4 year olds party - bouncy castle and entertainer?!?

[Jan2014M2B]

Hi everyone
I'm planning a birthday party for my soon to be 4 year old. This is the first time we'll be holding it in a hall rather than at home and we have promised her a bouncy castle as with a winter birthday, this was never feasible with the home parties.
There'll be about 25 kids there, mostly 3&4 year olds and I'm considering hiring an entertainer in addition to the bouncy castle to try and avoid having to do party games myself and to keep the little ones occupied when they're not on the bouncy castle. A few I've spoken to however have warned me that it will be hard to keep the kids engaged with the added distraction of a bouncy castle.. just wondering if anyone has any thoughts or experience of doing both or if the bouncy castle with perhaps some ride ons or soft play would be enough? I could probably manage a game of pass the parcel or musical statues.. all suggestions / advice welcome! Cheers.

With that age group I think I would just go with the bouncy castle with some toys/soft play around. Balloons are always good too, you can get special strong ones that don't pop and bounce really high. You could add a craft table too with an activity to do. That always goes down well and gives the less crazy ones something quiet to do.

Bouncy castle + entertainer means you'll have less to do as the entertainer will hopefully keep the kids engaged and occupied, whereas only bouncy castle could lead to mischief. Are parents staying? Don't forget tea/coffee/wine for parents too!

They'll not give the entertainer a look in!

For ds' birthday we did a bouncy castle in a hall with a craft table for the kids to colour / stick stuff on a ready cut mask. It was fab!

I went to a party with a bouncy castle and they just turned off the generator/fan when they wanted kids to do the games/eat so it partially deflated. Didn't seem to take long to re-inflate. If you can afford it those entertainers are great. Do make sure you allocate capable supervisors to the bouncy castle who aren't shy to limit numbers and remove kids or intervene when it gets too raucous. I've ended up doing this at parties when kids heads were being stamped on!

Like playmobile we did a craft table at the last bouncy castle party we had for Ds. Printed off some superhero silhouettes and got a pile of pre cut card blank figures from Poundland with a loads of pens, stickers etc. It was surprisingly popular (Ds wanted it I didn’t think the kids would care!) and gave them a chance for a break from the bouncing and something for the less physical kids to do.

Don’t do a piñata though (another Ds request), absolute carnage

An entertainer might not want the bouncy castle there.

A face painter and balloon maker might be better with the bouncy castle.

Although personally I hate bouncy castle parties as I always worry about injuries

My DD has just done a 4th birthday party for my DGD. They had about 20 children and booked a bouncy castle, some sit and ride toys and a face painter. They also organised one game of pass the parcel. The party was a great success so I can recommend this combination.