Dd4 Party drama/dilemma - advice please ?!

[Flowerpower664]

Hello - DD is turning 4 and as I have a few things going on and kind of a limited budget, wanted to keep it simple and invite a handful of friends. However when I told her this she got quite upset and listed about 10/11 names from class and said she really really wants them all there and has already told them. Dh has suggested we book a local community hall and invite entire class, but the entertainment options locally here are very expensive for parties - would be well over our budget. The room isn’t allowed a bouncy castle. Any suggestions ? Is it possible to do a hall party with only old fashioned games like pass the parcel and musical bumps - will that be enough to pass a good hour or 2?! Or am I risking chaos? If we have to become the entertainers ourselves , I might find that a bit stressful so want to keep it simple !

Oh and a tunnel and a tent if you have/can borrow from someone. Endless fun!

Make a treasure hunt.
In advance, hide clues around the hall/outside. In advance, buy chocolate coins and have that as the last thing u find.
The kids will love it, it's gone down well at my kids parties.
Pass the parcel is a bit meh, kids get bored waiting
Another good game is corners. Put 4 coloured pieces of paper in each corner, play music and when it stops they have to choose a corner. Have a hat with 4 cards in with the same colours, when the music stops, pick a card at random, kids in the eg blue corner are out. Etc till u have a winner

Biscuit decorating is cheap, but rich tea biscuits and homemade icing in disposable plastic icing bags and have out on a table plus various sweets. Each child gets a turn decorating one at start of party, leave to dry on pieces of greaseproof paper then at end it goes in their party bag

Another important game, the tidying up game. At the end of the party, its tidying up game time.
Say u have chosen 3 things on the floor that must be put in the bin, the children who find them wjn a prize. GO! Then stop them and say we'll done so and so, u found the napkin, u get a prize, then GO! And watch then clean the room 4 u.
I'd advise buying a pe teacher style whistle for the party.
Another god game is bobbing for apples

You could have a few different tables with different activities staffed by adult friends. ie baked cookies that they decorate themselves with those icing pens and pop into their sweet bag to take home.
They only thing is your daughter has asked for 10/11 kids but you want to open it up to a class party? We have boy / girl twins who were in different classes but everyone knew each other and we tended to have one party of girls and then another party of boys. The boys party was always chaos, while the girls party was always chilled out. I wouldn't be inviting random kids if you don't 'need' to - why give yourself that extra pressure.

Musical chairs requires...chairs!

What's the time Mr Wolf and Grandmother's footsteps also take quiet a long time!
Dancing contest with sweets.
Shout numbers and they have to get into groups of that number.
Backwards musical bumps where they have to dance on the ground then jump up when the music stops.
The one where you make two lines and have to race passing a balloon back and then run to the front.
Crocodiles and islands where when the music stops they have to run onto a mat.

Make a plan with timings.

I was at a 4th birthday party last week, I’m fairly convinced all the kids need is a bit of safe space to run around in, their friends and some balloons tied with ribbon to bounce around

My 4yo would be over the moon with party games, music and some space to run around, bonus points for a slice of cake at the end!

I don’t remember too much from my early childhood (because who does), but one really lovely memory I have is my first primary school birthday.

My mum and dad had my classmates over to our house. We were all stuffed into our kitchen like sardines, and my parents had my older sisters helping out and running party games for us. Like sleeping lions, pass the parcel. Then a lovely home made birthday cake. I LOVED it. Everyone loved it.

Perhaps if you roped in some friends with slightly older kids to help out you could do something similar at a hall? I know others in my class at that age will have done big parties with paid entertainment, but I certainly don’t remember those. I just remember loving having my friends over and being with my sisters.

My experience of doing party games is make sure you have a craft table they can go to when they're out.
When we were little, we were used to being out and sitting and watching. The children now aren't used to it, so they don't know what to do. We had to quickly print a load of colouring sheets off - they were totally happy with that though. Nothing spectacular.

And my other hint is do sleeping lions when they're getting wild, but don't tell them they're out. You can get about 10 minutes on the floor with them lying quietly before you tell them they're all brilliant and they all get a prize.

I think you can do it at that age.

Some old school suggestions -
Sweetie prizes so they all stay and do it (because they want a sweet) make sure you are evenly distributing and giving them out regularly to keep their attention.

Musical drop on the floor when the music stops (something different each time when music stops rather than eliminating children in musical statues is better. No one is getting bored out of the game. First child to do the action each time gets a prize. Stand on one leg, touch your nose, hands on your head, go and touch a chair)
Best crazy dancer
Best dancer at doing the twist
Best robot dancer
The Congo
Musical chairs
Pin the head on the donkey (not an actual pin). Parents too.
That thing where everyone has to go under the rope and it keeps getting lower.
Get some dances with actions (wedding classics) - macarena, YMCA, gangnam style. Parents can demo.
Pass the parcel
That one where everyone sits in a circle and someone walks around and taps someone and then the person tapped has to chase them around and tag them before they can get all the way around to the space. (Maybe 4yo are a bit young for this one?)
Sleeping lions at the end to calm everyone down.

A table of crafts is a good idea too.

Good luck!
You can do it!

Balloons,
temp tatoos if you can rope someone in to put them on

Sorry haven’t read the full thread but I got a load of transfer tattoos and took a few cloths and Tupperwares to put water in at that age and it went down a storm, would recommend!

Do it! For my sons 6th birthday we hired the local community centre, brought table games and balloons (kids love a balloon!)
And did the food ourselves (sandwiches etc) you could get some face paints as well and do some simple ones.
It doesn't have to be expensive, the kids will love the party games and some music!

Is there another kid in her class whose birthday is near? If so approach their parents about doing joint party and split the cost.

I wouldn't recommend ride ones as kids fall out over them even had parents argue that their child had less or no time on them thankfully not at my parties but ones we went to. Balloons are great do a table of crafty stuff maybe decorating party hats with extra paper for kids who just want to draw. I used to use Baker Ross for craft stuff you can normally find discounts. Get some sweets for the party games then when you call the kids out give them a small sweet stops them having a tantrum or crying. We did all the classics but changed them slightly to fit in with a theme.

Loads of great ideas for games

Make a list of children coming. When they're dropped off, take the parents' Tel no, in case of emergencies. And tick their name when they leave, so everyone is accounted for

And have an adult at the exit of the building at all times, so no child can leave party room to go to toilet, get lost in the building and wander on to the street

I'd call it a disco and games party and make it 1.5 hours rather than 2 hours.

1 hour = music on and have a big pot of sweeties to give to the children as they play musical statues/sleeping rabbits/pass parcel other (just look up music games)

Set up a table with colouring books and pens

Another table with some water transfer tattoos

At the end of the hour feed children, do cake and the end of them eating, small party bags to signal home time

If you don't have an entertainer/bouncy castle then having another half hour of games/music after they eat you will probably be totally run out of ideas and they'll be restless

If you're short on money for party bags then do the cake just before they start eating rather than at the end - then cut the cake up in slices for the bag and have some pre blown up balloons ready, if you hand them all a balloon and bag with cake in they'll be happy enough

And in terms of feeding them - again if short on money you can save on waste by bringing a few jugs for squash, paper cups - then just do bags/packets of food and take the leftovers home (crisps, mini biscuits, raisins etc) couple of packs of sausage rolls/cocktail sausages in some pots spread round the tables as well as packs of stuff and you'll be set

We blew up 100 balloons and had half a dozen games to play. Never got to the games.