Help needed 9yr old birthday

[Quaverflaver]

Shamelessly posting here for traffic.

We normally do days out for birthday’s, but our about to be 9yr old DS has decided he want some of his friends round for a play date. Ok, easily done & can easily sort them some nice party food out.

But what are they going to DO for the time they’re here. He wants about 5/6 friends so won’t be able to play on his switch. Are they too old for party games? Do I just let them entertain themselves? Im terrified that they’ll turn up & be bored stupid for 3 hours? Any suggestions at all? I’d happily pay to take them to an activity but we don’t have a car 😩. Just want them all to have a good time.

Board games, switch, chuck them out in the garden and feed them pizza.

I would go somewhere I think. Or else turn it into a movie night/gaming night/sleepover and provide pizza with the knowledge they’ll be hardly any sleep. Numbers wise I’d want to cap it at 4 or 5.

Make your own pizza!

The child next door is about that age, on his birthday a ‘Gaming Bus’ came to the house and a group of children went inside and, presumably, did some gaming! After a couple of hours they went into the house for tea and the bus drove off . Very clever thought!

You are never too old for a pass the parcel!

I'd split the time up.

Bit of free play time, games time, food time, happy birthday and cake time. Home time!

I thought*

Depending on your budget.
Is there anyone with a gaming van for hire?
I know a gaming bus is very expensive but the vans are cheapest usually with 6 consoles.
Or some YouTube science experiments though that'll be very messy.

Do the attendees have switches? Make sure you colour code with stickers whose controllers are whose.

At DD(8) last sleepover we painted some mugs and glazed them and filled them with sweets to take home instead of party bags. We hired teepees with lights on to put up in the living room, kids loved it and hung out in there all eve watching movies and eating sweets. At this age they are fairly self contained! Can you do games tournaments so they don’t have to all play at once?

My daughter had her 12th birthday party playing "Battlefield Live" and son who was 9 nearly 10 brought his friends along - they talked about it for literally two or three years later.

It's not for everyone but we loved it - absolutely mint afternoon if you like running around in woodland and hiding in mud and bit of old dead tree

www.battlefieldlive.com/

Thanks all. We’ve got it planned out now.

Appreciate the ideas. 😊

I especially like the battlefield live idea. Sadly not the birthday boys cup of tea though ☹️