Birthday party for 4 year old dd - what entertainment can you suggest to cut the expense?

[lisalisa]

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I finally discovered this year that actually those parties at soft play / amusement parks where it seems a phenomenal amount of money per child actually work out cheaper than trying to budget and do it all yourself

but how about getting a church hall, hiring a bouncy castle for £50 and just doing traditional games like pass the parcel etc

Hi, just a quick message otherwise I'll burn the kids' dinner! Dd1 was 5 recently and I did face painting and nail painting, roping in a couple of friends to help. It was quite time-consuming, but went down well and was surprisingly easy to do - just practice a few styles beforehand (we did princess, butterfly, tiger and pirate). Oh, and dh made some balloon swords for the pirates, courtesy of a book we already had. Good luck!

Village Hall £25
Bumps, statues, chairs (using cushions), pin the tail on the donkey, Pass the parcel, dead fish, dancing competition, karaoke (nursery Rhymes)

Treasure hunt using a large floor puzzel (or 2) send each child off to find a piece one at a time

Sausage in a roll with Tom sauce, OJ or Blackcurrent, then jelly and squirty cream & sprinkles, B'Day Cake

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For DD2's b'day I hired a bouncy castle and made hotdogs and gave ice cream as dessert. Cheap as chips and all the kids loved it so much that I did the same the next year. hth

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I only booked one castle, had about 25 kids. It seemed to work well. I try not to have any expectations. I kept them low and they (my expectations) were still missed lol. The kids just ran around like mad fools, jumped on and off the castle, came for drinks, toilet breaks and kicked balls around. Totally chaotic and they all went away having had a brilliant time. I kept a large jug of squash and another of water with paper cups and just handed them out willy nilly. hth

Do you have a tunnel and pop up tent that you use in the summer? I would set a few things up like that also. You could use a big paddling pool with some balls in, makeshift ball pond. Just make sure the hall has some soft mats to put underneath and around it incase of accidents. If you think how mums and tots clubs set up their equipment then do a few things like that.

Bouncy Castle
Arts and crafts area (pirates hats for boys, princess's for girls)
Ball pond in paddling pool
Pop up tunnel and tent set up.
Big table buffet with party food

This way you have a few areas for them to run between and hopefully have a fairly cheap outlay. Borrow things if you don't have them.

OK we have been doing this every year, this year will be 30 kids between 6 and 4. Last year we did a Little Mermaid meets Nemo. Fancy dress is v popular at this age, lots of prett princesses. When they got there we had a big birthday banner to colour in. A roll of paper with Happy birthday written on it in big letters, plus lots of fish and mermaids to colour in.

There were also lots of baloons to play with and burst. This worked for about 20 mins as everyone arrived. We then had lots of games, my dh was in charge. Pass the parcel, we are having two circles this time with 30 kids. Musical statues - however what we do is tell them what they have to be (ie when the music stops be the best cat, be the best lion) so they don't have to be still. Musical hats!! I found loads of silly hats, put them in a pile and instead of bumps/chairs they grab a hat. Very funny and less violent (got that idea form a fellow mner). Grandmother's footsteps (needs older kids who know the game, te littlies didn't) Find the pairs - I blue tacked various pairs of fish/mermaids all over the hall, and the kids had to find a pair to win a prize (one sweet) I had about 50 pairs, so at least 2 pairs per child. I also asked older kids o help the babies, but we had lots of adults. Games took up about 40 mins.
Tea was on a massive long trestle table, with each child having a party box of food, I love these boxes and it means less food gets wasted and people love taking home their box. Lastly we had a bit of a disco, Pop Party cd is the popular one. Thsi took up about 2 hrs.

The key for this is LOTS of adult help, get grannies to be responsible for food and tea fo other grown ups, get grown men to do the games, they love playing daft things. Also 1 1/2 hrs is long enough at this age if you can. Don't be shy asking the parents who do dcide to stay to help. I find the village hall situation is easier, as people are happy to muck in better than at home I had one dad cleaning the floor from our bubble machine! one mum serving tea and wine, they were happy to get stuff out. I directed on teh day

Our next party is on Sunday with about 30 kids. My dd's have chosen posh plastic champagne flutes and gold plates!! very princess

I did the party box for food idea last year with my dd who was 2 (only few friends in the garden scenario) but it was much easier and you can buy them quite cheaply online. If you don't want to do party bags you can use this as a combo thing and include 1 little toy (like Mc D's do) then they get a nice cardboard box with food and a pressie in.

Just have to say wow at all these great sounding parties. Also think that the Mumsnet Book of Children's Parties is long overdue.

Crunchie, can you come and do my next party?

TBH I skived off with DD1's fourth, just had six kids running wild around the house

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I love kids parties! They're really hectic but a lot of fun. I do the village hall thing as well and for ds's 5th had a bouncy castle and games - split them into teams with one team on the castle and the other 2 teams playing games and rotated them so they all got plenty of time bouncing and plenty of games! It was a pirate themed party so had a treausre chest filled with sweets / cheap bangles etc. after they'd played a game they got to take a piece of "treasure" which kept them motivated to play the games.
Admittedly, you do need help - I had grandma and auntie in the kitchen and granny and 2 mums helping with games. dh in charge of the castle (meant to be my brother and his wife but they couldn't stand the noise!!!)
Good luck!

You could always specify on the invitations that you want a parent or adult to stay with each child, and provide tea and biscuits for them too? Or ask a few parents you know to stay and help. Sounds fun - I htink i'm going to do the church hall and bouncy castle thing for my ds's 4th this summer - hope I can find this thread again when the time comes!

lisalisa - not done one yet but ds is having his on 10th April! I'm doing it at home with probably about 25 kids.

We are having a bouncy castle in the garden which will cost me about £60 I think. Plus the slide and climbing frame that are already there. I'm not providing any other entertainment! I'm doing a treasure map where as each child comes in they pick a square where they think the treasure is and then at the end there will be a winner. Might also do a chocolate hunt in the garden - hide boxes of smarties and let them collect them and put them in a big basket and I'll share them out into the party bags (grrr, HATE them) at the end.

Food wise all I'm doing is:

jam/ham sandwiches
Hula hoops and twisty crisps
mini sausages
cupcakes
blocks of cheese
Fruit shoots.

HTH!

mieow did a good kids party last year. just hired a boucney castle for the back garden (think she said it was £40) and had a BBQ as well. the kids loved it.

sone sit and ride toys always go down well with the church hall/bouncy castle scenario, especially with the boys. Bring your own, borrow from friends or hire from toy library or local supplier.

Saves on having to organise loads of games

I'm doing what Miranda suggests and saying on the invites that mummies are welcome to stay for drinks and nibbles!! That way noone gets left hopefully!

MTMML - I like the hotdog idea and it's even easier than making butties! Thanks for that one!

Oh, and I'm not faffing about with games - 4 yr old boys want to run riot so that's what they can do! IME, a bouncy castle in the garden plus food is enough to fill 2 hrs without trying to organise them into a game.

Agree with having as many other pairs of hands as you can muster, preferably who don't have kids of their own at the party. You also need someone who is prepared to be the party MC and make a complete fool of themselves/organise things/sort out over-excited behaviour as necessary. Dad's are normally good at this .