Food ideas for kids party

[Killerqueenie]

I'm hosting a birthday party for my daughter in our local sports centre. The party is in the morning (10-11:30), what sort of food would you expect at this time since it's before lunch?

I'd just provide a mid-morning snack, so I'd probably get a big tray of doughnuts and the children can choose one each to eat alongside a drink.

I’d offer some pizza slices and cold sausages, crisps and small cakes. Have cup cakes in the take home bags and a small birthday cake so they can blow out candles.

Depends on age group and activity. Little kids I’d just do lunch after the activity 11-11.30 is fine for an early lunch. If you need to do food first or have older kids maybe breakfast sandwiches?

I wouldn't worry too much about the time, kids will take on a birthday buffet at any time of day. I've done parties starting at 10 or at 2 and in anticipation for the food the kids were all scrounging the biscuits I'd put out for parents like they'd never eaten before

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. It is a bouncy castle/soft play party, and I was just going to have a table set out with food for them to go and help themselves throughout the party.

@Killerqueenie Just be aware with an ongoing open buffet and no designated time or area to sit and eat that it can end up with kids grabbing and grazing on bits and then running around and going on the soft play whilst still eating. You can also end up with them knocking over plates and cups whilst playing and in general there will be more mess spread around than if they were sat at a table. In which case I'd keep the options simple and try to minimise mess. Assuming they're quite young I'd also avoid any high risk foods for choking such as raw veg sticks or cocktail sausages. With the best will in the world it can be hard for parents to get their children to sit still and finish what they're eating when everyone else is running around having fun.

Traditional picky buffet food always goes down well but go for sliced ham and cheese in sandwiches and not grated cheese which goes everywhere at the best of times. Crisps and biscuits maybe things they can eat in one mouthful like mini party rings instead of bigger biscuits they might run off with eating and dropping. Pizza could work and isn't too messy. Drinks might be best in fruit shoot style bottles instead of cups that get knocked over.

What age is your dd? In my experience, a lot of toddlers are still eating lunch at around 11:30 so quite honestly, I'd expect that at a party like this. Certainly, as a rule, we all used to stand aroudn giggling that even if the party was 9-11 opr 14:--1600 everyoe expected actual food.

Having said that, it doesn't have to be complicated or fancy food. Sandwiches, sausages rolls, mini sausages some crisps, some fruit and some biscuits - ie a generous packed lunch - were pretty standard around here. Sometimes served individuall yin boxes, sometimes on platters.

If you have access to a kitchen at all I used to do hotdogs. I found that as long as I had a large container and access to boiling water, I could just dump the sausage sin a pot, add the water and 5 minutes later (no need to put on the stove), I shoved them in rolls. For whatever reason, they always got eaten more than the sandwiches and sausage rolls! Then bowls of fruit (or little fruit skewers were popular but depends on age - too young and they're likely to be a hazard!), and individual packets of crisps for each child. Biscuits or chocolate AFTER main food.

Fruit, crackers, cheese. Some jam scones