Ideas for 4 yr old party

[Sarahh2014]

Was wondering what themes/venues parents had for kids party of this age I want something that doesn't scream cheapskate but I also don't want to spend hundreds..also a party at home isn't ideal as our living room isn't that big and will be inviting at least 10 kids

[Beansprout30]

Soft play centre? Our local one caters for parties and is a reasonable price

[TinyTemperamental]

For DS’s 4th birthday, hired a room at the local leisure centre that provided a bouncy castle and also called in a face painter. The kids loved it!

[WiseDad]

Son? Buy some pipe insulation and insulation tape from Wickes or similar. Cut pipe foam in half, wrap insulation around one end to form a handle. Instant sword. Point kids at garden with swords. Leave.

If you have cardboard shields even better. Mix in some hot dogs and a cake and you have a great party for £30.

[Ojoj1974]

Animal encounter parties
Magic party
Gym party
Old fashioned party games in a village hall

[drspouse]

Point kids at garden with swords
And if it rains??!

[GreatBigPolarBear]

Church Hall with bouncy castle, balloons and party songs on a CD player
Small soft play venue
House party with party games

[mamalovebird]

I did a decopatch patch party for my DDs 4th, at my local art & craft kids cafe.
Did a softplay centre for DSs 4th.

[7ways]

Party bus?

[Sarahh2014]

Thanks ill bear all these in mind especially the sword one 🤣

[Mommabear6914]

DD1 is 5 and isn't allowed a party till she's 13. This is because I am scared that the whole thing is unsafe and innapropriate, am I wrong??

[GreatBigPolarBear]

What??!!

[sleeponeday]

Soft play. I got all creative and church halled with my eldest. So, so much work. Soft play do it all for you, and it ends up costing considerably less in my experience, too, as they provide everything and buy it in bulk to begin with.

[drspouse]

What would be unsafe and inappropriate about a party? Far more likely to be unsafe at 13 IMO!

Do you let her go to other DCs' parties?

[drspouse]

(Now, not allowing parties till 13 on the grounds of organisational hassle - THAT I understand!)

[BillywigSting]

Ds was four last week, had three friends around (so four kids plus parents, our house is quite small so the numbers worked well)
Did sandwiches, jelly and ice cream, cheese on sticks etc.
Got some cheap pound land toys and they played musical statues, pin the tail on the donkey and and did a few circle time type songs (sleeping bunnies etc).

Add some balloons banners and bunting and they had a great time, no one cried and dp was assertive enough at home time that everyone had gone home by 5.


It wasn't anything like as stressful as I thought it would be and ds had a really good time

[drspouse]

By the way we've had:
(Under 3 just family tea).

3yo DS - church hall but we just hired some soft play/ball pit and everyone brought a ride-on toy and ran riot. Theme was Pound shop, though I did let the children make playdough cookies, and we baked them and put them in the party bags. M&S sandwiches.

4yo DS - party at home with 4 guests, pass the parcel, musical statues (they had no clue what to do, it was funny!), pin the tail on the donkey, running riot in the house, cake, DH did party bags, again pound shop.

5yo DS - party bus but it parks at your house so we had to provide loo/coffee for parents/cake and there was still a fair amount of clearing up. We chose to provide party bags (just a book and cake).

3yo DD - art party at our house. We can fit 10 children in but didn't reckon on 10 adults plus several second parents coming too (it was really the other parent coming that was the killer - with DD being DC2 we had forgotten about PFBs and their parents both needing to go to their First Party Ever). We had 3 or 4 older siblings too but sent them to the park with some of the long-suffering parents.

DS6 I think we are going to take them to the cinema, max 6 guests, then probably pizza. The local chain does Sat mornings for £2 though you don't find out what the film is till about 10 days beforehand. So I'm not sure whether to just go for whatever it is - or give an alternative date in case it's Ballerinas or something else his little friends won't like!

We have at least 3 local soft plays that do parties but I really dislike two of them - they are huge, cold, dirty and rammed. But I have recently discovered that one of them, in the countryside, has exclusive teatime party sessions. So I think DD will have her 4th birthday there (it is a little far for those of DS' school friends who don't have a car but DD's nursery friends generally do due to its location).

I've also just discovered that Bella Italia does pizza parties and that the same soft play has a farm party option for over 7s. So those are on my list!

[BillywigSting]

Nb, ours was paw patrol themed and all from asda, so the cake and all the decorations/party bags were bought in one fell swoop and ds's little head nearly exploded when he came down in the morning and saw it, including paw patrol wrapped presents

[LexieLulu]

It's my DS birthday party at the end of this month.

We've hired a function room, but it's one specifically for parties. You pay X amount and theirs food and entertainment sorted for you.

Last year we hired out a function room, and paid for a entertainer and facepainter. We wanted a bouncer castle but weather in October doesn't allow.

I do know people who have hired church function rooms and had bouncey castles indoors x

[LexieLulu]

^ what I've written actually sounds expensive but it's really cheap.

Function room was free (I'm a member of the club), food majority free due to DH job, entertainer £100 and facepainter £20. We ordered loads of superhero capes from eBay and said it was super heros theme.

This year the party venue costs £125 and they supply everything