How to entertain toddlers at dd's 1st bday party

[yellowflowers]

For MN

It's my dd's first bday soon and we are having a birthday tea at our (small) house. There will be about 8 babies and their parents (but it's midweek so probably only one parent per child) and a couple of toddlers and a four year old.

I thought the main thing would be tea - so we'll have cake and candles and some other nibbles - maybe a big wobbly jelly and some sandwiches, and obviously the babies won't care about games. But do I need to do games for the older kids or can I stick them in front of cbeebies with some balloons? And if games - what ones. Still too young for pin the tail on the donkey. Pass the parcel? Anything else?

Thank you.

My friends and I did pass the parcel at all of our DC 1st and 2nd parties, the DC mostly werent interested and went off to play with toys while parents ended up playing allthough they did like ripping the tissue paper afterwards.

It might be better to have different activitys you could have:
a colouring table. tape lining paper over a table and leave some crayons on it or you could print off some colouring pictures.
a playdoh table (make your own then if babies get it it wont matter if they eat it.
Rainbow rice - my DD who is 2 plays with this for hours. Add a tablespoon of colouring and the same of alcohol gel/hand cleanser to uncooked rice and mix it up till its all covered ( I use a tupperware box with lid and shake it), pour it out flat so that it can dry. Make lots of colours put it in a toybox and add some kitchen utensils/ sand toys.

Toddlers probably won't be interested in many organized games. Though one fun thing to do that they seem to enjoy is to get a blanket or big rectangular scarf, put some balloons on it and get the kids to each hold a side along witha couple of adults. Then lift it in the air and watch the balloons bounce up as the kids become hysterical with delight.

Follow my leader is also fun - get them to form a "train" behind you and follow you around the room.

I'm assuming they're not going to be at your house for a long period of time. This number of children and adults in a small house might be a bit of a nightmare.

I probably wouldn't bother much tbh. They are at an age where they will be perfectly happy playing with your dc toys. I'd concentrate on the adults and let the kids entertain themselves. You could always blow up loads of balloons - that'll keep them quiet. Alternatively have some childrens music on for them to do dancing to. Playdoh etc might get a bit messy.

Enjoy the tea party.

Thanks. Party is two hours long. I think balloons and a DVD maybe the way forward. I might do a tombola too where they have to dig in to box of crushed newspaper and pick a present - I'll just put the teeny toys I was going to put in the party bags in there. Does that sound ok?

Love the rice idea for games in the future though.