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

[BlatherskiteOfTheLivingDead]

New thread :) Everyone welcome.

Aww. The cheerleader will make a good momento for her to keep afterwards as well.

Could you go for HSM plates etc? More likely to be UK based and will have a cheerleading theme?

If not, I think I'd just go for red and white bits as that would work well too

Right, I'm off out for a few hours to brave the floods so could I request if you know where I could find (as I have no idea what to search for)

• little pots to put some fruit in - I'm thinking these would need to be sealable so that they can go in the food box?

• a good set of books that I can split up, DD loves reading and would love the idea of getting a book in a party bag. Books would need to be for boys and girls

• And any recommendations of where to get the party food/mini pizzas et al? THe only thing I can come up with is Iceland Are there any recommendations?

And sorry, I appear to have totally hijacked your thread

How about http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=280899486963 these?

Try that again

these

Have just finished pimping the white paper party bags. I'm really pleased with them. Itching to fill them but then I'd have to store them somewhere.

Still waiting for 2 RSVPs and have spent the last hour trying to word a chasing text message in my head that doesn't make me sound like a party mad loon. There are 2.5 weeks left until the party - I need to wait don't I?

Those pots are available on UK ebay too - here

Blathers what have you done to the bags?

Stealth- we've had our first playmobil moment here, dd got the school for her birthday. It took us two hours to make it!!!!! Two frigging hours?!!!

Jet- i have tons of pots left from my party with lids. I will gladly post them to you. How many would you need tho?

I've printed little rainbow labels that say "thank you for coming". It looks good on the white bags

horrid henry for less than a pound a book

draw your own story book too babyish?

wheres wally a bit more money though

i love wheres wally me!

Mr Men and Little Miss books?

Joke books?

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&productId=309884www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&productId=309884" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Moshi Monsters popular at this age

horrible science i want these for myself!

Jet also wanted advice on food. If she dies pizza is she better to buy normal cheap pizza and cut it up than mini ones?

( blathers knows all that costco has to offer i bet she says costco do great mini pizza)

The works website is on a go slow but im sure we can find a discount code for them too and the xmas bargains thread always has discount for delivery codes for book people.

I have 41 pots not checked lids but def similar amount. Any good?

Not mini ones but Costco do enormous pizzas for about £7 each that I cut into about a dozen slices each. I'll be buying the enormous bags of cocktail sausages too.

I've got MIL booked in to take me the day before the party as I don't have a card :)

Welcome to the wonderful world of Playmobil, DW . DD got the school for her birthday, and that construction time sounds about right to me. All the pre existing Playmobil children have been forced into formal education now, much to their disgust - although they were last seen heading out on a school trip (to the farm, I think).

Did I link to a US vendor of those pots, then? Sorry about that - that's what comes of MNing on my phone via shiny new android app which keeps crashing

I love Costco pizza. In fact, I have been into Blathers' local Costco a few times (it's a couple of miles from one of our offices).

Blathers, your party sounds like its going to be amazing - I am loving reading all about what everyone else is doing

Stealth, I LOVE playmobil, many a happy day hour played with it when I was a child, DD1 didn't really get into it, but am hoping DD2 will - she has a really vivid imagination, and I think would love to act out the stories.

DW - thanks so much for the very kind offer - that will teach me to get carried away when reading the thread - as soon as I saw the ones Stealth had linked to, I bought them (thanks Stealth)

I completely forgot to ask last night about the party bags, so will have to wait till tomorrow now, but I am liking either the Horrid Henry set, or there are a couple of sets of 10 that I like - the Moshi Monsters and the illustrate your own book DW linked to.

Thanks for the food tips, but I have yet more questions Now that the fruit containers are sorted, what to I put the other stuff in - ie. I'm thinking sandwiches can be wrapped in cling film (unless you experts could think of something way cooler...), but what about the pizzas, little cakes etc? Would they be ok just lose in the box?

Sorry - sooo many questions...

stealth! You do realise the next time you are at said office we absolutely need to meet up don't you!

We're mostly LEGO fans in this house but I bought the kids this and this for a wedding in the Summer and they are one of the most played with toys we have now. They love them and they're so easy to take with us when we go out. Worked wonders at keeping them quiet through a 3 hour wedding meal and speeches!

jetcat you could always wrap your sandwiches/pizza etc in napkins and seal them with a sticker? Either a plain one with the filling/topping written on or maybe one like this? These are the ones I was looking at when I came up with the idea for DD's party bags.

Its a small world isnt it. My londoner dad is now working near blathers. And when i had a crisis with the parish hall at the weekend it was actually blathers miles away that could help more than anyone else i know locally. It was really weird texting a "stranger" from the internet miles away before any of my rl friends in the town!

Jet you sound very organised. I put mine in little ziplock style bags but in hindsight i'd do as blathers says. Far classier.

And wait for it...the playmobil school has been used all morning and tears when it was time for playschool. She then said she loved it so much that i heard myself say "there is more you know, and you do have birthday money!" Wtf was i thinking?

LOL DW - DD has the various school extensions on her Christmas list. If you think the school was hard to put together, you should try the Roman Ampitheatre (much played with, though - the police like going to watch a good gladiator fight, the dragons like joining in, and the ambulance is generally on standby for the lion and tiger )

re food wrapping - I would have thought minimal wrapping to make it easy to eat, but I guess since you want to fill them in advance and transport them maybe things need to be a bit wrapped. Napkins would be good, or you could go really OTT and get greaseproof paper squares? Cling film can be tricky, IME.

Blathers - I shall let you know next time I am coming over that way and we can do Costco pizza for lunch.

Ha ha blathers read that as "YOU can do costco pizza for MY lunch"

Stealth -Dd had 54 quid birthday money. Shes chosen the gym, school band and canteen. Thank god she deems the pirates,knights and fire dept as "urgh thats boys" cos im not sure dh could cope with much more assembly.

Although i did say that with multiplecsets we'd surely end up with a collection of those little screwdriver things so it'd cut the time down a bit. Now tell me how am i meant to store all this cos no way is it being dismantled!!