I love giving parties, do you need some ideas?

[ShirleyKnot]

Hello!

If you don't know me I'm Shirley and I'm a great lover of planning parties. I do a blog about it (which I'm not going to link here, but if you look on the bloggers network for PartySpanner you'll find me)

ANYWAY

If you're chucking a do, I might be able to help - I'm not a business, I don't charge for my ideas or owt, I just love to trawl the internet find good invite ideas, games and food.

Jump in and I'll see if I can help.

Another idea for Star Wars party - if you move it more to Lego Star Wars, it widens the options for cakes, and if you have or can borrow a large box of plain lego bricks you could have a "build the best space vehicle" competition (for which you need to find as many adjectives as there are children - so one wins a prize for 'biggest', another for 'most imaginative', another for 'most colourful', etc)

Amazing cake stealth.

There is no way mine will be that good!

lego star wars party plan - from serious competitive parent with too much time on her hands and an unlimited budget for printer ink, but there are some good ideas in there too.

jedi robes - I made one for DS (and a Jedi Youngling outfit for DD, who was 2 at the time and looked so cute) - and have since used the pattern to make wizard's robes for DH and DS at various times. I am not sure I would do it without a sewing machine, though - do you know anyone you could persuade to sew them for you?

Hey shirleyknot - are you there? Can I ask your advice? I have a party coming up this weekend and I''m starting to panic

OH no - just seen you're not in the mood. Don't worry about it

Hester we'll all help you. Unless you say its football or star wars in which case the others will help you! What's the party?

Yeah hester, let us have a go at helping :)

I have a friend with a sewing machine and I'm hoping she might stand over me and tell me exactly what to do guide me a bit... I've seen some cheap fabric on eBay but my first stumbling block is not knowing how much to order!

Thanks for those links, I'm feeling like the whole thing is more do-able now...

I've just looked at your cake pics Stealth - amazing!! Such attention to detail!

Oh great - thank you!

OK, it's dd's 6th birthday, party this weekend. Her (and my) first 'big' party - 20 children coming, local church hall hired, also a theatre company to do a 'chocolate adventure' (not quite sure what this means but hey, they're the professionals).

So this is what is in place so far: children arrive and have half an hour before the entertainment, then half an hour after. I had thought that perhaps when they arrive they could do a treasure hunt and look for chocolate coins and stuff hidden around the hall. I quite like that idea but am a bit worried that the latecomers may miss out and get teary. Also, the hunt probably won't last 30 minutes so what do I do then? So first question is: is the treasure hunt a good idea? Second question: can you think of any games they could play which would allow us to fill the time and also redistribute the booty as necessary (am thinking all treasure collected could be put in a big pile and they then have to do things to win it?)

After the entertainment stuff, they will need to eat. There is a small kitchen adjoining the hall, but the entertainer prefers (understandably) that we minimise coming in and out during the drama stuff, because it makes the children self-conscious. So I was thinking it may minimise the hassle if we made up picnic bags in advance, then they could be handed out instantly, and just put out a few big bowls of crisps and jugs of water etc, to supplement the picnic bags. (Was thinking of putting in little sandwiches, small bunch grapes, carton of juice, little cake or packet of biscuits, chocolate buttons). Third question: is the picnic bags a good idea? Have I got the food right or do fussy children prefer to choose?

Then we could bring out birthday cake - continuing the treasure theme, it's a treasure chest (yes ok, it's a kit, I'm not creating it myself). And then a treasure chest pinata for them to bash to bits.

Fourth question: will the eating, cake and pinata take up half an hour? Do I need a supplementary activity up my sleeve? And if so, what?

Finally, party bags and goodbye. I think I can manage that bit

If only I'd seen this thread a few weeks ago before I took six 9 and 10 year old boys to the cinema and then for food as a last minute rush thing for DS1's party.

Boys individually with DS1 = fine.
Boys in a group = not fine.

They all made it back to their parents alive. Just.

I shall, however, be reading through the thread for inspiration for DS2's birthday next month.

Hester. Initial thoughts are some sort of craft based activity for the first 1/2 til everyone arrives. Decorating pirate chests or making treasure necklaces, as you will probably find you have very little time between everyone getting there and then herding them all up for entertainment.

Picnic boxes good idea, perhaps make a selection of sandwiches, ham/cheese/jam and ask each child, although could lead to waste/complications

Tbh if you only have half hour between entertainment finishing and parents coming I wouldn't worry about anymore games, food will take 20 minutes at least

hester First thoughts (but bear in mind that my eldest is only 4.5 so I'm used to smaller children) - Half an hour is not an awful lot of time to fill and I do think you risk tears if latecomers feel they've missed out. Also, the children might think that any treasure found is theirs and having to put it in a pile to be redistributed again might cause some upset too.

How about doing a take on one of the Star Wars games above and assigning the children into teams either on their invites or as they come in. They then work as a team to find the treasure before depositing it into one of two coloured bowls. The team that find the most maybe wins a mini present each (thinking gold coin or maybe a bag of gummies) This way, late comers can join their team without feeling too disadvantaged and no-one has laid claim to any particular chocolate/prize before you claim it back.

If you don't want to do a treasure hunt, you need to chose a game where it doesn't matter if someone cuts in late. Maybe a "pin the tail on" or even a "pass the parcel" where latecomers can just join the back of the queue for a go or join in the circle for a prize?

Picnic bags is a good idea but if you have fussy children, you risk having a lot of waste when they leave the things they don't eat. I've always done big platters and allowed children to chose their own as that way they can choose only what they will eat and less gets wasted. Are you going to have them sat at tables to eat? If so, you could always lay out plates cups etc and just whip the platters out as the entertainers finish which will get everyone moving to sit and eat.

I'd say eating itself could probably take up half an hour if not more, especially with cake too. DS gets half an hour at School to eat his packed lunch and he's a fairly quick eater but still comes back with leftovers that he's not had time for some days and he's not all excited and in party mode which always slows things up. Maybe the pinata could be your pre-entertainer activity and put cake slices in the party bags?

The chocolate adventure sounds fascinating. You'll have to come back and tell us what they did!

Great thoughts, both: thank you so much. Do you think it would work if they treasure hunted to collect treasure FOR the pinata? (It's a sitting one, not a hanging one.) I could three quarters fill it, then ask them to find the treasure for the treasure chest, then when it's all in they can bash it up and have their first bit of chocolate pre-entertainer?

I like the idea of starting them with a craft-activity, though I'm a bit short of time to get in any special craft stuff (am working between now and the party). What do you think: make themselves a pirate hat? Be set a task to invent and draw the best chocolate treat in the world, with chocolate coins as prizes? I could then blu-tak up their pictures round the room as decoration?

hester IME 5/6yos will come to party with brains switched off, so I don't think an invention test would work, TBH. PIrate hats and/or treasure necklaces - do you have a hobbycraft or similar anywhere near - a quick trip on the way to/from work would do it. Better response when I am not on my stupid 'phone.

Instead of a treasure hunt could you make it more like a scavenger hunt so teams find items then everyone gets a prize at the end and stragglers can still tag on to a team. Do them like an old treasure map, you know stain with tea and burn the edges job.

Crafting ideas, pirate hats are good. The woman on the imagination tree blog did a pirate/ treasure week google imaginstion tree for some ideas. I'll have a look now.

If you are pushed for time penne pasta sprayed different colours and wool can make good treasure necklaces

She did treasure maps, but suggests you do one of the garden (hall?) and x marks the spot for a picnic lunch. You could do similar if you used the picnic boxes.

She also made a treasure chest out of cardboard and filled it with gold coins fake jewels etc, could you whip up similar and lucky dip for party bags?

PMSL at the thought of me 'whipping up' a treasure chest Ladies, I am in awe of how effortlessly you suggest making teastained treasure maps, I will have to up my game a gear or two!

OK, good idea to get them hunting in teams rather than individually. I love the idea of the map but realistically I doubt I'll get to do it. Did anyone think my idea of getting them to put their treasure in the pinata a good one? Or better to let each team share out their booty? (Btw, the booty is already purchased - commercially - gold coins and plastic jewellery and stuff supplemented with chocolate.)

Still liking the idea of a craft activity, but rather struggling with the idea of putting out and cleaning up paper, scissors, glue, pens etc for 20-odd kids...

I did crafts with ten 2 year olds last year. Get glue sticks not cheap pens from poundshop or similar and decant decorative bits into paper bowls or plates. Then you just tip the lot into a bin bag at the end or one big bowl. Print out a template of what you want and do enough one per child and a few spare. We decorated teddies. If you put a paper tablecloth on crafting table just fold it all in on itself and bin!

Glue sticks not glue that should read!

Are you busy on Saturday, DoctorsWife?

How about Newspaper sailors hats made from plain paper then give the children pens/cutouts/sticky gems to decorate them with? Maybe print out some skull and crossbones and provide some glue sticks to attach them? That way everyone gets a themed party hat and the girls can still have thiers pink and sparkly if they want.

I love these Paper plate parrots too! You'd need a load of multicoloured paper plates, pre-cut eyes beaks and plumes and some glue sticks again. You could then put them all up on the wall with blu tac afterwards.

Or maybe Paper plate pirate masks

You could make spy glasses from rolls of paper too. There are loads of ideas on that site.

Having done a few parties (science, spies in particular) which involved dividing DC into teams, it doesn't really work when they first arrive (sorry, not meaning to be a kill-joy) - you need an individual activity to start with so that they can all start at their own pace, and those velcroed to their parent's leg can take parent with them to do it - nice idea though a treasure hunt is, I think it's an end-of-party activity, not for the start, and I am not sure you have much time to fill really, Hester - it will take most of the half hour for all of the DC to actually be there.

Seriously - raid hobbycraft/The Range/whatever is on the way to work a giant tub of beads, some threading elastic and a big pack of crayons (not felt tips unless they are uber-washable - felt tips and party clothes are not a good mix) use a work printer to print out pirate/treasure themed word searches, colouring sheets, and anything similar (google - there are lots of free ones), or if you can find crowns then go for Doctorswife's glue sticks and collected "stuff" idea.

If you had a little more time I would say go for something like this