How many children to a 4th birthday party?

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DS is 4 next month and we are thinking of having a birthday party at home for him.

I figure there will be years of birthday parties to get through so we may as well have them at home for as long as possible.

I He would like a proper retro birthday party. Jelly and Ice cream, pass the parcel, pin the tail on the donkey etc.

Our garden is quite big but I'm wondering how many children to invite. He is at pre-school and seems to have lots of friends but I don't want to go overboard. I was thinking of hiring a small bouncy castle but am not going to have an entertainer or anything so it all needs to be entirely manageable for me and DH (so that'll be me then) to control.

Does 8 sounds about right? It feels a bit too small to me but I'm trying to be realistic.

Any other tips hugely grateful.

8 is loads for a four-year old. I always do parties at home, and DD had six for her fourth b'day party. DS was seven last b'day, and we invited seven children.

Dd had 8 to her 4th birthday party. It was plenty! They all charged about the place for 30 mins and it took all I had to get them to be in one room to play games/eat cake etc. FWIW, dd was 6 the other week and we had 10, and it was just the same - this time I hired an entertainer. The Wii went down well though....

And don't go overboard on food. They will not eat it. Crisps and a few sandwiches. And cake of course.

We had 8 (and my 8 year old niece) for DS1's fourth birthday and did 'retro' games with a bus theme - pin the wheel on the bus, musical passengers, hunt the money (chocolate money in money bags) which the 'bus driver had left lying around' and various others which I can't remember now.

I was really dreading it, but they were all great and I enjoyed it enormously in the end! I think it was the first party that most of them had been to on their own (our house isn't big enough for parents as well) and they were all fantastic, but I think that 8 is enough to keep control of!

We had 6 guests (plus dd & ds) ar dd's party last weekend (teddy bear's picnic)- plenty enough for our house

When factoring it out, bear in mind that it may be raining, so you can't count on the garden - and that parents often stay at 4 (esp if first born children so 8 kids = 16 people in your house (in addition to family)...

Good god, yes rain.

8 children in the house would be an interesting afternoon

We had them for two hours from 3 - 5. Started with making a bus pass (well, they stuck stickers, pictures of themselves etc on), then three or four games, by then it was 4ish, tea took about 40 minutes (by the time they've been to the loo and washed hands, sat down etc) then there's only another 20 minutes of slightly quieter games and finally a story at the end.

Felt like a long time at the beginning, but it flew by. I planned and planned and planned though and even had a timetable! But so glad I did, it was much less stressful knowing what was happening.

4 guests, 5 maximum. Make the party 1.5 hours maximum too!

We always have parties at home and the most children we've invited is 8 (so 10 including dcs). At 4 I would invite less as the parents will definitely stay! The dcs love having parties at home as no-one else seems to have them, and we always play silly dressing up games and a couple of messy ones. What they all really want to do though is run about in the garden. Make sure you keep to 2 hours or less!

I put on the invitation 'drop off at' and some of the parents asked if I was sure, but I knew it would be easier to have fun without the parents!