I'm having a quandry at the moment. Ok, I just really like using the word quandry, is that such a bad thing? We're having visitors from the UK in a few weeks. One of them is a child who will be celebrating her birthday while she's here. I've said that we will host a birthday party for her since she'll be away from home for the big day. Here's my problem, this is their first visit and none of the kids in my neighborhood know this little girl. How do I invite kids to a party for a child they haven't met? I really want to give her a party, but I'm kind of afraid that the neighbors may think we're just hitting them up for gifts. Help? Please, I need it badly.

Heck that is a tricky one. I know it is a long time ago but I think in similar circumstances I would have been quite happy to provide a gift had one of my children been invited to a party of a visitor.

Any chance of them meeting her in the few days before the party? Apart from that I think I would speak to the parents of intended guests and tell them of your problem, that you want to give her a party, and as she is a stranger you hope they will join in the celebrations.

They may be able to meet her before the party. She'll be here for two weeks, so the chances are good. I'd like to make sure that the parents of the guests know that gifts aren't really expected since they don't know the child. We just want to give her a nice party and introduce her to some of the kids in the neighborhood.

Wouldn't gifts be a kind of a pain in the bum for her to have to cart back anyway? Maybe just one pressie and give each kid attending a clue for a treasure hunt for her to find it?

Another solution would be to hold a 'Spring party' or an 'Easter Party' for the local children, and happen to have a birthday cake for your young guest - no obligation on anybody to bring a gift, and a perfect excuse to have a themed party.

How about if you tell the kids, whether or not they've gotten to meet the little girl, to bring something over that, to them, is "American". That stuff could be inexpensive (kids, depending on their ages, don't get too fussed up about extravagant things - its usually the parents who do). This might be an interesting way to get them all communicating, too. Naturally, it might also be a good idea to make the party a British sort of bash so everybody can talk about everybody else's neck of the woods.

It shouldn't take long before they're all out playing in the mud together or something .

I'm in a quandary too, I don't know how I'll exterminate this Dalek Cake.

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/05/19/dalek_cake.html

Well that made me feel much better about the birthday cakes I've inflicted on my kids over the years. Too funny.

I'm jumping in later here but where are you having the party? In your home or somewhere in the city? Maybe if you were to have the party somewhere fun for all the kids they'd be more inclined to attend... I will be facing the same problem myself soon when I move back to the city.

My son LOVES Dave & Busters at the Waterfront so I thought I'd hold something there....even if it's not somewhere like that perhaps this little girl might like something somewhere that can't be found at home.

We had the party last month. I'm horrible about updating. It ended up just being us because the neighbor kids had plans that day. We took her to make her own teddy bear which she loved. We thought about Dave and Buster's, but money was tight.

We took a picture from the DR. Who show and had it put on the cake, it turned out great.

Everyone had a good time, so it wasn't a total disaster. I was afraid it might be.

Glad it worked out.