For DDs 2nd bday we want to invite 3-4 of her friends which means a total of 16-20 people!!

[SpankyouHardOnChristmasNight]

How on earth do you get round this?? DD's birthday is on a weekend day, DD sees 3-4 small people very regularly and we know both parents very well and meet up socially altogether as families etc etc. Like us, each of her little friends have a smaller sibling, so to invite each one of them, we are actually inviting a family of 4. Do we just invite them all round and hope for the best or is there a cunning way to handle this??? DH is insistent that they're all invited plus another family of 4 who are friends of his...

You don't need to have her party on her birthday, I'd just keep it really informal and invite mums and kids over for a birthday lunch in the week. Then just put out toys and little snacky food things for the party food.

hiya, my dd was 2 on friday and we had the same problem! on saturday afternoon we had a kind of 'open house' mini party for her, just invited a few other families and hoped for the best (we have a small flat!) - in the end it worked out fine. it was really nice. one family of 4 didn't make it and one mum was going to come by later for a bit but didn't make it. if they had come it would have been a bit squashed.

at most we had 5 kids and 9 adults (including us and dd). but our living room is pretty small.

i invited people to 'come round for a slice of cake to celebrate dd's birthday, from 3pm, and stay as long as you like' thinking that some people would come later and some would come early and leave early, and it did work out like that.

i kept it really relaxed and only invited people who i knew well, and we all enjoyed it!

have a nice party! x

I'd say way too many people for a 2nd party. Do what kitten said, that's a good idea.

I would go for an open house thing, ensuring that as DH is so insistent about inviting everyone, that he does his fair share of the organisation, shopping and hosting! Also, people don't all turn up. My son recently turned 2. We invited about 8 kids and families. 5 kids turned up, plus one sibling and about 7-8 parents. It was a bit noisy but fine. Great when they all left!

It's going to be a nightmare. Current count is 29 people including 7 kids and 6 babies. DH will not waiver and I appear to have no say whatsoever.

2 of the kids are hellishly hyperactive and cause absolute carnage. It would be hurtful not to invite them even though they're older than DD.

I am dreading it.

oh. and it's 4 days before Christmas