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.

Well worth re-iterating how to play even the most obvious games - common/garden 4-5yos are far too used to having "entertainers" at parties rather than playing games.

Nieces would have been good. Are you sure they can't be bribed persuaded to change their plans?

Thengyew thengyew SK. I've just eaten half a packet of chocolate biscuits through nerves alone. I'm going to have to get a hold of myself. Dressing up as a witch - tick. Being a bit bossy - tick. God, if all else fails ive got a scooby doo meets batman DVD and a box of Lego. And a secret stash of gin and lock on the kitchen door.

I will bow to Shirley's superior boy-experience - but 8 boys, with probable parents - I would lose some time start with something like this.

I also love these

stealth - Right. GAWD that's a tough one. So it's Lasagne?

The way I make our lunches/dinners/parties exciting and fun is with the addition of copious booze but if that's off the table then we do tend to get the cards out quite often and play for pennies (I've a huge stash of change) or we play scrabble or trivial pursuit.

You could go all Italian, empty wine bottles with candles in, red checked tablecloth and lots of Italian food? I'm a bit stumped actually!

Any ideas for a DD 7th birthday party? My DD is August born and I would like to organise a party when my DD turns 8 next year. At the moment I am struggling for any ideas.

Hope you will be able to provide me with some ideas?

You may just be on to something there, Shirley - One of DS's many frustrations is that DH and I will "never" sit down and play incredibly tedious board games with him - maybe I can let him have a "games afternoon" with a captive audience of GPs, 1 aunt and 1 uncle, while I hide in the kitchen?

Our church youth group (for 5-8 year girls) is scheduled to meet on halloween and as an alternative event I have at the last minute sent home a note inviting them to a Noah's Ark evening - with animal fancy dress. Any suggestions to fill 1.5 hours with themed games/crafts??

carol - LOADS of ideas. What sort of stuff is DD into? Is she a girly girl, do you want something more gender neutral?

stealth - OOOOO! Honestly, with the addition of a couple of big glasses of wine you can really enjoy a game or 7 . If you're going to have a BORED Board Games Party you could do a lovely cake with a spray of playing cards on or something like <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=cakes+with+board+games&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1280&bih=843&tbm=isch&tbnid=YQcN1FtJweT3fM:&imgrefurl=www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/coolest-snakes-and-ladders-cake.html&docid=EFf5uxDdsDRIBM&imgurl=www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/images/coolest-snakes-and-ladders-cake-21350123.jpg&w=400&h=262&ei=kJGdTq_IKIXMhAfCp8CBCQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=955&vpy=160&dur=3042&hovh=182&hovw=278&tx=142&ty=73&sig=106255552918231341796&page=1&tbnh=147&tbnw=198&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this

Daz - That's a lovely idea. Right some animal game ideas here Noah's Ark Party ideas here Some of those in the last link might be a bit young but I think you should be able to adapt them a little bit?

Hi Shirley,

My DD is very girly girly - hence anything in that line would be useful especially seeing that DD birthday falls in the summer time as well

If only (on the cake question) - it has been made abundantly clear that if it does not involve hawk(s) or dragon(s), or ideally both, it will be a disappointment.

Carol if I were let loose on ebay with an unlimited budget I could come up with the makings of a fabulous craft party for 9yos. How crafty or otherwise are you - a friend came across this and we have it earmarked as a future party idea for DD (except we would do it ourselves)?

DazR do you have any budget for crafts - lots of nice stuff here (yes, I know, that is jungle, but from an animal perspective isn't that just a subset of noah's ark - in fact, there are similar sets for "farm animals" - you could combine the two?)

have only just discovered this thread, haven't read the wholething yet but am going to nick blathers' teddy bears' picnic idea - do you think it's a bit 'young' for a 5 year old's party?

privateprancer - have you got this book - it's a perfect story about teddy bear's picnics for 5yos - you could just adapt the games etc a bit to make a bit more of the " are you is your bear brave enough" element of teddy bears' picnics (DS's bear finds that story very scary - but he likes the end)

Just poking my head in after day of hell. Stealth could you do a phoenix rather than a hawk? Mystery of a dragon/fire element but hawk like?

Cool. Your party is bound to be before mine privateprancer so you can road test it all for me :)

I was going for teddy bears as I have a huge age range and it feels a bit 'ageless'. A lot of the children will be 5.

carol - Going to throw some ideas out for you 1 - Favourite colour party. So, say DD's fave colour is..yellow for example then you theme the whole party around that colour. Ask guests to dress in that colour (or wear something that colour in their hair). Theme the cake and decorations etc. You can then go fairly traditional with the games.

2 - I talked about a nice grown up tea party further up thread, have a look, maybe you could turn it into an Alice in Wonderland tea party, with DD as Alice?

3 - Beach Party?

ShirleyKnot - thanks for links - loads of ideas there - looks like it could be a fun evening!

stealthsquiggle - have a limited budget for crafts - my craft cupboard is bulging though - it's just a case of finding crafts using mainly what I have....

I like the look of the 'feely' game of guessing the animal in the bag (but can't remember where our farm/jungle toy animals are!) Would also be good to do a treasure hunt hunting for same animals.... Will have to do my own treasure hunt to find them in the first place!!

I think I will do biscuit decorating - making animal faces.
I found some cheap big foam sheets with a zebra pattern on - so I think I will make them zebra masks to take home.

I raided the church nativity clothes and now have my 'Noah' costume.

Thanks for good ideas - I feel I am making progress now.

Wow Shirley you do have some fab ideas! I'm quite inspired!

I have done nothing about Jedi robes because I'm a lazy arse and I have a couple of weeks in hand. I'll ask my friend about using her sewing machine soon

Minnie, are you the one having the Star Wars party?

Look! They popped up on my pinterest thingy today.

Oooh

Ahem. Can I follow you on Pinterest Shirley?? (And may I call you Shirley? Or Shirls, or is that just for close friends?) I bet you have some brilliant stuff on there...

Course you can follow me - I'm just getting used to it myself so don't expect too much!

I'm partyspanner. Whoop! (LOVE PINTEREST far far too much)

Oh and you can call me anything you like (within reason)

What's pinterest?

ZOMG! Blathers...I can tell you. I will tell you. But firstly, I want to check that you have boundless hours to spend endlessly gazing at a computer screen? (even more than you do now? )

stealth no I don't have that book, will have a look
blathers mine's not until february

privateprancer I can probably quote most of the story verbatim - it's one of DS's bear''s favourites. Precis version: 3 bears heading for picnic - big wolf - scary bit - bears win.