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Planning a children's birthday party doesn't have to mean spending a fortune or trying to recreate something you've seen on Pinterest.

In this episode of the Real Life. Real Kitchen podcast, I chat with homeschooling mum of four and professional party host Kate Hutton about simple, budget-friendly kids birthday party ideas that children genuinely love. We cover party games, affordable venues, easy food ideas, outdoor parties, and why keeping things simple often creates the happiest memories.

Whether you're planning a party at home, in the park or in the woods, this episode will give you practical kids birthday party ideas to make birthday celebrations less stressful and a lot more fun.

In this episode, you'll learn:

✅ How to plan a memorable birthday party on a budget

✅ Why simple kids birthday parties are often the best parties

✅ Easy ideas for kids' party games that cost almost nothing

✅ Free and low-cost birthday party venue ideas

✅ How to avoid party meltdowns and overstimulation

✅ Simple kids party food ideas that children actually eat

Links mentioned

Crafted Bus: https://craftdbus.com/

Kids birthday party ideas don't have to be expensive or complicated. This conversation covers budget kids birthday parties, children's party games, kids party food ideas, outdoor birthday parties and simple ways to celebrate your child without the stress.

Welcome to the Real Life. Real Kitchen Podcast with your host, Zoë F. Willis, English mother-of-many, Mum Mentor, and your host at this weekly gathering of real talk, real food, and real family life.

Each week I sit down with someone whose work nourishes minds, bodies, or communities. From the kitchen table to the wider world, these are the quiet voices making a loud difference.

If you enjoy practical conversations about modern motherhood, family life, home systems and raising confident children, don't forget to subscribe to the Real Life. Real Kitchen podcast for a new episode every week.

So the big question that many mums are asking during these exciting times is how do you organize a child's party on a budget?

Because there is just so much pressure, maybe created, maybe through Pinterest, maybe through Instagram, for mums to perform.

When it comes to the birthday parties, I have thoughts about this.

Some strong thoughts, some not so strong thoughts, but I thought I would get on.

Essentially a party professional this is.

I'd like to introduce Kate Hutton, who is a party host who works locally for a company called Crafted Bus, who provide parties activities for children and grownups as well.

Kate herself is a homeschooling mum of four and she knows what works, she knows what doesn't.

And so I thought I would talk to her for tips for all the mums out there who feel the pressure to produce a lot for the birthday parties.

Kate?

Yeah, thanks, Liz.

Yes, I think my top tip for any party, even if you are going to, you know, go extravagant and spend, is to keep it simple.

There's so many different things you can do with a party.

You can get very bogged down in the details.

And I know so many mums get very stressed about, I want to do this and that and this and that, and there isn't time and often the kids won't appreciate that when there's just too much going on.

Simplicity is always the absolute best thing.

If you're so kind of keeping it down to just like a couple of activities, what are we talking about?

So what I usually do when I plan a party for one of my children is we first of all pick a theme so it doesn't have to be like, you know, a thing that they like K pop demon hunters or whatever.

But it can be as simple as, oh, I'd like to do like a tea party themed party.

So for instance, my daughter and I will then sit down and go, okay, what can we do with that?

We'll look at venues.

Where could we go?

And that's one thing, that's a huge cost.

If you try and just hire a venue for everything, then you're going to be paying so much money and then, you know, it's just gone.

You know, you've had like a couple hours.

So trying to keep the budget down either at home.

But then obviously you've got to then plan and get everything ready, put everything you don't want people to see or touch away and all those things.

So that's a lot of extra effort.

So you do have the trade off.

So essentially, if you're going to pay for A venue, you know that.

Okay, it's all getting sorted.

They're going to tidy up all the mess afterwards if you have it at home.

Granted you're saving money, but it's your time.

Yes.

And organizing in the house that you have to consider.

Exactly.

And I think the absolute best solution to that one is to try and find something that's free.

So a park or if you have any connections to somebody with a big garden, they don't mind lending you for the afternoon or whatever.

Or just anything that's, you know, a public space that you can use, like, just go for it.

Like a lot of people be like, oh, I couldn't possibly, you know, have a bunch of people turning up at a park.

But like, why not?

As long as you're all together and you've got eyes on the kids, there's no reason it can't be just anywhere.

Free.

Yeah, no, we used to, I used to live in London a long time ago and certainly with our first child it would.

Because so many people lived in apartments, so many families lived in apartments.

The park was the natural go to place, you know, picnic rug, children bumbling about.

And it was quite normal to see that on a regular basis.

Okay, so first thing, don't have to pay for a venue, don't necessarily have to have it at home.

Consider kind of a public space, like a park or something.

I like the networking and asking people if you could borrow their space.

That's, that's the biggest thing that has saved me money is just getting to know like who's in charge of that hall, for instance, and things.

And quite often if you know that people, there's either deals to be struck or, you know, some kind of wiggle room and things aside from the normal booking process.

Not always.

You know, sometimes it's like, yeah, I can't help you out with that.

There's strict rules.

But yeah, yeah, I mean, that's the thing.

What's the worst somebody can say is.

No, no, exactly.

Like, okay, and you move on and.

Then move on and then move on.

So what do you think is kind of causing all this pressure for women, for the mums to, to kind of put on these spectacular events?

And I've been, I've been to some amazing parties.

I would.

Now my caveat there is I would describe those parties as amazing for grownups.

Yes.

I'm not, I.

At the time and with reflection I've gone, hmm, I'm not sure how successful these were for the children.

In your capacity as kind of professional party Host, have you any observations on that?

I quite often see where parents have really like run away with it.

Like every detail they wanted to do.

It's almost at like wedding level in some places.

Wow.

And you know, it's great.

You can see, like you said, the parents are loving it.

Clearly that's like the mum's jam or whatever.

And they just, they wanted to plan all these details and they just wanted to splash out on their kid and have the best time.

But as far as the children are concerned, quite often you see them, you know, sit down at the table to have their food or whatever, which you know, looks absolutely amazing.

But the second it's, you know, they're tearing into it, it's all complete mess anyway because they're kids and then they're quite interested in like the play equipment that's already in the garden, the trampoline, the climbing frame, whatever, which is nothing that they've, you know, set up specifically for the party or just the games.

Like party games are so underrated.

I'm not necessarily talking like pass the parcel musical chairs, but there's so many other just games that you can run that sometimes blow these kids minds.

They like.

This is so fun.

I think there's a.

There's a Bluey episode about past parcel.

Oh yes.

My one thing about past the parcel is you can't.

I think there needs to be a number limit on the children in the parcel, otherwise there's a lot of waiting.

Small children waiting.

Absolutely.

And that doesn't work too well.

That doesn't work.

But there's this wonderful Bluey episode with the.

They do pass the parcel where there's a gift on every level.

And then one of the dads goes, no, we're gonna do it sort of 80s style, no gift except the one at the end.

And at first the mums are horrified, but then all the kids Want to pay 80s style pass the parcel where it's like you either win or you lose.

Yeah.

There's the danger involved.

And the life lesson in there too.

Absolutely.

What sort of party games?

So aside from.

Yes.

Musical chairs and.

And pass the paths, what which ones would you recommend?

So I mean, it depends on the age group because obviously things like musical chairs or whatever are great for little kids.

And Duck, Duck Goose and all that.

And I would say maybe even up to five.

They're still loving those games a little bit older.

My kids love to play a game called Ninja, which basically they're all standing in a circle with their hands in the middle and then somebody Goes three, two, one, Ninja.

And everybody jumps out as far as they can and has to hold their position.

The object of the game is to hit somebody else's hand with your hand and avoid getting struck yourself.

The rule is that you go round in the circle.

Everybody can only make one fluid movement.

So you can't come and come back.

It's just you.

You go and that's it.

Then you have to hold it.

You can't move.

You are allowed to react if somebody goes for you, but you can't just keep moving.

So there's a lot of, like, staying still, figuring out, like, whose go it is and trying to hold your position.

A lot of the time, somebody will, like, try and leap for somebody else's hand, but then they've got to try and hold that position, which is hilarious for everybody else.

That's brilliant.

Obviously, if you move when it's not your turn, or if it's not one foot movement, then you're out in addition to.

If you get your hand hit.

So it's kind of.

It's like an element of Twister in there as well, in terms of the contours.

Yeah, a little bit.

It's a physical thing.

You've got to, like, be able to balance and hold yourself steady.

And it's a strategic thing.

You've got to think, where am I going to place myself so that my hands are out of the way and things.

There's a lot of, like, mental planning going on, I think, while you're.

It's not your go, so it's not like you're just waiting for your turn.

Yeah, yeah.

But, yeah, my kids absolutely love it.

And that can be a really fast game where if people just, like, fall over and get out really quickly, or it can be a longer one and people are, like, cheering on the people that are still left in.

So.

Yeah.

Oh, really?

It's a really good one.

So that's a.

That's a fantastic one.

I remember.

So the two triumphs of birthday parties we've had here was when we moved into our house.

Not this one, the one before.

I think one of my children turned six or seven.

I can't remember.

We had all the packing boxes left over.

Yeah.

We threw them into the garden.

The children came.

I hadn't planned anything.

There was, like, a barbecue.

There was gonna be food.

Yeah.

And that was it.

And the children just turned all the packing boxes into castles, tunnels.

I mean, it was.

It looked like a gypsy encampment, but they had a ball for two hours.

Yeah.

Amazing.

That was a triumph.

And then there was another one where, I mean, this is England and it was meant to be a summer party where we were hoping the sun would shine, but it didn't rain.

It rained.

So what we did wellies on children outside with fathers to go snail hunting, so they had to get snails.

And then we had a snail race.

Amazing.

There you go.

So exciting.

Nail varnish.

Yep.

So everybody knew snails.

That's your snail.

You could do the same with a Sharpie pen.

And then it was just like the race.

The race.

And the dads were there and the children were there.

I mean, cheering on.

I bet that was a blast.

That's great.

That was.

That was.

But it was definitely kind of Code Pink jobs.

I'm going to make sure that everybody has enough Prosecco and squash.

Yeah.

And then the dads can go snail hunting.

That is one of the keys to the successful party, is the divide and conquer element of, you know, if you're going to do the party, except that if you're doing it cheaply, you are the host, you are the entertainer, but also you can't do it alone.

So you got to get somebody in there to do the other bits.

Because one person's going to be essentially with the kids the whole time.

And then there is things like food, there's things like drinks, there's things that need to be set up, there's things that need to be cleared away, music needs to be going and things to, you know, keep everybody happy.

If there's parents staying, they need to, you know, have somebody to chat to and things and to be hosted.

So Matthew and I will very often divide and conquer, quite often, because he hates party planning.

I do the planning.

I.

These are your jobs.

And, you know, he knows in advance.

He's like, okay, I can do that bit.

And then it comes to the day and it just works so much smoothly because we're not having an argument over, like, oh, could you go and do this, please?

When they didn't expect to have to do that because they know ahead of time, this is the stuff I need you to do and this is the stuff I will be doing.

Obviously, stuff comes up that's not in that list, but yeah, it's so much easier when you're just like, yep, that's my thing.

So.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I think that's also.

That's also quite a useful life lesson for marriage in general.

Yes, for sure.

Communication and dividing and conquering and also.

Within the house, you know, because it's.

It's not like, one has staff these days, but who's doing what you're doing.

The bins.

Marvelous.

I'll do the washing up.

Exactly.

Just has to be done.

Neither bring us joy.

But it's levels of joy.

Exactly.

But you're also aware that you're both working towards that same goal and that just emotionally feels so much better than like, you nagging them for something or, why can't you see that I'm so busy that you need to help out and all those, like, negative things instead of being like, okay, yeah, we are doing this together, even if we're not physically doing the same job together.

Yeah, yeah.

Because it's all, it's all building up to the party and hoping that the children do not have meltdowns.

Now, can we talk about within parties?

And I think just parties in general does not necessarily kind of parties on a budget.

What?

Because you don't want the children to have a meltdown?

You don't want anyone to have a meltdown.

What causes children to have a meltdown?

Those parties where you're like, oh, that was not a triumph.

And what causes children to not have a meltdown and have a lovely time?

Can you sort of speak to that again from your own family experience and working on the, on the.

I call it the party bus.

But, yeah, yeah, that's.

That's what it is.

So I don't really have any major meltdowns with, like, my own sort of family parties that I've hosted for my kids.

I think that may just be down to the people that I'm inviting or the age groups that I'm catering for.

Like, I know if it's a younger group, there's going to be way less kids because otherwise it's chaos.

Whereas if it's an older group, we can deal with more.

You know, occasionally there are meltdowns.

If I didn't get what I wanted or there's no blah blah left and I wanted that one.

That's generally where it stems from.

Occasionally when I'm on the bus, there are kids and sometimes you don't know why they are at the party because sometimes they really don't seem to get on with the birthday child.

And I think as parents, we need to kind of be aware that if we're hosting an event for our child's birthday day, that maybe that's not the best time to invite the whole class if we don't get on with the whole class.

Or it might not be the best time to try and maybe heal a relationship or something.

That's been going a little bit, you know, off the rails because it just makes it very difficult for everybody to then be in that environment while that's going on as well.

And you can see it making rifts in other relationships and things, which is, you know, not great, not what you want from a party.

You want them to just relax and have a good time.

So, yeah, I, I, I had personal reflection.

Interesting that you say that from a kind of professional capacity.

Um, one of my children was really struggling at school and I would just avoided taking this child to full class parties or even hosting them.

Whenever it was a birthday.

It'd be like three or four kids who I knew, you know, got on well with this child and this child felt buoyed and they would feel buoyed as well.

And I knew it was going to be a joyful day.

Yes.

Because, yeah, you didn't want that kind of negativity.

And sometimes the overwhelm of a full class.

Absolutely.

And I think for the birthday child particularly as well, like, quite often they feel pressured to have a full class party if another child has had one.

And then people go, oh, it's your birthday, can I come to your party?

And things like kids will say that and so they'll feel pressured to invite them, but then ultimately on the day they'll be sort of totally overwhelmed, like you said, and be like, what have I done?

Almost, you know, which is not the experience that you want if you're trying to plan a birthday party for your kid.

The other thing that sets kids off is like, attention.

So one just attention spans, they are so much shorter these days.

So if your activity or whatever is taking a long time, then kids can lose interest and then just get like fed up.

And that can be sort of a way that they're showing that they've had enough.

So there's a case of reading the room and not going, I have to complete this task.

Absolutely.

You've got this element of flexibility.

Yeah.

And be like, okay, no worries.

That didn't work.

Move on.

You have to be really quite resilient as a party host to sort of go, okay, I know I'm supposed to complete these tasks with these kids, but if that child doesn't want to do it, like, it's not my job to make them do that task.

It's my job to have a good time with everybody.

And then also just like wanting attention.

Like, for me as a party host, like, I don't know these children before I meet them, but quite often, obviously the birthday Child is like, yes, I'm the center of the day.

And you kind of expect that occasionally you get another child who's like, hang on, why am I not getting the attention?

And they start to do a little bit of acting out to try and get that attention from you.

Best way to deal with that is to address the behavior, but then kind of ignore it.

And sometimes, like, it just floors them.

I've had an example where a child wanted.

So when we're on the bus, we do these, like, teddy bear parties.

And there's a special treat for the birthday child that they get a little speaker in there, Teddy.

And so it's a really nice thing and everybody records the message and things for them, and it's a really lovely part of the party.

Occasionally you'll get a child who's like, but I want one of those too.

And, you know, you explain, oh, well, it's just a special thing for just the birthday child because it's their party today and usually that's enough.

They're like, okay, whatever.

Sometimes it's not, and they really go off on a bit of a grump.

But you just have to keep moving through and just ignore that behavior because you can't give them what they want.

So, yeah, no, again, life lesson.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Like, sometimes you miss out.

That's okay.

And, yeah, but like, when you say, like, it's okay to them that.

And they're like, but that's not fair.

And like, well, maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but that's okay.

Their jaw drops like, what?

That's okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Now a question.

I have strong thoughts about music at children's parties.

Yes.

Appropriate, obviously, for things like, you know, pass the parcel, musical chairs, blah, blah, blah.

I'm not one for a disco.

I'm not one for kind of, you know, sort of music or even mummy and daddy's favorite pop tunes from the 90s and noughties.

Yes,.

So I have observed.

It tends to whip children up into a bit of a frenzy.

A lot of them are actually not happy.

That's my observation.

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Thank you for keeping this kitchen conversation going.

Personally, I've never held a disco for my kids.

Never enjoyed them as a child.

I've helped with school discos and things, and there are some kids who absolutely love it.

But from my Perspective.

They are loud, they are dark.

They are always absolute mess because for whatever reason, it's dark.

And kids just think that that means they can just chuck their food or rubbish or whatever on the floor once they spill their drinks while they're dancing and whatever.

It's always just a little bit chaotic in my mind.

And also so expensive.

Like, yes, you can do the music and stuff yourself, but.

And the lights and things.

But it's also never really the same as having, like, an actual DJ there who's sort of entertaining the crowd, as it were.

Yes.

Never been a fan.

Like, if you want to do dancing, absolutely do your dancing, but it doesn't have to be, like, the focal point.

And I also find that a lot of kids, when they enter that dark, loud space, it's totally overwhelming.

They don't know where their friends are.

They don't really know what to do because there's no set, like, dance moves or activity that they know how to do.

It's just dance.

And it's so open that it's daunting and they feel uncomfortable.

Majority of kids I see, like, when they arrive at a party for a disco, they're not running in to go and join in.

They're hanging back with their parents, like, not.

Not sure about this until their parent encourages them enough that they are then comfortable to go, oh, there's my friend, or whatever.

But quite often the music's so loud you can't have a conversation.

So they're all just like, aimlessly kind of going, I'm.

Am I enjoying this?

I don't really know what I'm doing.

That is my experience of discos and the loud music parties.

Okay.

So.

Yes.

No, it's.

It's a certain sort of temperament of childhood.

Yeah.

And you'd have to choose the other children of similar temperament, but definitely not.

Not budget friend.

Not bang for your buck, that one at all.

No.

Like, when you think about what you're actually getting for your money, it's, you know, a pair of massive speakers and somebody going, yeah, yeah.

And a lot of kind of grumpy children at the end of it.

Yeah.

And then a huge cleanup at the end.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

So we're not loving.

We're not loving a disco.

What would you say is kind of a good duration of a party that.

Is entirely dependent on the age of the child and the activities you're doing?

I mean, for any child that's like, under five, I've never really done a party.

It's always been, you have tea and Cake with the family.

You know, maybe some kids, like cousins or neighbors or, you know, little kids that, you know, select friend group or whatever.

Yeah, just a couple.

Probably no more than eight.

I think eight should probably maximum.

That kids can generally deal with and in the space and everything.

And then we do the parse, the parcel, the duck, duck, goose, the, you know, busting the balloon on the chair.

Of course, some of those kids, like, that would be out because just the loud bang is enough to have caused tears.

I've got a couple of those in my slock and.

Yeah, it's like popping of the balloons.

No, like, that one's a no go.

Yeah.

You got to know who's there and what they're gonna be triggered by.

But yeah, so those parties, honestly, the shorter the better.

Like.

And also you want to choose if you're going to set it around a meal time or not.

Because if you're going to set it around a meal time, you can be a bit longer because they're going to sit down and have some food.

But if they're not expecting to sit down and eat something, you really have to keep it quite short.

Otherwise you have people hungry, you have people tired, and, you know, all that jazz that comes with being a toddler up to a young child.

So, yeah, I probably keep those parties to an absolute maximum of two hours with food, maybe even one hour without, because they just don't have the capacity to keep going for like, the whole day.

Yeah.

With older kids.

Yes.

So you're kind of 5 to 11, age range.

Yeah.

So again, usually I would have like a maximum of two hours for whatever the activity is.

So, for instance, with James, we did a party recently in the woods and we were just doing some wide games, which is basically what kids do at scouts when they go on scout camp.

Things like capture the flag and all those little fun games.

Just lots of running around, tag and all those things.

Just enjoying hiding and running around in the woods and.

Yeah, the fresh air is a.

A big thing.

Absolutely.

I'm just.

I'm just gonna jump in here talking about woods.

There's a.

A family I know of one of their most successful parties.

They've got an abundance of boys, but they went and bought swimming noodles.

They then cut them in half, gaffer tape at one end.

Every child who came then had a lightsaber and then they were unleashed in the woods and just boofed each other for like two hours.

Yeah.

And had a ball.

Absolutely.

So.

And they're just so engaged in that for that time.

So that's fine to carry on, but you also have to know, like, okay, so in the time leading up to them arriving, because people never arrive on time and they always arrive in staggers and things, and somebody's going to always be waiting.

If you've got like something like your lightsaber party, they can just arrive, pick up a lightsaber, and then go and join in.

But if they're waiting for something like a wide game where you all have to start together and know the rules and everything, then just having something that the kids who are waiting can do.

So for James, he has this little, like, sticky archery set.

It's not sticky.

It's like suction cups.

You just fire it at the board.

It super simple, but just something to keep them engaged.

Just meant that everybody could arrive, have something that they're already engaged in, and then everybody's in the same place when we come to explain the rules.

So that one, we had about two hours, including the arrival time of games.

And then I think I allocated like half an hour for eating.

And because we had spent no money on any of the decorations, any of the venue entertainment, anything, I was like, okay, my budget therefore, can go on food.

So I didn't do the food myself for that one.

We just ordered a butt ton of pizza.

Yeah, I loved that.

And they loved it.

And there was no cleanup.

We also had my parents who came, and I wasn't going to do a campfire for the adults because I thought that's going to be too much for me to do.

I'm going to be, you know, hosting.

Matt's going to be doing the games.

There's not going to be enough time for me to also be watching a fire and, you know, keeping that either going or stopping people from getting into it.

But again, community comes in and my parents were like, I will do the fire.

I'll make sure it's safe.

I'll have the water bucket and all that.

And that meant that, like, the cardboard from the pizza boxes just went straight on the fire.

We had paper cups with went straight on the fire.

It was just so easy.

The cleanup we had, like, no mess.

I think I took home maybe like one small bag of rubbish from, like plastic can, like wrappers of candy and things.

And that was it.

And it was such a fun time.

And everybody was, like, tired in a good way, you know, at the end of that y.

And that was really good fun and.

Also a fresh air kind of way.

Yeah, that's also a really, absolutely important thing.

Yeah.

Can I Also talk about the differences.

Boys and girls.

Boys and girls.

So again, my sense is.

Actually, I don't know what my sense is.

Can you talk to me?

Boys and girls.

Oh, no, actually, boys, generally, they need a field that's.

That's usually good.

Do not confine the boys particularly kind of when they're 8, 9, 10, 11.

Yes, 100%.

So especially if.

If you've got a child who's a boy and he, for instance, like we do the crafty bus, if he's really into doing, like, creative things, like making stuff, that is great, but he's going to have friends who are not.

So you're going to need a party where you've got some of both.

Because with boys, like you say, they need to let off steam, like, they just can't be stuck in a box for two hours.

They will lose it.

With a lot of parties for boys that I see, because we have the splatter bus, which is very much.

Tell me what a splatter bus party.

So we have two different options.

You're either doing paint on a T shirt splattering or paint on a canvas splattering.

We've got the regular paint and the UV glowing option, which everybody loves.

It's so fun.

But so they get on, we do a couple of different games where we show them all the different techniques of all the different materials that we have for them to work with with the spraying and splatting and coloring and things.

And then they get either their T shirt or their canvas, and then they can just do what they want with that.

And obviously throwing paint at their T shirt is highly encouraged.

So that's always a really good, fun one.

What I do find, though, is that sometimes if they haven't had any time to kind of run around or let off steam right before they get on the bus, their expectation is, like, up here of we're going to have a fight with the paint.

We're going to be throwing this stuff at each other, and then we have to kind of like, bring it back and manage.

Expect, like, no, we're not throwing paint in each other's eyes.

We're not going to be grabbing handfuls of paint and chucking it at each other.

We're going to.

We're using this paint to create something.

Yeah.

Yes, we are throwing paint.

Yes, it will be fun.

Yes, you can let loose, but not in a way that's completely chaotic, you know, so trying to bring it back when they're like, up here and you're like, this is meant to Be a fun party and I really want you to have a good time.

But also, you know, we cannot just turn this bus into a rec room where we just destroy everything, which is sometimes where their, like, mindset is at if it's not managed or they haven't had a chance to run.

Whereas, you know, I've seen parties where they're in the garden beforehand.

You know, they've got a little bit time while they're arriving, they're running around, they're playing football, they're.

They're getting all those beans out, and then they're ready to come in and be like, oh, yeah, this is so cool.

And the level of, like, engagement is so much higher.

The level of enjoyment of that is so much higher.

Because they're not, like, just disappointed that they're not throwing pain at each other,.

You know, so you really have to factor in, like, the fresh air component.

If you're doing 100% with.

With boys, that is so important, or at least have something afterwards that they are then going, okay, this is the time I'm sitting down and doing this.

But there is a time that I can run around and let loose as well after this.

Yeah.

That I can be unleashed.

Exactly.

Have you any thoughts on food?

What is successful party food?

What is disastrous party food?

Now I will again bring up an anecdote.

Years ago, I lived in Australia and I heard the story of a little girl, first child.

So obviously the mum, and I've been there, was still in the stage of, my child has not had chocolate.

My child has not watched telly, age 4 or 5, whatever it was.

And this child was 3.

And so the mother had made a birthday cake out of watermelon.

So kind of constructed it, this sculpture, a watermelon that looked like a birthday cake.

Now, this child was thrilled.

All the other children who were younger siblings and knew what was meant to be at a birthday party, I mean, there was like, a riot.

They just went, this is not birthday cake.

This is unacceptable.

How can you give me watermelon D?

That is like, a nice option that focuses the birthday cake.

Yeah.

So no watermelon cake.

That I've learned.

That's like a life lesson I now defer to you.

What is kind of triumphant party food?

What is not?

And again, budget.

Budget.

Yeah.

So what I've done on a budget are two different things.

So there's one which is doing platters of food so people can select what they actually want to eat and leave the rest, which is great for reducing waste, reducing cost.

The other Thing that I've seen is people like to make up little like lunch bags for each child.

So therefore they know each child has got their food and whatever and they've, they will like take an order at the beginning of the party, like, do you want a ham sandwich?

Do you want a jam?

Do you want.

So.

And then they can cater to also different dietary needs and things as well.

If they have that like pre thought so that they're just doing the one element.

Everything else is already pretty packaged or done ahead of time and they've sorted that out when they had time the night before or whatever.

So that works really well in terms of keeping it mess free, making sure everybody has what they need in terms of diet.

And then also if they don't finish it, if it's in a bag or whatever, they just take it home with them.

So they don't actually like leave a bunch of unfinished food.

It's like, well that's your food, so you know, you can just take it with you.

But I've also seen that happen where like somebody's clearly gone through a lot of effort to make these things really pretty and nice and have everybody have their own little thing.

And then the kids take like two things out of it and they're like, nah, I'm not, I'm no one the rest.

And you just think, oh my gosh, this is so much waste.

And they're like, no, I don't want to take it home.

You're like, okay.

Like I can clearly see somebody's like taking time to like pipe little smiley faces on your grapes and things like,.

Yeah.

So again, simplicity is often the, the way forward if you've got dietary needs, maybe the individual things if, if you want to do it all ahead of time, but otherwise just the platters are easy.

Sandwiches are always easy.

Pizza is always a hit.

I've never been to a party that's had pizza and people just leave it or anything.

But yeah, like, I just also take everything with a pinch of salt.

For instance, when you said about having the healthy birthday cake with the watermelon, like just accept that this is a party and either you're providing a meal and that's intentional and you can think about how to try and balance that and get, you know, some little vegetables or something in there, or it's just party food and it's not a meal time and you've set the party at a time that isn't a meal time and it's just little picky bits.

So also being aware of that because you don't want to over cater and then have everybody go and have their dinner immediately after or you know, vice versa.

Have starving kids and you're only providing picky bits.

Yeah, not good, not good.

You've got to time it as well when you're going to have the party too.

So.

No, that's Kate, really fantastic.

Some really good pointers.

But I mean I suppose in summary, avoid the winter because you need a field or a garden or a park.

That seems to be sort of.

And if your kid has a winter birthday, it's okay for that birthday party not to be on their birthday or in their birthday week.

So you can switch up and quite often the child will be more than happy as long as they have a party at some point in the year.

That's their birthday party.

It doesn't have to be when their birthday is have a little cake and a balloons and acknowledge the day.

But that can be a little family thing.

Doesn't have to be the whole shebang.

Yeah.

And I think also if there's.

Because so many moms, we feel the pressure, don't we that the competition comparisons is a thief of joy.

But I think one of the big takeaways from this is the permission to focus on what you're focus on your child as in what brings them joy 100%.

You don't.

Doesn't matter what the rest of the class are doing, what the other mums are doing.

I mean, take ideas.

You went, oh, that seemed to be successful.

Absolutely.

And if that was a hit with your child as well, then bring that back for them or do your own version of it.

But yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Pick, pick and choose and pick the right kids.

And also if you don't want your child to go to a particular party because it just isn't going to work, you can say no, absolutely not.

Feel about pressured to make sure that your child is there at every event.

Like you will feel like they're going to miss out all the time and have that fear.

But you cannot live in the fear and you know what's best for your kid.

You got to trust your instincts and go with that.

Yep, very true, very true.

No, that's fantastic, Kate.

Thank you.

How can people get in touch with you if they've gone, I need Kate to help me.

You can find me on Facebook.

I suppose you always send me a message on there.

It's Kate Hutton.

You'll see a picture of my face.

I'm sure that's just my personal Facebook.

I don't have any sort of work things.

If you want to reach me in a work party capacity, and you do have the money to have somebody do your party for you, you can head to craftedbus.com I'll put the links.

Yes.

I'll put the links in the show notes so everybody can find that and do that.

Brilliant.

Brilliant.

And yes, for all the mums listening, on the off chance you're finding that you're feeding your children more party food, more pizza, more kind of sandwiches than you'd like to, I've got another video where I've been chatting with Pia Crofton of Ireland Fresh, where we talk about healthy food and actually feeding your children a nourishing diet.

I've got a video will pop up here, so do look out for that.

But for now, thank you, Kate.

Thank you.

Thank you.