booking super early

[layla2016]

Ds had a party for his 5th last year with a medium sized group of friends. Bouncy castle, food and party games - it went well but was completely exhausting and I found doing games really hard work.

He's moving schools for yr1 and we will do a bigger whole class party in late October as a one off just to get to know his new class etc and make a big fuss of him.

However, I don't want to entertain!!

Have googled entertainers and found one with good reviews and is already booking up for the Autumn. He looks fun and a mix of magic, comedy, games and activities.

I can't decide whether to book a random entertainer now and be done with it and not miss out but I'm worried that in October he'll go 'I want a superman party' or 'I want to go bowling' etc and I've booked the wrong thing and will lose money.

How far in advance to you book for 6yr olds?
Are they happy to just have a fun party or are they quote specific about what they want?
And what if someone else has the same entertainer in the meantime??!!!!

Be firm. Say this year we are doing X, next year we can do y. Help me choose what food/plates/music/ whatever else that needs doing. It will make him feel like he's contributed and had an input but you won't need to panic about the BIG things.

If someone else has the same entertainer say "how lucky are you that you and X have got the same one! It's coz he's the best!" Then have a word with the entertainer to juggle things about abit as you don't want a carbon copy of the last birthday child. They will be happy to adapt. The devil is in the detail - get your child involved with it all and they won't change their mind. If he likes a few things say "ok we will have X balloons, X tablecloth and Y paper plates" or whatever.

Stay firm, enthusiastic about the entertainer and get him to pick out all the other bits. He will then look forward to it. I promise!