Menu and Drinks for eight year old party

[NotMyDayJob]

We’re having a small party (8 girls) for DD and the food menu is:

sandwiches (egg, tuna, cheese)
pesto pasta
chicken skewers
mini pizzas
brownies
crisps
fruit

there will be a cupcake to take home

is there any other food we should do and what sort of drinks do this age group have at parties? Obviously there’ll be water but I don’t know if we should do juice/squash or if this age group have fizzy drinks as DD only really drinks water.

grateful for any suggestions as this is my first time catering a home party.

I’d swap the egg sandwiches for marmite if you want to keep them savoury. I’m probably biased as an egg hater, but they don’t smell great.

Egg sandwiches is madness. I never did sandwiches as nobody ever eats them. I made garlic bread and Vegemite or marmite scrolls.

https://vegemite.com.au/recipe/cheese-vegemite-scrolls/

I always have breadsticks in a jam jar or similar as it adds some height to the table. Watermelon is good because it’s popular and it looks good.

drinks in bottles or cartons are better than cups as there's less mess when if they knocked over.
I would ditch the pesto pasta, that'll need cutlery to eat it with or be really messy.

I wouldn't do the pesto pasta. I don’t think it’s needed and anyway it’s more like a normal meal than party food, and also it needs cutlery.

I’d be surprised if the egg or tuna sandwiches are popular. I appreciate your reasoning behind ham sandwiches but it’s normal for sandwiches at parties to be a choice of ham, cheese and jam. if you really don’t want ham sandwiches, I wouldn’t bother with any sandwiches and just offer the pizza.

Typically some fruit and veg (carrots, cucumber and peppers in sticks), some crisps, some biscuits ( chocolate fingers) and mini marshmallows are usually served along with squash (orange and apple/blackcurrant flavours) with water.

No to egg sandwiches and no to pasta salad. Big no to fizzy drinks but you should not just do water.

personally I would junk the sandwiches, pasta and mini pizza and do normal size pizzas. Much more popular and a bit more “cool”

I never find the sandwiches get eaten. A plate of veggie or chicken nuggets does (I never cook them usually).

carrots and cucumber sticks do get munched.

I don't know about sandwiches,maybe for younger kids yes as a 'safe'/toddler type accepted food but not much much of a treat for 8 year olds - more like standard lunchbox fare.

Would agree with PP about doing more pizza,or maybe add veggie samosas/spring rolls instead alongside the chicken skewers? Easily bought,not expensive and saves you making the sandwiches)

Edited for clarity.

My experience of kids parties is that you actually need less food and variety of food than you think. To me, your list seems like too much food - I'd pick a couple of different pizzas (one vegetarian); along with snacky things like mini cucumbers, fruit and maybe biscuits/crisps. I wouldn't bother with chicken skewers and I'd skip sandwiches altogether as they have never been eaten at any party DS has been to, or the ones I have thrown for him. For parties I have thrown, I've offered water or fruit shoots. DS has never been to a party where soft drinks were offered - fruit shoots seem to be the favourite at most parties, probably because, as someone else said, they have the sports lid, which means less change of kids spilling them.

I agree, a lot of the time egg and tuna sandwiches get left. Stick with cheese but maybe pick something else for the other sandwiches.

I do also agree you should ditch the pasta, everything else is finger food but they’ll suddenly need cutlery for the pasta and it’s more of a sit down meal for 8 year olds.

I’d just have some big jugs of orange/blackcurrant squash for their drinks!

Thanks for all the feedback everyone, I’m going to scrap the egg sandwiches and do cream cheese and cucumber. Appreciate all the feedback on the tuna but they are DDs favourite and it’s her birthday so I won’t make too many but she’ll be disappointed not to have them. She’d also never eat marmite and I get what everyone is saying about ham but I have two non pork guests so I just want to make it easier for everyone to have no pork products.

have also scrapped the pasta and will add in some more fruit, some cheese straws and a few other sweet bits.

am slightly undecided about drinks but good to know there’s no expectation for fizzy drinks in this age group

I hope your daughter has a lovely birthday OP :)

Ok:

The menu looks great.

No fizzy drinks, just a choice of orange squash or blackcurrant squash and water. I have never seen fruit juice offered at a party.

No to a big plate of sweets - most parents would be horrified and you don’t need them tanked up on sugar.

I would offer a non-chocolate cake or biscuit too, maybe you could have mini blueberry muffins or white Rice Krispie cakes? A find a lot of kids don’t eat milk chocolate.

Lastly - if you’re going to the trouble of doing pasta and pesto, will it be warm? If yes then id also have a bowl of plain pasta and grated cheese. It is absolutely top favourite thing amongst kids I know!

Where did I say I was going to do a big horrifying bowl of sweets? I said I might put some haribo out, not recreate the EU haribo mountain in my back garden.

Most parents accept some sweets at a party, i don't think you said it would be a huge horrifying bowl.

I'm lazy (and DD doesn't like sandwiches) so we've just done pizzas, fruit (strawberries always disappear, though they're expensive) and some sort of cake; saves the faff of making sandwiches