4th birthday party at home

[KPPIP]

N's 4th is looming and he has invited 6 other 3 and half to 4 and halfs. What am I going to do with them for 2 hours. Mix of girls and boys plus possibly parents, also some of our family and one 2 and half yr old. HELP on ideas and how to cope!!

Eeek! I'm sure I've seen another thread with suggestions for pary games etc on... (pause for quick search)
here it is! It was for 3 year olds but I'm sure there'll be something useful there

You're braver than I am - I've just had DS1s 4th birthday party in a sports hall with a bouncey castle and lots of foam shapes to play with! No entertainment skill required! As a complete cop out, he had it as a joint party with DS2 (2).

KPPIP- have any of the friends got older siblings you could include in the invitation? My DS is 2 next week & he has 4 friends of his own age coming to the party but also 5 older siblings - the oldest being a 13 year old girl, last year (exactly the same crowd!) she was great, organised the games, looked after them all whilst we adults poured the wine!! Good luck, I am sure you'll have fun.

Thanks for ideas.

Yes a few have older siblings and we do have a 9 yr old already coming from our family. Have looked at the '3yr' ideas but could do with ideas of games to do at home as only pass the parcel was mentioned. any more game ideas please

Am I pathetic - I just love parties!! There was another thread here some time ago when all the other parents were asked to organise a game each, that might be worth a try.

How about:
Musical bumps, sleeping lions, 'Simon Says', chocolate eating game - get a few dressing up clothes, large bar of chocolate per team, when the music stops the child has to put on coat, hat etc & eat chocolate with a knife & fork. Crisp tasting quiz (each 4 year old will probably need an odler child/adult to write down the answers) simple Kim's game, pin the tail on the donkey.
Hide a load of chocolate coins or similar & get the children to look for them.

Have a sheet or two of tiny stickers and hand them out liberally to winners and losers and participants in games, to stick on their clothes. Much better IMO than prizes, and they all seem to love them.

We played Jungle Bingo at ds's 3rd party last year and that went down well (they needed a bit of help from the adults though).

You could also do a Treasure hunt (each child has a picture of an object and has to find their object rather than any object as you'll find one child finds everything!).

Also the butterfly game - put butterflies on the floor, when the music stops they have to jump on a butterfly - next time take one away etc. Musical chairs basically but a bit safer and they can dance between butterfly jumping!

The birthday tea will also take quite a while and if you had this in the middle on the two hours slot rather than at the end it would give you a break from games organiser, and the children and chance to calm down a little. Perhaps do the quieter games after the tea?