Today we had my youngest son's 6th Birthday Party. Party time was 2pm - 4.30pm.

The key to this party was flexibility, flexibility, flexibility!!

25 kids were invited, 15 replied to say they were coming. I anticipated that more would come, and some who said they were coming would not turn up. This was the case. So we still had about 15 kids. About 7 parents stayed for the party.

My plan for the day, was to play some games before having any party food. This way you don't have a lot of kids hovering constantly around food and not wanting to participate in games. The menu for the day was quite simple:

• Patty Cakes
• Popcorn
• Iced Arrowroots
• Cheerios
• Pizza
• Individual Potato Chip packets
• Cold Cordial available all afternoon

The games I planned were:

• Pass the Parcel
• Red Light Green Light
• Statues
• Pin the smile on the party boy
• Duck duck goose
• Heads and Tails
• Balloon Relay
• Lolly Hunt
• Face Painting

I have no prizes for games except for the pass the parcel. This is so that little feelings don't get hurt if they don't win a prize in a game.

As the kids arrived, after giving their present - duly received, ripped opened and thanked - I asked if they wanted a design painted on their face. All but 1 said yes. This was so that those that were a little late wouldn't miss out on any of the games.

The first was the traditional favourite of pass the parcel. I had wrapped and wrapped this parcel in about 20 layers of paper. Each layer had a little lollipop, and an instruction to complete. This ranged from saying the alphabet or counting to 20 (reinforcing basics and having the rest of the kids tell them whether they were right or wrong) to things like act like a monkey or be a ballet dancer. To get the lollipop, they had to follow the instruction. This provided a lot of amusement. Especially the young boy who had to be a ballerina. This game went really well.

My eldest son had scattered who knows how many lollies around the yard, in obvious and not so obvious places. The kids were all given a plastic bag. They then had to do the Lolly Hunt. When the kids had collected all the lollies, we wrote their names on the bags and they had to either give them to their mums if they were there, or put them on the table.

They then wanted to play a game of tiggy. This was Flexibility #1. So they did.

We then had the balloon relay, which was 3 teams of 5, racing across the yard in relay form, with a balloon between their legs, and not popping the balloon. Once this was finished, with about 4 extra balloons being popped, they all wanted to pop balloons. So we had to blow up the rest of the balloons so they could have some fun. They then continued racing around in their teams having races of sorts.

Flexibility #2.

Next we had a quieter game of heads and tails. All the group chooses either heads (hands on heads) or tails (hands on bottoms). I flipped a coin and had random kids tell me whether it was heads or tails. (Teaching and reinforcing the sides of a coin). This ends with a final winner hopefully, although in our case the last three chose the same thing and all got out.

They then wanted to have races around the house. Flexibility #3. Round and round they went, squealing, screaming and laughing  all the time, while occasionally picking at their lollies.

Then it was time for another game. I let the kids pick from Statues, Red light, or duck duck goose. So statues it was. This went on for a little while. Then because the day was so hot, most of the paint had sweated off, so we decided that whoever wanted to could have another design on their face. While this was happening, I got the food on the table. Those not getting painted were playing chase around the yard.

When the finished, they could have some food. Vultures in the desert let me tell you. But they loved it. Didn't take long before it was mostly gone. While they were picnicing on this and some had finished, my middle one who had been helping/participating, decided that it would be fun if the kids played "pile on". He loved it, the kids loved it, everyone climbing on top of one another to see if they could squash him. Flexibility #4. This was not on my list of things to do.

I then brought the cake out, we sang happy birthday, everyone had cake, they wanted to play a bit more, so it was a game of red light green light. They had to be little cars and follow the directions of the traffic lights. This would usually be a game of if you get it wrong you are out, but it was just a little fun for the end of the afternoon. Flexibility #5 - you don't have to always follow the rules.

The last game of the day, was the most fun for me!! Out came a plastic bag for each child. They had to go round and see who could collect the most rubbish left on the ground. As you can imagine, there were popped balloons, bits of paper, lolly wrappers, cups etc. Whoever collected rubbish in their bag got a party bag to take home!! Yay.  A reason for a party bag, and a clean back yard in one go. Not bad.

I find if you are led by the kids, they will let you know what they want to do. A very structured party can work for some parents, but I think that the kids have more fun if they are given the choices on what to do. I had parents commenting to me on how it was great that they were able to sit back and do nothing for the afternoon. Usually their kids are hanging off them at parties and not wanting to participate. One mum was so worried that her child wouldn't cope without her, but she had to do some shopping and I had told her to go and do it. Her child had a lot of fun and there were no tears that mum wasn't there.. She was very impressed.

So in all a very good party. (And I gave the kids party blowers in their party bag, and they greeted every arriving parent to a rousing chorus of noise. Heehee. One mum is having a party in a couple of weeks and she thanked me for the blower and told me that she would have a special bag of noisy treats for my son when he goes to her sons party!!)

So the end of this advice is that you should be very flexible in what you have planned for your parties. The kids I was expecting changed. Two of the games I had planned didn't happen, but others did. Enjoy your day, don't stress out about things not happening and you will all enjoy the day.

Cheers. Leisa