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

[BlatherskiteOfTheLivingDead]

New thread :) Everyone welcome.

I wouldn't know, I haven't been invited to any

The champagne sounds nice though. Maybe some Shloer or similar for the kids so they can have some "champagne" too?

I saw this the other day...
one for the kids?

Happy New Year party people. Here's to some fab parties in 2013

Happy new year.

I'd like to say I'm up from partying but nope, we're all STILL I'LL!

Dd2's first birthday should be in a month and I cannot see me well enough for an extravaganza!

Oh dear. Any tips on what to do when you have behaved badly at a friends party?

I am in disgrace with dp this morning.

Apparently my crimes last night included:
breaking 2 very nice champagne glasses (part of a set)
swigging raspberry vodka straight from the bottle
refusing to leave even at 2am when the taxi was here and hostess wanted to go to bed
Possibly being a little too friendly with the host (not totally sure about this one)
And generally being a bit of a nightmare.

I seem to have fallen out with quite a few people this year and I really really do not want to lose any more friends!

I think apology may be in order all round!!

Yes, i've apologised to dp and I'm going to apologise to host/ess.

It's just that Ive found that in the past apologies havent been enough! May have to send flowers I think.

Oh dear. Do you know which champagne glasses they were? I'd be tempted to buy a new pair to replace and take it round with an apology and a bunch of flowers/bottle of champagne.

Might be worth making alternative plans for next year too as I doubt you'll be invited back

Yes replacing the glasses or even a genuine promise to is a good start. The problem is if you've acted a bit of a plank it spreads wider than just the host. You said before there were children going. Are there others who may have been offended? Is your hostess likely to get backlash you know like her mother saying forevermore "lemonmuffin? Is that the one that was an arse at new year that time?"

Think about who you may need to extend apologies to.

Having a 5th birthday party for dd on the 12th. 11 invites sent out - couple of weeks before Christmas. 8 replied so far. So somewhere between 9-12 girls in the house for 2 hours. Feel ok about number of games and dancing, a quiz, food. However....my house is not that big - pretty small. No room for adults really! Chances of mums leaving girls and not staying?! How would I manage that one at the door whilst being polite about it ?

I think for five year olds you need to warn them beforehand. Would some kids have a meltdown if mummy was suddenly ushered out of the door? Obviously loads of mums would relish the break. My dd is 4 so i havent hit unattended party stage yet but i'd definately be positioning it that "by the way it'll be fine to leave them at the party if you want to".

Definitely pre warn. DS is 5 and would be in the meltdown crowd if told at the door that Mummy had to go. In fact, I think he'd probably flatly refuse and I'd either end up feeling like a total wally stood in the corner trying not to feel awkward after you said I could stay or I'd be taking DS home with me and him missing the party.

Girls can be a little easier with this sort of thing I think but still better to be safe than sorry.

Yes, I think you're both right. Don't want to witness meltdowns! Thanks for advice.

Right. I'm convinced i have whooping cough! It just will not go!

Anyway, i have to sort dd's 1st birthday otherwise i'm just evil. I've figured even if this is indeed whooping cough we're all past contagious after this long!

Now, if i do a tea party of baby friends, she has 6. Then their parents. My household. Four sets of grandparents and two lots of aunt/uncle/cousins. Its about 50+ people!! With just grandparents, aunts etc, cousins and the godparents babies its 30 people. Waaah

I dont feel up to this and i have 4 weeks. I want the babies. I dobt want to feed the five thousand. I can def paint the doll, make the cake and maybe make a rainbow balloon garland and her tutu outfit.

But i need the party to literally be tea and cake and pissoff! How can i word that nicely on the invite?! And what kind of time/setup is gonna give me what i want. Even a carvery or something with family followed by cake at home would be good. Damn our parents all being divorced but wanting to attend birthdays etc they really push my numbers up!!

If I were you I would ditch the rellies one of those groups and do a much smaller party. You're poorly, you can't be catering for 50+ people!

I'd word the invite "please come round for some cake, 12 till 2" or something as that sets expectations and gives people an idea of the timescales you're thinking of.

I bought but never even unwrapped all that rainbow bunting and some rainbow balloons for DD's party that you're welcome to have. I've since done thank you letters based on the bag design too if you want to pinch them?

Yes yes please!!! I can paypal you the cash if you text me your info.

Wow that takes the pressure off. If i had it at home with two cousins, step cousin, dd1 and godparents kids (3) that'd give me enough kids round the table to look "enough". Without all the baby group types. Im thinking put big table in conservatory which is the playroom. White paper and maybe get the kids to make a giant rainbow with handprints.

Well done kids, who's for cake? Blow out the candle toodle pip you lot.
Then theres something to do at the "party" whilst geandparents fuss around dd2. If i did that circle it'd be 30 but that includes my household. Plus if its just family and godparents i wont be as embarrassed to say times up!!

I may actually pull this off you know. So bright conservatory. White table, dress in fav colour, dd2 in rainbow tutu, balloons/bunting, shock cake reveal. Rainbow layered sweets in a cone and a giant rainbow picture.

Thats plenty for a 1 yr old aint it?

No probs. I'll dig it all out tomorrow. I think I may even have some leftover white paper table cloths too

Thanks mate. Now, talk me through the cake. How many tins did you have and how much colour per mix? Did you pour mix into tin then colour or weigh out mix etc and colour? I may actually use a cake mix thinking about it. And did you dowel/straw it?

I only have 2 tins that are the same size so that's what I used.

I made the Hummingbird bakery Vanilla cake mix x4. The recipe says if you are making a cake rather than cupcakes, you should make double the mixture and split into 3 tins so I just did that twice. I used a ladle to get same-ish amounts of mix into 6 bowls (I used the spare for cupcakes) and added colouring gel until they were really bright. I needed about a fingernail's worth for each colour. I can post you these as well if you like?

When they were cooked, I used my cake leveller to even them out - although I must have done a reasonable job with my ladelling as they were all pretty uniform anyway - and then stacked them using the Vanilla frosting from the same recipe. I used just enough frosting to stick them as once stacked and coated, there was a LOT of frosting on that cake! I used drinking straws to hold it together for the journey to the hall but I think it was overkill to be honest and if you're making and eating at home I wouldn't bother. The frosting was just off white thanks to the butter in it but more than white enough to make the cake stand out. I think Tesco do pre-made vanilla frosting that is whiter that you could use though.

The cake was nice. The recipe has milk in it and the sponges were really moist while being stodgy enough to stand stacking 6 high. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and the 'big reveal' definitely got some "Ooohs" and "Aaahhhs"

Meant to say, if you don't have one of the books (the recipe is in Cake Days and the Bakery Book) then I can type it out for you.

I have my haematology appointment this afternoon. Am fairly sure that I'm just going to be immediately discharged as I've not been as poorly since but for some reason I'm still nervous. I hate going to hospital and I'm going alone as DH is looking after the children.

Yes please to the recipe. Ive got sugarflair gel colours in all shades so im hoping they'll do the job.

I know exactly what you mean about hospital apointments etc. i'm awful about them, i get all worked up but its always about parking, finding the place, being on time, controlling the kids more than the actual appointment. I much prefer it when dh takes me to these things. Good luck though. Hope this is the end of it for you.

Ive asked for appointment on monday as dd1 and i were coughing so badly last night. She was crying and i was sick everywhere twice! If it is whooping cough i know i have to ride it out but concerned that i had the inlaws here/xmas visiting etc with all the grandparents who could be off infecting everyone right now. So fed up though because i feel like im slowly suffocating. Like i aint had enough chest pain ha ha.

I started typing it out but I think, it retrospect, I might just scan it in and e-mail it to you. Much easier.

Haven't done party bits today as I got all distracted by the hospital thing but will do over the weekend and post on Monday. Heamatologist gave me a good check over and asked lots of questions and has taken another lot of blood to test for iron levels and to see if I have Coeliacs disease! and I have to go back in a month. Let's hope it's all boringly normal

Well if you are a coeliac i can make you a nice xmas dinner
Although no costco cake for you missy!

Hopefully you'll be right as rain and put it all behind you. Xx

I can't have Coeliacs! I've failed every low carb diet I've ever tried!

Party bits are all together and ready to be posted (along with DD's thank you cards - my Mother beat it into me taught me well) on Monday. I'll email the bag labels tomorrow when I get can to the computer as DH is stuck on it at the moment doing work stuff.

Is it sad that I've started planning DS's 6th already? I do only have until March after all He seems to quite like the idea of tobogganing. I guess I should probably take him beforehand as he's never been and he might not like it...

Hasn't stopped me thinking about tobogganing themed party bags though

Ooo he can do that at the ski place near you though cant he!! How fab would that be.

Totally with you on the thank you notes. I wrote the girls ones today. Well no, i put a pic of the girls in their matching fairisle xmas dresses (they will curse me in their teens) on their bike/ride ons and then got dd1 to write thankyou for our.... Love dd1&dd2. Then i just filled in the item because after her birthday, because she can write, i made her write 25 notes. Thats no way to encourage a 4yr olds emerging skills. She hated me. Buuuut i am the only person in my circle that writes thank you letters. Have never had one back ever!

Still coughing and sick again today. I messaged sarahstratton and compared notes and she said it sounds like when her n her dd's had whooping cough. Just cant wait til it finally goes.