Small party for mixed ages

[Gagagardener]

Advice, please. What would you do for a 4th birthday party being celebrated on Halloween at which one set of grandparents, 3 x 30-something parents and 4 children - sisters aged 6y and 4y7m; brothers aged 20 months and 4y1day - will be present? Grandfather is father of mother of girls. Grandmother is mother of mother of boys. (Grandparents married when their daughters were grown up.) Both mothers and boys' father will be there. Children get on well; we all do. I am grandmother. Because she and her family will be travelling back from a wedding all the previous day, and she will have to bake the cake on the day, my daughter asked me to be 'games mistress'. What would you do if you were me? I imagine I need to have activities to occupy about three hours, not including eating (an afternoon, in fact). And I shan't be in my own home, but my daughter's.

Buy some plain paper bags and a load of stickers, crayons, etc...have the kids decorate a bag each and then send them on a treasure hunt...for sweets and small toys which you've hidden in obvious places in the house or garden.

Kids of this age LOVE doing this...make sure there's plenty to find and help the littlest to hunt. Doesn't have to be just sweets....cheap things like bubbles, badges, balloons etc are fine....kids just love the thrill of hunting stuff down.

That will eat up an hour.

Actually more than an hour if you factor in decorating the bags.

I’d plan a mixture of running around and sitting down things, but also give them some time just to play together rather than being fully organised.

Some sort of treasure hunt (like an Easter egg hunt) could be fun. Doesn’t need to be sweet related, and you could get them to hunt for things together - like giant jigsaw pieces and assemble them to show the prize for them to share.

Crafts - junk modelling can be fun, especially if you can make it large scale (big cardboard boxes for a rocket/castle/monster). Contents of your recycling boxes plus pva glue, wrapping paper remains etc. If you draw around a hand on coloured paper and cut it out, with scraps of wool, googly eyes, sequins and feathers (all v cheap in Wilkos, Poundland and similar shops) you can turn it into monsters, woolly mammoths, dinosaurs...I do this in museums as a rule!

Hope you have a lot of fun.

Thank you for these ideas. Recycling goes Tuesday - I'll start digging through it today. What are people feelings about balloons?

My just turned three year old thinks the balloons were the best part of her birthday, and I remember them being lots of fun when I went to parties. Just don’t do what my mother did and tie balloons to the rose bush...

Balloons are needed...they signal "PARTY!" to small kids and I've always found that just blowing a load up and scattering them on the floor everywhere is wonderful to kids. They love playing with them.

Balloons are now on the shopping list.

Something else fun - buy un-iced fairy cakes or plain biscuits and get party goers to decorate them. Silver balls, sprinkles, chocolate chips, raisins... Most supearkets have a range and it is easy to do inside. If you can give each child a tray with a rim to work on it makes the cleanup easier.

@Latenightreader

Something else fun - buy un-iced fairy cakes or plain biscuits and get party goers to decorate them. Silver balls, sprinkles, chocolate chips, raisins... Most supearkets have a range and it is easy to do inside. If you can give each child a tray with a rim to work on it makes the cleanup easier.

Great idea! They could make 'monster faces' or similar.

You have no idea how grateful I am to you for all the helpful suggestions. Thank you both very much.

@Fortunesfave and @Latenightreader: thought you might like feedback now party's over and we're home. Birthday Boy's family spent 9 hours travelling home yesterday and were all tired, but my DD produced the desired cake with a green inside and pink icing and sweets on top. BB was very pleased with his presents. Balloons Grandad had blown up a great success. Everyone well behaved. Little girls very happy to spend a lot of time playing with the boys' toys. Toddler and my DD went for a nap. Girls gave a concert (at the clavinova, turned well down, and the audience sat on dining chairs to listen) singing a song they knew from school. Lots of applause. BB sang a song he knows. Lots of applause. Toddler and DD reappeared. I'd made toilet tube binoculars and little lanterns with LED tealights for them to decorate for Treasure Hunt - for pieces of a Spot jigsaw they all knew from our house. Once it was complete, the prizes were balloon dogs, made to order by my DH. VDH! He learned the skill from YouTube last night. Musical bumps and musical statues, wearing newspaper hats. A walk down the lane, with muddy puddles. Visitors left. We had a cuppa, and left. Thank you both for your advice and help. I think the party's success was in large part thanks to your advice.

That sounds absolutely lovely, I am so glad it worked out well. I’m so impressed that your DH learned to make balloon dogs - I can’t twist a balloon without popping it!