How much food to serve at 2nd birthday party

[HappyMamma2023]

Hi I'm posting for traffic.
It's our son's 2nd birthday party on Sat. We have 19 kids - 13 toddlers, 3 aged 4-5, 2 aged 7, 1 aged 13 and 2 babies 8 months and 14 months. The adilts including parentd and family approx. 28 if everyone comes.
I was planning on doing the kids food like sandwiches, crisps, cup cakes. Is that enough or do the adults expect to be fed?
This is our first birthday we've hosted. We've been to two 2nd biethday parties recently which both had lovely big buffets which fed the kids and adults and one even had glasses of champagne! This was a nice surprise, but we can't afford to do a massive spread. Any ideas welcome thanks

Where is the party? If it’s somewhere like a soft play etc then I don’t think you need to feed the adults but if it’s a party at your house I would probably pop a few pizzas in for the adults.

I think there should always be food and drinks for adults at parties! But especially for parties of young kids, absolutely do enough food for everyone.

I think as it's a 2nd birthday party and most of the kids are toddlers, you'd probably get away with not doing a full 'party tea' for the kids, as most of them are at the age where their parents will choose the food for them and sit with them individually while they eat it. They'll be too little to all sit down and eat at the same time. I'd do a bigger buffet up high where the kids can't grab it themselves, and do some chopped up fruit and veg, breadsticks, cubes of cheese etc. for the kids (i.e. mainly snack foods that your 2yo likes), and a cheese board, crackers, crisps etc. for the adults. Or biscuits/pastries etc. if it's in the morning. Fairy cakes for everyone.

I think the younger the kids, and the more it's your friends with kids vs unknown families from nursery then the more you need to host everyone.
Fine if its kids food, I wouldn't expect an adult buffet but enough for adults to eat would be nice - especially if it's over a meal time. Never fun to be released from a party at 2pm starving.
Kids probably won't eat much at that age anyway as they'll be distracted.

The birthday parties for that age I went to, I had to bring my own snacks and drink for the ones that served specific child food at a set time, because my DC was hungry before that. The ones with a general grazing buffet where parents could just feed their little ones snacks when they thought they needed it worked best. By 3 it was all different and the kids could sit at a table with little party hats on helping themselves to sandwiches!

Thanks for the ideas. We're renting a church hall 2 till 4pm ao not over a meal time but can be an early tea for the kids. I'll do some cheese and biscuits and crisps etc for the adults. Maybe pizzas if it has an oven I'll check.

For our DS’s 2nd birthday we did sandwiches, veggie straws, cupcakes and a big fruit salad as he’s a little fruit bat!!
For the adults we had tea and coffee and a tray of biscuits for them to help themselves to

This is my most hated party time as it's not really tea (and messes it up) and it's definitely too late for lunch 🙈😂
I have always done a buffet that is enough for children to assume they would have potentially half a ham sandwich and half a cheese sandwich, cakes, biscuits, token veg (that doesn't get eaten) plus crisps. Let the kids eat then adults pick at what's left. Especially for the times you are planning I would not expect to feed adults but offer them a hot drink instead.

I just had my 3 YOs birthday at home
I made fruit kebabs, veggie sticks and hummus , cheese/ham quesadillas and guacamole. I also borrowed a coupe of airfryers and did a huge tray of chips and chicken nuggets. It went down very well - not a scrap left. Both kids and adults! Our party was 3pm - 6pm

I quite like the timing for two year olds, especially if they go to nursery where they will probably get 'tea' at 3:30 and then come home and have tea again. So I never found it messed up tea, though willing to accept that my kids are just gluttons. Also if it's fairly local for the attendees, it is compatible with a lunchtime nap, then they wake up refreshed and ready to play, and go home before they get tired and whingy.

I think what you are doing sounds fine, it is a tea party essentially for the kids (the really little ones won;t eat much anyway, and the older ones will be fine with sarnies crisps and cupcakes) Adults don't need to eat between 2 and 4, a few bowls of crisps, cheese and biscuits is more than enough. I would provide teas and coffees for the grown ups if you can.

If you are worried that you may need more food, you could always ask family members to bring a plate of something to share. All the parties I go to are everyone turns up with something to add to the food. I think everyone understands that COL means we need to help each other out. You are providing the venue and tea for the kids, no one will mind lending a hand with food.

Good luck, and have a fun day it sounds lovely 🙂