I'd like to give my daughter a 4th birthday party, but how do you compeate with the lavish partys they have these days ??

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, my daughter will be 4 in march. I think this year I'm going to give her a party, with all her little nursery friends.
There is 15 in her class and whenever one of them has a party, they are all envited. The partys I've been to with my daughter have been very extravegant. They always hire a venue and have bouncy castles, entertainers, face painting etc. There birthday cakes are usually works of art and the party bags are something else too.
I just can't and don't really want to compeate with that. I feel that nothing I do will match those standards.
I want my daughter to grow up finding joy in the simple things in life, hand made bunting, home made fairy cakes etc. I just think that if you set this high standard for when they're 4, what on earth will they have for their 16th? Will the parents be hireing them their own private island?
My daughter loves partys, she's just as happy having a quet little tea party as she is at the lavish doos.
What should I do, I'd like to envite all the children, I want it to be fun for them and not too much of an ordeal for the parents. Or should I just not have a nursery party again this year?

The competitiveness is in your head (and other sdults') not the children's. Just inviute a few friends to the house for a party tea and a few games. Quite a lot of people still do that.

We always do parties at home with traditional party games, until about 6/7, when we have to get a bit more creative. For a party in winter for 15 kids I would hire a hall, though. I get lots of adult/teenage volunteers, and try to choose games that don't get people out too quickly as you don't want too many kids watching on the sidelines - they start getting restless.

I don't think the parents need to stay if you have lots of helpers so you could make that clear in the invitation if you wanted. One mother did stay once and she was so impressed by our traditional jelly and ice cream style party that she ran one herself next time. She said it was so great not having a bouncy castle and leaving the kids to run riot.