cheap and easy ideas for food for my 3 year olds party?

Jelly Traffic Lights.

Make up three packets of jelly one of each: Lime, Orange & Strawberry. One at a time.

Line up 10 glasses and put a slice of banana on the bottom and pour in the Lime mix to fill the glass 1/3.

Put the glasses in the fridge until they are set.

Remove and add a quartered Strawberry and pour in Orange jelly mix, a further 1/3 and put into fridge to set.

Remove and add a piece of Kiwi Fruit and add the Strawberry.

It is a little time consuming to make, but are easy and kids love them

I would do like the other people said put things out and let the kids do all the decorating. It could be a mess but would be a really good mess for the kids. The kids would have so much fun. But I believe the adults, since there are more than there are children should disappear to another part of the house and just have a couple of adults with the children. For 3 yr olds all those adults would make the kids feel like they are not allowed to mess things up.

Hotdogs or pizza is always easy...or you could make the kids peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and cut them out in cute shapes, have each a bag of chips and a fruit roll up. Bag each in a cute gift bag to open at the meal.

I also found a great recipe for lemon ice box dip: 1 can sweetened condense milk, 1/2 cup lemon juice. Whisk together and chill. Use grahm cracker sticks for dipping.

I found this recipe on line, when I was looking for a punch for my daughters birthday party. It was a huge hit and ever since it has been requested over and over and over again. I suggest doubling the recipe, because everyone loves it. You can also freeze the mixture in ice cube trays and when completely frozen transfer the cubes to a Ziploc bag. To make individual slush punches, place a cube in glass and pour soda over until slushy. Garnish the punch with fresh fruit.

Slush Punch

1.5 Cups Sugar

6 Cups Water

2 (3 oz) packages strawberry flavoured gelatin mix

1 (46 fluid oz) can pineapple juice

2/3 cup lemon juice

1 quart orange juice

2 (2 liter) bottles lemon-lime soda

1) Combine sugar, water and strawberry gelatin in a large saucepan. Boil for 3 minutes. Stir in pineapple juice, lemon juice, and orange juice. Divide mixture in half & freeze in 2 seperate one-gallon ziplock bags.

2) When ready to serve, place the frozen contents of one container in a punch bowl, & stir in 1 bottle of lemon-lime soda until slushy.

Mum, when my son had his 1st birthday, we spent alot of money, worked hard, and had to clean all the mess. My honey and I decided to have all the other birthdays at places who cater to children. It cost us the same price. Here in the US, we had his party at McDonalds where they provided a meal, toy and they had a playground, Chunky Cheese pizza parlor- same set up, Spare time bowling alley- food and bowling, the aerodome- food and iceskating. These are some examples.

Use cookie cutters to cut shapes in the sandwiches. if you use something like a smooth chicken salad, make open face sandwiches and put out things like carrot and red cabbage shreds (available in most grocery stores) and raisins. Then let the kid decorate the sandwich before they eat it. Thsi also works well for cupcakes - put out bowls of candy and let kids decorate the tops. have a special one set aside with a candle in it for the b-day kid to blow out. have prizes for prettiest, ugliest, most colorful - etc.

kids always like to play with food, maybe instead of having a b-day cake, you can get some undecorated cupcakes then allow the kids to personalize their own b-day cupcakes..

it might get little messy, but it might be fun for the kids...

Lay out a bunch of cereal on the floor and let them graze.