4yr old DD Bday party. . . . . . What should i do.........

[brainache]

Hi,

I have a few months yet but need to save as things are tight at the best of times lol.
Just need to talk it over with people as what i want to do is going to cost a fortune and i dont know if i should do it or not.

For the last 2yrs i have booked up Marsh Farm @ £12.50 a head but only had 10 kids to invite. This year its £12.95 a head and i have about 16ish kids to invite. I could just about manage £125 before. This year it will be around £207! seriously cant afford that amount as i then normaly have a do in the evening for family and friends to come round. I do a little spread and buy some beers and a few bottles of wine.

Im looking at est of 16 kids, roughly 1/2 playschool 1/2 my friends kiddies. Oh and thats only inviting the girls that she actualy plays with from playschool (or is that meen, only theres 23kids in total in her class)

Marsh Farm party includes -
2 1/2hr party,
1/2hr tour of animals (sheep,cows,pigs,goats,hens),
1/2hr tractor rid with photo of all kids in front of tractor,
1/2hr in petting area (rabbits,ferretts,guniepigs etc),
1/2hr unsupervised time (theres a park there so the kids can work up a appatite on the climbing frame/swings etc),
1/2hr Food/cake/goodie bag time
They supply the food (sandwich,apple,yogurt,crisps,cake bar + drink) & the goodie bag (usual sweets,toys,colouring book)
All i need to bring is the Cake.

Does sound great and the last 2 yrs have been excellent. BUT its the cost thats getting me.

Advise, thoughts, ideas all welcome My DD does not like 'Wacky Warehouse' , 'Playtopia' etc though

Sounds lovely (and stress-free) but pricey.

Would you not rather have a change after going there for 2 consecutive years though?

No advice really but it was around age 4 that we stopped doing the family/friends thing and just catered for kids as it's quite expensive putting on a buffet and providing alcohol etc for adults isn't it?

I take it you have neither the room or the inclination to have a party for 16 at home?

Stress free for sure lol

Because i do the evening party at home its nice to go somewhere in the day for her bday. Do something different. She loves it there, her best part is stroking the animals We went to Colchester Zoo a while back and she said she didnt want to go back because she could not touch any of the animals lol

A few months ago I had a Halloween party at mine with millions of children lol. I have had parties at home before but i get so stressed doing them, is there enough food, is everyone happy, does everyone have drinks, making sure all the kids like the party games and are joining in etc etc. I dont get time to enjoy it myself or take pictures/use video.

Last year for the cost (£125) it was great it was all out of my hands but this year its just going to be to much money i think.

My fun side is saying go on book it dont worry about the cost she will love it
My head is saying £207!!!!
rofl

Wow i asked for a few quotes last night from different kids entertainers - £200-£300 for 2 hrs. Oh well that idea is out the window lol

can yoy not hire a church hall and do a totally different sort of party? - church hall hire £30 ish maybe, rope in some adult friends and do a craft party/princess party...?

if you want any ideas for themes and what you could do then let ask - my 2 are 6 and 9 and i have done all sorts of parties for them myself, at

Spooky - I was speaking to dd's playschool teacher today and she said about hiring the hall there - p/sch is part of the church.

Would be great to hear ideas I dont mind £100-£150max

If its a hall what do i do with the invitations - Should i invite the whole class - about 25ish? Plus 8 friends away from p/sch. Oh and should i then invite the siblings of my friends kids???

Hire a church hall and do craft activities and games followed by a picnic on the floor.

The cheapest entertainer i have found is a magician the p/school had for Christmas, £95 but for only 45mins - the other quotes have been for 2hrs. Mr Happy is in 2nd with £180 for 2hrs. Though im sure the kids would be just as happy if i done it myself (with some help from my friends of course hehe)

What about face painting? My friend does it at fairs so is good at it

What about the invites though?.....

I do kids' parties and I only charge £40 for 30/45mins!! Seems I need to put my prices up! Home done parties are great, treasue hunts, princess stuff to. Picnic on floor with made up party boxes to give out. Best idea we had was to stick loads of A4 pieces of paper up on wall and as kids came into party, asked them to draw a picture of themselves. DS1 now 19, has a lovely record of his friends and party photos in a folder. Have a lovely party!

I often do face painting at my DC's parties - and rope in a couple of friends. If your friends could do it for you that would be fab.

what do you mean by what about invites? just make your own on the computer - or do you mean who to invite? I would go for the 16 you were initially going to invite.

2 hour party

intro activity 15 mins- eg colouring - print off outlines from internet on the theme of your party if you decide to have one - eg princesses

craft activity/ies 30 mins- make princess crowns, ice a biscuit, decorate a photo frame - have facepainting going on alongside this to avoid queueing

games
25 mins
pin shoe on cinderella
pass the parcel (with princessy forfeits in each layer - eg which princess married Shrek/ sing a nursery rhyme/ pretend to be a frog)
Snow white says (instead of Simon says)

food - 20 mins or so, then sing happy birthday

games again 20 mins

sleeping princesses instead of sleeping lions
musical statues
musical crowns - photocopy crown pic onto paper, one per child, child has to stand on paper when music stops - like musical chairs

end with princess dancing - could do more face painting here.

easy to adapt this princess party to other themes - did a Shrek party for DS, fancy dress, but as so many characters in Shrek any fancy dress almost was appropriate.

when we did princess DH and I dressed up too - me in ball gown and he in DJ - was fun!

if you like any of the ideas and want futher details shout!

I agree with the last few posts. Either hire a cheap local hall or have the party at home if you've got the room. Children of that age are very happy playing party games,I've found the trick is to have lots of games up your sleeve and a lot of "helpers".One of our favourite games is "What's the time Mr Wolf", you need space but they love it. Love stickyj's idea of a party book ...I did something similar, a book using photos which dd still reads and loves here's a link Good luck!

Are you guys in Essex by chance???? rofl rofl

Stickyj - If your booked up then i would put up your prices hehe although saying that not sure with this resession.
Do you think 3.5-4.5yr olds would be ok doing that with the A4 paper? Love the idea but not sure on their age.

PandaG - Well i think thats a done deal then i am now going to search to book a hall and doing a party myself

Yes sorry i ment who to invite lol. Should i invite the whole class - about 25ish? Plus i'll be inviting 8 friends kids not from p/sch. Oh and should i then invite the siblings of my friends kids who are younger???

These ideas are excellent - thing is i now dont want to wait mths till her birthday. Want to do it now lol

Oh yes i will have to dress up aswell I did for the Halloween party, Its fun haha

Not heard of pass the parcel with forfeits in each layer before. Sounds great though, better than standard

Oh Laydr I remember the name 'Whats the time Mr Wolf' How does that go again?? Do you creep up behind someone or something lol

honestly - I would only invite the 16 you were going to - that will be enough. 30+ can be a bit too much to handle unless you have lots of helpers.

pass parcel with forfeits is fun, spins it out a bit too.

meant to say if you do the decorate a photo frame (3 for a £1 from Ikea, buy bits to stick on from pound shop/cheapo bookshop) take digital camera, laptop and printer to hall, take group shot of the party and print off a copy for each child, put in frame=party bag sorted!

not in Essex, no - have been mistaken for a hired in party entertainer when leading singing games at a friend's party though!

Ladyr - that website is great i think i might buy some now ish lol

PandaG - That Photo frame & photo idea is excellent, i will be doing that one for sure - must make sure i dont tell anyone and do it as a suprise hehe

Maybe you should be an entertainer.....

I do work in a pre-school so can often be found leaping around leading singing! if my weekends with family were not precious I would seriously consider it!

Wow someone else in essex and in exactly the same situation!

I am in stanway and I had my 4 year olds party on sunday with nearly 30 kids - it was exhausting but brilliant.

We hired Stanway Village hall's Victory hall for £49.50 and we did
-music
-face painting

• free play with water tables
• little slide into a ball pool
• dressing up - every child was invited to arrive dressed up
• bubbles
• play kitchen
• loads of food (most of which did not get eaten)
• colouring

-helium balloons (£22.50 for acanister in Asda for approx 20) -usual party games

• parachute play which really made it special and I would wholeheartedly recommend. They cost about £16 on iternet or your playschool might lend it to you.

I had asked one of the playschool staff to come and coordinate the games but unfortuntaley she couldn't make (would have made a big difference).

It was hard work and I would heavily involve your family but will create a memeory for a lifetime. Having siad that next year we will be at Go bananas!

Cor blimey - you lot are so organised. For my dd's 4th birthday, I invited seven little girls and planned some games/birthday tea. They just charged round the place for 3 hours, ate some crisps, and briefly stopped to play pass the parcel. Ddd is already talking about her 5th birthday - in 2 months, so I better sort myslef out!

I think I went a bit over the top and it was a joint poarty with my friend but it was good!

Actually dd went to a 5th bday party where they had an entertainer who did hair, makeup, glittery nail varnish etc and they had photos. She loved it.

PandaG - Are you not tempted to leave the pre-school and work f/t as an entertainer? It does seem like a great job and buy the price of thses quotes i have been getting it sounds like you can make some good money lol - esp with your ideas

Estobi1 - Im only down the road......Im in Chelmsford!! wow this is amazing rofl rofl

Your party sounds great - although i dont think i could do all of that i must say hehe.

Oh im getting all excited. Im writing all these great ideas down
Man im so glad i came on here now, I feel silly sometimes but glad i did now lol

What's the time Mr Wolf is brilliant!

With young kids I always start off being the wolf and get an adult or two to help the kids.
The object of the game for the children is to reach you before the wolf turns round and tries to catch/eat one of the children
So children line up at one end of the hall and you at the other. The children shout out "What's the time Mr Wolf?" and you reply without looking
"" 2 o'clock"...The children then say and move forward "one,two" steps. Then the whole thing starts again..
"What's the time Mr Wolf..."
" 1 o'clock...." Depends on the age of the children but be beware they reach you very quickly and the game is shorter if they start shouting out numbers greater than 5!!
As the children get close to you the reply has to be "DINNER TIME" and you have to try and catch one of the children before they get back to the other end of the hall making lots of growling noises.I usually do it a couple of times and then let children have a go being the wolf with me.Birhday girl/boy usually loves to be chosen.

Very difficult to explain in words I now realise but kids love it and can kill 15mins + at a party and lets them run off some steam!

Another favourite game for us has been "Hunt the numbers". If it is a child's 3rd birthday I cut out a load of 3s and then hide them all over the garden/house /hall and they have to find them. You can either give everyone a prize if they find 10 or give a sweet to the person who collects the most.
Just thought of another one i used to do. For very young kids I found that pass the parcel needed to be quite short otherwise they all lost interest. So I used to keep it very short say 7 wrappers only. Inside each wrapper would be a little parcel of tin foil with 4(if it was a 4th birthday) smarties. I would always make sure I had enough tin foil parcels for all the children there and at the end everyone who didn't get a go got a little packet so they hadn't missed out.

Finally when kids were very young I used to give as a going home present a coloured helium balloon weighted down with a packet of choc buttons (I used to pay about £1 each for balloons) and if I was feeling generous I'd also give them a book from The Book People (buy a pack, usually £1 max per book) or one year I gave one of those cheap windmills

Take lots of photos and do a love2read book, they are great aren't they!

I've gone on now so I'll stop...hope this is of some help...Good luck!

HOW ABOUT A GO-KART PARTY I RUN THEM THEY ARE SUCH FUN IF TO EXSPENSIVE YOU CAN ALWAYS SHARE ONE CONTACT ME ON [email protected] or call 01323 470537

Can't you think about having a kind of play-day at home, if you really have to invite that many children? That way, you could do it like a big coffee morning, but with a cake and sandwiches and pass the parcel. Children of four really, really don't need huge parties - they just need to feel special.

I had my DD's fourth b'day party at home, and the whole thing cost about £25 including a big M&S cake, party bags, and present for pass the parcel. They had to have a picnic on the grass as the table's not big enough (fortunately it was summer), but it was great! Lots of parents came as well, along with one of the children's nanny, who kept them all in order ...