DD1 is having 5 friends over for her birthday......

[DanJARMouse]

on a sunday afternoon for 2hrs.

What the hell can I do with them?! It is the 25th July so hoping they can make the most of the garden, trampoline, swingball, tennis etc.... but what else?!

Also food wise.... what to offer?

Oh, and to top it off she wants a Little Red Riding Hood CAKE?!

[Runs from thread crying into her hands at the thought of 6 girls (7inc DD2) running around my house!]

how old are they? i'm sure they'll amuse themselves

when ds1 had his birthday I didn't arrange anything except pass the parcel that he had asked for. They just played up in his room most of the time and just came down for pass the parcel and food

5 and 6yrs old. OOOPS thought I had put that in!

Treasure Hunt! You could spend ages devising clues and placing carefully constructed fairy footsteps around the garden (my sister God bless her) or stand at the back door and fling a bagfull of small chocolate eggs as hard and far as possible (me).

With all the outdoor toys you could do an Olympics thing maybe?

And cake...are you proposing to make this? If it's the decorating thing then buy some rollout red icing (or make it) do red swags then a big smiley face??? Don't worry the real MN crafters will be along in a mo and you can ignore my sage advice!

Thanks for the ideas!

DH is a chef, so yes, home-made cake.... but Litte Red Riding Hood?! Honestly!!! I think I need to talk her out of that one!

Is pass the parcel too young for them now?! I dont want her to look "baby-ish" in front of her friends as she has only known these girls 10 weeks due to us moving to the area.

Oh lordy!!!! This is going to be such hard work!!!

Could you get a bouncy castle for the garden?
Have you got a trampoline , paddling pool?
Hopefully itllbe hot so you could get them to bring swimming costumes and throw water balloons around
do a BBQ
they'll love it

I would rent a suitable dvd - no need to mention it if all goes well - but you can bring it out if needed (like if the weather is foul).

Scavenger hunts are a fun alternative to a treasure hunt if you don't fancy the latter.

Food - IME no point pushing the boat out - supply basic sandwiches (ham/egg/cheese or whatever), some carrot sticks/celery for those that like them then treats - choc mini rolls always go down well, jelly/icecream if you fancy.

The Red Riding Hood cake is a challenge, though

How old are they? You could play some games; musical statues/bumps etc, put up a string across the garden (or from a fence to the swingball stand to make it shorter) with party ring biscuits or little ring doughnuts on and see who finishes first, have a swingball tournament (first one to miss hitting the ball 5 times is out, winner stays on sort of thing).

Food: mini pizzas, sausage rolls, sandwiches with ham/jam, mini muffins, brownies, crisps, Coke and lemonade. IME most kids are perfectly happy eating that sort of thing at a party.

Cake: Tricky but for a sitting up girl: make 2 ordinary sponges in pudding basins (glass half-sphere types). Put one on top of the other so you've got a sort of ball shape and fix with cocktail sticks, and slice of enough cake from the widest part until you've got a straightish torso shape. Squash the offcuts into a ball and use cocktail sticks to pin the ball on top of the big ball (as a head). Cover in red fondant icing. Use cocktails sticks to fix mini swiss rolls on the sides (also covered in red icing) as arms, and lay 2 more swiss rolls at the bottom of the torso as legs. You could try colouring white icing skin-coloured but it can be very difficult or just use golden marzipan. Use writing icing tubes to ice on eyes, mouth etc, a line down the front of the body and a little ribbon at the top to show it's a cape. For feet and hands, use more of the bits of cake you cut off squashed up and cocktail sticked-on.

Sorry got very complicated but it does work, I've made several cakes like this (a monkey, Noddy, Garfield...) though she will look a bit squat!

Lots of x-posts in the time it took me to write that, sorry! And I forgot to say, REMEMBER that you've used cocktail sticks. (I speak from painful experience .

Can you get a red riding hood doll/figure/toy?

My DCs usually get a round chocolate cake with a toy 'whatever their current favourite thing' is plonked on top - always goes down well and saves an awful lot of stress!

I like the toy idea!

Also the biscuits on a string!

I think party food will be fine, I am just praying it will be warm!

Hadnt thought about a bouncy castle - might look into how much it will cost, but thats only good if it stays dry! I cant afford to fork out for something that wont get used!

Great ideas - keep them coming!

Like the biscuits on string thing, we used to tie string to a bamboo pole then a ring doughnut to the other end. You hold it up, they have to eat their doughnut without using their hands.

The treasure hunt game always goes down well (we've done at least 3!) but if you don't want to do all the work devising clues buy a game (I'm afraid I always take the easy option), they're not expensive. And you can get princess ones too!

Search for childrens princess treasure hunt on google for ideas. or go on ebay

OMG am so jealous as we saw something fab for a summer party but dd had hers in march and funds not running to another just because its sunny and a fab idea! have a look on theis website www.childrensartparties.co.uk for their pink teepee parties!!!

I'm with Riverofsleep for figurine plonked on top of cake; we obviously attended the same cake-decorating course.

Hi Danjarmouse,

Keeping kids entertained has to be one of the hardest jobs in the world

I agree with compo, a bouncy castle would be great fun for the kids!

Have you thought of maybe putting on your own play to help keep them entertained? It's a great way to get everyone involved :0

Liz