I need my sanity tested but... parties for 4 yr old boys - what works well?

[Flossish]

Please help. Have never done a child's party before, last year we did it at soft play.

Plan is around lunchtime get everyone over, play eat play. Then home and clean....

preperation, clear lounge of cushions and rug. Possible moved upholsetered (but manky) chairs upstairs too! this leaves laminate floor and leather sofas, all nice and wipe cleanable.

I was thinking pass the parcel (have checked out pooouuunnd shop for ideas today!).

Thats it. Thats as far as I have got.

What else is there? Will 3/4 yr olds ger pin the tail on the donkey??

anything loud. for boys, ime. pass the parcel worked for us with a bunch of 4yo's, statues and a treasure hunt (so they each went home with something, i didnt do party bags)
we got the bouncy castle out, but that was 3 wks ago fortunately it was dry and quite warm weather. had to have similar wet-weather plans to yours
what about doing an activity with them like t-shirt painting / mug-painting / something? I made a teepee [not a party, with ds2 and his 4yo friends tho] where we had fabric paint and they all sat there painting to their hearts content on calico, then we made the teepee bit with garden canes, they played in it for ages

for my 3 year old loads of 4/5 year olds came and we did a pirate theme, very low key

but had them decorate telescopes (loo rolls painted black), then sent them on a treasure hunt (two types..one with gold coins,from asda and one with coloured paper in scrolls... of the rainbow..they then had to find a box with rainbow on and inside was a treasure chest (a box!) with sweets in)

then asked them to put on a show...it was such a huge success,,,just said right having a show; sing songs/dance/tell jokes and they all had a go with a bit of prompt and a bit clap, and the rest where the audience they loved it.

statues was a nightmare when I went to a 5 year old party, all got very upset about losing!

ohh some lovely ideas there - like the treasure hunt one and some kind of activity (the rug is deffo coming up!!)

I don't know if you are thinking of messy games but we did a halloween party for our ds last year and the game that went down well with the boys was find the worms in the jelly. You could adjust it for a birthday party, but I warn you it can get bloody messy.

We filled 4 or so big plastic bowls with jelly with things in such as spaghetti, fruit, pasta spirals etc. They had blindfolds on and just dug in. We had a cheap plastic table cloth on the coffee table and one on the floor so was easy to clean up. They had a ball...