Free-for-all No theme birthday party? Update

[AllisonR]

If you had 17 6yo boys over at your house for a birthday party from 2 to 5:30, do they need specific projects for the afternoon? Or can they do their own thing; play with toys, legos, draw, run around... - without converting the house into a war zone? I plan on giving an afternoon snack, and later having them sing happy birthday to DS and eat cupcakes. But other than that, I'd rather them have free play than me decide what they are going to do. However, does this mean that half my kids toys will be broken or the house turned into a total pigsty? Do I NEED a theme, or projects, to prevent this?

[amcal]

I think you need a theme.

I wouldn't arrange play for a small group of kids but, at that age, you're bound to have some kids who want to do one thing, some kids want to do another, some kids not wanting to do any of it etc.... I would have at least a few preplanned activities and then if some boys want to go off and play legos or whatever, that's fine but for those who don't want to do that, they've got something to do.

[One_Girl]

I would definitely have a theme with set projects and ask for a few parents to stay if I didn't have enough family members to stay and help out (and if I was willing to have that many kids in my home at one time).

[LuckyMommaToo]

I vote YES you need a theme and activities. That's a lot of energy and time (17 6 y.o.s X 3-1/2 hours = yikes!). Do you have outside space? The thing is, there are bound to be kids who just can't find their groove. I would probably have a few group things (like a big scavenger hunt, pin the tail on the whatever, etc.) as well as a couple "stations" where a kid can sit down to do a craft or something similar.

Good luck!
-e

[Sharlla]

we go to the park. cake, icecream and playground. maybe a pinata
Posted via Mobile Device

[MamieCole]

Originally Posted by AllisonR

If you had 17 6yo boys over at your house for a birthday party from 2 to 5:30, do they need specific projects for the afternoon? Or can they do their own thing; play with toys, legos, draw, run around... - without converting the house into a war zone? I plan on giving an afternoon snack, and later having them sing happy birthday to DS and eat cupcakes. But other than that, I'd rather them have free play than me decide what they are going to do. However, does this mean that half my kids toys will be broken or the house turned into a total pigsty? Do I NEED a theme, or projects, to prevent this?

17 6yos at my house for 3 1/2 hours is pretty much my idea of torture.

I agree that you need activities. And other adults to help. And yes, your house will still be trashed.

[ChetMC]

Activities

I wouldn't have a theme. I would have activities, even if they are pretty open ended. With that number of kids, things will descend into chaos, and you run the serious risk of an undesirable game or two being invented.

At DD's 6th birthday party (similar number of kids in attendance) there was a short period of time where the kids played with helium balloons, some gym mats and a big school tent. They had a lot of fun, but after about twenty minutes the kids needed an official activity to calm down.

I think relaxed play date type parties work best for smaller groups.

[AllisonR]

Free-for-all birthday party - UPDATE

Well, we all survived.
We had 14 6yo boys. DS said thank you for the wonderful birthday party, it was the best birthday party ever in his whole life! (all 6 years of it).

WOW, it is hard work to keep track of 14 boys at the same time. Esp. as we were spread out over the house, the backyard, the soccer field and the playground.

DH and I picked them all up at school and walked home. We had lunch, then pin the tail on the donkey - which the kids thought was hilarious. Then they mostly played with legos, ran around the house, and went outside to the playground. Original plan was to have a treasure hunt for the goodie bags at the end of the day, but the kids so wanted it, so we did it early, which was a big mistake. 15 minutes of fun to find the goodie bags, 15 minutes quiet while they ate, and 2 hours of sugar-high wildness, which is entirely my fault, as I had oranges and plums as goodies, but also licorice, chocolate and marshmallows. On the minus the house did look like a war zone with all the food, sand, toys and lego pieces everywhere.... On the plus, nothing was broken, and we kept everyone outside most of the time so they could burn off their energy.

[JayGee]

When DS turned 5, we had 17 preschool classmates to our house. Most of it was unstructured play (set up markers/paper for coloring, swingset in the yard, cars, trains, a host of balls and other sports equipment). We also raked up huge leaf piles for jumping in and got about a dozen large size packing boxes for the kids to play in. We did have a game of hide-and-seek which went well, and present opening/cake/birthday song lasted a good 1/2 hour. Still, I think our party was only 2 hours, if I recall...