Shirley's party advice thread part 2

[stealthsquiggle]

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

Any good?

I got a set from ebay. It had 1 large and 1 small bear and I ended up making one of each size for each child. I'll see if I can find some the same for you...

I gave up on party bags and ended up just doing cones of sweets but that was mainly because my age range was so big that nothing suited everyone. They went down really well though. I also added some little teddy bear shaped reflector key rings that I found, they were popular too. DS has his on his School bag. I'll find a link for those too.

Keyrings are here This guy was really helpful and let me buy 2 random bears on top of a pack so that I had enough for everyone without having to buy 2 huge packs. He might break one down for you if you need fewer. They came in pink, yellow and green and I got a mixture.

I can't find cutters like mine but this one is 12.5cms which should be plenty big enough. There are some 10cm ones the same if you think that might be too big.

that's great, thank you very much

think I might do party bags with

1. keyring
2. teddy bear stickers (sure they're easy to find)
3. sweets
4. not teddy related but got some clips from primark recently so can pop them in, just need to find something for the boy who's coming

poundland bears look great. If you couldn't find those, then these might be worth a try if you can wait (and pay shipping cost) - if that was all you ordered it shouldn't get done for customs duty?

they don't ship abroad stealth, shame
there's a poundshop in town, will have a look

or would a paddington bear/winnie the pooh book be better do you think?

They will ship internationally (I have used them) but it's painful - you have to contact them about it and they will quote postage based on weight. If you had a friend in the US who could take delivery and ship them on it would be easier.

sounds like a bit of a nightmare and am worried about time. Will use them next time when I am more organised.

Pops head in. Glad the teddy bear ideas are going down well. I too did teddy bears picnic for my dd. I made bear ears out of fake fur stitched to headbands, all my guests brought their bear (even dd's godmother brought her 60 yr old bear) we sat them all around their own little picnic on the floor.used dd's tea set on picnic rug.

Cake blathers made a big picnic rug with food on and seated real bears around it. I made individual cakes with sweets and a teddy holding a lolly wrapped in cellophane in place of a party bag. We decorated pictures of bears but wish i'd done biscuits.

Stealth- twelfth night party sounds lovely. Do keep us posted.
Im 'nesting' half prepared by hospital bag and clearing out crap from bedrooms etc. Gonna start batch cooking ready for c section recovery and my lovely mil bought me an additional freezer for the shed so i can really stock up. Tonight im having a curry and the christmas pudding i forgot to eat. That's heartburn for me tonight

livinglifenowinkiwiland.blogspot.com/2011/02/caitlyns-4th-birthday-celebration-part.html

This woman made the same debbie brown cake that i made.

sitsyou have a look on Book People or similar. They often do book packs that you can spit to give each child a book. Look for either those little pocket library things or just a set of books. My Sister got DD about 10 bear themed books as a present and I'm pretty sure they must have been a pack from somewhere.

There are pictures of my cake on my profile if you fancy a look :)

oh my god blathers that cake is amazing! (as are your other ones)
I had a look on the book people and the only one I could find was a collection of paddington books which would have been great but they're sold out

doctorswife I love that cake too, especially the idea that they get one to take home. Were they difficult to make?

Am going to ask everyone to bring their bear and was going to sit them round DD's teaset.

Was thinking of doing a bear hunt - I take photos of all the bears we have (I think we should just about have enough), then place them around the house. Each kid is given a photo of a bear, and they have to find that particular bear. They bring it back to me and they get a prize. Only thing is I'm worried they might think they get to keep the bear?

Everyone brought bears to my party too - even my Mum. The round the cake party got quite crowded :)

The cake was from Costso sits, I just made a few bits to go on top. It looked way more impressive than it should have done for the effort I put in. doctorswife modelled the Gruffalo and friends from sugarpaste, my cake and plates seemed like cheating after that.

I love the idea of the bear hunt but you might get some children claiming the bears I think. Maybe you could do the same thing with the poundland bears and then let them keep them? It would work OK as long as you could get enough different colours. Or maybe get all the same colour and lots of different coloured ribbons to distinguish them?

Sitsyou - how about this Paddington bear book set?

who cares blathers it looks so cute!

That's not a bad idea to do them with poundland bears with different ribbons... only thing is though, from experience, 5 year olds now ASK for party bags at the end, and if they get the bear, I think they will still expect a party bag too.. Unless we do the bear hunt at the end and say 'right, we're not doing party bags but instead you're going to do a bear hunt'???

or I say 'DD's bears have gone wandering off so we need you to go on a bear hunt to find them for her' to make it clear that the bears aren't for keeps?!

(am sad that I don't have any bears from my childhood! in fact I don't really remember having any that were constants)

Or make them each up a named party bag, send them on the hunt for the bears and then get them to pop the found bears into their own bag ready to take home at the end of the party.

That way you get to play the game, ensure no-one leaves their bear behind and fill the bags at the same time...

good idea, I'll do that. Now I just need to find some goddam bears!

Love the bear hunt idea. The individual cakes were a piece of piss. If you wanna go that way pm me and i'll scan you the pages from the cake book with instructions. Basically make a maderia cake. Cut into squares(i split and filled mine with buttercream and jam but you dont have to), wrap in icing with a 2cm overlap at the top. Fill the top with smarties and put a bear in each. Put a lolly in the top. Eeaaaasssyyyyy.

Although i love blathers one esp as it involved real bears.

rocket sorry I've only just seen your post. I did see those books but think they may be for younger kids.
I have found these bears
www.partypieces.co.uk/mini-bear-toy.html
which are slightly above budget but they are very cute and I could put different coloured ribbon on each

yes please doctors wife that would be great. will pm you, thanks

I have that cake book too, DrsW - I know exactly the cake you mean! I did look at the "mini monster" one for DS once, but chickened out at the idea of making 25 of them .

FWIW we have done parties where they make/find/"win" things which are then put into their (pre-labelled) party bags to take home - it works well, generally.

DC's task for the day is to make a king/queen of the feast crown. So far DS has drawn a picture (the child doesn't even build dens without drawing plans first ) and now they are watching CBBC. I am not clear where that features in the plan .

another bear option?

stealth they are really sweet bears,but says seller's away til 30th Jan which will be too late for me

defo going to do pre-labelled party bags

sitsyou, i've emailed you the cake instructions.

argghhh no i havent, its stuck in my inbox at over 45mb! how can i resize it to email its saved as a PDF. Am I better to save as a jpeg?

I am not sure how you resize pdfs - I got sent a huge file the other day for the same reason. I think jpg would be easier to compress..