Shirley's party advice thread part 2

[stealthsquiggle]

...can I take the liberty of starting another thread, since the other one filled up?

Tagine? All Eastern spiced lamb jewelled with pomegranate seeds and served with cous cous?

I'm sure I've seen Nigella do something that could work.

Would look fab if you could get a glazed tagine pot with the pointy lid.

We have one of those, Blathers (TBH, there are remarkably few kitchen gadgets we don't have ) but it always seems to be too small when we use it, so I think it will end up being used for a side dish.

DH has found a variation of that Nigella slow-cooked lamb, and a moroccan chicken dish. Both are cooked with potatoes, but I think I may do couscous as well just because it is pretty - and a couple of salads, and then Galette des Rois (12th Night cake, involving crowning a king/queen of the feast).

If I get very carried away then lots of tealights may be involved in the decor

Sounds amazing.

I can just imagine the table dotted all over with tea lights in little jewel coloured glass holders making the table sparkle like a treasure chest. Maybe a sari as a tablecloth or table runner to give it a really moroccan feel. I got one years ago from a charity shop and it is the most amazing deep purple with pink and gold. Maybe golden chargers for the plates? There must be some Moroccan ideas on Pintrest mustn't there?

oooh - I have silver platters, and some huge gold scarves/shawls hiding in the bottom of my fabric stash.

..and now I come to think of it, we have some candle lanterns lurking in the garage somewhere too

Perfect :)

Would tenting the ceiling be taking it too far?

Can I come?

tenting the ceiling would be lovely, but I can't think of any appropriate fabric in the stash and DH would kill me if I bought several more miles of fabric (plus it wouldn't get here in time) - also the 5yo and the 1yo between them might bring it down on top of the candles [eek]

Of course you can come

Tagine is lovely, in fact I adore middle eastern food.

I suppose a hookah is probably a step too far, as is belly dancing , but why not download some really haunting middle eastern music for the background?

Mint tea as an option?

A big star hanging from the ceiling?

There has to be a big star for 12th Night. DS's school made a fab one from paper, I'll see if I can find anything....

This is it exactly! They look really good in RL. DS had one hung above the stage for the reception nativity. They had them made from 2 colours of construction paper at the School but they gold paper looks amazing. Seems quite simple too.

They look really good. I am being stricken by slight panic about the house-tidying challenge (am also working and have DC at home this week!) - need to focus on that for a while, I think....

can I ask for some help please? DD's 5th bday in just over 3 weeks. All girls (same age) apart from 1 boy, so even though she's fairy mad (predictable I know), I'm trying to think of a unisex theme and have (I think) convinced her that a teddy bear's picnic would be a good idea. What do you think?

Was thinking:-

1. pin the ?nose? on the teddy
2. pass the parcel with teddy as prize
3. picnic on floor which is another reason why i'm doing it bec we dn't have enough seats

I need help with

1. decoration (or do I not bother too much and put some balloons up?)
2. a teddy related craft activity for when they arrive

any ideas?

thanks

Nice idea, sits.

There really ought to be bread and honey, marmalade sandwiches but that could end up horribly sticky!

You will of course serve some pombears?

Just balloons is fine.

How many will there be (some craft activities are suitable for half a dozen but not two dozen!). If a small number, make some bear biscuits for them to decorate maybe.

Blathers did a Teddy Bears picnic - this and the other thread (link somewhere down this one!) have loads of details. I seem to recall she did decorating gingerbread bears, but there must be lots of other teddy-related craft you could do.

You could read them this (favourite "scary story" for bears in this household ).

Decor - well it wants to be sunny and picnicy - or perhaps wood-like and picnic-y? You could do trees like DrsWife did for her Gruffalo party, or just big bunches of balloons and/or bunting for a more "village fete" kind of picnic? Lots of picnic rugs on the floor and as many bears as you can round up (ideally out of reach - maybe hanging onto balloons?)

of COURSE I'll be serving pombears
think I'll stay away from honey though..

I think there'll be about 10, and yes was thinking of decorating bear biscuits and then they could take it home but am thinking there's too many of them to do it.

depends how many helpers you have / can get - we did "cooking" (decorating cakes and topping pizzas) with ~25 but most if not all parents stayed and were prepared to get involved.

I did a teddy bears picnic (as documented in length on this thread and the last one ) last month - ask me anything! It was for my daughters 2nd birthday but we had 25 children aged from 5 months to 13 so I think most of the activities would be OK for you.

We had a 'picnic' on little tables but you could easily move it onto the floor. I bought 10 red gingham disposable tablecloths on ebay for less than a tenner which looked really picnic-y and could be thrown away afterwards to save on cleaning up as we had hired a hall so needed to be out fast afterwards. You could buy a proper cotton one if you wanted to save on waste. We also had lots and lots of bunting which really made it feel village fete/picnic-y too. I'd bought tonnes of balloons but most of them popped before the children even got there

Sandwiches went down well as did chicken nuggets, mini sausages and fruit - and of course Pom Bears :)

For activities, the favourite by far was the Gingerbread bear decorating. Even some of the adults joined in. I made enough bears so that everyone had 2 each and made little bowls of powdered icing up then put out pots of decorations. I raided my baking cupboard and then went a little mad in the Supermarket home baking aisle so there was plenty of choice and the children loved dressing thier little bears. The other popular one was colouring. I printed out lots of free colouring sheets from the internet then put out some crayons and a big tub of foam stickers I got from Hobbycraft. Some of the children made pictures to take home and quite a few made extra cards for DD, it was lovely.

The activity we nearly did was to make teddy crowns, both for the teddies and with ears stuck on for the children but we ran out of time in the end. I looked everywhere for a teddy-bear-pin-the-whatever-on but couldn't find one to buy and ran out of time to make one.

I did manage a pass the parcel with a teddy in the middle though. I got a cheap one from Ebay for a few pounds and birthday wrap from poundland. I put packets of Haribo in the layers. I'd wanted just jelly teddies but couldn't find any so they ended up with starmix instead as it has teddies in.

How about jointed teddies - theres even a pdf template. Though I'd be inclined to draw head/body and all limbs on one sheet for each child to colour, then while they are eating you get an adult helper (or big sib) to cut out and put in the fasteners.

I did bear biscuits with 25. Like Stealth though, most of the parents stayed and were happy to help. I also got cheap aprons from a shop near TheDoctorsWife for 25p each so we could cover party dresses up which helped.

wow thanks for some great ideas. think I will do the decorate the teddy biscuit then since it proved so popular. maybe I could do it in the kitchen instead of the lounge.

by powdered icing what do you mean? icing made with icing sugar and water?
those squishy out coloured icing tubes are so hard to use.

due to lack of space (at home) I was thinking of asking parents to drop off if they could so I won't have THAT many helpers I don't think

colouring also a good idea (and easy) & will have a look at those jointed teddies

just noticed the time, got to go, will come back later!

Yes, icing sugar and water.

I decided that the squishy tubes would be too hard for the little ones to use too so made up little bowls of thick-ish icing and put out little spoons to apply it - it worked really well.

My other tip would be - give them paper plates to decorate the bears on. We did and it saved the table from getting too sticky and caught all of the spare sprinkles before they went all over the floor. It really helped keep the mess to a minimum. I'd bought a load of really cheap white plates and we were able to give the children a new plate for each bear. Helped with getting the uneaten ones home too as we just wrapped bear and plate in cling film for the parents.

thanks blathers. will get paper plates from asda, they are dirt cheap. Maybe I could write each child's name on a plate so we know which one is theirs to take home once dried

how big were you teddies? I have a teddy cuter but it's really quite small...

"your" teddies
teddy "cutter" !

hmm am trying to find a teddy to go in each party bag - £1 maximum - any ideas?