This post features gifted experiences
Ben and Chloe’s birthdays fall within two weeks of each other – and in the school holidays – so for the last few years we haven’t bothered so much with a party as we found that all too often their friends were already away on holiday. We’ve tended to substitute a party with a day out or a birthday tea with a friend or two. Of course things are a little trickier this year so when Fab Fun Party got in touch to offer us a Garden Party hire, it was perfectly timed for a socially distanced birthday celebration!
Fab Fun Party – Manchester based party hire
Fab Fun Party are a Manchester based company with a range of party options to hire from go karts (how cool!) to mascots or a garden party. The service covers the whole of Greater Manchester including Tameside, Oldham, Stockport, Rochdale, Trafford, Salford, Cheadle, Glossop and New Mills.
Obviously parties are a little tricky at the moment with social distancing guidelines in place and a limit on the number of people allowed to gather in one place – so a party that allows for a smaller number of children and adults to be entertained outside seems like the best solution and Fab Fun Party have got all the kit you need!
Fab Fun Party Garden Party Hire
The Fab Fun Party garden party package includes a range of fairground style garden games – Splat the Rat, Ball in the Bucket, Ring the Bull, Hook a Unicorn, Ball in the Clown, Play Your Cards Right and Tin Can Alley as well as bunting and signs to allow you to set up your very own fairground themed party!
This package costs £50 for all day hire.
Bouncy Castle Hire
Fab Fun Party can add their large bouncy castle to any package at a cost of £55.
Party Extras
On top of your basic party packages, there’s a range of sweet treats to add on – we had sweet cones – £1.50 each (these had a really lovely mix of sweets in!), popcorn cones – £1 each and candyfloss tubs – £1 each (the perfect sized portion of spun sugar and really delicious!). There’s also the option of a filled piñata for £20.
A socially distanced birthday party
Whilst my own garden would be perfectly sized for the fairground games, we definitely couldn’t have fit a large bouncy castle in there so we decided to set up in Michelle’s much bigger garden instead!
The Fab Fun Party team dropped off and set up all the equipment for us – making sure we understood how everything worked and were aware of any Health & Safety considerations. The team were all wearing face coverings and everything was sanitised once it was in place. This was a total no hassle, no contact party set up.
We hadn’t told the kids what was happening so once everything was set up we brought them downstairs to see – you can imagine the shrieks of excitment when they found a full size bouncy castle in the back garden along with an exciting array of games to play!
All five kids rushed around trying out all the different games – if you were doing this for a more organised, larger party, I think you’d want an adult manning the games to instruct / keep score etc. Because we only had the five of them to worry about, our biggest concern was that they didn’t lose any of the equipment – luckily Fab Fun Party provide a checklist so you can make sure nothing is missing at the end of your hire!
As you’d expect the bouncy castle was probably the highlight of the day for the kids (and had the added bonus of tiring them all out nicely!) but the fairground games kept them really entertained for a couple of hours. The boys loved the challenge of competing against each other to get the balls in the bucket or the hoops onto the bull’s nose – but the comedy of Finley doing a full on game show host act whilst playing Play Your Cards Right had to be my favourite moment!
Once we’d made sure the kids knew how everything worked and were aware of any rules, Mich and I were able to sit back with a Diet Coke in hand and relax whilst the kids pretty much entertained themselves for the afternoon!
A Fab Fun Party garden party hire is perfect for a birthday party at home this summer – but Mich and I felt it would also make a really lovely summer holiday treat when we can’t necessarily have the days out and adventures we might usually have. The cost of the bouncy castle and games split between the two of us works out about the same as we’d have spent on a big day out but without having to worry about going anywhere that might be too busy or too regulated to be fun.
