4yr old party in the park

[Sprogstersmum]

I'm planning ahead! Am having a joint party for my dd and her best friend's 4th birthday in July and we are thinking of having a party in the local country park. The party is for 20-30 4 yr olds - all preschool friends. SO far my ideas are - individual party boxes for party tea - will be a picnic on the grass and then for games - obstacle race, catching bubbles, a sheet of things to spot and tick off. I've never done the whole proper children's party thing before - have always had family bbqs so any ideas, advice appreciated, especially more ideas for games/activities. (If it rains we are decamping to friend's house but are REALLY hoping that doesn't happen!!)

Fab idea! I wanted to do this for ds1 4th birthday but its in march so the weather is too iffy. All your ideas are good, you could also make a nture colour chart. cut strips of card, colour in bands of different colours, green, brown etc then cover in double sided sticky tape. The LOs try to find as many things of the base colour and can stick them to the card. Also the How many things can you fit in a matchbox game, but you might have to specify non-living things!

Have fun

I would make sure all the parents know you expect them to stay - unless you have lots of adult helpers lined up. Round here it is about 50/50 staying/leaving for 4 year old parties and not sure I would like to supervise 20-30 4 year olds in a public park!

If you do expect parents to stay then you need to have a plan for siblings.

sounds all fine. My advice, don't overschedule. Mostly in a park they will run and make up random complicated games. So bubbles, balls, and oh oh I made a football pinata one year - that went down really well and was dead easy to do.

If you want you could also provide lucky dips/face painting/parachute games etc. But as I say backups not scheduled.

Oh and chilled wine for adults (don't forget corkscrew!)

All sounds great fingers crossed for good weather!

I agree its best not to over-plan...at that age most kids will want to run around playing with each other, especially as its outdoors.

Hi, am with you on the picnic party..am hosting my sons 3rd birthday at our local park as well..its in May.
Am thinking the first 45 mins to 1 hour will be free play on the play equipment at the park. Then will have lunch..packed boxes of the usual for each child. Bottled juice & Bottled water for each child.
Am then gonna have about 15 mins of them playing with bubbles (the bubble breaker mackine)..followed by pass the parcel.
Then we r giving each child a kite to fly (hopefully we will have the right weather for that)..they can take their kites home as favors..feed the swans & ducks in the pond..and party is over.

I will be stuck if it rains though coz my flat does not have enough space for 7 toddlers with adults!! And I dont want to spend money on taking them to a soft play area ..so need to think about that.

Apologies if i took off on my party..but hopefully u've picked up something from that.