party clash dilemma - what to do please?

[geekgrrl]

ok, hardly the world's most pressing problem but anyway...
My dd2 will be 5 at the end of the month and is due to have a joint party with a friend's little boy at a soft play centre. We were still waiting for a firm confirmation of the date & time so hadn't sent out invites - well, today dd2 gets an invitation from twins in her class for a party at the exact same time. Her class is tiny (14 children) and all children are usually invited to parties.

What do I do? I had agreed to a joint do with my friend, but if I stick to this time & date nobody will turn up, and dd absolutely adores her classmates.

If I let my friend down she'll be about £40 out of pocket - I guess I should give her the money and arrange another time for dd's do?

Change the date and time, I would. Surely she won't lose any deposit if it's cancelled this far in advance? I wouldn't have thought so anyway.

I'll try - unfortunately this was the only slot we could get before the Easter hols. But you're right, hopefully we'll only lose a small deposit which I can pay and then she can do her own thing and we do our's. What a pain in the bum.

unless of course the twins want to jump on board thereby halving the cost to you both again

why don't you ask the mum of the twins if you can all have the Party together and third the cost?
It only means cakes at the same time, d just did this with a boy in her class for her fifth as we figured people wouldn't do two parties!

now that would be a good idea - but they've already booked with the local rip-off soft play centre which doesn't give refunds IIRC.

My dd's was at a soft play (BIG one) type place and they're fine with it, just work out eh cost at the end per head for any extras

well, my friend won't contemplate having her son's party at the big soft play centre (the rip-off one) as she thinks it's just awful (which it is, in all fairness, but the kids like it).
I think she'll have to do her own thing.