Shirley's party advice part 4 - Better at party planning than Pippa Middleton

[BlatherskiteOfTheLivingDead]

New thread :) Everyone welcome.

Well, I sent out the party invites. Guess who was the first one to reply and say they're coming

BrainSurgeon having only ever planned 1 wedding, I'm not quite so practiced but I can try...

I've still got to decide what I'm doing for DS's party but it's in March so your trip might be perfectly timed :) Assuming anyone ever wants to help me again after Rainbow-gate that is.

Well if I hand-carry supplies back from the US for you, then if DH even thinks about binning them, you can tell him from me that I know where he lives and can find some IT industry hit men to sabotage his next DR test.

How much do you need DW? Each pack makes 500ml of jelly. I would happily bring some over if you want BUT I only return to Britain on the 3/12....

Let me know

Ah mjb i dont know what i'll need and my party isnt until feb. so i'll decline at this time but thank you.

Brain surgeon im good at weddings i'll come on over and take a look..

Lovely, lovely MNetters - you helped me so much last year with ds's party (especially when some supplies did not turn up in time). In fact I loved this thread and enjoyed contributing to it, but have not been on MN as much over the past year as I've been back at work, and life has been inconveniently getting in the way of MN-ing

Anyhow... It's ds's 4th birthday in a couple week and I'm doing an Under the Sea theme this year as per his request.

Apart from decorating the table and having given out suitably watery-themed invites I'm a bit stuck for ideas. Would love any ideas you might have.

Please help!

Oooo ooooo we toyed with this theme a little while back. Let me get dd2 in bed and i'll be back. But how many kids what age ranges and is it home or a hall?

Shark jellies! Do the shark jellies!!

Yy. Shark jellies! I know where you can get blue jelly now that the SANZA shop is sold out.

For a fee. Of course

Shark Jellies? Jelly with shark sweets in? What a great idea - could you do it in clear plastic glasses? Where on earth do you get blue jelly?!

Its in a hall, there are going to be about 15ish 3-5 year olds (gulp) and I've also hired a bouncy castle. I'm hoping all the parents will stay (most of them I know really well, and will be doing so)

For that age group, I thought mainly roaming free with maybe pass the parcel and musical statues? Maybe What's the Time Mr Wolf?

Definitely mostly free-roaming / bouncing. Will think about other undersea stuff when my brain is less knackered - it's been a long weekend.

It's my DD's 3rd birthday in a month and she's having bouncy castles too. She'll have DS and some friends of his there too who are all 5 so pretty much the same age group as you.

In my experience, if there is a bouncy castle to be bounced on, you've got very little hope of getting them to stop for long enough to play a game. The guy who's supplying our castle is a friend and when we went to his daughters party, even he couldn't get everyone sat down to play musical statues and he does parties like that for a living! So I'm not bothering with games this time. I've ordered some cardboard crowns and stick on gems so that they can make party hats and will print out some colouring sheets and buy a big bag of crayons from the scrap store. I've purposefully picked things that don't take long and don't require everyone being sat down at once.

Blue jelly will need to be ordered from MBJ one of those online stores that do South African/Australian food for ex pats as you can't buy it in the UK so I'd get it as soon as you can. There are a couple of links up thread. stealth and I made up an OTT party porn version a while ago that had a sponge cake (sand) base under the blue jelly and green laces (seaweed) up the sides I think. If you could source mini plastic boats for the top, that would look amazing. I'm doing rainbow jellies for DD and have bought disposable clear plastic wine glasses from the pound shop to serve it in.

I'm sure I found some gorgeous looking scallop biscuits when I was looking too. I'll try to find a link.

BlastOff I am currently in South Africa and can supply blue (bubblegum flavoured) jelly when I return from holiday. However, I am only getting back into the country on the 3rd and so would probably only be able to post on the 4th. Let me know if you're interested

Can I join? DD is 2 in a week and we're having a small get-together the following Sat. One other toddler almost 3 years old and 2 babies - one almost 1 years old and the other 6 months old. Do I have to make it somewhat exciting?

There will be parents of course, well 3 mothers, one father and 2 if my child free self-sacrificing mates. Kind of more worried about the adults, babies will saluvate and roll or crawl a d the 2 toddlers will hopefully just play with the toys. I do feel I should provide sone king of a game? It's in my place btw, mainly living room, not that much space.

Also looking for some food ideas, I do like to provide a nice spread .

TheRealMBJ The party is on the 1st! But thank you SO much for offering. I will have to go and do some sourcing... Very about you being in South Africa though.

Was thinking blue table with turquoise table runner type of affair out of that netty material, and turquoise plates. Food plates could be red and make them look like crabs with legs/ pinchers attached, (was going to all the plates like that and then realised it would take me from now until then to just make plates!), and I have found some starfish shaped bowls.

Also will get some of those door covers which are long shiney threads to walk through and hang up on the doors and maybe some windows. (does that make sense?) It's not an easy hall to decorate or I would get some nets etc, so might give up on that.

Was thinking fish shaped sandwiches. Other than that and the shark jellies, I'm a bit stuck with food. I saw some great fish cup cakes, using smarties as scales.

As for the cake.... DS wants a sea monster but I really think that will be pushing my skills for cake decorating. Any alternative ideas or easy sea monsters?!

Sweet always easier than savoury when you're theme-ing.

Fish shaped sandwiches would work. Maybe starfish sandwiches too? Fish shaped pizza too maybe? Skips looks like little shells... or so they still make 'fish and chips' crisps? Just found some triangles of cheese labelled 'Shark teeth' which was clever and a particularly tenuous Macaroni cheese made with the conch shaped pasta labelled 'Conch shells and cheese' :) This is quite cool.

I found loads of sweet ideas. You could so shaped biscuits, the jellies of course, bowls of fishy jelly sweets (aquarterof.co.uk is good for off sweets) loads of ideas for decorating cupcakes or cake pops

This sea monster cake could be quite easy. You'd just need a sheet cake and then make the monster out of bagel halves covered in icing and held up with cocktail sticks.

This Sea Monster mask is fun. I have a cuddly Cthulhu that DD adores. She calls him 'cuddy foo doo'

Thank you!!!

Shark Teeth cheese is cool, and easy to make - I'm guessing just little triangles of cheddar which will go down well too.

I've never made cake pops before - are they tricky? They look amazing, and I especially liked some I saw which look like little fish bowls with sprinkles as the bubbles and a little goldfish stuck on. Do I need a special mould? I would definitely need a practice run.

I am definitely doing that pepper octopus in dip - it's inspired!

I will do conch shells in pesto I think (ds not keen on cheese sauce) and can be cold easily - good find!

I'm not sure that I will manage that cake - I might have a trial run this weekend along with the cake pops and have a go, but I'm not hopeful I'm artistic enough...

Cute mask! Thank you so much for those ideas, they are fab.

Cake pops not easy, IME/O but I have a cake pop maker, which makes the middle bit easier (and nicer) but dipping them is quite tricky. I keep meaning to try again but always seem to end up stupidly out of time to do them for actual parties.

this is another sea monster cake that would work. I like the one Blathers link to, but I think she is making the method way more complicated than it needs to be. If you made the hoops of monster and left them to dry for as long as you have, then you could just stick them into a (bought) sheet cake at the last minute.

I have fish moulds from when I did DH's cake if you wanted to do a general underwater theme, but that doesn't work for a sea monster.

Sorry sorry dd2 went into her own room last night and it was a disturbed time!!

You've had some fab under the sea suggestions though i see. This should be easy to make into a sea monster cake, tentacles from sugarpaste and just make the round top cake in a pyrex basin.

jazzedupcakes.com/browse/octopus-cake/

Drinkfeck...with just four kids i'd just do a little tradional teaparty. Pass the parcel should be a good token game with babies on laps and way easier to manage than a hall of 20 kids. If you want food ideas we're usually best at themed ideas.

Yes, the shark teeth were just little triangles of cheddar I think. Sometimes the magic is all in the name

Cake pops can be made by crumbling sponge cake and mixing with icing before squishing into balls and putting on sticks - or you can buy a cake pop maker from lakeland for about £20 which will bake perfect little balls of cake for you. stealth has one and I am jealous. If you wanted a less labour intensive version, I saw some good ones where they'd swapped the cake bit for a marshmallow then decorated in the same way. Like <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&tbo=d&biw=1137&bih=541&tbm=isch&tbnid=3wJCJ8VQdJwt6M:&imgrefurl=www.thehomepayge.com/2012/08/under-sea-marshmallow-pops.html&docid=s5Wyh95V38oBjM&imgurl=3.bp.blogspot.com/-BL89Dwcu-cw/UEgYutSihbI/AAAAAAAABR8/jA-1nCCgvNI/s640/Fishy%252BPops.jpg&w=640&h=428&ei=sqeqUP6DNqGK0AX90YG4AQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=346&vpy=246&dur=38&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=137&ty=177&sig=103502717448833770366&page=1&tbnh=143&tbnw=231&start=0&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0,i:95" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">these

You could always add this on top of your conch shells with pesto seaweed sauce to make it a bit more exciting..

These are the oyster biscuits I mentioned earlier

DrinkFeckArse - Apart from providing some balloons for the toddlers to play with, I don't think you need to do anything specifically for the DC.

For the adults, however, especially your long-suffering child free friends, a child's party is an excuse to eat all sorts of fun stuff which they would never normally consider. Mini cupcakes, party rings, little mini sandwiches with the crusts cut off, cocktail sausages, etc.

how about marshmallow teacups?

jellyfish decorations