Places in and Around Westborough for Grad Party.

Not sure what your budget is or what the activities will be. There are open fields up behind the Senior Center (Rogers Road), and there's a pavilion/picnic area with lots of space for frisbee throwing and so on at the Ellsworth-McAfee Park on Route 135 just over the line into Northborough. Call to find out what the deal is with reserving the picnic pavilion. Both Hopkinton and Ashland State Parks have picnic grounds (with grills) and swimming facilities/lifeguards. There's a per-car parking fee but not a per-person fee. You could call the town and ask if you can do something at the Lake Chauncy Beach if you are off to the side. Everyone has to show proof of residency for access, I think, so that's a lot to organize. They aren't going to take kindly to kids this age running all over the beach area where the little kids are though, so there will have to be adult supervision and some decent standards of behavior. You will need a serious clean-up crew at every location.

You could also pair up with another family. The kids are going to a zillion parties and there's also the graduation all-night program. You're unlikely to have 50 kids at one time, frankly.

If you want something indoors, you could consider the bowling alley in Shrewsbury but they'd all have to come at the same time for you to have something organized. In my experience, the Westborough parties are a lot of drop-in and move-on-to-the-next party sort of arrangements.

Restaurants that have large rooms are going to be expensive - are you looking for that sort of thing and the chance to serve a regular meal or buffet?

Just a thought: if you are scheduling this party right around graduation (the night of, the night before, the nearest weekend night or afternoon), you might consider that many of the other grads' families will also be hosting parties at the same time. You might check with your daughter to see how many parties are being given at the same time as yours.

Because the trend is for kids to run in groups (larger and smaller) from party to party. When we threw our son's party, we planned on food for about 40 kids but we understood that not all 40 would show up at once. They came in groups of 5, 7, maybe 8 or 10 kids, stayed for awhile, signed the yearbook or scrapbook page, ate like a thundering horde, and left after maybe 20 minutes - off to the next house, and then the next one. Parents planned on keeping their homes open for a set period of time, like 4 - 8 pm, or 2 - 6, etc., and each family set their rules for their own kid (be back by 10 pm, or midnight, or let us know which party you're at, no giving rides to other kids, or only ride with Susie Q, whatever is appropriate for your own child).

So unless you're giving a party at a very different time from anyone else, and planning on invites and RSVPs and a more structured event (as opposed to a drop-in open house where snacks or sandwiches or chips and dips are served buffet-style), you most likely will never have 40 or 50 kids at the same time. Expect waves of smaller groups.

Most of all, relax and have fun, and congratulations to your daughter!

Is there a picnic pavilion at a local park that you can reserve?

If your area is anything like ours, kids will probably come and go. My friends that had big grad parties ended up with lots of extra food. We only had a small party with mostly family and a few family friends for my daughter's grad party last year, it was perfect. My daughter went to probably 7-8 parties though...several on the same day.

I would rent a park pavillion nearby and use the grills and picnic tables there. Our neighbors who hosted grad parties had a kind of open house all day and people stopped by when they had time. They had it catered and they also grilled. It was a revolving door of people, so not everyone was there at once.