Shirley's party advice part 5 - Here to Help - come and say Hi

[Blatherskite]

Didn't notice we'd gotten to the end of the thread!

Hi guys, thanks so much for all these seaside ideas!

I'd started to worry a bit as I added up the costs of things and it was rolling into the hundreds! Luckily DH has listed something old (and apparently very collectible) on eBay and its getting healthy bids so he has begrudgingly said that I can have the proceeds towards the 'party fund'.

Have you ever spent 'too much' on a party and regretted it? We spent a lot on DS's full class go-kart party and while I felt it was worth it (as a one off) DH did baulk a bit at the cost. Thing is, he never had a party as a kid as he was the youngest of four. I'm an only child so had quite a few big parties.

We save all our £2 coins and I used them towards DS's party, as his birthday is very near Christmas and so the extra funds are more than welcome!

DW - it's a monkey

City we all have kids with birthdays close to xmas so totally understand. My dd1 is 4 weeks before and dd2 about 6 weeks after skint skint skint.

But thats one of the good things about this thread. We try to find cheaper ways to achieve things always!

Stealth - thought it was a monkey but i thought it was less offensive to ask if it was a man and its a monkey than ask is that a monkey and its actually a man!! He's cute up there though.

I have a breakthrough on the rat but i'm off to catch up on recorded tv so i'll update you later

I'm going to start ordering stuff for DS's party this week so I can spread the cost between now and the summer. You can have a party without spending mega bucks, but there are a lot of tempting things to buy... I'm looking at you, Star Wars battle wall stickers!

Hi,
I have been following this thread for sometime. It will be my DD's 4th birthday in April. I have booked the hall and entertainers and I'm now starting to think about the cake.
She would love a princess castle and wondered if anyone had any ideas of how to make one.
My friend (who is ace at baking) has offered to make it but I'm looking for ideas.
Thanks

slp - yes, definitely - bit busy trying to remember what the hell I promised to present to a conference tomorrow, but once done with that I will find you some links to show the cake maker.

Advance buying is why we all think about themes months in advance - but it does have risks. When I did the round up before DD's dragon party I found stuff that I had completely forgotten buying . It's my money that I waste on these things, so DH doesn't get to add up the cost thank god

Stealth - thank you

Right - 45 mins worth of something brilliance plagiarised created. Fairy Castle cakes now. Much more interesting.

this is a nice tutorial on castle cakes - I think I started with a Lindy Smith design - probably this one but what made a difference (it was for my goddaughter, who lives in super-SAHM land and needed to impress her friends) was making hollow towers and then putting LED tealights like these at the bottom of each tower, so the windows were lit up (I left the roofs loose so that I could drop the tealights in at the last minute)

this was the result (not a brilliant photo, but scroll through the others and you get the general idea). I am sure I would do it differently/better if I did it now, but my brain is too tired to think how, exactly.

Advance buying definitely helps with keeping costs down, as does scouting around for good deals and potentially bending your ideas to fit. A good google usually throws up some cheap-ish ideas for most things.

As for regretting the amount spent - I've often spent more than DH is totally happy with but when the kids are having a lovely time and the party ends up talked about for months, it all seems worth it :)

DD got invited to a party yesterday. Birthday child is one of her friends from pre school who also happens to be the cousin of one of DS's friends at his school. She's doing a pizza party. "Sounds lovely" I said "DS had one of those last year". "I know" child's Mum said "That's where we got the idea". I also got told at the time that the pizza party was the best kids party one of the Mum's had ever been to. The same child is coming to DS's party next week so I'm feeling the pressure for it to be good!

Stealth - thank you. Your cake is amazing!

Probably more helpfully, I could suggest a few books that you and your cake maker could look at. Alternatively, if she is confident, just google for photos and show her some that you /DD like.

Beach party planners - look what I just came across beach ball lanterns

Hi all. DS's birthday weekend is over which means that this week I have to attempt the ski slope cake!!

Wish me luck

Ski slope cake just sounds so much fun. I'd love to see a pic of that!

I've got to choose between two halls for the late May beach party.
I'm leaning towards the more expensive one as we'd have use of grounds with a kids play area. If the weather turned out nice we could do most of it outside.

The other hall is about £50 cheaper but is just a small hall.

Decisions!!

Just a little update re the castle cake. Showed my friend the tutorial and its all systems go. We are in the process of organising all we need.
The only problem I have now is that my rather spirited 3yr 11month old daughter is now insisting she wants a batman cake! She has no idea what batman is all about apart from a couple of boys at her nursery charge around shouting 'batman!!'.
I told her she could have a batman cake(£9 from Sainsburys) on her actual birthday (not the day of the party) but she then said she will get a tummy ache if she has too many cakes. At this point I thought I'm not sure if she is actually my child as 'too much cake' does not feature too much in my vocabulary!
Anyway, my guess is she will be changing her mind in the next couple of days so will continue with the castle plan!!
Invites went out today and she has ended up wanting to invite 12 children from nursery (plus 4 friends from other activities). This is fine but I am thinking there will probably be a few who can't come.
My next thing I need ideas for is ideas for pass the parcel and party bags. So any advice re these would be appreciated.
I know party bags are very controversial but I am quite sad and would like to do something nice/different that does not involve plastic tat (sorry if I am offending anyone) and loads of sweets.

Thanks again

You are are tempting me not to focus on my meeting. Must concentrate. Back later.

Good luck with the cake blathers!

Party bags - the book people usually do packs of books that could be split to give each child one? Or for party bag sized things - packs of crayons, mini colouring books, stickers etc. there are plenty of party sized packs of these things on eBay. Or a mini craft pack - buy packs of feathers, stick on jewels, pompoms etc and split them to do a little bundle of each for the party bags?

Yes, I thought it sounded fun but now I'm faced with imminently making it, I'm panicing a little! There will be photos of whatever I create though :)

We like party bags slp and hate the plastic tat too so you're not offending anyone. DT has some good suggestions. I think the thing to remember is that it doesn't necessarily have to be a bag, some of the best things DS have been given are Book People books and, at a party he was at recently, a full sized football! These things are loved and read/played with again and again whereas the plastic rubbish generally ends up in the bin within a day or two. I hate the thought of spending all that money on things just to have them binned so I always try to get slightly nicer things.

I think for your age group I'd definitely go for a book and maybe a bag of chocolate buttons...?

Just remembered that we had some crafty bookmark making kits in DS's pirate party bags last year from Yellow Moon. They had other things though, so worth a browse on there too.

I hate when DS gets plastic tat but mostly because he loves it it does always end up broken/doesn't work properly and ends up in the bin. We've had mini bubbles though which are also popular.

CityBranch - I think, for the greater good, that you need to book the hall with no outside space. That way we will have glorious weather in May, and the rest of us will get to enjoy it while you kick yourself for not paying the extra and having an outdoor beach party

Party bags - if you are so inclined, then some appropriate fabric made into party bags (of which my dragon bags were an extreme example, which were all Blathers' fault for saying they needed tails) go down well. Ours tend to be filled with stuff they have made at the party, plus chocolate buttons and, if I can find some, an appropriate small cheap cuddly toy. Ones my DC have received and remembered have included seed kits, a football, an apron and a biscuit cutter (from a cooking party) - for some reason books don't seem to be a popular option round here .

I still maintain that the dragons tails was a genius addition and made the bags awesome :)

I have a problem - DS's party is on Sunday. DSis is now coming to visit on Saturday which will bet a serious dent in my cake making plans. If I make in on Friday will it still be OK do you think?

What cake recipe are you using?

The quick answer is yes, definitely. I try to give any cake which is going to be transported at least 24 hours between being finished and being moved, anyway.

Oh, and you were, of course, 100% right about the tails.

This one I think. I did a test cake last week and it was nice.

Going to layer it with chocolate frosting and cover with trex frosting to make it white. Got to dig out my edible glitter for the snow too