Shirley's party advice part 3 - in which Shirley may make a guest appearance

[stealthsquiggle]

We appear to have filled another thread

They did, Blathers. DB2 and DS were superstars at organising games, and DH, friend, her DH and my parents were great too. Top tip is definitely to get lots of helpers.

It's interesting watching a group of DC grow up year by year - they were so much more biddable and with longer attention spans than last year.

Ooo ooo stealth is here!! Glad to here its all gone so well. Its awful isnt ut, we spend weeks and weeks discussing this and then after the party we post 'yeah great, it went well, dc's liked it. Hey ho' gutting thats its done in a flash!

Right i'm half way through putting sun emblems in tracing paper (lanterns over battery op tealights) the printer ran out of ink so another 15 invites to make tomorrow. Gotta make eyes for the pascal party blowers. Errr fil is gonna print the wanted posters and flynn nose game so make sure i email him the links. Print colouring sheets. Ransack b&q for suitable pipe to ice as a tower. Stealth talk to me about rice crispie treats.

Was friends baby's christening and the cake i made went down a storm. First requested cake and the pressure nearly killed me!! Never again!

I will post proper feedback and comments on rice krispie cake in the morning, I promise.

DW, what are your plans for games / activities?

Games/activities:
Get your hair plaited into a rapunzel plait with flowers.
Make paper lanterns (i'll lift the battery tealights from my lanterns into theirs as they leave as it gets dark)
Make pascal party blowers
Pin the nose on flynn rider
Build the tallest tower
Pass the flynn rider bag
colouring/activity sheets

Thinking of setting up a quiet area of baby toys rugs and put the film on the portable dvd player for a the little ones.

I'm thinking come in and do the craft stuff, eat food - wander iff with your box if your still playing

Games and bit of dancing (shes only just discovered pop music over nursery rhymes apparently shes got the moves like jagger!) anyway the pin the game, the pass the bag and maybe statues/bumps and do the cake.

Outside for a lantern release.

Excuse my typos by the way, i cut my nails and now my fingers feel like sausages and i'm misjudging the keys!

Also fil does events photography and has this special printer that prints on hand but the photo is a kind of microscopic laminate. You can bend it spit on it etc and photo is fine so thinking if he can do me a backdrop and take photo post hair do of each kid.

Prob is i've got three boys 3, 2.7 and 4 so i'm gonna have to make flynn rider garb arent i?!

My nails (and hands) have disintegrated altogether under pressure of sewing/cooking/etc (I think it was turning through that bloody dragon kit that finished them off).

Rice Krispie treats - I searched a few websites to find out what you do differently if you are making it for structural purposes rather than just to eat, as I was fairly convinced that what I make for eating would be way too soft. Two answers came back:

1. make it as per the "recipe on the box" (which I am assuming is the same as the Mary Berry recipe, since I haven't bought real, branded Rice Krispies ever that I can recall) but without the butter

1. buy the ready made ones (the Kellogs Rice Krispie Squares, which are annoyingly not even square)

(1) makes sense to me, but could be tricky, as you would be melting together toffees and marshmallows with nothing to dissolve them in, IYSWIM. I guess you could do it in a double boiler and it should be fine.

However, since I was only making a dragon head I went for (2)

The next challenge is how to get it flat enough to ice. Again, 2 options - either you blitz the rice krispies a bit in the food processor before mixing them in, which gives you a denser, but smoother end result, or you coat the finished item in white chocolate before icing - which is what I went for, and it seemed to work well - Dragon's head was still crunchy when we murdered him.

hello hope no minds me joining in. I need plan my sons 5th birthday party and my daughters 4th party. there a few months between the party's. I have already booked a hall with a bouncy castle for sons party. He is into Jake and the netherland pirate. No ideas what else to do. My daughter is Brave crazy.

Can someone help me.

welcome, Littlemoon. I am by no means a Jake expert, or a "Brave" one, but I am sure someone else will be.

One thing I would say - you have two very weapons-focused parties there - make sure you check all weapons into safe storage at the door, or there will be tears.

DD got a "Brave" archery set (with suckers on the arrows) for her birthday - could you get one of those and have an archery competition as one of the activities? I will ask DD for some Jake ideas!

Incidentally - DW - I was thinking about your hairdressing this morning (as you do) - presumably it is going to run in parallel with most of the other activities, otherwise they will spend most of the party queuing? What worked well with facepainter at DD's jungle party was having a list - so if the facepainting lady was busy when a DC turned up she put their name on the list and then worked her way through - with them just dropping out of whatever else they were doing at the time. It worked well, and she did manage to get through all of them in the end.

Righto def will make a list then. Thank you for the tip. Right help then, this is my cake plan (ive been busting a guy to get all the craft stuff made up, bagged up and ready to roll so i can spend last week on the cake). Anyway i'm thinking round sponge with another smaller one on top moulded like a hill. Drive a dowel into the middle for extra ridgity, piece if pipe (under sink waste pipe kinda width) drive that straight into the cake over the dowel so the cake mound is supporting it. Now it gets tricky... Make the house/cottagey part of the tower from rice crispie treats and ice it. Now i've gotta get it on the pipe and stay on! And i'll ice the pipe. Are the treats heavy?

Little moon i havent seen either of those esp brave after my friend warned me that her daughter came out wishing her to turn into a bear!! Jake and the neverland pirates i assume you can just do pirates? If so let us know and we'll bombard you with ideas. And i'll research brave and be back...

www.disneydonnakay.com/2012/06/disney-party-boards-brave.html?m=1

This has some nice ideas on it.. So far my research seems to be showing the weasleys with bows n arrows?

I can help with Jake and the Neverland Pirates I think. Never seen Brave though I'm afraid.

Right, easy first bit - Music. Go to Amazon. There is a whole Jake and the Neverland pirates CD available to buy or download for about a fiver.

Dress up also easy as everyone can just do pirates. The boys can be Jake and the Girls Izzy. You could maybe provide bandanas and eye patches if you wanted. Then pop them in a bag at the end to serve as part of their party bags. J&NP books/colouring books/pencils should also be really easy to find for party bags - there are probably jake party bags too although plain old pirate ones would do. Ditto balloons/plates/cups/tablecloths and bunting etc

Stealth is your lady for games and gold coins (available freely at the time of year) can be your "grab 'em and go" party prizes :)

I wouldn't bother theme-ing food too much as stuff that will get eaten is a much better idea than anything too unusual for little ones I find. You could do blue jelly with jelly fish in them though for a fun dessert. DW knows where to get Blue jelly I think - and I could do with the link again myself so that I can get some for my rainbow jellies

Got to do bath time now but I'll be back later with some links.

i was thinking of just doing pirates. Thank you for the the link will go and have a look.
Your cake sounds amazing doctorswife. .

family.go.com/disney/disney-tangled-crafts-recipes-photo-gallery-pg/#Pascal Cupcakes;2

doctorwife - dont know if you have seen these but thought would be good for you tangled party.

www.sanza.co.uk/Aeroplane_Jelly_Berry_Blue.asp

Blue jelly for all! (i need some dont i?)

Little moon ive seen those, i'm doing these...

ediblecrafts.craftgossip.com/rapunzel-tower-cupcakes/2012/04/27/

Ah, that's not quite how I had envisaged the cake, DW (not that it is anything to do with me, of course)

I was thinking - board with broom-handle-type dowel screwed on to it (screwed from underneath)

"Hill" cake with hole cut out of centre threaded on.

slabs of rice krispie cake wrapped around the dowel to make the tower

Separate cake for the top of the tower - made and decorated on a thick board, and just placed on the top of the tower (maybe screw a small board on to the top of the dowel to give you a bigger platform?)

..or, for a third way altogether, there is a good set of photos of construction phase here, but I wouldn't want to be taking that one in the car unless there is a really sturdy dowel that you can't see.

As far as games go, Littlemoon, I would keep it really simple for the 4yos - anything more than pass the parcel gets a bit challenging and all they really want to do is to run round with balloons / play on bouncy castle if you are having one.

For 5yos, think of the games they know and then convert them to the theme - so we did 'dragony' versions of egg and spoon, pin the tail, a relay race, Simon says, and Grandmothers/fathers footsteps. It's hard work teaching them new games - and several parents commented that ours worked because they were close enough to what they do in PE at school that they instantly "got" them. It also depends how large a group you have, and what the group dynamics are. There are several boys in DD's year group who can be a little challenging at times (and they apparently ran riot at a party on Friday) so the key was (a) to keep them engaged and (b) having lots of adult/older males around seemed to help (they all hero-worship 9yo DS, which is very sweet, and my DB2 is fantastic with them) and I have to say they were all as good as gold.

I saw your way suggested stealth here:
cakephoria.com/new-cakes/rapunzel-tower-cake-inspired-by-disneys-tangled.html

And i def want more like that. I dont care about the top or tower being edible really because i'd rather be able to do all the intricate bits in advance and the 'hill' be the eating cake as that'll be easy peasy part and no mad rush. If i do a seperate cake on a cake board at the tower top im not gonna be able to do the underside as well as if i made a hat for a dowel/pipe.

God i'm getting the fear again. Cake fear. This'll keep me awake you know!

Right screw fix gave me various waste fittings including this:
m.screwfix.com/p/straight-coupling-40mm/17406

So if i made a ricekrispie house with that coupler set/glued inside, i'm thinking i can slot the house hat/coupler on to the top of the waste pipe at the venue and hide any join with a few flowers stuck on.

I thought that was ingenious? Unless you tell me the treats weigh about the same as a small baby!

No, rice krispie stuff is not heavy at all (unless you blitz the rice krispies for a smooth finish, in which case it will be a lot denser) but the icing could weigh a couple of kilos

What is worrying me is less the weight of the top on the tower, and more the ability of the bottom cake to keep the pipe upright - cakes are not good at resisting any sideways pressure, IME. I think if you are going to transport it, that pipe needs to be firmly fixed to the base somehow.

Also icing the pipe could be tricky. How are you going to get it to stick? (actually, I have seen things recommending spreading melted toffee on the pipe/dowel for that).

Arghhh yes you're right. Maybe i shouldnt do the tower, everyone does the tower!! Maybe i should make pascal! But then dd might chuck a strop.

I'm not up for construction though! I'm tired today. Tomorrow i may scour b&q and come up with a masterplan. And i think i may use cake mix this time too because i like the decorating more than the baking!

I was thinking about this on the M5 this morning (as you do).

If attaching the pipe is too much like hard work, how about attaching (screwing or glueing) some sort of block to the bottom board for the pipe to fit over? So, for example, if you had a spice/baking powder/whatever tub which would fit reasonably neatly inside the pipe, you could glue that to the board, and then push pipe down over it?

come on, we can solve this one and pascal could be even harder

Is this a bad time to mention I have a degree in Industrial Design?

Find me a pic of what you're trying to make....

Oh now she tells us!!!! .....

cakephoria.com/new-cakes/rapunzel-tower-cake-inspired-by-disneys-tangled.html

This but set into a 'hill' of cake so that the tower/top dont have to be edible the hill will...

Bit like this but well, less shit!

cakesbyamy-nm.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/birthday-cake-rapunzels-tower.html?m=1