Tomorrow evening we are hosting the end of season tball party at our house. It is supposed to be a pool party. It looks like about 45 kids and their families coming. The forecast for tomorrow is questionable. So it looks like we will need a change of plans. We can still do our hot dog feast. Fortunately, our back patio is covered and we do not have carpeting in our living room floor is concrete (aka indestructible). It's only supposed to be for two hours and trophies will be passed out during that time. The weather MAY cooperate for us. If it doesn't any suggestions for entertainment?? (A few mom's are anti video games, so the Wii isn't an option). My son has a kid sized pool table game. I figured we could pull that out. Maybe use my hubby's putting green? Playdough and coloring. Any other brilliant suggestions mamas???
BTW,,,rescheduling isn't really an option. It was REALLY hard to coordinate this with everyone and the weather is questionable all week long.
And to clarify. 45 people, but about 20 kids.
Well the outlook is not great, I think the pool party is going to be rained out. So here's our backup plan. (Our house is one story (no stairs to play one) with a great room , so the kitchen, dining area and living room are all connected. Our back patio is rather large and covered. So we will eat out on the back porch. I think we can all fit and no one will get wet. In my garage I have a playdough table and the art easel. We have crayons and chalk out to draw with. In the corner is the little tykes basketball hoop. They are all too tall for it, but I think they will enjoy seeing how far away they can shoot the ball. In a corner of the living room I have one of those car rugs (the kind with roads) and hot wheels with a big box of the larger legos (harder to loose and all ages can play). My son has a kid sized pool table, so that's also in the living room as well as the kid foosball table. In the hall ,we have a putting green. There is a ring toss game in the living room too. I also picked up two table top pinball games I will set up on the dining room table. We will count the kids off and have them rotate activities. Any other ideas or suggestions? (We decided against the Wii, we were concerned with all the time wasted...who's playing who, what game will we play, etc...)
First of all, if it is warm and just raining why can't they still swim? They are going to get wet anyway! Storming is a different issue all together. I would suggest letting them swim as they arrive. Then get them out to eat, followed by trophies. At that point let them play or swim again. Have the things you suggested available if they want them.
If it rains, then I would pull out the Wii...no complaints from parents if it is plan B. I'm thinking that the weather will hold out for you, however!
If it rains, but is still warm enough, I'd let them swim.
If it's storming, set up activity areas - playdough, coloring, pool table, Wii -- it's your house (If the parents don't want their kids to play Wii, they can distract them to another activity.)
Do the hotdog feast as quickly as you can - like within 10 minutes of everyone's arrival. Then do dessert and trophies.
Once that is done, the kids can do the activities or the parents can take them home. :-) You've done your thing and the parents can decide what they want to do.
Get 'em in and get 'em out... That's my mantra!!
LBC
I would tell the parents who don't want their kids to play video games that there are other activities for their children to enjoy - because my kids don't play very often, but it sure does help out at parties because most kids love them. I'd definitely pull it out especially in this situation.
If it's not a thunder and lightning storm, my gut tells me the kids will swim anyway.
Chances are the kids are just going to want to play. It will be really hard to do something like the Wii with that many kids. They can't all play at the same time and that might cause some issues. Since it's only for 2 hours and you're eating and handing out trophies, there won't be much time for play anyway. Take out the pool table if you want, but be prepared for hurt feelings if they can't all play at the same time.
Maybe you could just have a dance party? Blow up a ton of balloons, put them on the floor, crank up the music and let them party! Maybe put some prizes in the balloons. The kids can pop until they find a prize. One prize per kid. That might be a lot though with 45 kids.
I'm sure they'll have fun no matter what you do!
Oh SB-
My heart goes out to you! Brave woman to host this event!
Large groups of kids can be 'broken down to smaller manageable groups. Plan several different activities 'manned' by some parents...all going on at same time with different groups of kids for a short period of time...then blow a whistle...and they rotate. Maybe make different colour 't balls' to hand out as they come...and THAT divides them into their 'group' for the party.
Pool table could be one activity...putting green another...wii another (I hardly think parents will complain if pool is rained out)...a bean bag toss another...a playdough station...a 'pin the ball on the 't' station...and so on
Best of luck!!
Michele/cat
You can do those foam crafts. You can stock up at Wal-Mart and they are inexpensive. Get foam picture frames or door hangers so boys and girls alike can make them. Then just get all kinds of the foam shapes and letters. They are peal and stick so no mess other than to sweep up those papers backings on the floor. I've even seen some at the dollar store.
do you have any video of the kids playing during the season? maybe it would be fun to watch the video together. not sure how old these kiddos are. If I were you I would "over-plan" the games..... The pool just self entertains and if you don't have it make sure you have lots of other options. I always liked water balloons (toss/tag, etc..) water guns are fun (dollar store), do a cookie decoration station (make jerseys and they can decorate their own). pinata on the patio.
Weather is tough. Pray for no lightning!! LOL
Good luck
Will 45 children fit in your living room? I would just have a rain date because 45 children is just too much for inside. The clean up alone makes me shudder. I had 12 inside once and it took me a week to clean up the den. The kids decided it would be funny to take the apples from dunking for apples and chew and spit the apple all over the floor and walls. I never saw this happening because I was running the show alone. After the party I never had another "inside" party with more then 10 kids. It is too many for just me to watch. I would say no way to play dough because you will be picking that off of the walls and furniture for months. Now with video games you have 2 kids playing each other so what will the other 43 kids be doing? They will be running around destroying your home if you arm them with crayons and markers....No way! Not in my house!
I'd say rain date or meet up at Chuckie Cheese with 45 kids. 2 hours is an awfully long time to entertain kids in my estimation. They have very short attention spans. Good luck!
We faced this with my daughter's birthday party. We had invited all of her kindergarten classmates, plus a few old friends, and I had a feeling it might rain and wash out our planned picnic in the park, so I put down our house as the rainy day location. It poured and stormed to beat the band that day!
I moved our pinata to the garage, took the huge baskets of water balloons to the garage, and had a lot of the party in there. Inside my house, we had a pin the tail on the mermaid game and we did quiet guessing games. And oh yes, kids ran up and down my stairs and all around. My house is quite small, and it was a zoo, but I had two older girls helping me and all of the parents felt sorry for me and kept things semi-controlled. I stood outside in the pouring rain with an umbrella cooking hot dogs and bratwurst on my charcoal grill (which lighted beautifully in spite of the rain!). Months later, I still have kids and parents telling me it was a great party. When you get right down to it, all kids want to do is play and have fun, and they'll find a way to do that. It's just keeping them corralled and safe that is the issue, and as I said, the other parents and my helpers were great about that. Once we ate our lunch and had cake, they were really all quite calm.
