3yo party at home - entertainment?

[omama]

Not really sure where to put this so feel free to move if needed.

Just wondered what kind of entertainment you provided (if any) for your pre-schooler's birthday party if it was held at home e.g. bouncy castle, party games etc?

DH thinks we should just let em potter & play with ds' toys but I feel like we should provide something a little more than that. Thoughts?

Although the 3yo will be happy pottering a bit of structure might give you more chance of sanity!

I've done a big table full of gluing and sticking and painting. That went down well.

We did biscuit decoration: less messy than gluing and painting- and they can eat the result. And it's quick: 3yo concentration spans are not the greatest.

If you have a garden and the weather is okay you could ask friends if you can borrow ride on toys - then they can all just ride / scoot / bounce about the garden. You might manage pass the parcel with 3 year olds, so you could do some general free play followed by a party game or two (what's the time Mr Wolf always goes down well) and then a party tea. Or a treasure hunt in the garden with lots of little chocolate eggs or packets of sweets? Don't do that in the house or they'll ransack it! Have fun

I paid someone to come to the house and do an hours worth of singing/dancing/story telling etc. The rest of the party was taken up with throwing/kicking balloons around, chasing bubbles (we have a little bubble machine) and playing outside (weather ok despite it being February!). And eating of course!

I'm sure the children would have been fine playing with toys the whole time, but I really appreciated having someone there to entertain them for a while (especially as DS2 was only 6 weeks old).

House wasn't trashed at all :)

How many are coming? I just let them play outside and they had a great time, but it was a small party.