dunno if this is of interest, but though i did find some useful stuff when preparing for the party, I didn't find all that much, so this is intended to add to the archive
party at home for nine 4-year-olds - 1 didn't turn up thank goodness. Me, Dh and my mother - 3 seemed like the MINIMUM to me!
prizes, some game equipment and ballons from greatlittleparties.co.uk i think. Quick delivery.
games:
find your name badge (sticker). this was really successful and useful for helper who didn't know all the children.
Musical hats (i.e. grab a hat when the music stopped). A really bad idea - maybe I did it wrong). They couldn't really cope with it - too much about losing, not enough about winning. DH played the piano which was nice.
Animal Noises - each person had a card with an animal on it, drawn by me really badly and had it on show. i made the noise of my animal, then the noise of someone else's - they made their noise, then someone else's - etc. This worked really well, with a LOT of coaching.
Treasure Hunt of chocolate coins - back to me into a bowl and shared out equally later into party bags. Moderately successful but over much too fast despite their being unable to find any of them.
Pass the parcel - see parcel thread! DH played the piano. Quite good. One bout of tears.
Pin the tail on the donkey. Good one, although didn't take enough time over it.
Made a den for everyone and read them a story. Worked brilliantly!
Sleeping Lions (i.e. who can be most still - I explain this because I had forgotten how it worked).
Queue up for tea boxes and upstairs to DS's bedroom which I had decorated earlier. Tea was quite relaxed but again over too quickly, and there needed to be extra drink up there as not everyone liked the drink in their boxes. That was foreseeable really.
Cake; presents and playing with them; balloon cricket (not enough long balloons)
Kim's Game (items on a tray, which one's been removed?) worked brilliantly with 6 things. They could probably have coped with 7 or even 8, as a couple of guests were almost 5.
Another story - Dh read it, I did sound effects. Very good idea.
Should have put all the coats and shoes into a cupboard somewhere as a coat went missing - we have a tiny house.
That's it!