Birthday party in a park

[nooka]

I'm thinking of a birthday party for ds, who will be seven, and having found out that all the places he wants to go are booked for months was thinking about having it in our local park (5mins walk from our house). There is a company that sets up a big inflatable slide every weekend that my children love, and he said he could hire it out to me for an hour, which would be cool - it's way too big for our garden, and he wouldn't charge me if it rained (when I'd have to have it at home instead). Am I mad to be thinking about this? Will I lose all the kids (thinking something in the region of 12-15 with four helpers)? I'd love to know if anyone else has done this successfully.

Hi nooka. We've had ds1's party in the park for the last two years (his 6th and 7th). At this age, they're generally sensible enough not to wander off. Also, because it was a nice day, some of the parents stayed and sat on the grass which was a great help.
Only problem I remember is last year, two boys we didn't know from Adam tried to join in. It was OK because they were very nice and polite but I guess it could have been a bit awkward.

We had our 8 yr old's in the park last year. The park was five minutes from our house and we took cricket bat, football etc. We had 10 children and 3 adults. It was really nice. We then went home for tea, where we also played table tennis, air slammers, twister dance moves etc, plus more traditional games like pass the parcel.

I think it sounds a lovely idea.

Agree that one problem could be others trying to join in if you have tempting looking toys about, but if you are prepared to let them then no worries!

Bet it will just as much fun (if not more) than somewhere you'd pay a hundred quid to book!

How lucky you are to be able to consider a party in the park. DD is February born, so it's simply not an option for us.

Thanks everyone - just wanted a bit of reassurance! I don't mind nice kids joining in for games - we won't be taking any toys (maybe a few sacks and a football) and I thought I would do picnic boxes, ready set up for each child. Ds's birthday is next week (I am so unorganised - last year he didn't end up having a formal party at all), so I'm thinking of organising for the week-end after. It's a bit risky with the weather, but we could probably just about manage at home (not my first choice as we are supposed to be moving house at the moment). dh is an ex-teacher and good at keeping order, I just worry a bit about them all taking it into their heads to do something else and watching them charge off to the playground or somewhere else!