I had DD’s 4th birthday party at home a few weeks ago - it was only cousins and friends kids as she’s not at school yet (9 kids in total).
We did 1-3pm on a Saturday - I did a simple party lunch on arrival, spread out on a table in the kitchen. Sandwiches, sausage rolls. Crudités, crisps, pizza slices, Squash and water for drinks. We had adults as well so did some larger pizzas, cheese and crusty bread, crisps and dips, more crudités etc (they picked at the kids leftovers too 🤣). Prosecco/beers/tea /coffee / juice for adults.
We had quite a range of ages (3-8) so we just let the kids drag all the toys out and play as they wanted for a bit after lunch while their food went down, then I did pass the parcel for the older ones and musical statues.
That took us to around 2ish, so then we put out some biscuits and fruit. We left all the food out so the kids could graze throughout the afternoon. DD has a little kids portable karaoke machine so we got that out and put some Disney songs on so they all had a big singsong in the living room (super cute!).
By then it was pretty much time to sing happy birthday, cut the cake and do party bags before everyone left. It was very chilled out, no strict timings and we just went with the flow!
I think simple tea parties at home are the best 😍. Obviously it was easier for us as I was our own family and close friends so we didn’t need to worry about entertaining them too much. Good luck!