There are a lot of child parties in my life. The good news is kids are really easy to please.

There’s the obvious stuff:

• Fairy bread will go well, only be careful to make it fresh. If you are outside, the bread will start to go yucky after an hour or two.
• Chips/lollies will vanish - no matter how many you provide. I don’t know how they do it. They are not fussy, the cheapest brand is fine. Keep the good chips for the grown ups.
• Party pies or sausage rolls will be very popular, but they tie up your oven if you have other things planned for that.
• Mini burger buns are $4.50 per dozen, and when combined with chipolatas and a bit of sauce, you have mini hotdogs. Cheap and easy on the BBQ.

If you want healthier stuff:

• They’ll eat fruit, but they’re lazy. They’ll turn their noses up at apples/mandarins, but will happily eat either if they’ve been peeled/sliced for them.
• Berries are in season. We like to make little fruit salad cups, but I don’t suppose you have the plastic Ikea cups on hand for this.
• Some will eat sandwitch triangles, it depends on the kid. One of mine would, the other only in an emergency.