Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Parties/celebrations

Whether you're planning a birthday or a hen do, you'll find plenty of ideas for your celebration on our Party forum.

Original poster

I love giving parties, do you need some ideas?

999 replies

ShirleyKnot · 03/09/2011 21:56

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.

OP posts:
bytheMoonlight · 03/11/2011 11:41

Stealth I have lists of lists Grin

stealthsquiggle · 03/11/2011 11:49

For my father's 60th, my DB built a whole hierarchy of lists in a (futile) attempt to keep DM calm

Original poster
ShirleyKnot · 03/11/2011 11:55

Have you got a funnel bythemoonlight (not a euphamism)?

BarryShitPeas (HA HA HAAAAAAA at your name)

Well, how about carrying on with the watery theme by throwing a "Pool Party"

or a Mermaid theme?

Like either of theser? I can have a look for stuff if so...

or you could do that colour theme thing I talked about earlier in the thread?>

OP posts:
BarryShitpeas · 03/11/2011 12:05

Poss slightly old/"cool" for mermaids.

Pool party sounds intriguing- please translate how to achieve this in small flat with a handful of screamy 7/8 year olds.

Will look up thread for colour theme thing.

Thank you for this thread.

Original poster
ShirleyKnot · 03/11/2011 12:32

If the children are just staying for tea then just decorate the room a little bit with a blue tablecloth, darker blue cups and plates. Party Supplies here (scroll away from all the Under the Sea stuff and just look at the plain stuff for an idea of what is available)

Are you planning on doing buffet style eats? See, I?ve got an idea about using plastic sand buckets ? but I think they might be hard to get around this time of year.

Hmm, also a pool party is very summery and the food suggestions I?m thinking just might not work at this time of year.

Let me go away and think again

OP posts:
stealthsquiggle · 03/11/2011 12:44

How OTT are you prepared to go, BarryShitpeas? If you were to "tent" a room with fabric you could turn it into a beach hut (this is the vibe I am going for) - stripy/plain tableware, "beach picnic" tea, sitting on the floor on towels/cushions???

bytheMoonlight · 03/11/2011 12:50

Is 7 too old for mermaids - Shock Sad

They grow too fast

Tinkerisdead · 03/11/2011 13:07

He's 99.9% done. Check my profile! You will see a key element missing but havent got the right colour in the house! And I took a picture of the mess to prove it did indeed happen.

He looks more menacing than I planned! And at present he is sat on a rolling pin. I need to make the log still! And the mouse...and the snake...and the owl...but at least I've got something to show DD. And stealth I saw your message too late. Gutted as I didnt know that about making a glue. That would have been brilliant, like slip in pottery! I never knew you could do that. But anyway. Critique away party planners. I'm off to get DD and take my PC for repair.

Tinkerisdead · 03/11/2011 13:08

Oh and yes thats gin on the table. ..

BarryShitpeas · 03/11/2011 13:11

Ooh, like the beach hut idea.

I don't think 7/8 to old for mermaids, but they might (jaded London types). Will ask tonight. I think mermaids will be quite fun though.

We will probably do some party games. They might be to old for them but I'm not.

We are REALLY tight for space.

BarryShitpeas · 03/11/2011 13:12

Thanks Shirley, will have a look at that supplies website.

verybusyspider · 03/11/2011 13:35

Thanks

greedygirl theme is loosely Octonauts - he'll have Octonauts cake and I thought about a book each instead of a party bag as there is a bundle offer from the bookpeople at the mo, any decorations can also just be under the sea - ds wants to go in fancy dress so will probably be a police man Hmm I thought I'd just mention that to other parents rather than theme it fancy dress otherwise I'll end up with 7 superheros or power rangers that want to tear round and that really winds me up

doing tea on floor on picnic rug as we don't have enough room round table (or enough chairs!)

bit worried about active games - house is small, do things like musical bumps/sleeping lions work for 8 children?

so - pass parcel, pinata (sp?), treasure hunt (ds is getting octonauts puzzle for birthday so I might use that...)

a making activity?? I'm actually really hoping they just like to play with ds's toys together

or shall I just fill lounge with large card board boxes and sheet and let them play... Grin

Blatherskite · 03/11/2011 13:42

He's brilliant DW!

stealthsquiggle · 03/11/2011 13:52

He's looking amazing, DoctorsWife - well done you Grin

(and yes, coloured glue does work just like slip - it's invaluable)

Due to intervention from cleaner and work and DD I have not yet started on my 2 cakes for the day - although they are all baked. If I can get them carved and buttercreamed, then I can finish Noah's ark tonight (needs time to set to be transportable on Saturday) and the dragon tomorrow night [yawn]

Original poster
ShirleyKnot · 03/11/2011 13:56

WOW! That is really very very clever TheDW

OP posts:
bytheMoonlight · 03/11/2011 14:07

The gruffalo is amazing!

verybusyspider · 03/11/2011 14:20

DW - thats amazing! I wish I'd been able to do that for ds's birthday last year

bytheMoonlight · 03/11/2011 14:32

What party games go down best with the age group 2-4?

I was thinking:

Musical bumps
Pin the nose on the clown
Singing games (ring a roses, hockey cockey, heads shoulders)

Then after food:

Sleeping lions
pass the parcel
balloon drop

I have to fill two hours! Is this enough?!

Tinkerisdead · 03/11/2011 15:22

Moonlight i've got to fill two hours but im hoping food and cake take up a good half hour to 40 mins. Im doing pass the parcel some dancing music ones and hopefully pin the tail on type game.

Thank you for kind comments. Dd came home to say 'you havent done very well at all he has no pupils, and wheres my cake!' hastily given him some orange eyes and pupils but he looks very much like mrs twit now!

I'll update the photo later. I may attempt mouse when dd goes to bed.

Greedygirl · 03/11/2011 15:29

Wow DW! That looks awesome as DS would say.

stealthsquiggle · 03/11/2011 15:37

bythemoonlight - 2-4yos mostly want to do unstructured rioting with balloons, IME - as Shirley has said, you only need to intervene with a game when they are getting restless. The other thing I found is that they don't know the games - you have to teach them Grin.

DW - I feel your pain. My DC will only ever point out the flaws in cakes Hmm. A couple of years ago DS criticised the princess on DD's cake and I ended up painting her face at the last minute, and she ended up looking as though she had been let loose in her mother's make up. I should have ignored DS and left her pale and interesting.

Noah's ark cake has come out lovely and soft and is therefore being a complete PITA to carve Angry

Blatherskite · 03/11/2011 15:55

I want to do a pass the parcel for my party too. I've even bought a special teddy to go in the middle but... I have 26 kids! - OK, maybe 25 when the 13 year old decides he is too cool to play after all - but a) the parcel is going to be huge with 27 layers on and b) it'll take forever.

Do I go 'old school' and only do a few layers so some miss out or do I stick with current tradition and have a layer for everyone plus the big prize in the middle and a mammoth pass the parcel game?

Most of the children will be around 2 or 4.5 so they're still quite little.

Must remember to add balloons to the 'things to get' list. Stealth is right, rioting with balloons and enough room to run round and you can easy fill an hour of a party without any games :)

bytheMoonlight · 03/11/2011 15:59

I am stuck as to what to put in the main present in my parcel! The youngest at the party will be a little boy who I don't think will win anything so I'm of putting the main prize in for him. But I can't think of anything!!

What about two parcels going in different directions Blathers, I've heard of people doing this with lots of children playing to stop them getting bored. Though how you work out who has and hasn't had a go I do not know!

stealthsquiggle · 03/11/2011 16:03

Blathers you need another bear, and 2 parcels - it's the only way to make it finish in a tolerable amount of time. You do then need lots of adults standing around to try and engineer it so that everyone gets a turn before leaving it (mostly) to chance for the final layer.

Are you going to put anything in the layers? A teddy bear sticker per layer would be good?

My top tips for 2-parcel P-t-P:

  • get a big pack of cheap paper from Costco
  • different paper for every layer, otherwise someone will take off 2 ot more layers in one go
  • wrap the parcels in parallel - so you know that they have the same number of layers, and you can tell if they get out of sync (because the paper doesn't match)
  • use something really distinctive for the actual prize so that you know when you get there
  • and then have lots of people supervising Grin
stealthsquiggle · 03/11/2011 16:04

use some really distinctive paper for the actual prize so that you know when you get there [duh]

..and FWIW I tend to have the 2 parcels going in the same direction as it is too confusing otherwise.

Swipe left for the next trending thread