15 mins at beginning of 5yr olds party - what to do?

[AllyH]

We've got an entertainer for a 5th joint party and have said that the party starts 15mins before the entertainer starts his stuff, but what can we do as the children arrive to keep them entertained?
Realise the boys will want to run round but maybe not the girls and they will all be arriving at different times.

Any ideas?

Tks

We went to a party where they decorated their own party bags.

They had a paper bag each -with handles ( good quality, not the tear easy type) and a whole load of stickers and pens etc to decorate them with. It was good.

They did it on the floor.

Then as they won prizes/sweets throughout the party she added them to their bags.

wouldn't do too much, 15 mins isn't long and lots of children arrive late.

havent' read whole thread but have found that an easy ice-breaker is to hand out snap cards and tell the kids that somewhere in room/garden there is a matching card with a sweetie on it. (tape Celebrations etc)
works brilliantly, imho.

Oh, just seen that you've already had the party!!

Twig, at ds's party on sat I did the exact opposite to you!!
I planned it so there was no spare time for free play. I didn't want the house to be trashed! I took all the toys that I could out of the playroom so there was minimal damage.

We did porcelain mug decorating first. (mugs and pens from Baker Ross). They loved that.

Then party games and then tea.

It worked great.

Our house is not big enough for 13 5 yr old boys to roam freely. They would do in a hall though as we've done that before. Just get a bouncy castle and thats that. Maybe a pinata too.

Aitch (mwah) .. love you .. was thinking of a nature reserve this time round and the snap cards are farkin' ideal .. think I might put a riddle on the card to find and it leads to their going away gift

it works well, deffo. lots of fun, although wee bros and sisters inevitably spoil it by just picking up the nearest sweeties, so have spares handy.