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.

Dr'sWife - IIWY, I would go with snake #1 and not worry about the scale - he looks great on his logpile house.

I am working. And packing. And tidying (have to go away and leave house in fit state for parents to look after DC). My head hurts.

For knights - one of these and a large pack of washable felt tips will absorb them for ages.

we made shields out of hardbard for them to decorate with their "own" coat of arms, but these would be an easier alternative.

Some great ideas for knights. Blathers, glue gun!!! Why didnt i think of that? I bloody stitched loads out of fake fur. Where was this tjread a year ago?!!

Stealth, packing?

Oh I forgot - most important rule for knights and dragons is to have a large imposing adult knight standing at the door enforcing the "all weapons to be left here" rule. Not to do so is just asking for the whole thing to end in A&E tears.

At last count, we had 25 dragons in this household (and it is some time and at least one birthday since we counted!) Not a lot of knights, as not many of them understand that dragons are friends.

DW - yes - packing - help.

A month as of yesterday Shirley. Glad you're back :)

DW - always one for the easy road me

Packing for hols or moving? Hols count me in, moving... No way i've moved 4 times in 18 months. No thanks. Dh is now making noises that he's not keen on this house and i've told him to button it.

Spent all morning wrapping presents etc as dd's birthday next week allows me to offload the gifts in advance. But i left a box of stuff on my bed which had toy story dvd's for dd's birthday. She came hurtling in saying guess what, father christmas has been to your bedroom and left me some things!!!

Shhiiiittttt.

Raced upstairs bundled it away and said silly you they're the boxes for daddy to take to the tip! Father christmas hasnt been here!
She said he did you know, i saw woody on a cd, when daddy comes home i'm gonna show him where it was.

My ds has just got into knights, and those are lovely ideas for a knights party, but I've done too much for the rocket party now to change it. And he's bound to be into something else by next year! What a shame - I love some of those ideas. Esp the shield decorating and the cardboard castle.

TheDW - 4 times in 18 months! Arrgh! How come? DS found one of his birthday presents too but hoping he's too young to remember. Although worringly he didn't seem that excited by it!

Shirley - nice to see you! Hope things are calming down a bit for you now

Stealthsquiggle - thanks for that Baker Ross website link - found some great space stickers and I might do make a space picture on black paper instead of alien masks or colouring in space pictures.

I emailed the bouncy castle man and asked if he would consider if there was any possibility we could have a reduced rate on the bouncy castle because we're only having it from 930 - 1230, and it's an all day hire rate. I am rubbish at things like that and haven't heard back from him so now panicking I've offended him. Arrrgh - wish I hadn't now. It's only because I'm on mat leave and this is costing much more than I expected, but I'm agonising over it now.

Phew. Bouncy castle man wrote back! He's given us £5 off delivery, but I had visions of him emailing back saying how dare you even ask, no bouncy castle for you now! He said he generally does negotiate prices so I obviously wasn't too cheeky. Never doing it again though. I can't even haggle when you're meant to when you're abroad and it's expected, so no idea why I decided to.

Don't be DAFT! BlastOff - you got a small discount and I bet he wasn't offended in the slightest - that's business.

DrsWife - Lie, Lie, LIE again! I had to tell both of my boys that FC wasn't real, the summer before they started secondary school. I lie like a rug.

Blathers - a month? AGES it will fly past

Its the crack of dawn. Its my only day with some support at home from dh. I've got 40 people cramming into my house in six days, a selection of broken animals for a cake i'm yet to make, wine to buy for xmas presents that need offloading on sat, no party food as yet, no plates etc to put it on. Dd has swimming and then my friend has insisted on visiting this afternoon. Ive tried to put her off and explain its not really convienient as i need to blitz the house and shop but she wont take no for an answer!!!

*moved 4 times as dh's business folded and we lost our house, moved to my mums, then she moved so moved to dh's mum's. Then chose new town to relocate to and rented a house, that was in a really rough area so we've moved into neighbouring village. Its an old victorian house. I love it but the massive garden freaks dh out.

Glad your bouncy castle was a bit cheaper blast off. Off to cram in what i can towards this party!

Sounds like you've got a busy day DW. Hope you get loads done.

DD's birthday is the week before Christmas so the countdown to the party is going to go incredibly fast as I've not just got planning for that but planning for Christmas too. I'm feeling a bit nervous that I don't have enough for them to do. I was going to get a bouncy castle but I'm not sure the community centre roof is tall enough to get one inside and it's going to be too cold to put one outside I think. I've got biscuit decorating, colouring, pass the parcel and maybe teddy crown making. Should I do more? Party is 2 hours and we'll spend some of that eating...

My son's Club Penguin party is today. I have kept it small, for my own sanity and because DS (6) hates large gatherings. So we just have eight guests from his class.

I have made a Club Penguinish cake (snowy scene with igloo, fir trees and Club Penguin figures), penguin and snowman biscuits and puffle cupcakes. The children will decorate little foam penguins with hats and scarves when they arrive (to be added to their party bags), then DH is doing a little performance of funny experiments (eg the volcano exploding - bicarb of soda and vinegar) dressed as a silly scientist, complete with mad white wig and coat (ties in with a character on Club Penguin who is an inventor). He hasn't practised it yet, but assures me it'll be fine . Then I have games lined up: pass the parcel, throw the snowballs in a box (fake, soft snowballs), musical statues.

The party is 3 till 5. Does anyone have an idea of a party schedule? Do you think I should I serve tea at 4? Then the children will have about half an hour of free play at the end of the party. We will have balloons floating around and I'm going to unroll some drawing paper for them to doodle on (am hoping they will all be sitting quietly, drawing when their parents arrive - ).

I have another mum and her 10-year-old daughter helping me, as well as my own son. I'm going to ask the older children to help with the crafts and my son is going to run the Club Penguin 'gift shop' to hand out party bags at the end.

Questions: should DS2 open his presents as they are given to him (in which case, I have to somehow note down who has given what whilst simultaneously greeting guests), or should I whisk them away till later?; how can we play musical statues without upsetting the children? Last year, every time a child was 'out' they looked as if they were going to cry and I don't want a repeat of that this year.

Which is better? Party cake in the party bags or eaten straight away?

Any other tips?

DW - blimey, you have your work cut out! Could you rope your friend in to help with something this afternoon?

Blather - it must be very stressful having a party just before Christmas. I must say, I won't even think about Christmas until this party is over and done with. I don't think I could cope with planning both!

Party food at 4 sounds good. Enough time for even the slow coaches to finish up before pick up time and means you have an hour of uninterrupted play beforehand.

I would go for opening presents afterwards. Gives you time to note down what everyone has brought and means that they're not all distracted by wanting the play with the new x and will be able to join in with your activities. Reduces risk that things will get broken while being simultaneously played with by 9 boys too.

I'd go for eating cake straight away too. It only get squished in the party bags.

Have fun :)

I'm determined that DD will never resent that her birthday is so close to Christmas so I have no choice really. DS gets parties in March so it's only fair that she gets the same even if it is a little stressful. Advance planning is the key, hence why I've been doing this since about October

Thanks, Blathers. I think you're right about presents - I'll put a box out and ask the children to pop them in there.

I actually don't want to cut the cake! All that work and it's going to be chopped up and eaten .

at varnishing the cake.

I'm always too aware of all the faults with mine and desperate for it to be cut up so they're not so 'obvious' anymore.

Just posting to say a big thank you for the ideas for DS2's party. I got a few firefighter themed things from the Party Pieces website which made it very special for him. Also got a fire engine cake from M&S. He had a brilliant time!

I want to save the icing/sugarpaste fireman figure off the cake. Can I do this? If so, how?

Thanks.

You'll need to keep them dry. Maybe tucked into some cotton wool in a mini tupperware type tub?

Glad you and your DS had a lovely party

Toffeefudgecake I definitely agree about the presents afterwards. Make sure you take lots of photos of the cake, and bask in all the compliments about it - and then stuff your face enjoy it! Why not put a photo of the cake on your profile so we can all admire it too

Thanks BlastOff. We've got the Community Centre so I guess I'm worried about filling all that space. Did consider ride on toys but we've only got a few and there are lots of kids! We took the slide to DS's party and someone fell off too! I felt so guilty. Then there's the hassle of getting them down there...

Lots of balloons should keep them busy maybe?

Blatherskite - thanks for that. I can pick up a small tub from Asda.

Yes, I agree, balloons always go down well with little ones. I was considering this balloon drop but decided against it in the end as I think I'll have enough to do, but am keeping it in reserve for the future as I think it looks fab. Maybe at the end after food when they are playing before home, or the beginning of a party.

Blastoff - I have taken several photos of the cake and will post pictures if I can work out how to do it . I was truly sad to have to cut it up at the party and insisted on keeping the igloo bit to bring home (pretended it was for DS, but it was for me really ).

The party went well, although I do find the whole thing exhausting and I'm always glad when it's over. We stuck to the schedule (an hour of games, etc before tea) and that worked well. DH's performance as an eccentric scientist went OK and was helped by DS1 (12) as his assistant. There was only one episode of tears, when a girl slipped over, and she was soon cheered up by me bringing out a big roll of paper to doodle on. I'd stuck print outs of Club Penguin figures and igloos on it and the children all sat down to doodle. That was a tip I picked up from MN, incidentally.

When we played musical statues, I gave a chocolate to every child who was out and we had joint winners at the end. They all seemed perfectly happy with this.

We put the presents aside to open later and it was lovely for DS2 to open them all when we arrived home - plus I had time to write down who gave what.

Blathers - I made sure we had lots of balloons floating around and that kept the children busy when the guests were arriving. I would definitely recommend it.

Blastoff - I considered that balloon drop too, but in the comments a few people say they found it very hard to put up and I didn't want any added stress on the day.

I'm not sure if I'll do this all again next year. I think we might encourage DS to take a special friend out to the zoo for the day instead!

Hello - am back (at work, honest!).

I am glad the party went well, toffeefudgecake. Good idea on the roll of paper - for my DB's 3rd birthday (monsters), my wonderful grandmother drew, freehand, 20-something different monsters on a roll of lining paper, which we stuck up around the wall for them to paint - it was brilliant!

packing was just for one night away (work thing) but it was black tie, which was causing me to panic because I don't do grown-up very well. All done now, anyway, and another cake done for Sunday (DB's birthday - v. last minute because we weren't planning on seeing him, so he got a layer cake (4 layers!) with the first three bars of Happy Birthday iced on it. DS's only comment? "Mummy you've got the treble clef wrong - you're supposed to start on the second line" )

I owe someone a chocolate cake recipe don't I? Was that you, DrsW?