damage limitation tips for a party for 4/5 yo boys please-yes at my house, yes I am an eegit

[Fillyjonk]

Just to reiterate, NO I CAN'T HIRE A COMMUNITY CENTRE

so. there are, at last count, 7 boys and 2 girls.

I know my house will be trashed. But how can I minimise the damage? What obvious things must I do?

Aside from putting away playdough and locking doors to our bedroom and the study, am lacking ideas.

I had more kids than that 4 ds's 5th bday party -- bouncy castle, blanket picnic indoors, trasure hunt & pinata outdoors. It worked fine, house wasnt trashed.

Run it like a military operation - have a list (roughly timed) of party games, when you are eating etc. DO NOT LET THEM GO UPSTAIRS (unless they need a wee, and then not all at the same time unless you like indoor water features). Maybe have some quiet games for when it all gets a bit wild - I had Treasure Map colouring sheets (they coloured them in, then put an sticky star to mark where they thought the treasure was - I had the 'master copy' and the nearest won a prize) - I had them doing that while I put the food out. I got them from Party Pieces - lots of good stuff on there.

omg party games?

should mention that parents will be there too

We had 25 for DS 4th birthday + lots of parents - I always invite them aswell. Bouncy castle is a must, drinks in plastic bottles otherwise cups do get spilt, move breakables into separate part of house, food to be eaten outside or inside at table but finished there no wandering around house with chocolate fingers.......accept that it will be like a tornado has been through but it is part of all the fun

Do you have a garden?

Make sure they know which rooms are the party rooms. Second the upstairs comment. Stick 'NO ENTRY' on doors they can't go through.

Have you got games organised?

its actually not a birthday party, more a naming ceremony for dd2.

there are more people than the kids but i am hoping the adults wont trash the house...

sadly my house is too small for boubcy castle.

ah confusion is in bad grammar of title

its the damage lmitation, not the party, that is for the boys, sorry

I have 6 boys on Saturday, all aged 4..

Have hired infaltable thing for garden and will put garden toys out, so I'm praying desperately for at least dry weather. last year was really warm and they played outside the whole time.

We will play some games - definitely pass the parcel and DS wants to play musical statues. If it looks like wet weather, I will do a treasure hunt and a pin the tail on type thing I think.

They will not trash if you keep them occupied with activities

Oh I see.

Tell them to put on a play?

Ah, sorry, x posts, much more difficult if it's not a birthday party, as adults will want to socialize & kids will want to run amok

Put stuff away. make one room out of bounds and lock it, with stuff in it you don;t want trashed.

let them jump on one bed, you know it will happen anyway

get them outside if poss

Get everyone out 4 a walk!

Do not assume your house will be trashed. You are in charge. Assign a couple of no-nonsense adults to be your deputies.

The messiest thing will be food. It must all be consumed in one place, everyone must wipe their hands before they leave the table - have wet wipes available. No wandering around with drinks.

When the children arrive have things out on the floor in the room you want them to be in so that they get absorbed in something. Kids often go wild when they don't know what's expected of them.

A game that worked well for us was: get the kids to draw around each other's feet and cut
out the feet shapes. Then they had races where they blew the feet along the floor with a straw. Kept them amused for ages!

Another good one is to get a really long roll of paper and get them to draw all over it - the funnier and sillier the better and the adults join in too. Then use it as the table cloth when it's food
time.