AIBU to keep my child's Reception party small and simple?

[Satwaiting]

There seems, to me, to be a bit of ‘one up man ship’ at school re kids parties, reception class where everyone gets an invite.
AIBU to invite just 10 and have a small party in my garden- I’ve a mud kitchen, a trampoline, and a slide/swing set. I mentioned this to another parent and was asked if I’m getting a face painter or entertainer and after looking that’s another £200 at least.
I was going to make a graze board with small sandwiches, cheeses, crudites, fruit bits, and make cupcakes (to hand out) instead of a birthday cake, but someone else said get a caterer in- been quoted £250! Whilst I’d appreciate someone else doing it, that seems a lot to me.
I just don’t think kids need all this, or am I being old fashioned? Money isn’t an issue, but will the 5 year olds be bored at a party like this.

I’d plan a game or two (musical statues etc) so you aren’t at a loss if you need something structured for them. But if they are all having a great time, no need to actually do it.

ds’s birthday parties were mostly like this and the kids had a great time.

I think it is fine to keep it simple, 5 year olds will enjoy just playing with someone else's toys

Your idea sounds perfect to me, they will love it. Just have a back-up in case of rain.

Do a game, musical statues,pass the parcel and you are good to go, you will have to organise 10 little children to do something or they turn feral😀 but there is nothing wrong with a party in the garden.

This sounds fine
scrap caterers and face painters
a grazing platter and cupcakes will be ideal
do face paint & glitter tattoos yourself you can buy all the stuff quite reasonably
orgabise some games - pass the parcel is always a good one and musical statues etc

Are you planning on doing any party games or anything? I don’t think keeping it simple is a problem, and doing it yourself is fine. But inviting 10 kids round to play in the garden isn’t really what they would expect for a party, and I think they would expect some games etc.

My daughter is in year 1 now; reception they were all class parties but In year 1 they have mainly all been house parties with 10 of their friends. They love it, most have had a bouncy castle but some also just trampolines, playing inside and old school fashion games. One just did cupcake decorating and indoor games as it was January.
Not sure if my lo class have built up trust but they have all been drop and go !

Have a Plan B in case it rains. If your home is big enough that you can cope with the numbers, that's fine but if not what you do with them might have to change.

Ok, I can do pass the parcel! Prize in each layer? (Or Lucky’s dad’s rules?!)

I do worry about rain as my house is tiny, so perhaps a gazebo/marquee may be an idea?

I’ll get tattoos and I do have a little fairy garden area so perhaps could put some fancy dress bits out and do a fairy treasure hunt or something?

I think ten is too many. The rules of thumb I was given was the age of the child plus one. So if she is five, that means six guests.

My 5 year old would be happy with that.

I would highly recommend getting some bubble guns for extra fun. Always been popular with my kids and when i brought one to his party.

Things they can make / decorate themselves are always good. Strips of card and stickers and jewels to stick on them are always popular.
gingerbread men and icing pens
simple garden scavenger hunt was popular at one of ours when we did a garden party

the advantage of softplay etc ones is the set timetable, well set up dining room and clear end time. It wasn't one-upmanship for us when we did those, just practicality. we invited everyone in the class because the party booking cost most of it, adding in more kids wasn't much per head and it saved the headache of making a separate whatsapp group to coordinate it and feeling bad you didn't invite someone etc. Plus my kid then got invited to 30 parties back that year which he loved.

Of course you're not unreasonable. It's what we've done for the last two years (preschool and reception age) and it's been great.

I made a buffet myself with birthday cake, a platter of fruit, a platter of veg, houmous, breadsticks, open rolls with cream cheese and cucumber / ham / peanut butter, crisps, cut up sausages, and cheese and pineapple on sticks.

For games, we played:

1. pass-the-parcel (there was a token prize in each layer, ie a pencil and a sweet)
2. Hide and seek
3. Mini egg hunt
4. Musical statues
5. Musical bumps
6. Keepy-uppy.

(nb we had 6 children last year and 12 this year. For our house size, 12 was on the brink of being too many).

How simple and lovely!

OP it sounds great and they’ll enjoy it! Maybe your idea will catch on instead of the ridiculous expense parents go to currently.

Absolutely nothing wrong with a simple party but…..

1. it may rain so you need to have a plan b
2. most kids will be accompanied by parents at that age. If space is limited your going to need to specify drop off and collection only
3. Party games are a must if you’re keeping it simple you’ve already had some great suggestions.

The party sounds great but why no birthday cake? Seems a bit joyless. The party food sounds a bit worthy and I’d chuck in some more treat food.

You could do your own face paints. Snazaroo kits are good. If you don't want full face, you could do flowers, or arm 'tattoos'. Decorating their own cup cake is also a good plan. If you don't mind them having fizzy drinks, you could have a 'cocktail bar' where they choose a drink and it's served in a plastic cocktail glass with ice and a paper umbrella (plus a bit of fruit on a stick if you're feeling fancy)

We did a party like this once, something affordable i would recommend is one of the parachutes for games, they're not expensive and there's loads of games you can play

Bubble machine would be a hit too!

because most of the class have a swimming or soft play or themed party - this will be different and in my experience the kids love an ‘old fashioned’ party with games and pass the parcel as it is outside the norm of the ‘normal’ pool, clown, ice skating , soft play, magician extravaganza.

sounds like they’ll have a lovely time - plenty of crisps and fairy cakes and the kids will be made up!

don’t be pressured into ‘keeping up with the jones’ - your party sounds lovely.

My DS always wanted a party at home…his friends all loved it as it was a bit of a novelty as everyone else did organised /planned parties. A little bit of effort with an activity like a treasure hunt / craft making is always good but they mostly just want to run about with balloons and jump on the trampoline in my experience!

I'm sure they will have fun, I might do a bit of pass the parcel or something. My only question would be how many kids are in the class? My rule for DD is less then half, or everyone so nobody is being left out. If it's a class of 20 kids, 10 is fine, if it's 12, just invite everyone.

@Satwaiting lovely to keep simple, but you should definitely have a cake and a piñata filled with sweets worked well at my DDs party. It took them ages to break it using a wooden spoon. They loved it and filling their party bags with the sweets.

Bubbles are great fun, bubble gun sounds next level 😀

One tip - play sleeping lions, just before they have the food. It gets them calmed down. If you feel kindly disposed towards their parents, have another round of it (or call it sleeping faeries or something), just before home time.

YANBU but I think you misunderstand what people are paying for. I'm sure it is sometimes one upmanship but I was willing to pay for some of the things you have listed because it either wasn't physically possible for me to do everything myself (as a lone parent I couldn't do face painting/glitter myself because I was running the party) or because I simply didn't want the stress of it on the day (I work full time and didn't want to have to sit down and plan a food delivery, then spend time on the day to make and layout all the food so paid for a platter, I didn't want the stress of organising party games when I was the only adult there and am not a huge kids person generally so paid an entertainer).

If you have support around you and are willing and confident to do the prep and run a party yourself then there's no problem with your plan at all.