Am I mad to have a birthday party with over 50 guests for my son?? sorry long.

[QuintessentialShadow]

So, I started planning my sons 6th birthday party. Harry Potter. Great. Booked the hall, booked the entertainer, made the invitations and invited my sons class (30 kids). So far so good. Then decided to add all my sons other friends, and my neighbours son who is 2 years older. And then two friends rang and asked if they could bring their toddlers too, sure why not, inconvenient otherwise. So, my neighbour mentions her teenage daughters school is just around the corner from the hall, sure why not, and another friends teenage son will come home to empty house, yup the more the merrier, why not?

Then another mum in my sons class phones me and asks if we can do a joint party as she had rang to book the hall and was told I had already booked it. Great idea, workload shared, expenses shared. She wants to add another 5 friends of her dd, of course, why not.

In my opinion, I thoughg because we are leaving, lets make this a mega celebration, and indeed I have done up the numbers and we are nearly at 55 guests....

Am I mad?

How many sausage rolls do I need? Coctail sausages? How many big bags of crisps? How many breads for sandwiches?? How many cupcakes? What else????

Parent helpers who will help, not just sit around munching the sausage rolls and chatting.

barking imo.

and parent helpers? erm at 6 most parents drop off and head for the hills don't they?

I have 3 volunteers who will bring the children from school.

My best friend.

The other mum (and possibly her mum and dh)

My husband

Another parent who will come as soon as she finnishes work, but does not know exactly when as it is her last day of training.

If you have an entertainer who is going to be there throughout, and if they know their job and are pretty clued up IT WILL BE FINE!

Don't rely on parent helpers - ask the ones who are friends to stay in advance. Most will leg it.

I've abandoned sandwiches for parties as they never get eaten. Allow for 3 sausages per guest then subtract some to allow for veggies. A cupcake each and some spare - 70ish? Bag of crisps between 2 or 3, so maybe 25? Big veggie pizzas cut up are quite popular.

DOn't forget the Iced Gems and Party Rings!

I don't know if this is helpful as it may add to the cost, but I found that when we had ds and dd party which I think had about 35 kids at each, party boxes were fab for making up boxes of food beforehand.

You can then get enough food just for the boxes and not much gets wasted. Children can just leave what they don't like.

If you put their names on each box and a piece of kitchen towel inside then just throw away any leftovers and use the box for a piece of cake instead of separate bags.

My children and their friends loved them. We didn't use tables either, they sat on the floor of the hall picnic style. My ds party was for his 6th birthday.

Very, very easy and apart from cold stuff, can be made up in advance.

I've been to one this big - a 4th birthday, but the birthday's boy's sister had her friends too so it had a load of 4yos and a load of 8yos, plus all their siblings, plus friends of the parents and their kids. It was noisy and hectic but the children seemed to like it. They had a lot of adults to help - some organised games and competitions (all the trad stuff, tail on donkey, pass the parcel etc) while others put out all the food; they also had a quiet corner with toys and art stuff for toddlers and for anyone who didn't want to join in with the games, and that worked well. The food was at a long table made of lots of trestle tables end to end and after the party food there was big cake moment and then party bags.

I wouldn't do it, but it was a success.

You are indeed mad, but the children will love it, and it will force you not to over-complicate the food!

Have you warned the entertainer quite how large the audience will be?!

Nope. As long as you aren't planning pass the parcel or party bags at the end it will be fine. You have an entertainer. Piles of simple food - couple of bags of frozen cocktail sausage rolls, cubes of cheese, heaps of crisps, grapes, biscuits (if you are a foody, forget it for the day ), choc ices. I'm not sure I'd do sandwiches - IME they get left to go dry.

Fill the place with balloons. Have some music. We only had 13 at DS's party in the end but the only wearing bit was the games - and TBH they would have been jsut as happy tearing round playing with the balloons and dancing. Kids love lots of space.

Nab some of the parents to help.

At the last party I went to like this I passed a dad I know as he left the car park and I was going in. He'd seen what was inside the village hall and he was singing:"I predict a riot"

and he was right! My friends and I stayed and ended up looking after quite a few waifs and strays - little ones who had no-one to take them to the loo, watch the main door, make sure they ate some food, etc. but the majority of the parents buggered off even when they saw how mega the party was. The DJ couldn;t cope with the volume of kids and was telling them off when they couldn't keep up with the line-dancing he tried to organise and he played the most inappropriate music for 5 year olds - It was 2 hours of bloody carnage...

BUT, having said that, if you had lots of adult helpers who had agreed to take that role and you had a fab entertainer and it was organised like a military operation, then it might just be fun!

good luck!

you are not only mad but sectionable imo.

{grin] It will be great!

I shall add grapes, cherry tomatoes and cubes of cheese and pineapple on coctail sticks.

Will also bake chocolate squares that will be lovingly decorated by my son. And a banana loaf with creem cheese icing for the grown ups. Also a bottle of expensive champagne for us.... For when the food is served and the entertainer has taken over again.

Good point to inform him there more now....

Another mum has offered to stay and help, think I will take her up on that, it means adding another younger child to the seating equation, but the more the merrier it seems!

I was awake half the night thinking about tables and table covers.... Hopefully it will be memorable for all the right reasons!