This weekend CP and I are having a cookout. I’m excited to get friends together from different stages of both of our lives (that was one of the best parts of our wedding), including new friends in our current town.
This is our problem: most of our friends have kids. Our house is not set up for kids/childproofed so we are going to have to be careful about that. But we also don’t have any games or things for kids to do at our house. Obviously if there were no kids coming we would break out the stump and the Beirut table for some over-21 fun. But with kids that makes it more difficult.
We will have a mix of kids ranging from 18 months to 8 years old. We have the entire backyard to use- we were thinking of playing Bocce Ball (as long as the dogs don’t think the balls are their toys) because that is something that most of the kids and the adults could play. We also have a Frisbee and dog toys that squeak (ha ha). But other than that? No idea.
We don’t particularly want to spend money on things that will just sit at our house unused after this party. And with such a large age range, how are we going to keep all of them occupied? We were thinking that keeping the kids outside as much as possible would limit the damage they would do to our furniture/house inside. Thankfully it is scheduled to be a nice day out on Saturday.
HELP US. Do you have any ideas?
5 comments:
If you have accessible sidewalks/concrete, get some sidewalk chalk. Cheap, and it'll entertain them, and then you can wash it off with a hose.
Or bubbles. Any dollar store would have a ton of cheap, entertaining stuff for kids.
you could get one of those Monkey Ball sets (has many other names). That is fun for kids and adults. Holey Board? There are lots of fun lawn games that I think even little kids would like!
with such a large age range, it's a little tougher, but I think since you've got a yard, you've got an advantage. I'd still pick up anything that you absolutely don't want little kid fingers on that's at knee level in the house, but your idea of keeping everyone outside is good.
Bubbles and sidewalk chalk are good, inexpensive ideas (great for little ones too). So are things like balls, frisbees, etc. Oh, and for some kids, just some music they can dance and spin to would work. And there is always the dollar store.
But mostly, I wouldn't go too overboard. Most parents won't expect you to provide all the entertainment for their kids. It's a really nice gesture to have a handful of things like you're planning--more than MOST hostesses do!
Don't even worry about buying kid crap. As a parent, I bring a bag full of crap to entertain my baby if we go to someone's house who hasn't been overrun with toys. I haven't met or seen a parent ballsy enough to not bring things to keep their kid quiet at a toyless place.
I have no idea what to do with kids, but maybe hitting the dollar store and seeing what cheap stuff you could hand over to keep them entertained.
Post a Comment