Dads of Polyton, help me out - ideas for play date?

[Pekka]

By play date I mean I wanted to invite bunch of my daughter's friends from day care to our home to play.

Reasons:

1) kids are going through rough time because of our divorce and I want them to have a good time. Their mom is not going to teach them any social life as she has none. Friend things, I believe, are going to be solely on my hands.

2) They have good friends. I like them. They should play together more.

3) Maybe their parents will appreciate a little time off.

4) I'm kind of bored most of the times so I want to do it as well.

5) When I was their age, I made 5-10 friends of same age and most of s are still friends - it's just such a great thing for the life to have.

So we made these invitation cards with stickers and stuff. I wrote instructions like "Come and play to my home, we can play with my toys, we can do crafting, we can play hide and seek. We can make pizza with my dad. We can watch Care Bears/etc. if you want to. I have invited few other friends as well to play with us." And contact information, RSVP, etc.

So there are kids coming now, I've received messages already, so this is definitely happening now.

They're all girls, they know each other, around 4 years old and there will be 4 of them. They have 2 to 3 hours (kind of night time for them) of time. One thing I thinkw e should do is make that pizza. At least that much we should do. It'll be fun, I think I'll make the dough for the pizza in advance so I can just turn on the oven and we can start making pizzas when they get in so we don't have to wait too long. I thought I'd buy toppings so everyone can make their own flavour...

I have a nice home movie theater so they'll probably like watching some Netflix and eating pizza, but I figured that would be last. Some playing first.

Ideas for that?

I could go to a store and get some crafting supplies, like more paper, markers, pens, stickers etc. Get some beads and string so they can make necklaces...

That's all I've got. I want them all to have a great experience and fun, but without candy and sugar. So... what do you suggest? Also, the don't dos. I want them to leave like they want to come back, but also not completely wasted on sugar. I'm asking because it's the first time I've ever done anything like this, this is important and I figure there are many dads in here who have done it before.

[dannubis]

You seem like a very decent dad so I would trust your guts... Home made pizza is a great idea, BTW. (check for allergies though)

Also, you can get some fruits to keep sugar levels down. Kids that age still eat everything.

[Kidlicious]

I think games. Although I don't have any experience with 4 year old girls, so I don't know which games.

[DaShi]

Play? Why not do something useful with them, like teach them how to survive if they are dropped behind enemy lines?

[Kidlicious]

Color and dolls, that's all I know.

[SlowwHand]

Pekka, you're so cool.

[Felch]

Obviously introduce them to Civ. Four years old is four years late.

[Sava]

Supercitizen support staff

[Nikolai]

Sounds like you already have a good plan, Pekka. Get them some diet soda, Pepsi Max perhaps. Cola is full of sugar, and not a good idea when you are alone with them. Beads are a good idea, another would be coloring sheets with princesses and such to color in. I'm sure the local toy store have some of that.

[Felch]

One thing to keep an eye out for beads-wise are fusible beads like Perler beads. The idea is that the kids have a pegboard, and they put little plastic cylinder beads in whatever color designs they like. Then you would take an iron and fuse them into solid plastic pieces. My niece really liked them, I'm willing to bet your daughter and her friends will too.

[Dinner]

Do you have anything like a Chucky Cheese? It is basically a pizza place for kids with video games, a ba pit where kids can jump in those plastic balls, and clowns who do magic tricks. Kids love that sort of stuff.

[Pekka]

Do you have anything like a Chucky Cheese? It is basically a pizza place for kids with video games, a ba pit where kids can jump in those plastic balls, and clowns who do magic tricks. Kids love that sort of stuff.

Yeah, we have. I'll leave that for another time, I want the kids to come to our home so they can feel they can come and play when ever they want to with our kids instead of thsi formal sort of... invitation policy. I want to blur that line intentionally so they'll start coming in when they want to, should we be home. I have a big house, there is room for kids' friends. At least the nice ones for now.

Seems like I've got it covered then. Those perler things seem like a great idea, I'll order some and try them out Thanks for the tip!

Also yeah, princess pictures for coloring! That's exactly what girls that age love. It's really simple, I'll let them on those and beads, actually they'll be occupied with my daughter's toys as well but doing is better, so crafting while I'll make those pizzas. It's cool because kitchen table is next to the dining room where they can color etc. so I'll see them the whole time and can ask what toppings they want. We can then keep good time control for eating and if they want to watch some cartoons. I don't want them to just watch cartoons and eat pizza.

I think it's good that they can bring something home, like the things they crafted. OK so I'll get to this plan, then. It'll be fun for sure. It should be fairly disaster free as well because two of her friends have sort of a crush on me so they'll play nice and don't wnat to leave too soon (hopefully).

[Dry]

Don't forget the decoration of the room. Not a big thing for boys, but very important for girls.
Balloons are an easy one. Maybe colored or funny cups or spoons.
Certainly colored napkins.

[Sava]

buy some fireworks

kids love fireworks

[pchang]

They might like to play outdoors. Is it too early for ice skating?