What did you do for dc's 4th bday party?

[jyllebean]

DD will be 4 in January and is already talking about her birthday party. I like parties, but don't want to get too crazy with it and invite too many kids. I feel like 4 is that in between age where parents don't really need to come but some will so it's hard to know how many people to plan for. Anyway, just curious what y'all did for the 4th bday party.

Thanks!

[WatchingThemGrow]

We did a panda birthday party in our back yard. They wore safari hats and binoculars to hunt for paper bag pandas they had made in our bamboo-lined backyard. We had veggie lo mein from a nearby Chinese restaurant, plus Mandarin oranges and Ling Ling potstickers from Costco. We did it in our backyard and had a whopping 50 people since DD wanted her preschool class, her Sunday School class, some playgroup friends and neighbors - all the people she sees every week. IME parents stay with their 4yos. I wouldn't be dropping mine off, and no one else did either.

I would figure out how many people your space will hold if you want to have it at home.

[egoldber]

For older DD we did a princess and prince party at home. We made a castle cake, had a castle pinata, played pin the horn on the unicorn, made crowns and shields. It was fun, but it was the party that convinced me not to have home parties any more. ;) We had about 10 kids.

Younger DD turned 4 last month and we took her and three friends (plus older sis) to Build a Bear.

[KrisM]

DD had a Fancy Nancy party and the kids came dressed up. They played, did a game, and did a craft. She invited 5 girls. One of the moms stayed and the others did not. Of the 4 that dropped off, I've known 2 of them very well since before DD was born. One is our neighbor and one is a close friend. Both will watch babysit my kids at times. The other 2 surprised me a bit that they dropped the kids off, as I only knew them via preschool. They were welcome to stay.

[Melaine]

We did a dress-up in the park party. We invited several families. It was fun! We didn't really do games, just a costume parade and had pizza and cake. I'm not ready for drop-off parties yet.