2 year old party - what food to serve?

[schroedingersdodo]

I can't believe I didn't know this section on MN until now!

Well, DS is turning 2 and we're having a party on Sunday. I'm planning to serve some sandwiches and nibbles.

We'll have over 20 adults and about 8 children, so the food must be really simple and not too expensive.

How many sandwiches do I make? I suppose I'll get two slices of bread, make one sandwich and cut it in 4, right? So we'll have loads of small-sized food that works for children and grown ups.

I thought of making cheese and ham sandwiches and maybe two other options, one veggie. Any suggestions? Hummus with something for the veggie one?

And how many of them I need?

On top of that, I though of buying Organix crisps, some "real" crips for the adults, and maybe fruit.

For drinks, I thought of fruit juice and water, maybe some wine In this case, do I need beer as well?). How much do I need? (probably half the women in the party are pregnant, which decreases consumption of wine...)

(the party will last about 2 hours and a half, but I'm sure some of the people will stay there for longer)

I have no idea about the quantities, I'll end up spending a fortune in food and bringing everything back home again!!

we had a party for 8 2 yos and each had one or 2 adults with them.

I did 2 sorts of food.

for the kids, I used trays like these and did one with savoury, one with fruit.
for savoury, I did 3 sorts of sandwiches - cream cheese, ham, and cheese. I used cookie cutters to make them into shapes too . think I used both bread types. I also put some cheese savouries in one section, some of those chedds cubes in another, and cucumber and carrot sticks in the middle section (pot of hummus on the table for dipping). may have put cherry tomatoes out too, can't remember! other options would be mini pizzas (cut up), cocktail sausages, pork pies etc. If you know there are no allergies, peanut butter is a good sandwich filling too, sadly one guest at our party was allergic.

for sweet, I did fruit - apple slices, watermelon slices, grapes (halved), blueberries and maybe I had some rice cakes on it too - again, can't remember exactly!!

I then did a platter of cookies and the birthday cake after everyone had helped themselves to the savoury and fruit!

for the adults, I put out 2 big bowls of crisps, some mixed dips, and quiches, plus I lopped up a baguette and buttered the slices, so there was bread on standby too. They helped themselves to leftovers from the kids too, and as I'd made about a million cookies, there were plenty of leftovers!

drinks wise, I was pg, and most adults were driving, so I offered water, sparkling and still, some soft drinks like coke/diet coke, cartons of orange juice, and very dilute squash for the kids. adults could have tea or coffee too, but nobody wanted it.

the party was 10-12.30 btw, so over lunch - late afternoon would be different, obviously!

hope that helps a bit :)

Thanks Kveta, great ideas in your post!

I'm afraid I can't be bothered to make cookies, but I like the ideas of the trays.

I'm thinking, for the finger sandwiches: egg mayo and hummus with olives for the veggie ones (probably the children won't like it), what do you think?

I'm making the online shopping right now and feeling so lost! Think I'll include some apples and grapes in the list. Did you slice the apples yourself? I suppose it has to be done on the day?

you could just buy those wee tubs of cookies/doughnuts from the supermarket - you know the ones that have 20 or so bits in them, but are from the bakery section? that would be a good nibbly food for littles. I know my DS will eat anything doughnut shaped... :o

I did slice apples myself (or may have got DH to do it), but it doesn't take much time :) you can get pre-prepared fruit from the supermarket though!