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.

I like the chef's hat.

I decided to get this sort of hat in the end as I thought the tall ones would fall of 4yo heads too quickly. My current "vision" for the cake is a table covered with all the mess from baking a cake, with a little girl (DD) sitting up against it, and the finished cake (a minature of the cake itself) on the table. I'm mad, aren't I?

Morde

Ooooooo. Do you want to do my Mafia party? I've got this idea that just won't bloody go away and you can have it if you'd like?

Lots of lovely Italian food. I would like to do Antipasto for starter (easy peasy) Braciole for main and either tirimisu or cannoli for puddings.

Good Italian Red and white wine and Perroni beer, Grappe (to aid the pissedness) and good coffee.

Get a poker tournament going (cigars optional) and maybe a cheap http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roulette-Play-25cm-Wheel-D60521F/dp/B004F0IC6K/ref=pd_cp_k_h_b_cs_4 roulette wheel. A game of Mafia maybe?

Play lots of Frank Sinatra and Rat Pack music - maybe get a soundtrack to Goodfella's or The Soprano's? (Probably not too expensive to download)

If you don't like this (which is fair enough) I can give it some more thought?

Not mad at all squiggle! If you go with that one PLEASE take some pics and link here - I would love to see it.

OMG, I LOVE that idea!!!

We make and eat lots of Italain food, we are currently hooked on the Sopranos box set and I love frank Sinatra!!!!

So, what would I put on the invites and would I have a dress code?

I like the idea of the Mafia game but think I'd need to practise first to ensure it ran smoothly. Have you played it? I love party games and this is one reason I'm goung for a dinner party ratgerr than a big party party.

I love The Sopranos. Actual LOVE.

Invite ideas.

If you've all watched Tony and his crew then you could make up a "flyer" from the Bada Bing Club?

If not then you could pronounce your DH "Boss of the family" and run something up of the computer telling everyone that The Boss has decided to honour them by inviting them to celebrate his birthday and it's an offer they can't refuse. Maybe download a picture of Marlon Brando as Don Corleone and super impose the text on top of that.

Dress code wise I would go for glamourous. So everyone gets to dress up to the nines.

If you're going for a general Mafia theme, I would honestly go for the casino gambling thing. You can give everyone a certain number of chips and the winner at the end of the night gets a silly prize.

I've never played "Mafia" so have no idea but there is LOADS about it on google It must be a really well known game!

Decoration ideas here

Blatherskite - were you there at the pizza party - can you describe the pizza bases? One of my concerns is how to make ~20 pizza bases - I could try making dough in the breadmaker and then squash/press it out with a tortilla press - but could I get away with then freezing them, do you think? Otherwise it will be horribly last minute.

Shirley - gender neutral for boys (as in, birthday child is a boy) seems to be easier than for girls - the only issue I ever had was convincing a 3yo that only nice monsters were invited to our monster party .

Perhaps it is just that DD is a very "girly" girl, but I had to talk her into adding pirates to the princesses (jungle was a stroke of genius - no issues with that one) as, if left to her, it would have been all pink and glitter-laden. I am now clean out of ideas for the future, though!

Hi Shirley - your help would be much appreciated - not sure why but cannot get this party off the ground ! I am usually quite good at it. DS is going to be 5 on the 3rd of October so we were thinking of having a party on the 8th, quite late to find a venue and possibly even for invites .... so we decided to do it at home but given that he will need to invite all his class (18 boys and girls) + his old nursery friends we would need an entertainer. Any suggestions ? We live in Stoke Newington ?

teobaldo - wow - 20+ DC at home - are you sure?!

Yes, I was there. DS is only 4.5 and wasn't happy about being left so I hung around. They used the standard Pizza express bases - about 12" - although that was too much for pretty much all the children. I think Ds was one of very few not to take some home in a box. If I were doing it at home, I'd probably go for something smaller and maybe have a couple extras spare to demonstrate on and have for parents and children with bigger appetites.

Making in advance and freezing would work I think as long as they were defrosted before you start. Once they'd decorated thier pizzas the children wanted to eat them immediately so it was good that they only took 5 mins to cook from fresh. While they're cooking is a good time to do a quick game I think to keep them from getting too impatient.

Stealth - you could deffo make a massive batch of pizza dough in the breadmaker - I used to do it a lot. Great idea on the tortilla press too - why not do a trial run this weekend, just to see how they freeze and defrost?

teobaldo - OMG! Righty oh. I like a challenge. (How many realistically do you think? how many nursery friends?)

Magician in your area

Yellow pages search results

TBH, you're going to have to do a bit of trawling with it being such short notice - Don't give up though as you'll probably be able to hammer something down.

Do you want a theme or anything? As it's quite late I would go for something simple and easy to get in local shops - Dinosaurs, Pirates (sorry stealth! football.

Pirates is cool - easy costumes for parents, easy to find/make stuff, easy to find craft ideas (bakerross.co.uk is my favourite source) - just one top tip - you need a large (adult) pirate at the front door imposing the rule that all weapons should be checked in at the door - otherwise tears (and possibly bloodshed) will ensue.

We gave them all inflatable swords (like these) at the end of DS's knights party and they rioted extremely happily (and noisily) - if it is not raining you could turf pirates and inflatable swords out into the garden for a good half hour - and it would be cheaper than an entertainer!

well I was hoping that given that the school is 20 minutes away by car from where we live not everyone will come (but I cannot be sure about numbers until I distribute the invites, which I bought!!! ) As for the nursery friends at least 2 o 3, the other alternative I was thinking of was to have a cake fro nursery friends the previous weekend as they will all go the little angel theater together.

As for entertainers, I called birthday dreams today as I thought they were good but they asked me 250 pounds just for the guy to make the children play no decoration. Is this the usual price ? Last year I had a knight party and made with my son a huge castle made of cardboard boxes. Just that and they all had hours of fun

My son would like to have the football theme but how do I do it at home ? Also that would exclude most of the girls I think or not ???

If he's really into Football, you can easily just get football plates, decorations and cake from most party shops/supermarkets.

Just because you're "theming" it around that, doesn't mean that they have to play football the whole time, but you could incorporate the footy into games that the girls will like at this age too.

Pass the parcel (use some cheap football wrapping paper - probably be able to get it in a pound shop TBH) put the prize as something gender neutral.

You could have a game of pin the football in the goal - big piece of paper draw a simple goal on it, get some football stickers and write each child's initials on each sticker with permanant marker - blindfold them, twirl them round a couple of times, aim them at the paper and and get them to stick it on the paper - closest to middle of goal wins a small prize.

Could have a penalty shoot out if you've got a goal in the back garden.

Musical football - cut out foot ball shapes for the kids to stand on then play musical "chairs" only instead of sitting on a chair they must stand on the football.

etc etc etc...

Some decorations and partywear here if you want to have a look

It might be worth checking local sports centres - ours does really good football parties which are not expensive - basically they play football with them for an hour and let you use a party room for another hour.

girls play football too, you know .... I got quite indignant with another mother who did a football party just for the boys - I wondered if she had actually met some of the girls in DS's year!

DS went to a football party where they each got a cheapy football instead of a party bag - which also gave them lots of balls to play with during the party - how about these?

Thank you ShirelyKnottage

That's fab!!!!

Sorry to throw a spanner in the works but quick question... How does everyone feel about a dinosaur theme for both boys and girls (majority will be 3 years old)? Is it wrong? Should I change it to pirates and princesses or jungle or something more 'neutral'????

Aaagh! This party planning is a minefield!

Thanks again!

Dinosaurs are cool - DD was very indignant when she went to a dinosaur-themed party and the host had provided pink stuff for girls - she wanted dinosaurs (and DD is a very pink-orientated "girly" girl)

I know little girls who love Dinosaurs. I think it'll be brilliant

Dinosaurs are FINE for both. Honestly - don't get too stressed about all this theme stuff...

and that goes for everyone actually - I love doing themes and cakes and blah blah blah - LOVE IT, but they're only ideas and you don't need to get stuck into thinking that you must stay rigidly to the theme!

ah thanks everyone! That's what i thought originally then I started to second guess myself! I'll get ordering the table stuff, plates etc. The girls have already got dinosaur invitations which i'd bought before I started to question it!

I have seen some really good party bags that contain a dinosaur mask and dino tattoos (sp?), in light of what stealthsquiggle said, should I get these ones for the girls too? The last party we went to they had these (well similar) for the boys and a different one for the girls...

I'm over thinking it because I don't know some of the children and their parents... there are a few coming from nursery who i've never really met.

Thanks again, much appreciated!

I've got three girls and I think dinosaurs are a great idea. At my last DD's party I put out loads of stickers and different patterned paper bags for them to decorate. The animal themed prints and stickers were very popular and great for boys and girls - go for it!

I would go with one flavour of party bag, IIWY, Evian. Otherwise you have to guess not only how many will turn up, but how many boys vs girls (and of those girls, how many would militantly demand dino bags over any girly option anyway).

I do get a little obsessed with the theme - probably overly so - but I know that's what makes the parties memorable, because DS's friends sat around at lunch at his last party reminiscing about all the previous ones they had been to (one relatively new addition to the school being told "oh, you missed the knights one, didn't you? That was cool - we did....." It was 4 years ago )

Hi Shirley. Thaks for the ideas. Sorry to take so long getting back. Thanks for the ideas - think the Scooby topper is great - unfortunately now have to make a cake but heh - ho! Thanks. The game I was looking for for the finale is for my other daughter (both birthdays in same week - hell for a partyphobe such as myself!) so won't be scooby doo themed. There'sl be about 20 6 year olds there. May need to be indoors as end of October.