Argh, please tell me it's OK...

[MimieD]

I have 10 3 to 4 year olds (plus parents and younger siblings) coming to DD's 4th B'day party. We do not have a very big house and garden but we'll manage. Arranged food and party bags but have not arranged any games. Thought I would just let them run riot and entertain themselves . All, bar one boy, know each other. Please tell me this is perfectly acceptable (it is DD's first real b'day party...).

i'm sure it'll be great. at that age they don't really get party games anyway. They certainly don'tunderstand only one winner! i had ds' party in april(he was 1) ut i'd invited 5 or so 4 year olds to kepp my dd copny. They spent half the tie up in her room wrecking it playing. we did do a few games ut it wasn't necessary, they were quite happy not doing them.

what is with my typing? sticky keyboard

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Ha ha, I wish I could have a stiff drink afterwards (maybe sneak one in during even ), but I'm pregnant at the moment... At least the cleaner comes by the day after, maybe instead of her normal cleaning routine I can just ask her to tidy up

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how long is it for, when is it (cos that will depend on how long you have to organise games), and how happy will you be leaving them to play if one of them then finds a pot of glitter and 'plays' glitter fairies??

if you do not want them finding mischief, and the party is for 2hr or more, you will need a few games to entertain them........I KNOW, from experience......

and by the way, glitter is the work of the devil and completely indistructable.....it will outlive all forms of life, including insects, as it has an ability to hide from all forms of clearing it up

Aha, no glitter pots allowed in this house! BF had a 'little' incident a while back and had her (carpeted) house covered in the stuff . It's good to have friends with older children... Party will only be 1,5 to 2 hours, I do have a 'pin the tail on the donkey' game as back up and playing musical statues or animals is quickly arranged I guess. I do have some little things I can give as prizes... Just the thought of having enough energy to gather 11 3 to 4 year olds. I actually didn't think that of 12 people invited, 10 would accept, that will teach me for future parties .

well, if you do have back up games, add in a pass-parcel too.

if you haven;t made one yet, make it with enough layers only for one per child, plus the prize, and in each layer make up something for them to do....(ie, run around the cirle twice, clap hands ten times, do thre bunny hops), it takes up a little more time, plus uses up a small amount of energy too.....which is needed if it is raining and they cannot go into the garden!

oh, and also hide all scissors, selotape, glue sticks, blue tac, any craft stuff in fact.....they seem to find it and decorate

good luck....

((ps, plenty of wine for after is generally essential))

Mmm, like the idea of doing pass the parcel with instructions.... Better start wrapping when I get home from work

Still have a bag of unused chocolate easter bunnies that I can wrap in the layers as well

Psychomum5, i'm liking the instructions in the pass the parcel idea. it's dd's bday party in 2 weeks, i have about 20 4 year olds coming but it's not in my house

When i had ds' party in the house I put all of dd's pens/pencils/make up away well out of reach to try and avoid too much mess. Thankfully it worked. They did empty every toy in dd's room though, but it was quickly tidied