Totally at a loss to understand childrens' parties - why are they all entertainment and crap food for the kids, rather than a celebration of our children by those who love them?

[catASTROPHE]

We've been to a few lately, and the more I thnk about the more I think it is WEIRD.

Whats the point of the party? To get those who love our children together and to celebrate them and enjoy them, surely.

Naturally, as some of the guests will be children, we will cater to their tastes as well.

But why the mountains of aspartame and salt laden food, and raucus games, and kiddy music, while the parents, godparents and adult friends stand around at the edge with a plastic cup of weak squash?

Honestly, I'm interested to know what the thinking behind these parties is.

catASTROPHE - I had my first real party for my DD now she's 5 and at school. However I split the party into 2 parts. Earlier on she had some of the children from school that she is friendly with and a couple of friends from outside school. We played games and ate 'real' food all of which I had made myself. The only 'sweet' stuff were the mini, teeny cupcakes I had made and a gingerbread man that the children got to decorate themsleves oh and the actual birthday cake.

Party bags didn't contain the usual Harribos, just a couple of good quality little gifts and a piece of the b.day cake.

Then when they had all left I invited round all the people who really care and love my DD's, the grandparents, god-parents, childminder, nearest and dearest basically. We then all watched Dd open a few presents and had tea and cakes.

So I sort of agree with you tbh.

It annoys me when we go to a party and the only food on offer is sausage rolls, cocktail sausages, jam sandwiches on white bread, crisps, biscuits, cakes and sweets. Why is that sort of food considered a treat?

sounds lovely Teecee

I'm making tiny cupcakes for DS's party too. Mmmm, and they look soooo cute! What other food did you have? I'm after ideas. Am doing mini pizzas with ham, tomato, cheese and sweetcorn on wholemeal muffins, dips and dippy things (veg, breadsticks)...any other ideas for the meal? Scones jam and cream and cheese platter as well, but aimed more at adults, although the kids will be welcome to them too.

catASTROPHE - Morning
Trying to remember the food I made for you. Your pizza things sound FAB though.

I know I made chicken nuggets and minced the chicken breasts up with cheddar cheese and a smidge of garlic and onion and dipped some in wholemeal toastcrumbs and some in crushed cornflakes. Then i did potato and sweet potato wedges with them.

I then did the usual veggie platters (strips of red and yellow peppers, cucumber, carrots, celery, srips of scheese and cherry toms) and breadsticks with dips.

Ummmm, what else?

Oh and I made some sandwiches as well )(incase there were problems with chicken and potato wedges). I cut them into shapes with a pastry cutter. Actually that's a lie, I used the cutters from Lotties playdough set! There was a teeny heart and I made loads of little heart shaped sandwiches filled with grated cheese and carrot etc.

Can't remeber what else tbh, there was lot of fruit, big strawberries, grapes, lychees, plums, satsumas, raspberries, blueberries etc. Oh and some rasins and dried apricots.

Instead of sweets I had these bits of dried apricots covered in yoghurt but they were all different colours so they looked really appealing. I bought them from my health food shop.

The mini cupcakes and I did something different on top of each one, some lemon, some chocolate etc.

Then there were the gingerbread men. These were a huge hit as I waited till they were ready and put a load of bowls on the table and let them decorate their own men which they ALL loved doing. There were bowls of icing which acted as the 'glue' for the bits of decoaration.

Hope you have a fab time.

teecee, that food sounds GORGEOUS and I will be pinching all your ideas for ds' birthday in the summer, specially the gingerbread men to decorate

as my ds would say at the moment "You CAN come to my party"

Thanks teecee - think I will do the muffin pizzas with potato and sweet potato wedges and will do sandwiches cut into shapes as well. Oh, and some fairy bread in shapes as well - a must for every good Aussie child's party . Thats a great idea to check out the health food shop for treats too.

The gingerbread men sound gorgeous too, but I might have to leave it a few years as the child guests are mostly 2-4 years!

I stocked up on wine and champagne, plus ingredients for salmon dip and hommous yesterday. I've just finished wraPinG the pass the pARCEL, FILLED (sorry - ds!) with a party blower in each layer and bubbles in the miiddle - it took so long to wrap! My DD, whose almost 3, is getting really excited...me too!

buy tc that food uis dlicious
yum susage rolls

Sounds lovely

I hated the pass the parcel wrapping. It did take ages and I tried to make the gufts different and then got in a mess cos some were good for boys but others only suitable for girls! I also tried to not get npisy prize and keep the franticness as low as possible.

I did a stick the red nose on the clown game and also a piata, but not one you hit with a stick! This was a box filled with toys and each child pulls a ribbon and then you hold back the ribbon that breaks the bottom till the last and allthe topys gush out and it's a free for all. That was a hit with everyone.

My friend did face painting for me too so as kids arrived they took it in turns to get their faces painted. gave them something to do when people were stilla rriving and kept it calm as well! (I had a lot of boys at our party!) If you can't do face or arm paining maybe you could get transfers that you could rub onto them instead so they have something to be doing as kids arrrive?

at dd's party in jan at a soft play centre, i lost a child

it was only for 5-10mins but he was distraught, i felt awful. he was ok in the end but spent the rest of the time on my knee having a cuddle.

in my defense, his mum had dropped him off and gone, but she didn't tell me she was going.

I make my own huge gigantic sausage roll if we're going to have sausage roll Cod. I roll out puff pastry get good quality sauage meat and lay to end on pastry, boil eggs and lay them down middle of meat, put more sauage meat on top and round sides of eggs and then lay pastry over top. Tastes so much better than shop bought sausage rolls, it really does, doesn't compare.

tc, those sausage rolls sound yummy!

ooh, Teecee, might steal that one too -have never done it with the eggs.

Ohhhhh it's DIVINE, honest to god.

I made one for my stepfathers birthday and cut the number 6 and the number 0 out of pastry and stuck them on top.

Remember to glaze with beaten egg and cook on mid temp for 40 mins at least.

Everyone loved the sauage roll and thought it was so funny that I had put his age on top like that!

Oh and another REALLY easy idea - Tomato flan things.

Roll out puff pastry, take side plate and cut out circles. Then take knife and a bit in from edge run the knife round, don't piece all way through though. Then slice up tomatoes and lay in the middle of the inner circle and dzizzle with olive oil. Bung in oven for about 15 mins, till pastry is risen and puffy and golden.

I did variations and did some drizzled with balsamic as well as olive oil and some with thinly sliced red onion as well as toms. So, so easy and so good. It's so sweet and so tasty.

We had a party last year for my ds first birthday. We bought a marque doodah for the garden and spent a fortune on nice food and had a BBQ. It pissed it down with rain, we discovered the marque wasn't waterproof, everyone (and there were a lot of us) had to sit on top of each other in our small house and ds slept through most of it totally oblivious. We ended up throwing loads of food away and my lovely neighbour who had volunteered to do the BBQ had to stand outside in the pissing down rain cooking feckin burgers that no one ate This year will be a lot more low key and smaller.
We went to a Wacky Warehouse party this morning and the kids had a great time, so good luck to them.