3 year old boys birthday party....

FinnMcCool_2

Hi everyone,

Looking for some advice here please - Our little boy will be 3 years old soon and we are stuck on ideas for celebrating his birthday. So far this year, his little pals have had:

1) party at home with childrens entertainer (for 3yo)
2) party at soft play centre (for 2yo)
3) party elsewhere with childrens entertainer (for 2yo)

All these parties have had ~15 children at them and have all cost in excess of £100. I don't know if this is just me, but sometimes I think this is a bit on the excessive side for such a young child! We would like to give him a nice party, but he only really has a few friends (4 of them), who are all our friends children and they are all girls. He has some from nursery but we don't know them or the parents.

It would be nice to make it a bit of a "special" occasion as it's his birthday - but we can't do the soft play thing, as they all want a minimum of 10 kids, and we don't want to invite random kids he doesn't really know well, just for the sake of it.

I think we'll have a little party at home - but we don't really know what to do!! Any suggestions welcome. All the children will be 2 or 3 years. We don't want it to just be "another day", where everyone comes round to our house, but not sure if they are really old enough for party games and it will be too cold/wet outside.

Can anyone suggest anything - getting a bit down thinking about it.... Thanks in advance,

Dorato

How about pass the parcel? They'll like getting things. If you put something little in each layer of the parcel, they should all get something which will be nice for them all.

Gingerbiscuit_2

Hi, I think you can still make it special for a 3rd birthday and at that age their dont mind if they are the opposite sex.
Does he have a favorite character or tv show? You could easier pick a theme and get matching tablewear/ballons to match.

You could get some nice bits for the kids to dress up with even from pound shop, few balloons maybe.

Since they are so little you could do a simple treasure hunt around the house/garden where they have to collect coins or pieces of a puzzle. (If you cut up paper then once they have collected all peices could tell them where the treasure is)

I think 5 children for a party is lovely number as its enough to play a few games without having to wait so long, so parcel parcel, musical bumps etc are all fun.

Dont feel like you have to spend alot just becuase others have! Good luck

KarenBB

Just having all his fiends round at the same time with a birthday cake and fun games will make the day special. Pass the parcels, sleeping lions, musical statues, simon says, pin the tail on the donkey - children love all of the traditional games. Birthady tea doesn't have to be fancy either, I've done parties where the children don't eat the food. They do like jam sandwiches, jelly, ice cream, party rings biscuits - again it's the old fashioned tradional tea but that's what they will eat and doesn't cost a fortune if they don't. They could even watch a dvd before tea to calm down or after tea for their tea to settle. I don't mean something like a disney film but jsut a 10 minute thing, postman pat etc...

and don't forget lots of balloons.

dawn_rose

for my 2 year old nad three year old we had a party at home and had friends and family me and oh made banners and printed out their fave characters on cbeebies website and coloured em to stick on banners. the kids enjoyed just each others company, you could maybew set up a table with drawing and colouring stuff, some music on and a party tea. im not doing the whole lets spend a fortune this year either dd is 4 and wants a pink princess party so doing one at home friends and family again 2 days after xmas.

FinnMcCool_2

Thank you all for the suggestions!
We have decided to do the nice traditional party food with dinosaur paper plates, etc and a little game playing.

hopefully it will all go well, thanks again!

completelybroke

when my son was 3 I printed off a picture of the theme (think it was scooby doo) of his 'party' (few people/friends round at home) coloured it in, cut it out, and hid the pieces round the house.

The children went off to find all the pieces, then when all found teamworked to put them all back together

Once the puzzle was put together they got a prize (mini bag of haribos - 99p for a bag of 10 or so packs found in the works )

We also one year played hunt the plastic dinosaurs - some of his friends still ask to play that game several years on

billys_partytime.co.uk

hi
what parent doesnt dread the thought of having a birthday party. Is he or she popular will they come if we invite them are there too many girls or too many boys .
HE IS 3 YEARS OLD
HE DOES'NT CARE
all he wants is familiar friends and family and quite rightly so as an entertainer and more importantly a parent of 1 and 6 yr olds i can tell you my 1 yr old will be happy sat pointing a the same book or photo for 3 hours
The point i 'am trying to make is, go with what feels right if you dont want 15 kids in your house all at once then dont do it.
we are all sometimes guilty of keeping up with others at toddler group or wherever.
there is plenty of time and always next year to do something completely different
my 6 yr old took all her mates for an hours tennis lesson this year and then had hire of a room afterwards for food and games
anyway
pass the parcel musical bumps and statues pin the tail on the donkey
try guess the flavour of crisp and a dressing up relay game
ta
i'm billy from billyspartytime google it now

misscharlie

My 3 years old party is tomorrow. We have 3 cousins and friends coming who are all the same age. I've done a pass the parcel, and got some cheap tesco value crayons (29p) each along with a big colouring pad. We've got a special made cake for himn as he loves cake,a nd we have the rest of the family coming too. We have board games, well hungry hippo's and pop up pirate to play. So hopefully it will be enough to keep them entertained.