Ds's party tomorrow urgent help needed with food quantities etc. (dh too hungover to be a sounding board so I need you guys instead!)

[skippythedogfromthesea]

Ok having a party for ds tomorrow. We have 18 kids coming but that includes 2 under 1s. The rest are aged between about 18 months and 7 but mostly 2 to 4 year olds.

Far too many people imho but dh insisted on having a big party and is now too hungover to actually help and lying in bed groaning leaving it all to me!

So the party is mid afternoon so not really meal time.

Kids food - sarnies, carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, crisps, cherry toms, cheese sticks or babybels. Birthday cake for pudding and maybe I'll make some rice crispie cakes with ds later.

Qn1 - does that sound ok. in terms of the right sort of food
Qn2 - crucially - how many:

• rounds of sarnies should I make
• how many cucumbers/ bags carrot sticks (can't be bothered preparing carrots given the circumstances of doing all this when ds is around to be looked after too)

For the adults I'm doing an afternoon tea - scones, cucumber and cream cheese sarnies. I'd assume there will be 25 adults based on the fact some kids are coming with one not both parents and others are siblings....how many sarnies should I make?

I've got on my to do list of things to take to the venue:

• party bags
• decorations (balloons, banner thing)
• drinks
• food
• the cake + candles + matches
• plates etc.

Am I missing anything??

nope sounds fine
two small triangles of sandwich per child over 1, actually I 'd say 1.5
one bag of each thing
hip flask for you
they will not eat for wholesome-ness, merely to fill their greedy maws and to fill in time before the cake arrives

worry not

no 3 year old has ever complained that there was not enough trough at a party.

Are you going to do birthday cake as pudding rather than cutting it up and putting it in party bags? I suspect much of it might not get eaten, as they might well be starting to wander away from the table at that point (between the time when your DS blows out the candles, and you having cut it up that is).

Take a big bread knife or similar for cutting cake (don't assume therhe'll be one there).
Napkins. Kitchen roll.
Bin bags - useful for rubbish, and for carrying the presents home.
If parents are likely to drop their kids and go, paper and pen for contact numbers.

I'd cut all rounds of sandwiches into quarters, and assume a couple of quarters for each child. Your meal sounds very healthy - I'd be inclined to add some more sweet things (but might get jumped on by the food police for that).

Hope it all goes well.

yes, stick a couple of packs of chocolate fingers in there

Yes the waste after the party last year was a EU food mountain's worth.

Ok so half a round of sandwiches each child. How many per adult? (I really am clueless aren't I !)

1 per adult
they won 't eat sandwiches

well actually, what time is it?

You lot are doing a way better job of helping than dh! Thank you.

3pm til 5.

Maybe half a sarnie plus a scone would be about right? And some crisps (for the adults this is)

Tbh, I don't think the adults will mind if there isn't food for them, so anything's a bonus. Although it's good to be able to offer tea or coffee to them, so that means you'd need to take all the doings for that (incl sugar, which I almost always forget).

Oh yes - for drinks, depends what you're doing, but I find having a couple of big jugs of water/squash around helps - the kids can get thirsty with all the rushing around.

3 til 5
well then don't do any sandwiches for the adults! take some dips and some kettle chips and olives and a block of cheese and some crackers

and you don't want to be stuffing the kdis too full either as no parent will thank you for disrupting a tea time routine.

you have plenty, don't sweat it.

Half a sarnie plus a scone per adult sounds good. And crisps good too. Might be worth enlisting some parent helpers to do stuff for the grown ups, so you can concentrate on the kids. Or delegate that to DH .

jackieNo, is the Tyler reference in your name Tyler Durden or Steve?

Chan - you sound like a party whizz - indeed you have the same name it seems as my neighbour and she is a party whizz - indeed maybe you ARE my neighbour?? Are you in London??

Suzy - it's a temporary end-of-season Doctor Who name change - Rose Tyler's mother (am JackieNo, in case it's not obvious).

Nope - Oxfordshire. Am not a party whizz. Just keep lists ().

Ah I get it now....and no you are clearly not my neighbour then lol!

dd's 3rd birthday was last sunday, we had 20 kids, aged up to 6. it was 3-5 too.

so, i did 2 big pizzas (cooked them in the morning so ate them cold), mini sausages, sausage rolls, carrot sticks, crisps. then they had mini meringues, choc crispie cakes, choc mini rolls, fairy cakes. then cake. i put the savoury stuff out first, then sweet. i had 1 pack of mini sausages, 2 packs of carrot sticks, 2 multipacks of crisps. basically a big mixing bowl full of the sweet stuff.

i thought i'd drastically undercatered but actually it was fine. didn't do anything for the adults, though we all picked at the kids' stuff. just keep the wine flowing .

oh, & more drinks for the kids than you think possible. i think they drank 6 litres of apple juice altogether. but we did have a bouncy castle.

All good advice....I always overcater as worry about running out but maybe I'll hold back a bit.

Meanwhile dh is still lying in bed floundering and moaning - good job he doesn't get so p*ed often....