ds's 4th birthday party

[verybusyspider]

Help!

so far we've avoided it but ds is asking for a party this year, we've only been to a few and they have been soft play or hiring a village hall which is out of our budget.

The plan I'd like to go for is a small group of children for a tea party - maybe 5 including ds and have it at home (we have a small house btw) but I'm wondering if it is easier to entertain a bigger group of children ie games take longer?
plus who do you invite? ds doesn't seem to have any close friends, he goes to preschool 5 days and then we generally stay at home for afternoon as my younger 2 nap so we don't often do playdates, to complicate things his preschool is small (14) and he generally plays happily on the edge of a group or with anyone.

I feel self concious 'running' a party in front of other parents but is 4 too young to ask them to drop them off - I personally wouldn't what to leave ds with anyone unless I'd been there before and knew the mum quite well... maybe PFB??

ds keeps talking about having a bouncy castle in the garden but our garden is too small, otherwise that would be perfect!

I like the idea of a daytime pajama party like this ds's favourite story is the gingerbread man, I thought they could decorate some and eat them after we'd read the story together...

I guess I need your experiences (good or bad), would you think it was a good party idea as a parent??

I'm probably way over thinking this aren't I!? sanity check please!

Ideas sound great.

Re your son's wish for a bouncy castle, SIL hired the local community school for 45 mins on the bouncy castle & 45 mins in another room with table and chairs for eating for £50. She also went halves with another parent from nursery whose child has a birthday at roughly the same time which made catering hardly a chore. Even if your garden was big enough you couldn't guarantee the weather anyway.

Decorating a gingerbread-man is a lovely idea, did this with dd the other day who loved it, thinking this'll keep her quiet entertained for a bit, but it took her about 5 mins. Maybe some other pyjama party games might be needed, although at other SILs the most fun was had blowing bubbles and throwing plastic balls at my brother in the paddling pool!

Friends and we have generally stayed at parties until dcs were in yr 1, or 5/6yrs old, so would expect parents to stay at a preschool party, which can be useful as they hoover up left over food and keep an eye on the children. Just serve them coffee or tea if they are at your house.

Don't bother with party bags. If you do want to give a going home gift you could buy a set and then individually wrap one of these

Thanks! love 'party bag' idea too
I checked out the leisure centre with bouncy castle idea and its £73 for up to 20 children with staff and an area for you to serve your own food which sounds great but probably one for when ds is a little older, I like the idea of just having some kids over to play.

I wasn't only thinking of doing gingerbread men I've explained to ds a bouncy castle won't fit in garden and he now wants to make hats and have dancing - love the fact I have such an easy to please child (well most of the time) oh and a 'happy meal' so off to search ebay for card boxes that we can put home cooked chicken nuggets and a toy in

waswondering 90mins also sounds perfect!

How do you decide who to invite?
Preschool class is 14 children and I still think 5 max is a good number, ds1 wants to invite a different child each day of the week so no good asking him...

Ask the teacher. I have invited 8 children to DS's 4th party and he was very specific about who to invite (although one friend was missed off and I've told DS he has to come

But lots of parents ask the teacher who their friendship group is.

I think 5 is a good number

I was having a hard time planning my DD's birthday (mostly no time!) and ended up hiring these people (www.partyprojects.co.uk) to help set up something small at home. It was totally worth it, cos they transformed our boring living room into this nice girlie dreamland. They suggested an art party and the drawing and painting left the girls quiet entertained for a whole long while.

so it turns out ds plays with everyone and no one We've been invited to a preschool party on Sunday - 10 children (+10 parents) at their home so my cunning plan is to take notes and work out which children play well together and who to invite!