Pin the Tail on a Donkey (with a difference)
Traditionally blindfolded guests try to stick a paper tail onto a poster of a donkey. You can take a large piece of paper and draw anything with something missing - a nose on a clown or animal, a spaceship in outer space, even a Tropicana Go! character without his Tropicana Go! bottle.

Treasure Hunt
Hide chocolate coins in the lawn and let the kids hunt for them. You could hide each child's party bag and then give that child a piece of paper with a hint for finding it - it could be a simple map drawing for a young child, a word or two, or a riddle for older children. You can also let the children do a paper clue based hunt as a group - with goodie bags for everyone whether they find the treasure with or without help.

Guess How Many
Fill a jar with sweets. Have children write their name on a small piece of paper and their guess as to how many sweets are in the jar. The child who guesses the right number, or comes closest, gets a special prize. The sweets in the jar are then divided among the children. A variation would be that the winner takes the jar of sweets home to share with their family but this doesn't always go down to well with the rest of the children at the party!

Scavenger Hunt
Like treasure hunts above, scavenger hunts are a fun way to entertain kids. Rather than getting them to find sweets they are search for 'valuable lost items' such as 'pirate gold' or 'dragons teeth'. Get the children to work together to find all the items. Hide items in the garden or designated rooms.

Water Balloon Volleyball
This is for the summer or warm weather only! You'll need lots of water balloons stored in a bucket full of water and towels for each pair of children. Divide children into pairs and give each pair a beach towel. The first pair begins by placing a water balloon in the centre of their towel. Each child holds onto two corners of the towel in their hands. The object is to toss the water balloon over the net (or a line of chairs) with the opposing side catching the balloon in their towel. The volley continues until one side misses and the balloon breaks giving the other team a point. First team to 5 wins.

Musical statues
Begin by playing music. Everyone moves and dances until the music stops. Then they must "freeze" in whatever position they happen to be in. The last person to stop moving is out. The winner is the last one in.

Pop-the-Balloon
All the children gather in a circle, holding hands. Everyone moves into the centre and the child who's birthday it is says "blow!" and everyone starts blowing. The circle expands getting larger and larger until you can no longer hold hands and everyone falls down laughing.

Balloon Bust Relay
A noisy one to finish, so check with the children that they don't mind big bangs. Blow up large balloons with a small prize such as a whistle, inside them. You will need one balloon for each child. Divide children into two teams and place each team behind the start line. At the other end of the room are the balloons. On your mark a child from each team runs to the other end of the room, grabs a balloon and sits on it, bounces on it, lays on it, anything they can do to make it pop.

When the balloon pops they collect their prize and run back to their teammates. The game continues until every child has retrieved their prize. Make sure to carefully clean up the balloon remains afterwards as young children can choke on balloons.