The first birthday party with friends invited

DD turns three in June, and she has plenty of friends she wants there. Both her previous birthdays were family and our friends, this will be the first child-focused one. So I'm after ideas, what did you do?

A couple of weeks ago we went to a third birthday party at a hotel with a play centre. I think they basically invited every daycare buddy, plus the friends with kids. On the same day there were two other birthday parties going on, it was hot and cramped and loud, and I think we'll be avoiding that.

So I think we'll invite her two besties from daycare (twins, so that's easy), our next door neighbours (have a three year old and one year old we play with), my friend from work with a three year old (from the party above) and a long-time friend with a two year old (they get along well). So that's only 6 kids, that feels alright, and maybe we can invite a couple more daycare kids after talking to the carers to see who she plays with.

We wanted to avoid doing the party at home - too much cleaning and stuff - and were going to go to the local playground at the oval. But it'll be June, so it might rain, and there are no toilets.

So what did you do? What did and didn't work and why? What's your best tip?

Our DD1 had her first friend party last year at 4, there was a mix of 3 and 4 year olds.

We had it at a park though I imagine toilets are a must! It was morning tea time so we just had fruit, veggie sticks, cut up pita bread and dips plus cake and water.

For entertainment besides the play equipment we had bean bag style games (cut holes in cardboard, buckets at different lengths) and also a sheet of contact taped between two poles for kids to stick different things on - had cardboard shapes, feathers, glitter, pom poms, popsicle sticks etc and that was very popular and left a great take home piece for DD1 from her friends (just attach another length of contact on the other side).

It was simple but everyone had a great relaxed time :)

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For entertainment besides the play equipment we had bean bag style games (cut holes in cardboard, buckets at different lengths) and also a sheet of contact taped between two poles for kids to stick different things on - had cardboard shapes, feathers, glitter, pom poms, popsicle sticks etc and that was very popular and left a great take home piece for DD1 from her friends (just attach another length of contact on the other side).

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What an awesome idea and a beautiful way for your DD to remember her birthday party!

DS1 had his first kid orientated birthday party when he was 4 and we held it at a play cafe. Hectic yes, expensive, yes but no mess which was great!

Our first friend party was age 5.
Park, with toilets and a covered BBQ area ( I had to get up obnoxiously early to snaffle it) and morning tea, which was fruit kebabs, homemade sausage rolls, homemade tiny pizzas, and lego man cupcakes. And a water bottle for each child which I had removed the label off and made their names laminated and stuck on.

Some wise BB last once told me the kids get to invite as many people as their age. I guess you will be going way over that!

DD first party was 4, she is end of May, we had a Peppa Pig muddy puddles party. The weather obliged produced lots of puddles but didn't actually rain during party. We had party food undercover in the old tram. Virtually zero organisation, the kids jumped in puddles and played in playground and had party tea. All I did was invites and peppa pig cake - very simple. The lady at daycare said the kids were all raving about it afterwards. I suspect some of them are not allowed to jump in puddles that often and doing it with their friends they thought was fantastic (invite stated wear gumboots etc).

Moo's first kid focused party was last year when he turned 4. We did the playcentre party and he had a ball :) Our local sounds a little different to yours though. We had our own instructor who took the kids to a sectioned off area that is like an indoor basketball court, and played games with them. We also had our own party room etc so all I had to provide was the cake, loved the zero prep and cleaning!

Buster had a kid focused 1st birthday party as all of Moo's friends came as their parents are our friends lol. I did a teddy bear theme which made the food really easy. The best thing I did was hire a jumping castle as the kids just went mad on it! I also set up a little picnic rug with a tiny china tea set which all of them loved.

A few parties I have been to have been at local neighbourhood (community house) - the fee is quite reasonable $60 I think, but you have to provide all food etc, but it has indoor and outdoor space and is full of toys. I have been to about 8 parties over the years there - all have been good.

DS1 his first party was at 3 we hired a community house and had all mothers group friends and a few other friends who had kids, was all child focused with a small outdoor play area was really nice but I didn't get to chat much as had so much to do.

His 4th party we invited same as 3rd it was at a play centre and it was awful was loud and busy and to hard to find all the kids at food time as so many others there and other partys so lots of parents and kids.

His 5th was at a scout hall and we only invited his friends of same age and no others. We did not invite any family to it, was lots of work setting up etc and food but we had someone come in who plays all sorts of games, tug of war, hurdles, running faces, parrachute games, ball games etc was lots of fun and well worth it.

DS2 first party was 3 and he had it at gymnatsics place we go to and we invited mothers group kids his age and his brothers age was great so easy nothing for me to do but turn up with cake!! All friend and family loved it, was nice to be only party and all the space also ment was not crazy loud.

DS2 4th party was at same as his 3rd at his request and no amount of talking would change his mind!! We had mothers group friends and then 10 from his CC that he picked (and i checked with staff that he was friends with them) It again was awesome kids loved it and parents loved it

Haha Lenny, we are going well over that recommendation! This is the first time she's been excited about her birthday, she talks about it a bit and who she wants there. Apparently she wants a ballerina party - I'm shocked she doesn't want Peppa Pig, she's actually started to not care about Peppa anymore! So I figure if she's this excited, she can have her first real party. Next year will be small, 5 maybe a bit bigger, then small til probably 10, 13, 16, 18, 21. I think they're the big ones aren't they?

Hestia, I want to go to your play centre! That sounds amazing! The one we were at, it's just a pub with a big indoor playground. They've got some work to do there because the birthday boy went looking for his parents and actually opened the pub door and went outside, a stranger found him down the road and brought him back. His mum wasn't happy that he could so easily open the door, and it was near impossible to keep track of all the kids there.

I really like the sound of all the ones you guys had at the park. The locals here are lobbying for toilets near our playground - it's at the oval where they play cricket, there are tennis courts and an undercover bbq area, really all it needs is the toilets. We're a very small town though so I don't know if the council will pay attention.

If not, I think we may just have to work on getting our back yard ready. We've got the space, a small jumping castle and outdoor play equipment so they'd like that. And at least then we'd have fridges and toilets. The grandparents and aunt & uncle can come and help with the set up and bring food.

I also found out when I picked up DD that there's another little girl to add to the list, apparently DD, girl-twin and this other girl are like three little amigos, and sometimes boy-twin tags along. Cute :)

That's a bit scary about the guest of honour ending up outside!

I just remembered a good friend of mine and her daughters 2nd birthday, she had a rainbow party with maybe 8 kids. Rainbow fruit platter and rainbow cake of course! She set out activities for the kids that were all rainbow themed so threading dyed pasta onto string to make necklaces, rainbow dyed rice and various cups etc, rainbow pictures to colour in, she also had a mini jumping castle. Kids loved it!

That sounds great Hestia!

To be honest I hoping she goes back to Peppa lol. There are a billion Peppa and George things out there, but I'm not sure that these particular boys would be keen on a ballerina party!

Ds had his first birthday party when he turned 3. we might heave waited longer till 4 or 5 but dd was both a couple of months before his 3rd bday so we thought a party would be nice. We were going to playgroup at that time so we had it at the playgroup (mbership gave us free use on a weekend for parties). We had about 17 children which is way more than I would have invited but our playgroup session was made up of two consecutive mother's groups so we just invited everyone.

We had a dinosaur theme and I bought some decorations online and balloons. Pretty simple but because there was an outside play area they were all pretty happy to just play outside even though it was the start of july.

We took all the food and it was pretty easy. The best bit about not being at home was that it didn't matter how much mess we made getting organised at home lol. It took us a little while to tidy up at the end but people helped which was really nice.