HELP! 10 7yo boys coming to my house for DS1s birthday. What the heck do I do?

[Ohforfoxsake]

It wasn't meant to happen, but as it draws close I found myself feeling guilty as DP will be away. So I said he could have some friends over.

I have apple bobbing in water/sweet bobbing in flour. Good and messy.

umm, that's it really. how do I fill 2 hours? I have one other adult helper lined up.

picture consequences as a back up if it gets too rowdy.

Food will be hotdogs and cake (middle of afternoon so nothing of substance really needed).

I am having a wee panic! TIA

This how we spent DS1's 7th birthday last year. 'Twas chaos!!! It took me two days to recover, but he says it was the best party he ever had.

We did the apple bobbing (in jelly), and all the usual party games. They also played in the garden for about half an hour. It will be fine, but make it clear before the party gets underway which rooms are banned, ie your bedroom etc.

I'm sure they will all have a great time, you however will be knackered and in need of plenty of wine!

Do you have any woods nearby? For ds2's 7th birthday party we went to the woods and built a shelter. They would have been quite happy just running around there I think.

Loving jelly bobbing! When you say 'usual party games' what did you play? I think we turn a bit of a corner this year, seems musical statues is now 'too babyish'

We have quite a good garden with space for a den, and a trampoline. Muddy though. Will parents be pissed off if I send their boys home caked in mud?

I absolutely agere with TooTicky. If you haven't got a wood nearby, but have a garden, get the following:

Garden canes
Old sheets/blankets
Clothes pegs
String
Rope
Masking tape
Bin bags
Hammers
Tent pegs
Scissors

Set them a challenge ie. must make a shelter big enough for at least three people to get in. Must use at least 4 different pieces of equipment

Cook a barbeque outside while they are happily playing. Let them eat their food in the dens!

Warn parents in advance that the boys will be outside the whole time and to dress them accordingly.

I love the idea of some good outdoor activities, and will definately think about it. Really appreciate your ideas, thank you

Also need to think about activities for having the party inside too, if anyone has any.

Will do jelly/flour bobbing
Musical cushions (not deemed too babyish by the birthday boy)

I have DD1s 4th birthday two days later ... why do we put ourselves through it?

Ok, inside game:

In the middle of the room, you put a pair of very large rubber gloves, a large hat, trousers, jumper and wellie boots. Next to them, put a large bar of chocolate on a plate, and a knife and fork.

All the children sit in a circle. They take it in turns to roll a dice. If they roll a 6, they dash to the middle of the room, put on all the clothes and eat as much of the chocolate as they can, using the knife and fork.

While this is going on, the die continues going round the circle. As soon as the next person rolls a 6, the person in the middle takes off all the clothes and the new person puts them on.

No winner as such, but everyone (hopefully) gets to have a bit of chocolate.

As it's all boys, it's quite funny to give them very flowery clothes!

Brilliant Littlefish! Thanks. I was trying to remember how that game worked - I could vaguely remember playing it myself in the dark ages

That'll go on for a while too I imagine.

I've got this coming up too for ds1's 7th birthday party.
We have gone for the 'organise them to death' approach as I really don't think I could cope with 8 boys rampaging around in free play. A den sounds like a great idea but I can imagine sticks etc being turned into weapons...
So, the idea is that they have a treasure hunt (hopefully outside) then get divided into two teams who will do team challenges - so there is a competition going on, but without individual winners and losers. We've got about 6 games lined up for this (some physical, some quieter e.g. memory game).
Then we've got a few whole group games up our sleeves too, to fill in any time before lunch.
I expect it will be completely exhausting...
Have no idea whether the strategy will work either!!

Last year for ds's 7th birthday we had 8 children (mixture of boys and girls). He had a "lifeboat" themed party, so we had games like Musical lifeboats, stick the Y-class on the Severn class lifeboat (like pin the tail on the donkey), dress the lifeboat man (two teams, take turns in the team to roll a dice, if you get a six you can put an item of clothing on the lifeboat man (paper clothes on cardboard man) first team to dress the lifeboat man wins. Also a memory game (put several items on a tray, let them look at it for a few minutes, then take tray away and they have to see how many they can remember), Stormy Stan says (like Simon Says), drawing in the dark (give them each a piece of paper and pencil, turn out the lights, and ask them to draw a scene with various items in it, then put the lights on and laugh at the results

Lots of games on Scout web site
here

Great suggestions, thanks! This thread is reminding me of so many things we played, memory game/dressing up game/tug of war.

I think I might have to rope in a few more adults. Also have crawling baby to keep out of trouble.

Scout website is great, that is going to be really useful now and in the future. Thanks.

I am almost getting excited about it now!

Take a tablet and go to bed

I will definately have a bottle of wine {or two} ready to open as soon as the last child leaves. Hopefully not before, but if needs must .....

I would say lots of activities, as many strong-minded helpers as you can. And find someone to look after the baby for you during the party. Sounds total chaos - but brilliant fun. If you're close to me, I would help you. I LOVE organising parties - especially rowdy boy types.