parties, any tips

[ginbob]

doing small bowling trip for ds and it's ds1 and ds2's turn this year. baby gets nothing until she's older !!!!! I would love a fireman theme at the twins church hall party - has anyone any ideas? xx money is pretty tight btw but we have already booked the hall and a mini bouncy castle, oh, and they are 3 yo x

Mine had a combined party for 4 kids this year, which worked really well - we kept the numbers down and provided good entertainment for all the older kids. But did I see any of the 3 or 4 year olds? No, they were all in the bouncy castle for most of the 2 hours... so you're definitely on the right lines...

When making cupcakes for the party, only make the mini cupcakes. Kids don't eat them (frankly, they only take a bite out of all party foods anyway -cut them up small!). That way you only make one batch of cupcakes and it yields about 50 cakes. Oh how often I have thrown out cupcakes I have lovingly made with just a little bit of icing sucked off!

I'd keep the food really simple and in small pieces, you waste much less. I like to keep the food healthy, but as my dds get older, they want more 'junk food'. Goggle 'fairy bread' very popular in Australia and dirt cheap to make if you are looking for more party-style food.

Like the combined party idea and wish I hadn't spread the births of my dds throughout the year! Not that I planned it that way!

no way ... it's sooooo expensive, 4 within 16 days just after Christmas... now that's just very poor planning! Needless to say, we are having a very frugal February. x

I always did traditional party games at my children's parties ie pass the parcel, musical bumps. Not many people do these anymore so the children normally find them novel and really enjoy them.

My daughter (age 4) went to a friend's go-kart party recently - it was really good and she loved it and so did the older kids. They have electric go karts indoors in sports halls in an inflatable track.