Ideas for a 3 year old birthday party in a large hall

[BetterThanChocolate]

DD will be 3 in feb and is having a joint party with one of her friends. Friends mum has been offered a large school hall for us to use free of charge which is great as it means we will have a bit to spend on entertainer, games etc

We are going for a Teddy Bears Picnic meets Tea Party theme so food is easy enough, sandwiches, cupcakes etc but was wondering if the wonderful wisdom of mumsnet could suggest some ideas for entertainment and games.

Was thinking bouncy castle but DD really doesn't like them. Was also thinking about having a craft table with glue, glitter etc and large cutout cupcakes to decorate?

Average age will be 3 with a few younger and a few older. Suggestions please?

When we did this we borrowed toys from the local toy library to make it like a toddler group - we borrowed a ball pool, push alongs, ride on cars etc

For my DS1s 5th birthday I made a "race track" at one end of the hall, and had a giant box, loads of pencils/crayons and stickers for them to decorate said box with. I couldn't get enough of them to leave these two activities to play the party games (pass the parcel, musical statues, etc) that my friend ran for me!

The logic behind the race track was that there are always a few who want nothing more than to race around in circles. This way at least the majority of those circles were going in the same direction so collisions were reduced! (Of course it helped that the party was "Cars" themed )

For 3yo children I would be wary of glitter or icing unless you are planning to have someone exclusively supervising the craft table or you really like cleaning up those things from the room....

We just had DD's 3rd birthday in a hall and kept it fairly simple. We don;t have toy libraries near here, but my SIL is a memember where she lives so got some tunnels, small ball pool etc. We also took a load of DD's toys over-ride on type things, gargage and cars, doll in buggy, and put ona children's song CD - occasionally encouraging actions. I printed some colouring sheets out from Cbeebies website and put them on a table with some crayons (much les messy than glue and glitter!). Those, along with one game of pass the parcel, one of musical statues and of course the food, was plenty to keep them busy for 2 hours. I'd taken a pin the tail on the donkey game too (£1 from asda) but never used as they were mostly just enjoying running around!

Oh, and had Elefun, but more just something for small groups to play with their parents organsing, didn;t do it as an organise party game.

I went to another 3 year olds party in a hall and they hired someone from a local toddler music group to come and run a session which worked well.