster! Worst of all, a lot of the parents came in pairs, two parents with 1 child. It was a squeeze indeed. And I spent the whole time making cups of coffee.
Good luck.

Good luck!

If you are doing a craft activity, have some wizard themed colouring pages to hand and some pencils or crayons (avoid felt tips for littles in a party situation). There is always one or two kids who are laboriously slow, and another few who rush their craft slap dash, so have something to hand to give to any kids who finish their craft quickly. Otherwise they will be bugging you to move onto the next thing without wanting to wait for the others, complaining they are bored or getting up to mischief. I have found this when I have done dance and craft combined workshops at my dance school! Also, make sure the second thing is something ordinary (like colouring) so the kids who are slower to finish don't think they are missing out on something exciting. If they finish their picture whilst waiting, give them another! They'll soon get the message that you want everyone to keep busy with something productive until everyone has finished making their wand, or other planned activity.

I have done this

In a panic I called my brother to help me (DH was on a business trip) and he remembers it vividly.

We removed all chairs, so the kids could stand around the table and eat. Get some random other plates in (Harry Potter, Star wars, mix it up)

Put 2 of the hanging-around parents in charge of coffee and tea for the adults

DO go outside, an outside treasure hunt? If it is very wet do that as the last event, so they get taken home once they are soaked through

You will somehow survive and never have to do it again

You could just change the location quickly if you hire your local church hall. Mine is £16 for 2 hours.

Wake up mr bear is a good one for parties. Circle of kids. Sleeping kid (bear) in middle. Put keys behind sleeping bear. Adults Chooses a child to steal keys. All kids put hands behind back and shout wake up mr bear. Mr or mrs bear wakes up and gets 3 goes to point to the correct key stealer. If they get it right the stay in middle if they get it wrong the theif with the keys swaps and becomes the sleeping bear. You could give lollies to retiring bears as they swap so everyone gets a turn.

18! The18th just asked if it was too late to come 😭😭

I did encourage her politely to drop off as it will be a fuller house than expected

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭19, 19 has just called wanting to come too.

My husband says what's one more now, it's a total shit show already 😩

Think the parents hanging around going to be your biggest problem. They are a total pain at parties. Can you ask a few good friends to stay and help and tell the rest due to unexpectedly high acceptance numbers you need them to drop and run.

Yes, I agree... a group text needs to go out asking them to drop off if they are comfortable to do so.

Sense of doom has returned

No chairs at the table for the food. Kids will stand quite happily. That will leave your floor free for something else.

Also, extra toilet rolls. Extra soap pump. Nominate 1 spare adult to be on toilet checking duty and changing towels. Lots of little boys means messes so perhaps get a couple of the cheapest toilet mats that can be changed half way through and either washed or binned.

Perhaps a table tennis ball in the toilet. Birthday boy can decorate it beforehand. I am told it encourages aiming (but I have never had to find out).

To add a bit of structure to the chaos I would use some 'token' items as seats on the floor, this could be as simple as a piece of paper or a pillow then lay out some blankets/strips of material on the floor for the kids to sit around, having a 'seat' each and perhaps having the food offered around the line of kids before placing the left over stuff on the blanket should help to stop all the food getting trampled by accident and smushed in to the floor.

Different activity stations is a good idea, maybe a few rounds of pass the parcel while another group plays musical statues using the same music then switch the kids over to the other group? Some dress ups and a photo station? Colouring competition with a prize at the end to encourage them to actually spend some time colouring?

Have you thought about the toilet situation at all? That many 5 year old kids will be chasing the toilet a fair bit if they drink a lot of soft drink etc. Use a permanent marker for their drink cup/bottle and personally I would offer them only water pop tops to avoid spillage and also to discourage them from drinking so much

We had 4 of my DD's friends over for a 'movie night' for her last birthday and that was bad enough lol.... good luck, it will all be over before you know it!

I also suggest that instead of keeping the kids winter jackets etc that you ask parents to take them and then bring them back at the end of he party otherwise it will take forever to work out who belongs to which item of clothing.

It'll be party of the year

Have you a long rope for tug-o-war in the garden? Few kids have played it and it's great!

I had 30 kids a few weeks ago! It was great in the end!

I texted all parents and said to drop and run.

I also told them there was a lot of kids and politely asked for either no gift or a card with a £5. They loved this and now all class parties are requesting this. My son has bought one toy of his choice, taken his best friend out to the cinema and is saving the rest. We simply couldn’t have handled 30 new toys in the house, disgusting.

I did chippy bags with chips and nuggets or sausages to hand to each child and cornetto style ice cream cones for after. Pick and mix in party bags with a few other bits. Big bin bag handled all the food wrapping. No clean up involved really.

When my twins turned 1 I had an open house drop in party for all their little friends (mainly other twins) - we have a very small terraced house. Of course everyone came at the same time and we had 20 adults and 20 1-2 year olds crammed in. It was absolutely bonkers, DH’s family turned up early and ate all the food I’d prepared, but we all had fun. Different obviously as the kids weren’t old enough for activities. You’ll be fine - worst case scenario make it a pizza and cinema party, stick a film on (or one upstairs and one downstairs) if things get a bit crazy!