What the **** do I do for a 5th b'day party?

[wobblyknicks]

Have left this just a tad late, been so preoccupied with college work but need to organise dd's 5th birthday party and haven't a clue what to do.

Got the food/party bags sorted (in my head at least) but am lost for games/entertainment. Can't afford an entertainer/bouncy castle this year (my preferred way of getting out of it) and have the artistic ability of a dying slug (ruling out doing face painting etc). Party will be 2 hours so with half an hour knocked off for scoffing what do I do to them with them for 90 mins! All I can come up with is pass the parcel

The venue has a field outside so could do some sort of treasure hunty thing but it's a publicly used field so would that be wise or run the risk of dog-poo-I-didn't-see incidents?

Planning to use the field for playing/eating but there is a (small) hall if it rains so need stuff that can be done outside or inside depending on the weather

Any ideas for games VERY gratefull received - especially the ones that take 2 mins to set up and last for half an hour

Plus any books/websites with good party ideas welcome

Lastly, the hall I'm having it in is a very local one that most people should know but it's tucked away out of sight and only has parking for a few cars - other parking is a windy path away. Would it be wanky to print off little maps for each invitation or should I just leave the parents to it and hope for the best?

Why can't kids have birthday parties at school!

Should have added that thanks to the posho mums at dd's school, all the other parties have had freakishly energetic entertainers who have done face painting and limbo dancing (no, no, no!) so can't even nick ideas from past parties

balloons along windy path may help

my girls loved the pinata

Thanks, will have to line the route Did you have a bash-type pinata or one with strings to pull?

Girls/boys>> Get a roll or two of paper (cheap one) or even the back of cheap wallpaper and paint/colour a birthday mural?? Each child could paint themselves or a fav party game.
Design their own mask/hat
buy some cheap pots from a garden centre (this could be the take home gift instead of party bag) and let them plant a seed, like a sunflower, they could also paint pot (that's got to be half an hour
Bring out food slowly!!
Musical statues, pass the parcel, musical bumps, pin the tail on the donkey

oooooh, painting pots and doing masks sounds easy for me fun Forgot musical statues etc - that's easily a few mins wasted each time!

team games work well with 5yos.

If you can wade through the American alpha-Momminess of this then there are some good ideas in there.

Go for the maps.

we did a dinosaur party for ds' 5th b'day

about 20 kids, 90 mins, lots of my friends helping out!

gathering activities - planting sunflower seeds and decorating pots with pics of dinosaurs, colouring in dinsaar pictures, temporary dinosaur tatoos (huge hit and v cheap from ebay) and decorating dinosaur biscuits

then out in the garden with bikes and trikes and some parachute games (big hit) and bubble machine and what's the time mr dinosaur (took ages and they loved!)

then back in for few games (pass the parcel, musical dinosaur footprints). had more game ideas but they were v happy outside.

then food (sandwiches cut out of dino cutters)

then hunt the dino eggs in the garden

lovely time!

Grandmother?s footsteps

Team games ? flap a fish, line up in order (of height, alphabet, age?)

Duck duck goose

Simon says

Mummy game where they wrap an adult in cheap loo roll ? very funny

bash one

woolworths - you have to buy the sweets extra

If you are in a hall for some of the time, ds went to a 5th birthday party recently where one of the things that they had was those super bouncey balls. When the music started, you had to bounce yours as hard as you could. When the music stopped you had to find one as quickly as possible or you were out. Cue five year olds running around like nutters. Of course they then all got to take the balls home at the end.

What about straightfoward games like tag or variations there on?

I once played tag with all of the children at a 4th birthday party and thereafter for about 6 months all the children invitied ds to their parties with a special request that he bring his mummy along to play!

Last half of ds's 5th birthday party was a water pistol fight (Kids got to take them home with them). They enjoyed it a lot - in fact getting some of them to leave was a problem!

Treasure humt??

hunt...

sleeping lions, musical chairs, egg and spoon race in teams.

instead of using table cloths put lining wallpaper on the tales and dot tubs of crayons around and then the kids can sit and colour at the tables - easy craft activity!!

you can buy masks/crown which are also easy to decorate with stickers/crayons.

also save money on party bags and give out a book (from the book people which works out less than £1 per child) a balloon, treat sized choc and piece of cake in a prrty bag.

Thanks for all the ideas - think I can pull this off now Adult parties are so easy compared to kids ones!

Goosey - sounds like a good time was had by all, can just imagine all the kids demanding the 'mummy who plays tag'