Walk through the areas they’ll be in and look at the rooms from a child’s perspective. What can they get into?

Play-doh

Make sure all fragile glass items are within easy sight and easy reach of the kids. Give them sugary sweets and encourage them to run around.

File big insurance claim.

No Play-doh! It’s hard to get out of carpets and upholstery.

The one year old is a concern if mobile. The 6 year old will be okay, 4 year olds get into more stuff. Do you have any kid/Disney DVDs? Can the mom bring some?

Ok. Do the opposite of what I said above.

Have a bunch of different games. Bring them out one at a time. They might each buy you ten minutes. Maybe set up a separate room, or have a video for them to watch. Maybe your friend could bring their favorite videos. That’s the most reliable way of keeping them occupied. Otherwise, find a rumpus area where there isn’t much they can destroy or will hurt them. Good luck with that!

I wouldn’t worry about the one-year-old. The mother will take care of that child.

@wundayatta, we have a yard with a very tall fence. Can we put them outside with some things?

Neuroscience lectures.

Rent a kids movie.

Give them an area to build forts to crawl around in. Give them every couch cushion, pillows and blankets to drape over tables and chairs and you are good to go and they will be busy for hours.

Keep glass anything away from them especially breakables (lamps) and glass tables. The one yr old will pick up everything and stick it in their mouth so be ready for that too! Have graham crackers, grapes and juice boxes for snacks. You will have a blast!

Farts and tapdancing.

Put all your breakables away and play a kiddy movie for them. Since you have a yard. You can also give them the option to sit outside and color but make sure to take the party outside as well so the parents don’t feel the kids are miserable all alone. The baby will probably just stick by mom. The 4 and 6 will probably just go in and out but they may want to color at the table and be near mom if they don’t know anyone so put plastic on your table so they can color there as well. Kids love crayons and paper. I was at a meeting to sign up for cable and there was a 4 year old with her mom. She sat and colored on a piece a paper and drew my dog. She was adorable.
Just keep your eyes on her. Some parents are horrible at making sure their kids behave. I had a party where two small kids came over. One only fought his mom the whole time and both where sloppy eaters and before I knew it they had chocolate cake on my curtains and chairs and my cream color sofas and walls. BTW, they brought the chocolate cake with cream and cherries. It looked like someone vomited all over the place. The parents didn’t appologize or even attempt to wipe the kids hands. I tried to wipe give them the wipes to clean their hands and they said its ok because they were use to cleaning them up when they where done. The kids kept eating and going away and coming back and eating again. All the while clean their hands off of everything else. I felt awkward saying anything since they were invited by my husband and I didn’t know them. Ugh! I made him clean it up all later.

Are the children going to eat at the dinner party with the adults? That is the first thing that comes to my mind. Are the parents bringing a booster seat or some sort of thing for the 1 year old? Do you have a friend with a teenager who can come over and help with the children? (The teenager come over and help.)

The backyard would be good under supervision for all sorts of fun things. They are too young, even with a fenced yard, to just be left alone in the backyard.

I would think the parents will be some toys or entertainment for the children. I’d let them know they are welcome to anyway. Movies, coloring books….whatever they normally do before bedtime after dinner.

Be careful of lighters, breakables down low, objects the little one can choke on, stairs, dogs, sharp objects. lol

Walk through your house to make sure there are no tripping hazards like slippery throw rugs, wires across the floor or dangling down from tables.

Just take all of your tiny or potentially fragile knick-knacks out of the public area and shut them in another room. Be mindful of lamps that are on tables low enough for kids to knock them over.

Check your entertainment center/TV area to make sure that there’s nothing like wires out where they can be yanked, and make sure that your TV is secured so that it can’t be pulled down or tipped over.

If you have cords on your drapes or blinds, make sure that they’re tied up and secured out of the way, so the kids can’t get tangle up in them.

If you have pets, make sure that the pets are put into another room with their food and water and litter box. Pets that don’t live with children can easily become startled and might scratch or bite a kid, plus you don’t want to put any added stress on your pets. Plus, removing the food, water and litter boxes make it less likely that the kids will get into those things.

Try to keep the kids out of the kitchen, especially keep them away from the stove and oven. While you are cooking, keep your pan handles turned inward so that a quick child can’t accidentally grab a handle and pull a pot off of the stove.

Keep knives and appliances away from the edge of the kitchen counters.

If you have any glass tables, either take them out or run out to the store right now and get some of those edge bumpers.

Realize that if you are serving drinks, keep an eye on them, like a hawk, because kids are notorious for grabbing glasses and either dropping them or spilling the drinks onto themselves and your couch and your rug. Have plain seltzer water and carpet cleaner and a stack of rags on hand to deal with that potential situation.

If you have chemicals stored in a low cabinet in the kitchen or bathroom (soap, cleaners, disenfectants, bleach, shampoo or whatever) either put child locks on those cabinets or remove all of that stuff before the kids arrive.

Pay close attention to where the kids are at all times. Do not allow them to go into your garage (because there are multiple hazards in there) and don’t allow them to go into your yard, unsupervised.

Find out from the parents what the kids will and won’t eat. You’ll be a real hero if you fix something specifically for the kids that they will like rather than hoping that they’ll eat what you fixed for the adults. But don’t guess, ask. Kids are often very picky and won’t eat “normal” stuff. Good bets (but not always, so ask the parents) are macaroni and cheese, especially the Kraft from the box kind, cheese pizza, hot dogs, chicken nuggets and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the crusts cut off.

Your best bet is to set up a little card table that is specifically for the kids (but close enough to the adults so you can keep an eye on them). You really don’t want little kids sitting at your grandma’s antique dining table. Put a plastic tablecloth on their table and assume they are going to spill, so if you can set their table on a tile floor rather than a carpeted floor, you’ll be doing yourself a favor. Feed the kids first, or else you’ll be setting yourself up for a tantrum festival. Designate someone to be the kid’s supervisor. Never leave them alone.

Get a couple of good kids movies like Finding Nemo, Despicable Me, Toy Story 3 or Shrek. And know which TV channels are Disney and Cartoon Network. Have an adult operate the DVD player and channels. Let the kids know that an adult will be handling this. Unless you don’t mind kids fiddling with your electronics. Expect them to whine and cry when you don’t let them fiddle with your electronics.

Find out in advance if the kids are allergic to anything, then don’t serve any of those items. But if they’re allergy free, you can make some cupcakes (both vanilla and chocolate) or simply make some chocolate chip cookies just for the kids. Ice cream is too messy. Juice boxes are a better option than juice poured into cups (unless the kids bring sippy cups) You can also run out to Target and get an inexpensive set of sippy cups to keep on hand. Don’t provide the kids with any any soda. Have some Vanilla and Chocolate milk boxes too.

Make sure you have a nice big bottle of hand sanitzer and a big box of unscented baby wipes on hand. You will be shocked at how much sticky stuff will end up on kids, even when they aren’t eating anything (where does it come from???)

Get an assortment of coloring books and crazons and make sure they have a little table or flat spot on the ground with a plastic covering so they won’t color your furniture or flooring. Also pick up a few kids books from the thrift store. If any of your neighbors have any action figures or dolls that you can borrow, that would be good too (these can also be picked up at the thrift store, but make sure to sanitze them first!)

Again scour your house for anything that is breakable, or small enough for a kid to put in their mouth (you don’t want them picking up a small stone from your terrarium and choking or eating a candle). Keep the baby wipes on the counter in the bathroom so that when their mommy takes them in there, she can use them for the situations that will inevitably arise. And have extra rolls of toilet paper in there for the same reason.

If you have sliding glass doors, get some of those removeable stickers and put them on the glass. Kids are notorious for running through the house and not realizing that there is a glass door there. Make the doors visible.

If you have a pool, do not let the kids go into the backyard at all. Watch them like a hawk. Again, make sure that someone is the designated kid watcher at all times. If that person has to leave or go to the restroom, pick another designated kid watcher. That person, if they’re nice enough, might be willing to read some stories to the kids and watch movies with them.

If you have stairs, block them off! Do not allow the kids to go upstairs, unless they are supervised by their own parents (like if that is where the bathroom is).

And here are a few things that I witnessed last week at my cousin’s baby shower. The kids really like to try to hide under tables and when they get under there, they’ll try to pull the table cloths (along with the food and the crockpot) off the table. They also like to climb over the gate leading to the stairs and when they get on the stairs, they like to jump down to the next level. They also like to grab food off the table and to taste something and put it back (ick!) And they can and will sneeze and cough up snot all over themselves and your furniture, so be prepared with baby wipes and tissue and paper towels. And if you are barbecueing, they are highly attracted to fire!!!

As long as you are prepared for all of this, and are not easily startled or grossed out by sticky stuff, you should be fine. And it would be really sweet if you could give each child an age appropriate goody back to take home with them. Kids love that kind of thing. There’s lots of great stuff in the dollar bin at Target just for this.

Oh yeah, have some superhero bandaids on hand too and some neosporin. Have fun. : )

Raspberries for the one year old.
Horseback riding for the other two kids.

Make sure they can’t reach the pots on the stove or better, make the kitchen a no-go area.

Ask their parents what they like and how much supervision you will need to provide. Do not let them near any of your pets.

My son LOVES to play “cook”.

He loves to mix up a snack mix by himself. We the two older kids, you could allow them to each have a mixing bowl…into it they could “mix” cereal, pretzels, m&m’s-etc…

Maybe you could put out some paper & crayons/pencils/markers for them to design their placemats, as well.

Well, @Kardamom, I think I got about 1% of your list accomplished. I bought 64 crayons, drawing paper, and stickers. And I downloaded Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja.

Luckily we don’t have any pets or glass tables.

@nikipedia Ha Ha Ha. I should come over and help you. I have a bunch of cousins with little kids so I go to a lot of parties where there’s tons of little kids. My nephew when he was between 2 and 4 was notorious for tasting something out of a bowl and then putting it back in the bowl.

3 of my cousins are teachers, and they’ve gotten really creative with the kids meals and the goody bags, which I thought was a brilliant idea.

As long as you or someone else has an eye on the kids 100% of the time you’ll do fine. : )

And if they really have fun, expect your pants will be covered with food.

The kids were great. They were amazingly good at entertaining themselves. They didn’t care about the iPad games at all but were fascinated by our disco ball. And my boyfriend taught them magic tricks.

@nikipedia Wow! You have a disco ball???

Glad everything turned out well. So when’s your next party? I’d really like to come see that disco ball. : )

Oh yeah. We have three at the moment!

We had a wild Halloween party on Friday, and then this 14 person dinner party last night. I think it’s time for a party break!!

Disco balls and a magician? Why didn’t you say so in the beginning?! It would have saved a lot of time, @nikipedia, if we’d known you had disco balls and a magic boyfriend. ; )