Have Birthday party for my daughters 3rd birthday!! Help

Food-wise, you could simply make all of the children a little packed lunch, which is what we did for our daughter's birthday: I popped along to our local bakers and asked if they could spare some of their little cake boxes, which they were only too glad to supply free of charge. I wrote each child's name on the boxes and got my daughter to decorate them (whilst they were still flat-packed).

For food, I made some sandwich 'wheels' which basically involves taking two pieces of bread at a time, cutting the crusts off, overlapping them slightly and using a rolling pin to flatten them right out. Once that's done, put the margarine and filling on as per usual, and then roll the bread up like a swiss roll. Wrap in cling-film and put in the fridge for a short while, then take out and cut into wheels. I did some with cheese, some with jam, and some with ham in them so that each child had three wheels in their box to make sure there would be something they liked. Everyone loved them!

My daughter and I made lots of biscuits for the lunchboxes - we got the cookie cutters out and cut a couple of biscuits for each child in the shape of their initial. I also put a couple of cocktail sausages into the boxes, some Hula-Hoops, and made some little tiny jellies with sliced pears and peaches at the bottom. Oh yes, I put napkins in too!

It was nice and easy with everyone having a box of their own - they can eat with them on their laps, and it's easy to clean up afterwards 'cos you can just chuck the boxes in a binbag and do a quick sweep/hoover.

The only thing I didn't put in the lunchboxes were fairy-cakes, because I incorporated them into the birthday cake. I made one for each child (plus a couple of extras in case) and decorated them in different coloured icing, then stuck pieces of ribbon to the bottom of each case. I made a teddy-bear cake, put it on a gigantic cakeboard and then arranged the fairy cakes so that they looked like a big bunch of balloons, with teddy holding the ribbons. The children ate the teddy bear cake at the party and then had a fairy cake to go in their party bags to take home - much easier than having to wrap lots of pieces of cake up

Oh yes, just remembered that I got party cups from Woolworths - they did some with lids and straws, so stopped everything from getting too wet!

Oh my goodness, I've written a flipping essay - sorry! I hope that I have been of some help and not bored you to tears, and that your daughter has a wonderful party _party_

DD3 is 7 tomorrow and just finished the cake, Daisy Cake. HM round victoria sandwich cake for the centre and sliced up swiss roll for the petals. All covered with ASDA's smartprice roll out icing (icing for middle sponge made yellow with food colouring). Made for a fraction of the cost of a bought cake,DD3 originally wanted a Bratz cake for £8.00 but she loves the cake "made with love by her Mum" :j

8 friends coming for party 2morrow and OS sandwiches, Crisps, HM cakes and biscuits etc. Music thanks to the local CD Library. Lighting Thanks to Xmas Fairylights. Made up my own goddie bags, 10 bags for 29p and 12 Yo Yos (packet of 4 for 29p) both from Savers.Popped along to the Travel & Tourism Show at M/CR Gmex (got in for free with the print off voucher on here) and got lots of free sweeties and pens, just right for the parties bags.

All I need to do now is wait for the free local newspaper to arrive so I can get pass on the parcel sorted. :money:

For my daughters 4th party at the end of last year, I used white handled paper bags (like takeway) for the party bags and printed off labels with the names in large print with thank you for coming to xxxxx party - Personalised & cheap!

I also printed off A4 sheets with all the guests name in the middle and then laminated and used them as place mats at the party table - everybody took theirs home with them.

Another idea I used was to take a picture of my daughter with each of her friends on a digital camera when they came in and then printed them off whilst they were eating and put them in the party bag - all the mum's loved it!

One thing I was surprised at, was how long they took to eat. I had planned that each of the guests were going 'to win' a game each, therefore all taking a prize home each. As they took so long eating it was a bit of a rush getting the last 3 'to win'!

A game my daughter has had us playing, that she learnt from nursery and costs no money or needs no equipment at all is 'Traffic Lights'. When you shout RED, they have to STOP, when you shout AMBER (my daughter insists you say amber not orange/yellow!), they have to WALK and when you shout GREEN, they have to RUN AROUND. Anybody not doing the correct command is out!

I also had a bowl of jelly babies and anybody who was out got one, so there were no tears!

traffic light jelly!!! three colours lime first let it set then lemon let it set then raspberry or strawberry!!!!!! goes down a treat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!