Birthday party ideas for 3 yr old boy?

[lulupop]

Not sure this is the right topic area for this thread but here goes...
DS is going to be 3 and after last year's fiasco I realise I need to plan well ahead for the party. He will be having about 10 friends (and their parents), and our house isn't big enough to have the party at home. Last year we hired a little hall and had Tumble Tots do their thing, but I think this year he'll want a bit more "structure", IYKWIM, although from going to other kids' parties I think 3 is a bit young for pass-the-parcel type activities.
I want to do the party tea myself, so taking them to our local indoor play centre is out, so I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for activities I could organise to have in our hired hall again? How do I find a good clown, for instance (went to another party with a clown and he was crap - didn't even seem to like small children!)? Please help

IME at that age keep it small and they all ru aroun don bouncy castles with one pass the aparcel and one musical game

dont do a clown
half hte kids will be sacred shitless!

ther are loadsof srchived threadas about this sort of thing
oh and stick to one and a hlaf hours

Agree with cod - bouncy castle. Also places hire out little tikes toys etc or bring your own sit and ride stuff a few balls etc. Maybe some crayons and colouring stuff.
My ds2 is 3 soon and I'm not doing anything structured for him - we're having it at home with a bouncy castle, his toys and lots of booze for the parents!!!!

BTW why was the Tumbletots party a fiasco? sounds ideal to me?

bouncy castle definitely. and as it's in a hall and presumably not carpetted floor, how about a big playdough table? You can make your own playdough for next to nothing (i'll dig out a recipe if you need one) and DS and most of his friends (all 3) love to play with it. Even a water table huh as long as you warn the parents to bring spare clothes in case.

yes think of what they like a t toddlers nd do soemthing like that
with 4 year olds ( me next week) it is sitll roughlty the smae IMo but requires a bit more parental input

I hate bouncy castles tbh. Far too much scope for accidents...(killjoy!) How about hiring your local hall and getting a good kids entertainer/face painter to keep the kids amused? I would go on recommendation as ime there is a lot of difference between these people, and they can either make or break a party. We had a fancy dress pirates and princesses party at our hall and had a face painter and entertainer for 1.5 hours. Our food was ready on a table in the adjoining room and hopefully everybody had a fab time..
Alternatively your local leisure centre will do organised play/party sessions and will have a room for you to do the food or if you are a member of a gym they will possibly do the same too.
If you want to be really different have you got any farms/zoos nearby? They usually have party days and an adventure playground for them to let off steam and rooms for the food too.

Thanks for the ideas... bouncy castle I think is out as the hall is not that big, but face painting's a good one I hadn't thought of, and some craft-y table activites would be good I think.
Iota, the Tumble Tots arrangment was great and the kids all loved it - it was finding somewhere to hire out to have it that was the problem! I left it till 6 weeks before the day to try and book and everywhere told me they'd been booked out for 3 months!