Got my boy’s 6th birthday party on Sun. Decided to do-it-ourselves at home – so I have 8 boys to entertain for a couple of hours. Need to prepare like I’ve never prepared before – any hesitiation in the flow of “fun” or hint of weakness in authority could result in my house being trashed, and possible trip to the hospital.

I have the old favourites of lucky dip, charades, pin the tail and pass the balloon on the list so far, but I’d love to hear some other ideas.

well that’s 4 minutes taken care of…

Xbox Kinect.

yeah – that’s the problem. I could split them into 2 teams of 4, and put them in the garden for no-rules tag-team wrestling.

some sort of ‘build an x’ activity – yuou need somethign they can do without ahuge amount of adult involvement at every stage but that takjes time – somethign with lots of colouring in, maybe + they end up with soemthign to take home at the end.

maybe fimo or somesuch?

yeah – a crafty thing might work. your right – it’s all about burning up time and getting through it! Haven’t got an xbox, only an old ps2 with guitar heroes and one guitar.

Musical statues, simon says, balloon passing games, pass the parcel, musical bumps, not quite a game but letting them put icing and sprinles/sweets/marshmallows on their own bun/biscuit goes down well and soaks up a fair bit of time. Not too late to book a bouncy castle, or could you set up a goal and have a penalty comp with an adult in goal?

Hang on, this is STW, not mumsnet!

Junior Kickstart!
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c53dCi-AM0Y[/video]

Fuzzy Duck

I had the same idiotic idea for my son’s 6th birthday party.

8 boys, two hours, a load of old-school party food. This’ll be a great laugh I thought.

They had no interest in organised games whatsoever. You need girls for that.

When we went outside to play tig, hide and seek and British bulldog (I know, I know) I spent the whole time stopping them from swinging garden implements at each other and trying to prevent one kid in particular from repeatedly hoofing me in the balls.

Our house has a vulgar big conservatory with a couple of big sofas in it, so I ended up getting Mrs Tyred to clear anything breakable out of there, then just took them inside for a mass cushion fight/wrestling match. They just wanted to fight me. Once we were doing that, and we’d established what was OK and what wasn’t, it was fine. Boys of that age have a stupid amount of testosterone, and its worse when a bunch of them get together.

No way would I do that again!

They just wanted to fight me

this it’ll be an afternoon of ‘attack the alpha male’ if you’re not very careful.

is there a park near you?

Can’t you just take ’em down Maccy D’s for a couple of hours?

Ben 10 on repeat & load em up with fizzy drinks+sweets. Job done? 😀

Any woods or owt nearby where they can have a run around?

Get a catering pack of Haribo and eight Nerf machine guns. Retire to minimum safe distance.

xbox
bulldog
fighting with sticks
meat
shouting
stair surfing
making fire

We’ve always done the kids’ parties at home and they look forward to ‘Dad behaving like an idiot’. The trick is to not let up for a second and be as enthusiastic as Timmy Mallet on speed. The whole idea of just occupying them with something won’t wash, you have to get stuck right in and expect to be utterly frazzled by the end of it.
One of my favourite activities is to set up an assault course in the garden using chairs and tables etc (doesn’t matter if the weather is rubbish, just lead by example). Also, hide and seek, who can shout the loudest (I win), running around popping all the balloons, gun fights, best air guitar – then feed them loads of sugar and do it all over again!!

this is the sort of impact you should be aiming for;

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsvAj6qfmFQ[/video]

hmmm, on reading the above, maybe it’s not too late to book a party venue.
No, I’m determined to see it through. I could put all the furniture in a locked room and let them have the run of the house. Allowing stair surfing with nerf guns could make me dad of the year, but not sure my insurance is up to it.

Pinata! Nothing like whacking a donkey with a stick

we did quite a few parties at home, they’re fine.

As Gunz says – you just have to be prepared to throw yourself at it.

My wife is a primary teacher so has ‘The Voice’ needed to quell a room full of over-excited 6 year old boys..

oh, and if you get one of those mexican ‘hit the paper creature with a stick and get sweet things’ make sure that the child doing the hitting is in a room (if not building) on their own when they start swinging. I’ve still got the scars from standing within 8 feet of a child swinging a 3 ft club.

The best party I ever did was a Snail Party. Find your snail in the garden. Decorate it with paint. Then race them on a white board with lettuce as incentive and lanes. Video the race as well. Then for tea eat them (well not the garden ones because they need a few days in a bucket to get clean so buy some). Try other nasty stuff to eat as well – pickled eggs caused some sickness and jellied eels would go down well.

No running around but definite boy stuff.

**** PARTY UPDATE ****

Managed to survive the party – just. Techinques – shouting a lot, abandoning games as soon as “the mood changed” from excitement to boardom, and shoving mini sausages down them. Get more than 3 6year old boys together in one room and they turn into manic-depressives on a coctail of speed/downers/acid. Next year will involve fewer people in an external party venue where someone else has to entertain them – lesson learnt!