Outdoor birthday party in early October?

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DS will be 4 and this will be his first birthday party with friends from nursery. I would ideally like to have it at home and let tge children run around in the garden. Besides the rain, I am wondering whether it wld be too cold at that time of the year (in london) for an outdoor party.

If it rains we can move the party inside. We live in a townhouse so the living area is upstairs and dining downstairs. Would it be considered appropriate to let 3-4 year olds traipse around the house? We dont necessarily have an issue with that but wld other parents think it is a bit haphazard or disorganised.

We wld appreciate your advice!

You can never tell with the weather. Last October we had the best sunny weather of the year! My DS has an August birthday and we had everything from so hot the icing on the cake melted to violent thunder storms.
A town house is fine- parents are a bit precious if they are worried about the house.

I thnk it would be lovely to have the party outside as long as you put it on the invite and stipulate they bring coats, wellies etc I would also say on the invite that if weather is too cold/wet you will move inside.

I would be worried about young children and stairs. I think the combination of excitement/stairs/party might result in accidents. I would either put an adult on the stairs at all timesrouting the party or just keep the party to one floor, so have the party in the garden and room off the garden.

thanks exotic. yes weather unfortunately is so unpredictable. I dont want to book a hall as I dont think we will have as many kids. Probably max of about 7-8 i think and then their parents.

What do you mean abt parents being worried abt the house; in what situations wld they be worried? i dont want ds to become a pariah after a disastrous party! pizza express is always an option but it is so boring and typical. Since ds is october born we wldnt have gone to any other parties this yr to compare or get ideas from.

It wouldn't have occurred to me to worry about the house - you were the one who mentioned it! You said it was haphazard and disorganised and I would presume the stairs are an issue. As they are 3and4 I'm sure they can cope. The parents wil probably be there anyway. Keep the cost down and stick to home- it will be fine. Hope the sun shines.

About the stairs, I suppose it depends how steep they are. My friend lives in a Victorian townhouse and the stairs are so steep, she does always help little ones. However your stairs might not be like that.

The outdoor parties we've been to this "summer" have just needed coats and wellies; a camping gazebo put up in the garden for shelter - house used only for toilet (children aged 5). Not sure if you'd have space for this? But in every case they have been fantastic parties! October definitely not too late to be outside!

Our ds1 had his first party last year. His birthday is October 30th but we had his party about a week before.

We booked a bouncy castle with a cover on for £60.

Worried about the weather, but thought at least it has a cover, and I decided to cook pizza instead of sandwiches so it was warm in case it was cold outside aswell as usual party food.

Was going to put the heating on etc and had a list of party games to do if weather failed. As it happened it was dry and sunny and the bouncy Castle was a hit. Had about 15 kids round and all seemed to have a fab time. Music on and pass the parcel on the bouncy castle. Food eaten inside.

As long as you supervise the kids on the stairs I wouldn't worry about that. And are you asking the parents to stay? A couple of parents asked if I wanted them to stay but I said no as long as they and child were happy with that, could of course stay id they wanted to.Had enough help with family there. Only2 parents stayed which I preferred so I didn't have to entertain them too!

Just considering whether to do the same again this year or were we really lucky with the weather last year? But prob will do the same again.

And it was only a small bouncy castle. About 16ftx14ft. Think you can get 10ftx12ft bouncers if space is an issue.

Thanks all for the reassuring words!! We have a large patio and tgen a garden(by london standards) so i am really keen to exploit that. good to know that parents wont think i am crazy for suggesting an outdoor party. The bouncy castle and warm food idea sounds great. I guess with kids that age we dont need to do anything very fancy in any case. Our house is not too small and we have a family room next to the kitchen, but thought it may be not give the boys the space to run around so moving them upstairs living room could be an option.

I thought most parents wld want to stsy. DS starts in nursery this year and all of us will be new to each other (barring a few parents) so my hunch is they wld want to stay. If they do and it is wet, then perhaps they can sit upstairs!!

And get loads of balloons. We put about 25 on the castle, and some spare on the floor in the dining room. Kids loved just playing with them!

Might get a little bubble machine this year too-not decided.

Good luck!

Hi, planning an outdoor party is kind of risky because of the weather. But there are a few things you can do to save you some trouble. I just read an article about tips for outdoor party (blog.partify.co/tips-for-outdoor-kids-birthday-parties). It gives you several useful tips on how to make an outdoor kids' party amazing.