Children's parties

[Hazel]

Eldest has decided that he would like a birthday party at home with his schoolfriends. Here I thought, no problem, 8 of his closest friends, games, DVDs, face painting...nope - his guest list stretches to 17. Now, if the weather on the day is good, then it's no problem; throw them all in the back garden and have fun. But if the weather is bad, then I have to find some way of controlling 17 7 year olds with a tonne of sugar coursing through their bodies.

So I need advice on games to play. I come up with Musical Statues, Pass the Parcel, Blind Man's Buff, Pin the Tail...and run dry. Anyone got any suggestions? Please?!

[Elfstar]

Buy some cheap white t shirts and some fabric paint. cover the floor with plastic and let them at it. Means they make their own going home present as well! If there are girls you can do the same with sets of beads. Plain white china and appropriate paint also works well i'm told.

a pinata is fun at the end if you have somewhere to hang it.

A treasure hunt (good for house or garden). Split them into teams and hide simple clues to a small prize.

And make sure you enlist some help (chocolate eclairs and wine is usually a suitable bribe.)


make or buy fairy cakes and let them decorate them.

[Cathy]

Murder by winking? (http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Wink-Murder) Tick Tock? I can't find instructions for Tick Tock, which is annoying as it is complicated! Its basically a word game, I've got in a tangle trying to explain it (which is sort of the point!) so to keep it tidy have put this in... How it works is you have 2 objects, something simple like 2 pens, you all sit in a circle and one person (probably the adult) starts by turning to the person on their right and saying 'This is a tick', and they reply 'A What?', and you answer 'A tick'. They pass it on to the next person with the same pattern, 'This is a tick', reply 'a what?' except instead of answering they also have to turn to the person who started the game and ask 'a what' who answers again, and the middle person passes the answer on to their right. This repeats with the next person - every time the new person to their right asks 'a what?', it gets asked back along the line to the person at the start, who answers 'a tick', which then also gets told back along the line until the new person is told it, and then it starts all over again! It then gets interesting - the adult passes to their left the 'tock' with the same pattern. The fun bit is when the tick and tock cross over in the middle and everyone is turning both ways asking 'a what' and answering...the objective is to get the tick and tock right the way around the circle in opposite directions...for the finale when the adult gets the tick and tock back s/he asks the question right the way around the circle and answers him/herself...I don't think that's remotely easy to understand but perhaps I'm wrong!
And what about Sleeping Lions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_lions) for something a tad more relaxing?

[Viccie]

Mummies - keeps them occupied for about 20 minutes. Divide them into pairs, hand each pair a roll of loo paper and it's a race for one partner to completely wrap the other up in loo paper like a mummy.

[Hazel]

Thanks guys - T Shirts idea and Mummies game adopted. So far!
Invitations have now gone out, a total of 19 children. My only hope now is that half of them can't make it!

[Lost Spook]

Also, musical papers, musical bumps, musical chairs, squeak piggy squeak, liven up pass the parcel with fancy dress items having to be put on, dead lions if you need a rest. I'm sure I should be able to think of lots more...

(Actually, are we morbid? - in Somerset we know this as dead lions and used to tell each other off for breathing; up here in the North East everyone calls it sleeping lions!)