Baby's birthday party + village hall

[Inspirationless]

It's my Son's birthday on Monday and we've hired the village hall with a small serving area but no real kitchen.

I come from a long line of family who like to over-cater rather than let people go hungry or thirsty (oh the horror! )

It's also a day I actually want to enjoy and not spend the whole time titting about so lazy ideas please.

10 children (6 months - 5 years old)
26 adults (give or take a few!)

~~ Drinks ~~
My thoughts so far on drinks were to have a large buckety thing filled with ice and water and have it filled with:

*32 bottles diet coke

• 4 bottles pink cava *16 bottles cider

2 jugs out - one with water one with orange juice

20 cups each coffee & tea (there is an urn). I'm not so bothered with overdoing drinks because I can take the rest home with me and shove it in the cupboard.

~~ Food ~~

1 giant birthday cake to feed the 5 thousand. I will be able to cope with the leftovers of this

Fruit Salad for the babies - apples, oranges, strawberries, blueberries. Maybe some yogurt?

Pre-made pot things of jelly with a dash of cream and sprinkles

And the rest.... Oh dear.

My next thought is to go to M&S and just fill my trolley, but I would really like to go cheaper tan that.

I was thinking maybe

40 chicken legs with a BBQ spice rub
An undetermined number of sausages
Pasta salad (I've never actually made a cold one before)

.....

I'm trying to steer away from anything too complicated to eat/make and I definitely wont want to cook anything I've not made before as it always goes wrong when I am relying on an unknown recipe!

Anyone have any suggestions/advice??

Please? I'll give you some ?

not really, perks of my job and all that!

Cheese & pineapple sticks? I love those cocktail sausages? Iceland party food?

Lots of cocktail sausages - have you a George Forman ? Or oven bake a lot

Aldi do lovely quiches and less ££ than marks

Pasta salad would be great, you could just add diced cucumber, olives and feta cheese

Sandwiches always go down well.. Wouldn't be that hard

Will think .....

Sausage rolls/cocktail sausages always go down well and are super easy. Lots of crisps/pretzel type things, and yy to cheese - either cubes or pre packed snack sized, or a cheese board with lots of crackers/grapes and a jar of chutney?

In my experience cold pasta salad and sandwiches tend to get left over if you're offering more delicious less healthy things like sausages and cheese. Pasta salad also needs dressing well to prevent it being blandsville.

Cold pizza?

Could you bring a slow cooker and microwave and do a curry with rice

Brilliant thanks so much for the suggestions, especially excited that cocktail sausages are making a comeback!! Trying to figure out how to do cheese, don't want the faff of crackers or buttering bread etc. Maybe cocktail sticks again!!!

No George Foreman, no slow cooker.

A tiny bump, with

How are crackers faff? Buy a selection box or two, open the lids, put them on a table next to a humongous Brie, Stilton and block of cheddar (or any other cheeses) with a couple of knives and a block of butter and you're sorted! Let people help themselves.

The crackers aren't faff, but I just don't like it when the buffet table gets a bit cluttered with people preparing their food. I prefer a "pick it up then fuck off" system.

Held my dd 4th birthday in a village hall and all mums /dads etc invited to stay. Got most if my stuff from costco ( wrap / fruit / crudités platters ) huge pizzas, cakes etc. offered tea / coffee and soft drinks. Lots of supermarkets do catering bits and bobs. Leaves you free to just display it nicely, take covers off and allow others to help themselves.

32 bottles of diet coke??? who on earth is that for?

Ha! Sorry, glass bottles