Alternatives to an outdoor party tomorrow. Help please? I am feeling a bit sad

[Pavlovthecat]

I had a big 2nd birthday party planned for DD out in the woods tomorrow.
Mostly adults and many children could not make it, holidays, sickness etc. But still, toddler related, food arranged/bought/about to be prepared, party games, music, balloons, slide, teddy bears picnic, trees and river.

The weather forecast is for heavy rain. I winged it I know, should not have planned it for being outdoors.

So, the alternative is here at our place, which was always the plan, however there are like 20 adults coming, and I have no idea where they are going to sit, and leave room for the two little ones who's party it actually is?

Should I cancel most of the adults? Should I just deal with the lack of space as they all want to come and see DD, or any ideas of an alternative venue?

Its all gone wrong, it rained on her actual birthday too .

British summer eh, dont you just love it? Where is the heatwave from the year she was born?

Since it was supposed to be teddy bears picnic could you remove all furniture from one or more rooms and stack it in bedroom/garage?

Then email/text everyone to let them know change of location and ask them to bring cushions.

Spread picnic blankets on the floor and have an indoor picnic?

Is there a church hall near you you could try?

stealth - oh god, it sounds in theory like a great plan. But we live in a flat . Everyone knows the possible change of plan, as there was always a chance of rain, but really, there is nowhere to put anything, let alone 20 bloody adults! .

I might give it a go though, just not much time, DH at work, so will have to try to do it myself.

Maybe I can wittle the numbers down a bit...

Surfer mum - Church halls already booked around here too

I think I am going to cry.

Indoor picnic is a great idea, bring a cushion too.

Stupid 'summer weather' interfering with plans

Ah OK, could you get /borrow a gazebo/party tent??

On offer in the co-op at the mo, might be worth a punt??

You won't all be completely dry but shelter nonetheless

every day it forecasts torenetial rain atm ehre
and it is ONE down pour then that is it

OK, I am going to go and try to re-arrange the front room and see if I am re-organise it somehow. Which in turn means re-organising our bedroom to fit everything in!!!

I shall calm myself, think positively that people want to come and celebrate DDs birthday, and work on that.

I have just put on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for DD and she is happy in my bedroom, for now.....!

Any more ideas...keep them coming....

Take a deep breath.

Move small things now and stack them round your bed.

Move furniture with DH after you get up in the morning and stack it on your bed - it doesn't matter if you can't get into your bedroom once finished and you would be amazed how much you can fit in to a small room once you accept that.

Perhaps you could suggest to some of the adults who might be less able to muck in and sit on the floor that they might want to just drop in for a little while, leaving a little more room for games etc?

Do you have any outdoor space you could make a quick dash to/from if it isn't raining after all?

above all remember that wrapping paper + balloons + lots of attention = cool party for 2yo DD irrespective of location!

Good point, Billly

Good luck, Pavlov

thansk bill

Yes, I have a courtyard with a slide and playpit. I will put some chairs out there too..

At least, if its indoors, we can both have pimms as neither have to drive. Looking on the bright side and all...

Thanks guys.

I am feeling better about it.

Oooh Pimms

Yum

are oyu an acoholic award winning travel writer?

burp

rofl!

Pimms in the rain could be quite nice I guess!

It is going to work.

I am however going to cancel the one child from nursery, there were going to be 3 children, but it will only be two. Mainly because I dont know either the child or the mother, which means she does not know my friends and family, and its going to be very cosy in my flat. I think it will be highly intimidating for both mother and child to be introduced to that environment, everyone else knows each other.

outdoors was different, not so intimate.

I will send a party bag into nursery on monday for her.

Could the children have a picnic in dds bedroom. Put down a large disposable table cloth.
That way the adults would have more space in the living room.
Would you have room for a Gazebo in the court yard ?

A party bag for Monday is very kind, you sound a v thoughtful person

wings - we live in first floor flat of a converted victorian house and are very lucky to have most of the garden with our flat, the fire escape goes into it, and as such there is shelter under there. I have some tarpaulin which I can put up and I know DD wont care if its raining or not!

DDs room is very small, however she also has lots of toys which wont be played with tomorrow so I shall put those in the loft, along with anything non-party related!

I am moving out one of our sofas into our bedroom and moving the other one to under the window which will open the living room up loads, ornaments etc will be gone too, and replaced with bears!

I might ask my friend who lives around the corner to borrow some plants to put in the room, make it feel more outdoorsy, and I have some windmills to put up!

Thanks guys, great motivators that you are!

William - its only fair. She was most likely looking forward to it and I feel bad, and I wanted her to come, just know that it would be very daunting to walk into a house full of adults and hardly any children at what you thought was going to be a children's party! (there was originally going to be 7-8 children!)

This is going to be the best goddam 2yo party you have ever seen!

I am gone for a while now...see ya when I stop for a cuppa!

I hope all these adults are going to bring their bears.

Have fun!

Are you absolutely sure it's going to rain? We've had rain forecast here for lots of days this past week and other than a 2 min shower before i got out of bed this morning it's been bone dry!

Hey I just wanted to thank everyone for helping me calm my nerves for my indoor party on sat.

The weather was so awful, it did not stop raining all day. It was horrendous, so I am pleased I changed venues.

I organised the front room with cushions, teddies and blankets, set up toy areas and cleaned out my DDs bedroom.

Everyone fit in fine, and DD had an absolute ball, and so did the two children who also came!

I brought in all the plants from other rooms and put them on window sills and the fireplace to make it feel like outdoors, put colourful mini windmills in the plants, and a bubble machine hidden to pump out bubbles.

It was great, so much so we prefer our front room how it is as there is more space now!

Today, rain was forecast too, and DD was on the beach at bigbury with just a nappy on as it was lovely, bit windy but blue skies! Typical eh?

Glad you all had fun - hope there weren't too many bears with hangovers the next day.

No hung over bears! one bottle of pimms - 20 people! I had one glass as I was too busy being mum!
And by the evening I was so frazzled I was not up for drinking anything apart from a glass of leftover pimms with lots of ice in it!

Went to bed by 10:30pm and slept like a log for the first time in ages. AND DD slept from 8pm to 9:30am played in her cot until 10am, so we got a lie in for the first time, probably EVER! It was bliss!