3 year olds party

[Bekki]

My son is three next month and I'm faced with a very daunting task of holding his first birthday party. There will only be 3 kids there as my son has only been at playgroup a couple of months so I don't know any of the other mums well enough to invite them round with their kids. So I've got a 4 year old girl, my son and a 2 and a half year old girl to entertain along with my friends and family. What do I do? Are there any party games that they could do or is there something simplier I could try?

Hi Bekki ...
I don't think that party games would work that well for just 3 children ... and I find that my DS who is 3 and a half is still not into organised games that much anyway. Personally I would suggest that you just let them play ... children of that age love playing with other children's toys in other people's houses ...
When DS turned 3, we had 9 children and their parents. I hired some toys ... a slide and a climbing frame and a couple of ride on toys and just let them get on with it. I also hired a little wendy house ... and all the children loved that. The oldest child at DS' party (a four year old girl) organised all the tots to play shops ...(while the grown ups ate nibbles and drank wine and had a lovely gossip!)
Then with some yummy kiddies party food and a cake you should be ok!

I agree with ghosty. The only other thing I would suggest is one of those crawl-through tunnels. You can get them quite cheaply and they fold away afterwards. Children always love them and even shy children will join in. Hope it goes well!

i've just had my sons 3rd birthday party and must say didn't even think of games. most littles aren't into organised games and as the other's said lots of toys left around, a tunnel, sandpit, pavement chalk and a tent and they had a ball.

pinhatas,thats what i had for my ds birthday and the children loved them i got them from partypieces theyre called pulinas as well i got lots of other things from them,im getting more for my dd birthday shell be 3 next month too

Bekki

I agree with the others. If I was you, I would space the toys in specific areas eg garage and cars in one corner, tunnel in another corner,
trainset/dolls house in another corner etc.

When I did my DS last year I also set the following up outside: tunnel,tent,train set,sandpit,water play.

I played childrens music on the CD player in the background and the kids (age range 2-4 yrs) bopped if they wanted (actually, after a few beers most of the adults were singing to it!)

If you want to do some cheap/fun party bags you some ideas are: bottle of bubbles, crayons, balloon, box of raisens, iced gems, colouring book, stickers etc etc and of course the napkin wrapped piece of cake! There are some companies that will sed you the bags already done - pesonally I love collecting things for the bags - but if you haven't got time, you could do a search on the web to find the companies.

Lots of party food and a cake and you'll be laughing.

Most of all have FUN yourself - that's my motto!

Hope that helps..
Noisy

Thanks everyone these are much better ideas and a lot less stressful for me to organise.

It's DDs 3rd birthday party soon and she wants to invite some (lovely) girls from nursery school, most of whom were 4. There will be 12 children all together. Should I tell the parents they should stay or is that just too many people?

bekki i was going to suggest some sort of crafty activity is nice too, esp with a small number
How about dcorating biscuits, mask making, making faces on paper plates, decorating a paper crown... my dd (3.5) loves all this kind of thing.
allatsea, I stayed with my oldest until he was about 5, but a lot of mums leave their 4yos, you might well find. I should leave it up to the parents/children to decide, or say, do stay if you want to. try to take a phone no if they leave the child tho!
hth clary

Yes, that's a good idea CFC, I've spoke to one Mumm this morning who was quite willing to stay, but I think was a little surprised to be asked to. It will make for quite a houseful though if everyyone stays.
We thought that we'd do some mask making - nothing we like more than clearing up sequins for the next 6 months!