On St Patrick’s Day, our fairy godmother, Wendy, hosted a beautiful party to celebrate the birthday of her three children, Nikolai, Gabriel, and Alexena, as well as her very own birthday! It was a spectacular event that was all made possible thanks to the talented Mary Ronis Events and the plethora of suppliers who contributed and Wendy couldn’t be more grateful to the amazing effort of every single person who made the party a reality.

The most special part of it all, however, was the generous gifts every guest offered. Instead of birthday presents, Wendy and her family asked that their guests bring staple goods to be donated to Syrian Refugee Migrants, a true reflection of St Patrick’s Day, and the patron saint of giving.

As magical and exciting as the party was, and despite the fact that every guest – children especially – enjoyed themselves immensely, there were a few things that Wendy learnt about planning children’s birthday parties, and to make sure your next party goes off without a hitch, we’re sharing Wendy’s five tips with you.

1. Rain, Rain, Go Away

You can never trust Sydney weather, so planning a backup in case of rainy weather is a must, especially if there are outdoor activities included. Your safest bet is to organise your party indoors, whether it’s in your home or in a hall, and make sure any activity you plan to host outdoors, can easily be brought back inside if need be.

2. Keep It Controlled

Speaking of toddlers, we think we’ve all seen how quickly one of them can crawl or waddle away, unbeknownst to their parents. At a party, a young child can easily get lost with the big kids and might get hurt during rougher play. Help keep parents calm and unstressed by having a playpen available. This way, you’ll be able to keep any toddlers in one section, without worrying about any escapees.

2. Lolly Disaster

Kids love lollies. It doesn’t even matter what lolly is in front of them most of the time; if it’s full of sugar, they want it, and they really love it. So a good heads up for any kids party is to keep lolly bags safely hidden away from the attentive eyes of children. You really, really don’t want to have them within reaching distance of kids. They’ll just go crazy over them, refuse to eat normal food, end up with a crazy sugar high and goodness knows what else.

Trust us, you don’t want to make this mistake.

Instead, hand out the lolly bags at the end of the event, as each child leaves and as a little party favour to thank them for coming.

3. Activities For All – Big Or Small

If you’re throwing a joint party or inviting both friends and family, it’s likely there’ll be a range of different aged kids, and a young toddler is unlikely going to enjoy the same games that a six-year-old would, and vice versa. In this case, be sure to have activities to suit the different age groups. You’ll avoid having any kids left out of the fun, as well as any tantrums and arguments.

5. Finger Food, Please!

When parents are busy running around after children, it can be difficult to find a chance to sit down and eat, and as we all know, the food is really, the best part of every party. So to keep your guests’ bellies full, have plenty of finger food available. This will also be good for children too, because how often have you seen a group of kids remain patient enough to actually sit and eat?

Photography: Photography by Zehra, Styling and planning: Mary Ronis Events, Prop hire: Sweet Heavenly Events Hire, Balloons: Me & My Tribe, Wisteria tree: Let Life Sparkle Events & Hire, Edible garden: Strawberries & Co, Cake and cupcakes: Buttercreme Lane, Stationery, kid’s activity & favour bags: Paper PlayGround, Signage: Letters by LouLou, Tableware & linen: Take Me Hire, Kids tables: The Treasure Room, Trees on tables: Elegant Tea Time, Toy hire and props: Tiny Tots Events Hire, Catering: SamBook Co, Strawberry & doughnut towers: Dom’s Strawberries Delights, Gnomes & signage: Jo’s Signs by Design, Backdrop graphics: Edge House Design