To ask how to survive village hall party

[cadburyegg]

DS4's birthday party in 2 weeks time. Entertainment sorted (something similar to soft play). Some older siblings also coming.

Food - how do I know how much food to make/bring per child
How to organise times for food/cake etc - party is from 2-4pm
I'm a single mum but kids' dad will be helping out also.
Any other survival tips?!

For my DSs party, we did paper bags with lunch in them, sandwich, crisps, fruit, drink etc. They could take home anything they hadn't eaten.
Would recommend rather than buffet style as meant we had little waste at the end.
Cake we did just before food, ready to be cut up for the end.
Have a great time! 2 hours will go in the blink of an eye!
Hopefully others will be along with more tips!

Do the food for 3pm, bring out the cake to sing happy birthday when the kids look like they are finishing up eating. Let them play for the remainder of the time while you cut the cake and get the party bags ready. Let birthday child give out the party bags by the exit and say thanks for coming. Bring bags to collect up pressies to take home.

Soft drinks (water/fizzy water/cans) and bags of crisps or very simple picky bits for the adults. Only offer hot drinks if there's an urn and everyone knows to help themselves.

People to help you- don't be shy to delegate.
A few black sacks around to make clearing up easy.
Take kitchen roll and some cleaning spray and maybe a small first aid box with wipes and plasters.

Boxes/bags for party food works really well as you don’t over cater. Keep it really simple. Buy drinks in a bottle or carton to avoid mess.

Definitely the individual lunch boxes. You can get paper ones from Amazon in the party theme, if you have one. Include drink carton, baby bel, raisins, 2 little sandwiches, crisps or choc bar. That kind of thing. Few spares for older siblings.
Have water in jugs for people to help themselves during the party. Also some cans of coke for adults. If you know several adults will be walking there, some cans of beer and a few bottles of wine maybe. Adults don’t expect feeding.
Good luck!

All the above, we did tea and coffee, biscuits crisps and grapes and cokes for adult