I'm a bit stressed out. I'm throwing a homecoming party for my husband on Saturday and sent out evite's for our family and close friends. I guess we have a lot of friends and all of DH's family lives within an hour of us. I just realized I have 35 adults and 22 kids coming and still have 11 families that have yet to rsvp. I ordered a bounce house for the kids and I already made out our menu but i'm just stressed about accommodating that many people! We've had parties at our house before but it was never a "formal" invite.. more like word of mouth and there were maybe 25 people total before? Maybe 35 with kids? Can I get some ideas to make this go over well? The bbq isn't until 6pm but i'm thinking I might need another activity for the kids besides a bounce house. I don't know. I think I just bit off more than I can chew.

By Debbie on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 04:08 pm:

Wow! That's a lot of people, I don't envy you at all! LOL. Let's see, activities for kids...how about a slip and slide if the weather is nice. This will entertain my kids for hours. They also love to run around and play nerf tag. I guess it would depend on how old the kids are?? These are just two things off the top of my head.

By Luvn29 on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 04:10 pm:

Trust me, the kids will entertain themselves!

If you want, you could have some simple things such as jump ropes, balls, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and if warm enough, some cheap water guns for the kids. The water guns only work if you tell the kids up front that if an adult gets squirted, that water gun is taken away, and they don't get another one. That tends to work.

By Debbie on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 04:42 pm:

I wanted to add, I will pray for nice weather, so you don't have all those people in your house!!

By Chai~latte on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 04:50 pm:

Just a thought, how many bathrooms do you have? That's a lot of people, you may want to rent a portable thing (not sure what they are called) but an out door washroom in a box? Sorry not the best topic but it's the first thing that I thought of. Good luck, let us know how it all turns out and conrats on having hubby home.

By Reds9298 on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 07:37 pm:

Ditto on the simple ideas mentioned above. Just wanted to add races. We have had the best times with kids of all ages at parties at our home just doing various races. I would likely have never rented/bought a bounce house when there are so many fun things for kids to do for free!

By Boxzgrl on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 07:42 pm:

The bounce house is my easy way out. LOL And it's only $50 for the day on base. I'm trying to avoid the water activities since it will only be light out for about 1 1/2 hours after the barbecue starts and I don't want wet kids running through the house. (Which is bound to happen). I think i'll go with the jump ropes, bubbles and chalk. That sounds good and I already have all that stuff.

Chai-Latte- We have 3 bathrooms so I think I should be fine.

Now if I could just figure out how to get all the food done in a timely manner so everything is still warm when we serve it. Ugh.....

By Luvn29 on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 09:35 pm:

Don't blame you there! I'd also pull out toy cars and such that the kids have. Just some things that the kids can play with so they aren't driving the adults crazy! LOL!

Use crockpots if you have anything they would work with!