Party at home -help please!

[offtopooatpaulshouse]

DTs will be 6 next month and are desperate for a party. Due to finances, having it at home is the only option and TBH I wish I hadn't agreed, but I have so i'm a bit stuck with it really!

It looks like we will be inviting around 10 children - 8 boys 2 girls.

So my question is, what do I do with them? Obviously muscial bumps / statues, pass the parcel. Party food. But what will they do the rest of the time?

Usually soft play parties and the like are 2 hours but will this be too long at home, would an hour and a half be more realistic?

Also, i'm thinking of saying they haver to stay downstairs as I can imagine the riot in the bedroom, arguments over toys etc. Is this reasonable?

Please help as I think i've bitten off more than I can chew. Why didn't I have summer born children who can party in the garden?!

I would save musical bumps etc until the end otherwise they'll all be too giddy too early on.

I just had my DS's birthday at home - he's six. I removed all the giddy toys - swords etc and left out all his board games etc (operation, marble run etc). I also set up scenes with his playmobil - bit like they do at nurseries - this seem to work really well as the kids wanted to play with toys which were a novelty to them

get them doing a sitting down craft activity - e.g. decorating biscuits - or making their own hats for the birthday tea (with a prize for the best)

two hours will be fine - but I would recommend keeping them downstairs. good luck!!

Ooh we have lots of marble run, they would love that.

Hmmm making hats, my two would love that. Does it not end in chaos with lots of children? I'm a bit worried it won't be partylike enough. Am also worried about the opinions of the mums that stay. I would rather they didn't but most do at the mo. Not that it matter what the mums think but they are not very discreet when they think something is a bit odd!

Thanks for your help. I think I need to change the way i'm thinking about it

if the mums are staying they can help with the hat making - if there are prizes to be won at every turn for the best hat/ quickest person to listen to instructions etc the kids will think it so brilliant that the mums won't be able to comment

how about borrowing a chocolate fountain for the end of the party? the mums are totally going to love that themselves!

we went out on a limb by doing it this way this year and actually two of the mums said they were really relieved that someone had broken the tradition of playbarn parties and that their kids had really really enjoyed it

another game you could play is the chocolate game; give them a big dice (you may have to make one) - pass it round with everyone having a throw, when someone gets a six they have to start putting on a hat, dressing up top, mittens etc and then pick up a knife and fork and try to eat a bar of chocolate, meanwhile the dice keeps getting passed around and as soon as someone else gets a six the first person has to stop and pass all the kit over to them

the kids will love something novel because to be honest my son and his friends are getting a bit bored with playbarn parties

• treasure hunt

-musical muddy puddles (same as musical chairs - cut out puddles from newspaper)

• bingo, we played this at ds1's 6th, they all loved it, we ended up playing quite a few rounds
• sock game, all shoes off, socks pulled half way off - all have to crawl round and try and grab each others socks, last one with a sock on is the winner (tip - get them to take their own socks off and put in their shoes, then use socks from your house for everyone!)+

1.5hrs is fine, but won't leave you with lots of time for food if you are feeding them.

If you don't want mum's staying put "drop-off" and "pick-up" on the invites.

We had a party at home for dds 6th birthday, we did allow 2 hours but would have been better at 1.5 I think, the children didn'tspend as much ime eating as what we allowed for.

Have some sort of craft activity, we set a table up and steered them to that as they arived so it gave the early arrivals something to do whilst waiting for all the guests to turn up. Gave us something extra to put in the party bags as well :)

Biggest hits at dds party was a treasure relay race, stuck some plastic beads and coins in the small sand pit gave each team a spade and let them dig for treasure.

Also some pavement chalk and let them loose on the patio and shed, but this of course depends on weather.