Party Food

[ANGELMOTHER]

Am due to have 3yr old party on Sunday...14 girls and just 1 boy Aaaah ! Have splashed out on a magician for the full two hours but food I am lost on. Am also hoping Mother will help bake Harry Potter Birthday cake but have no ideas........Am beginning to wonder what I've let myself in for.

I have just had dd's 3rd party. My mum baked a lovely 'princess crown'shaped cake. I made fairy cakes iced and topped with Dolly Mixtures which looked good. Also baked some cookies and the rest was small rolls with cheese/ham/jam, variety of crisps, and mini chocolate rolls from M&S. That was more than enough - they hardly eat much anyway! Good Luck!

Lots of simple food!! Sandwiches - not too many though as kids never seem to eat many at parties choice of marmite, jam, ham, cheese or egg, small cocktail sausages or mini pizzas, the frozen party food range in Tesco are good value and only take about take about 20 mins to cook (assuming that the party food was not just in for xmas), some squares of mild cheese, some grapes, various crisps - wotsits always seem to go down well - some cakes, you could make or buy some fairy cakes and let the kids decorate them at the party (or beforehand if you don't need the mess), kids seem to love iced rings, mini kitkats etc. Jelly can be popular but I have found that kids don't seem to like fruit in their jelly and I now only ever do red jelly - either individual in clear plastic cups (easier to hold than bowls) or mash up in a large tub and dish out on the day.
Have fun!!

kids like simple food, things that they can pick at on the run, chicken nuggets and other foods that have been suggested, and a party wouldn't be the same without jelly,

You could try fairy bread to be different. Big in Australia.

Butter white sliced bread and shake coloured sugar strands all over it. Cut into pieces.

Don't make it too far in advance though or the colours run

And don't bother with the healthy carror sticks, they always get left!

grapes, breadsticks (magic wands), lumps of cheese, chocolate fingers, twiglets, cheese straws, think toddler finger foods. Rather than having seperate bowls for each food, I've mixed them up on trays and told the kids to help themselves, saving you asking each child whether they would like crisps/sandwich.
get cups with lids and straws (like at MacDonalds, then you haveless chance of spilt juice. Don't bother with napkins, they end up on the floor.

Have fun!!

A bit short notice for this one but may be worth considering for the future. Before my dd's birthday I saved enough of the sport topped water bottles so they could all have one each - I put a name label on each one so each child had their own - I had various squashes made up ready and asked each child (or their parent) what drink they preferred - once the drink bottles were made up it made keeping track of drinks pretty easy (kids always seem to want a drink when you are at your most busy!!) - virtually spill proof too!!

Thanks for all the advice, good idea for the drinks Jaybee, I dread the idea of spilt squash. I haven't been around for the last few days (why I haven't replied) but my dilemma now is where do you sit 15 children to eat when you barely sit down at your own table which only seats 4 anyway....is the floor the best option.

Use sugar-free drinks: far less sticky in case of spills. But hope none of the children get hyperactive from artificial sweetners! Don't worry about a table, IMO. I went to a Turkish neighbour's daughter's birthday party with DS and (I don't know if this is a cultural tradition) she set out several tablecloths in the middle of the room and all the children sat round them on the floor like a big picnic. Worked really well!

How did it go Angelmother? Did you survive?

Yes not as bad as I expected must admit although not sure I'd be getting a magician again. Food was surprisingly painless actually and I think the drinks helped (I got 2x9pck of juice drinks in Asda quite cheap) so no spillages. Worst part was my Dd strangely seems great at one to one's with people but when there is more than 5 people sort of clams up and hid under the table for most of the games eating rice krispie cakes but she was happy.
The sweetest was there was only one boy and 14 girls and the boy is the son of the childminder who minded Dd when I was working for a year, she saw him every day and since we moved and I stopped work (now stahm) she hadn't seen him till yesterday......anyway she told everyone he was her boyfriend, never left his side, and we got on video the moment when we persuaded him to let her kiss him....she was puckered up for ages waiting....AAaaagh