My daughter's 5th birthday is coming up, her first that she will have a lot of friends coming to. So I need to know what to put on the invitation for time and about parents staying. We want to start at 1 and are renting a bouncy house til 5. I know that is a little long for little kid parties though. We would like the parents to stay if possible but I don't want them to not bring their child if they can't stay. If the parents stay siblings are welcome. I also would like to get to know parents better, we see each other at pick up and drop off for preschool and go to the same church but don't actually visit a lot. We were also going to bbq. I thought we could do the main birthday stuff in the first 1.5-2hrs then bbq and if people want to stay for the bbq they can or they can leave after the main birthday activities. I just don't know how to put that in the invitation so that the point will get across clearly. Birthday Party from 1-3; After party barbecue or barbecue and free play 3-5ish?
Any ideas would be great, thank you!
Birthday party 1pm-5pm.
BBQ starts at 3pm.
Parents & siblings are welcome to stay! OR
Parents & siblings are invited too!
I had a long, very large, party a few years ago that sounds similar to yours. I actually printed it flyer style to have more room and still look less crowded. Regarding parents & siblings, I just wrote "parents & siblings are encouraged to stay." I thought it was a friendly-sounding way of saying bring your family but please don't just drop off your kid! A couple kids were dropped off, which was fine, of course, but it would've been tough if a lot of them were. I also wrote something like "bounce house and party games, followed by food for all...we'll fire up the grill around 3!" A lot of parents and kids did end up staying just for the main birthday activities part. I think, in hindsight, it was long for little kids as well as people who just didn't know us that well. Our good friends stayed all day, but I had a LOT of food left over because so many people left. Also, a problem that I didn't anticipate until the time of the party was the cake & ice cream. I ended up serving it at the request of kids mid party & presents. However, that meant that cake & ice cream was served BEFORE food... :-\ Most people who were eating turned down the cake & ice cream, so we took it out again later and put it on the dessert table. Overall, it was a lot of fun. For future parties, though, I cut the time to 3 hours or less and had food grilling from the start. Adults got to relax & eat & talk while the kids played and then they fed their kids & we did cake & ice cream. I'm not sure if I've helped any, but for me, I had a few things to say and found the flyer style invitation worked very well.
Please join us for Sally's 5th Birthday Party extravaganza on Saturday the 12th, from 1:00- 5:00! The main party activities will begin at 1:00, if you would like to stay for an after party, we will BBQ from 3:00-5:00. Please feel free to join us for the entire time or part of the time. Siblings accompanied by parents are welcome to stay and enjoy the festivities. We have rented a bouncy house, so please bring clothes to bounce in! RSVP by . . .
Come celebrate my daughter's 5th birthday!
Birthday party will be from 1-3 and we'll BBQ and play from 3-5ish. Kids over age 4 can be dropped off, otherwise, parents are requested to stay. We'll have a bounce house available the whole time. We hope you can make it to celebrate my daughter's birthday!
You are starting at 1 pm, so I suggest lunch first, barbecue, then cake and gifts... then the bouncing house. Otherwise you'll never get the kids to eat lunch and cake. They can burn the sugar off in the house before you send them home with their parents. Because you are inviting such a large crowd, I would encourage you to do something that teaches your daughter that it's her friends and not the gifts that make the birthday special. So, have the guests bring a copy of their favorite book to donate to a local children's hospital or select a toy that would be appropriate for the waiting room at that hospital or to give to a sick child. Save your money and the heartache for yourself as well, don't create gift bags for the kids to take home... have them create something to take home. I remember for my daughter 6 yr birthday (kindergarten), we had 7 friends (age +1) over and they made sweatshirts that they got to paint and garden hats... as she loved flowers. So I got wide brimmed straw hats and gobs of silk flowers and ribbons and the girls made their own hats. I used the hot glue gun to attach everything. Their sweatshirts were full of hand prints and autographs, drawing of flowers.... it was great. No gift bags, but they had so much fun making their own hats and shirts.
4 hours is a very long time for 5 year olds. And that's a huge commitment of time for working parents on a weekend, when they are trying to catch up and get ready for the next week. So don't be surprised if many parents don't stay.
Enjoy the day!!!
Just put on the invitation to RSVP to you write on the invite Parents and siblings welcome say there will be food and fun activities and Im not sure how you feel about it but maybe have "adult drinks" I know when my kids have birthday parties my husband and I are alot more apt to go if we can chill out and have a drink with other parents it allows us to get to know them better and not be so annoyed by the screaming children running around
Perhaps you could put in a note: "Please let me know if you won't be able to stay or if you'll be bringing a sibling along so I can keep an eye on the adult/kid ratio" Or something to that effect. About the bbq you could just put the invitation about the party time from 1-3 and then mention separately that you'll have a bbq from 3-5 and would love to have them stay if they like.
Also, one thing I've learned with my kids' parties is that I don't put down an address. I write "RSVP for directions" instead. My oldest's first party resulted in me preparing for the other four people I couldn't reach and who didn't let me know if they were coming or not. It's amazing how much those party favors add up, so its super helpful to know if you are having four or eight guests.
I would put "Parents welcome; siblings welcome with parents" or something along those lines, to be clear that you don't want all the children dropped off without any parents. Then put something like, "Bounce house and cake 1-3 pm, BBQ 3-5 pm" and a line about, "Parents and siblings are invited to the BBQ".
Sandra-
We do that exact same thing for all our kids' birthday parties. The invitation tells teh party time with an asterisk. At the bottom I write something along the lines of "Have your families come back for a bbq following the party festivities."
It seems to work out great.
I have written in a little note that stated because of the Jumpy house, parents must attend with their child. Bouncy houses are a ton of fun (we own one), but they can be dangerous and I dont want a parent to be gone if something happens to their child.
Personally I think the party would be too long. What might happen is either people will come late or they will leave early, it is a long time for kids. All of my kid's parties are for parents to stay and they are never longer than 2. 5 hours. If it were me, I would put on the invite "3:00-5:00, bounce house for the children and bbq for the parents!" "please plan to stay with your child and enjoy the party and good food" Most parents do stay if they don't know the parents well and if they do know them well, they stay b/c they want to socialize. You can always add * at the bottom saying "all parents are asked to stay with their children b/c of the young age"...You can also put "siblings are welcome" if you want to.
have fun!
With my son's party we just added a line "Parents please stay and play". We made sure to invite his friends and their siblings. Almost every parent stayed and the two that couldn't called and talked to me.
As far as the time goes, just put from 1-3. At the end of the "official" party you can let the parents know they are welcome to stay and play...I would tell them away from kids, so parents aren't dealing with hysterical kids if they need to leave at 3.
You're invited to ____'s Birthday Bounce Party!
Please join us, along with your parents, for fun and food!
Bounce time and party from 1-3pm
BBQ starts at 3!
Something along those lines, so that the parents sees you're requesting them stay.
