Help! I’ve invited kids over and don’t know what to do with them!

[WhatToDo82]

So I know I have been a tad unreasonable in inviting children round to our house, for my sons 10th birthday, without having planned any decent activities for them…. it’s the first party I’ve hosted for 9/10 year olds at home (my older daughter wanted a cinema party when she turned 10 which was much easier!)

There are ten children coming, and I have left all my planning a bit late…. the only things I can think of are:

• Letting them do some gaming, a mariokarts tournament etc….
• getting a piñata
• maybe a bouncy castle (is that too babyish for 9 and 10 year olds?)
• pizza, drinks and snacks followed by cake.
• party games? Pass the parcel, musical chairs, pin the tail on the Pokémon…or are these too babyish too?

AIBU or will all this definitely not keep them entertained for three hours!?

Please help - any suggestions welcome! The boys are all into football and gaming but there are girls coming too who possibly aren’t…argh!

At this age I just provide pizza and leave them to it!

I have a 10 year old boy. I would say by the time they are all there, that's half an hour gone. Get pizzas on the go, a gaming tournament set up, food, more gaming, leave some nurf guns about and they will entertain themselves. I would say no to ' party games', definitely no to a magician it similar- they are too old ( or many of them will think they are too old and they could mock the ones that still like these think ). It's a tricky age for this stuff as some seem much younger and others more like mini teens.

We had a campfire party - 'gather firwood, build and light a fire, cook your own burger followed by toast your own marshmallows' party. Instructions were to come in non posh clothing and wellies, and be prepared to get grubby - we have woodland nearby to gather the firewood. They worked in groups of 2-4 and we had an adult supervise each group to be sure they did everything properly and built and lit the fire safely and cooked safely. We precooked the sausages so they were effectively just toasting them. Everyone that came loved it.

Split into 2 teams and have a nerf battle in the garden. Create some mini missions within it.... races, capturing a flag, hunting for tokens etc.

Then make your own pizzas and finish off with a chocolate fountain or the like. Or do a campfire and marshmallows etc

Pizza, gaming, nerf guns available if they want to play outside, piñata is fun too… that’s plenty!

Watch the motherland episode where Julia has to organise a party 😂

Ice cream sundae making - just get a few different flavour ice creams, a selection of sauces, different types of sprinkles, squirty cream and fancy glasses. That's always popular with my kids and their friends!

Mocktail making went down so well we've done it for a few years on the trot! We printed out a few easy recipes to follow so knew the drinks were going to be nice and helped them each make one of their choice with cocktail shakers, fancy glasses and garnishes and paper umbrellas!

Garden games if dry - nerf gun battles or the game with the Velcro vests and balls? Archery? Some kind of scavenger hunt?

And as previously suggested, pizza making, popcorn and a film.

Make their own pizza.

Chocolate fountain (if you don't have any white or cream carpets)

Silent disco
karaoke
beer pong (with soft drink obvs)
darts tournament

Inflatable gladiator jousting?
Floor is lava?
Giant pass the pigs?

You could have cupcake decorating going on in the background for those who want to do this.

Nerf war. We did that. Asked everyone to wear swimming goggles or glasses and they had a ball

We played beer pong but with forfeits they all loved that , blind football if you have goal posts ( blindfolded spun round then got to shoot at the goal ) , wrap adults up in toilet roll as mummies (. In teams and timed )

I love it that you didn't bother renaming beer pong

Recent 10 year old party, nerf guns and gaming went down well. We had targets to shoot at outside, they also just really enjoyed chasing each other with the guns . Pizza making sounds great. Even decorating cookies sounds great!

I have a great game to play - Evil Pass the Parcel! Get two decent prizes (chocolate works well) and two terrible ones (like a button in a toilet roll tube or dried pasta in a box so it sounds interesting). Wrap them all in plain brown paper and number them. Get two packs of cards and deal one pack out to the kids. Shuffle the second pack and turn them over one at a time. When each card is turned over, whoever has that card gets to take one of the parcels, even if someone else has it. Whoever has the parcels at the end get to open them. It's so funny because inevitably everyone will fixate on one parcel (usually the biggest) but it could be a bad one in the end. Hope that makes sense!

Wanted to give everyone an update and say once again thank you for the amazing suggestions. The party was a hit, absolutely mad and chaotic but you could tell the kids all had a great time. Thank you all!