I'm having a shindig for my looming "big birthday", it won't be a raucous night given we, and most of our friends, have small children. There's woodfired pizza, drinks and a jukebox. I imagine we'll wrap well before midnight as half a dozen of us have kids under 5 and are also breastfeeding babies. WILD night, huh!!! Still, it should be a fun night- hopefully!!

Anyhoo, there'll be about a dozen kids attending, aged between 2 and 10. I'm racking my brains about how to best keep them amused. I'd prefer not to hire a fairy/clown etc to do the honours as I'd rather put the $200-plus toward food/drinks. We've got a good backyard for kids (boys in particular), so I'm sure they'll amuse themselves for the most part ... but I need some other ideas up my sleeve in case it's raining, they start to get tired and get ratty and/or they're just bored.

Can anyone add to my current list of "keeping the kids amused":

* Give the kids a small "gift pack" when they arrive - containing colour-in pad, small toy etc
* Have a couple of recent animated movies to put on the telly
* Play a party game for the little kids
* ????????

Or, am I unneccessarily worrying too much. Generally when any friends come over to our house with their kids, ALL the kids keep themselves amused playing outside.

Cheers, Andie