Large party at home in garden for 6th birthday - yay or nay?!

[NameChange30]

DD wants to invite 25 kids to her birthday party 😬 And most of the kids will be 5 (she's one of the oldest in her class) so their parents will stay. Am I mad to contemplate hosting in our garden? We've done hall parties before and I'm kind of over them. Her birthday is early September and the weather is often good. I was thinking about borrowing or buying a large gazebo to protect from rain (or sun if it's very hot). We could hire a bouncy castle. My only real worry is that it's a lot of people who might want to use the loo!

Any advice welcome - from "don't do it" to practical tips about dos and don'ts. TIA!

I'm with you on that, dislike parties in the park, I know people who have a birthday party for their DC in the same park every year and this park doesn't even have public toilets or a nearby cafe with toilets or anything. Last year I had to speed walk a long distance to get to a toilet which was very stressful and challenging for my terrible pelvic floor. Made an excuse this year, couldn't be arsed (no pun intended ) Also there are never enough drinks at these things, you have to bring your own and invariably the whole thing goes on for hours and you get bored and thirsty. I would tolerate a park party a bit better if there were decent toilets and if there was a cafe in or near the park where you could get yourself a nice drink.

You've hit the nail on the head. A garden party can be lovely for smaller numbers - not for the amount DD wants to invite! So we reduce the guest list or we do a different type of party.

We have a trampoline 🤣🤣🤣

One friend hosted parties at home same age, and people nicked the toys....

Another pal did it and the parties were fab. Booze, her while family, lots of kids, adults who stayed.

So it all depends on size of garden, activities etc.

We did this for our eldest’s 6th. In amongst all the far more elaborate parties we did over the years - magician/entertainer/reptiles/pottery painting/climbing wall/dry ski slope/go-carting/fun swim…this simple back garden party for the whole class plus a few other friends, where I borrowed tables from the village hall to make one long one, and hired a huge bouncy castle with a slide was by far the best one we ever did.

We had about 35 kids and maybe 15 adults.

Admittedly it was the summer, we have a massive garden and we had great weather. It could’ve been a disaster.