Glad it went well, OP!

OP here - thanks everyone for the input.

I did it at a party center (not at home) which is why the time frame was so short.

I ended up not cutting up the apples because of time, but you know what? They were small and the kids loved them. I also got a lot of great feedback on having 'boxed lunches' (I served them in plastic buckets) for the kids. And I did go with turkey and american cheese, and made them the night before but put cheese on either side of the turkey so there was no sogginess.

I also ended up finding a store (Giant) who could have the sandwiches ready by 9:30am, so I did a club sandwich platter and a wrap platter. The wraps were a bigger hit (mostly moms there).

Ahhh now to relax...

turkey and american. i'm not sure if you have any jewish or muslim friends coming but they generally don't eat pork.

I'm the PP who does alcohol, I have my parties later afternoon (too many sports in my area to do it earlier). Most all of my kids friends, we're friends with the parents and it really turns into a social event for all. People seem to appreciate having a drink because I always end up with empty wine bottles! I do like having the people in and encourage the parents to stay if they want. We have a large family room/ kitchen area so having people inside the house if the weather is bad (I have early summer kids) it not a problem.

I do home b-day parties for my kids and ALWAYS serve some sort of alcohol.

Personally, I would never to build your own anything. Too much hassle for people and too many people crowding for a long time around a small area. Normally I do a few large bowls of "scoop able" food. I do a homemade bean salad, chicken pasta salad, "tea" sandwiches, chili in the crock pot, veggies with dip, deviled eggs, california rolls...basically food that people can grab and move on out of the way.

For the kids, I get a large fresh pizza from Wegman's (they have quality pizza without the junk) and pop it in the oven 20 min before serving time.