Help! kids party- advice needed

[Imnotdrinkingmerlot]

Ds has his 7th party on Sunday - meant to be bouncy castle in the garden but torrential rain now forecast. We have 15 6/7 year olds altogether and I am panicking!

We have quite a big house and its open plan, but quite a squeeze for that many kids and some parents. What the hell will I do to entertain them!? Feel anxious at the thought of it.

Could do pinata, musical bumps, pass the parcel, and we have a disco ball, but that won't fill 2 hours.... any ideas anyone? Or would you just cancel (realistically til Sept as almost the school hols, and worried weather may be no better then)?

Set the county castle up in the garage maybe?!

Set up an obstacle course with chairs covered in blankets and duvets.
Run to B&Q and get pipe lagging so they can have swords and fight
Treasure hunt with clues

Good luck!

See if there is an entertainer with a free slot. You can fit them in more comfortably if they're all sitting down.

Think of a craft activity to do at the table.

Drag food out for as long as possible.

Let them go mad and hit each other with balloons for 10 minutes.

End.

Is there a village/church hall/community centre or similar nearby you can hire for the bouncy castle ? And relocate the party

Parents don’t need to stay? Juts maybe 4 to help.

Come in and let them run about greeting mates and settling in. brown plain party bags and a small assortment of sweets, very small prizes (a balloon, a small toy, a streamer etc. but have lots)
tell everyone to take a brown paper bag and put their name on it. The can decorate if they like. have a craft table set up for this and for any children who want some time out.

Activity 1- musical chairs. Tell them this is the warm up activity. Full participation. Let the winner choose a prize.

Activity 2- pin the tail on the donkey- do this in 3 teams of 5, so you need 3 blindfolds and 3 pictures of donkeys. The teams compete. Winning team all choose a prize.

snack time/ make mock tails. Provide lemonade, OJ, grape juice, grenadine, straws and umbrellas. They must make their own cocktails and name them.

activity 3- pass the balloon- no hands from their chins to the next person behind. The last person has to run up and put it in a bucket. Winning team chooses a prize. Play this twice. Kids LOVE it.

activity 4- Pictionary in teams. You give the prompts and they draw.

food, cake, end.

you need to be confident and organised to corral them but it can be done.

When lockdown was being slowly released and you were allowed a few people in the back garden it was DDs 5th birthday, weather forecast was good right up till 24 hrs before when all of a sudden piss it down rain appeared. What we did was to get hold of a couple of gazebos and make sure we had plenty of towels to hand and a couple of big thermos's which we filled with hot chocolate, then let the kids loose with whipped cream, marshmallows, sprinkles and chocolate sauce.

Is it a bouncy castle with a roof? If so set it up as close to the house as possible and if you can get hold of a gazebo put that between the house and the castle to create a walkway. Get a big plastic tarp and put that on under the fabric gazebo top to make it actually waterproof.

The kids won't care if they get wet but you'll want to prevent puddles in your house if possible.

Balloons are endlessly entertaining they can be thrown, kicked, head butted, keepy-uppy, popped, passed to each other in amusing ways. Just keep a close eye on your TV and anything else that could fall and get broken.

An ice cream sundae bar is also fun and kills some time, plus they get to one up each other to make the most ridiculous disgusting concoction (some little sod will sneak crisps and part of a sandwich in) and then show off how great they are to their friends by actually eating the 'bowlful of everything that frankly must taste rank'.

Let parents know in advance that the forecast means they might get a bit wet so to not wear best clothes and preferably to wear a jacket.

A few games, then food then do a disco. That should work. Make a playlist!

Treasure hunt - hide pics of fave TV series characters round the house, kids have a sheet of them to tick off, bag of sweets if they get them all. Just went to a party like that and 6yos loved it.