Face painting / Balloon modelling

[planestrainsautomobiles]

Can anyone recommend entertainment for a children's party - looking at either face painting or balloon modelling.

Party will be on a monday afternoon at end of January in SW19

How old are the children and are you planning on having any other kind of entertainment? IME neither of these will actually keep the children entertained, as such.

Thanks THoM - party is for my DS1's 3rd birthday and there will be around 10 little ones attending.

Not planning on having any other entertainment - had one quote through which was £90 for one hour - thought it was a little steep?

Might just go with pass the parcel, pin the tail on the donkey and a little afternoon tea. Timing from 3 - 5pm. Any other ideas would love to hear, sounds like you have a little more experience!

That's probably about the going rate and after 2 hours of doing it yourself you may feel it would have been money well spent!

You're pushing it a bit with 1.5 hours (they'll only spend 20 mins eating tea, half an hour if you're very lucky) of traditional party games for that age group but if you have enough it should be OK. Bear in mind they don't cope well with competitive games at this age and also have short attention spans.

Games like musical statues and bumps are good. Giving a sticker when children are "out" and telling them they are special helpers should pre-empt any tears. If you do Pass the Parcel don't expect them to "get" it and make sure you have a prize between each layer.

What about a simple treasure hunt? Maybe put the children in pairs and get them to find 5 stars, circles etc?

Also some action songs - Sleeping Bunnies etc would go down well.

I would also set up an arts and crafts table. Either biscuit decorating or order some stuff from yellow moon. I would also buy a bubble machine from ELC. And put lots of balloons on the floor.

I'm assuming that you'll be expecting the parents to stay?

Thanks THoM for your suggestions....my little 3yr old DS1 had a lovely party.

Bought lots of crafty things from Yellow Moon and they all made a photo frame which had a photo of them inside (printed out beforehand).

We had a huge pass the parcel and also pin the horn on the dinosaur - which they loved. As well as a birthday tea and birthday cake.

This took up 2 hrs!! Thanks again for the good ideas.

Glad it went well!