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!

Like a patch.

Hello, looking for some advice on a Cowboys/wild west party for my DS 5th birthday. It's the first time we've done a party outside of family and it'll be whole class at a community centre with entertainer. Need easy ideas for cold food, as extra costs involved in using oven at centre (rules out sausages and beans etc). It is worth doing anything other than usual sandwiches crisps token vegetables biscuits cakes etc? Was thinking about sandwiches cut out as stars as sheriffs badges. Have looked on Pinterest but it all looks very professional!

Hello glad you came gladyoucame.

Do you only need help on the food or the whole thing?

For food me personally i prefer making up lunchboxes especialky for large numbers. For a cowboy theme i'd put lunches into brown paper bsgs american lunch stylie, in fact i'd get double and do party bags with brown bags as loot tied up like a sack.

It would be good if you could serve them a bottled drink so they grab their bag and bottle. And the obligatory milkybar! Lunch i'd have done american theme like you say of hot dogs, beans etc but if you really cant warm stuff then yes sandwich etc. i'd maybe do milk and oreo cookies as thats quite american too. Blathers is great at food theming she'll be along tomorrow i should think. When is the party?

I haven't tried this yet, but I saw a suggestion recently for hotdogs that might work if you a wide mouth flask (depending on numbers) - you can cook hotdogs at home then keep them warm in a flask. They may or may not have said to put them in hot water but I can't remember...

Party not till May. Entertainer will keep them amused and do some activities based on cowboys in attempt to not just blindly copy a superheroes party at same hall with same entertainer (it's all DS has takes about and basically wanted exactly the same).

Have found downloadable party invites as need to get invites out before Easter holidays. Need want some help on decorations as room is very new and quite big, don't have that long to decorate. I work ft and am away with work for two days before party. Also party bags (shudder) happy to buy online but costs already mounting...

The party is done. I could now sleep for a week but I need to go to another party!

I will come back and post later if I can keep my eyes open. Zzzzzz

Thank you.

Do you think the DIY eton mess and cake will be ok for pudding?

Lilibet thats perfect for pudding. You could do maybe a choc sauce/fudge pieces for anyone who'd prefer a chocolatey mess? If you're worried about choice.

Gladyoucame. If you're really snowed under for party bags i'd buy cowboy hats/sheriff badges that they can wear at the party but take home. That way everyone looks the part but had something decent to go with? If thats pushing the budget too far just do the tried and tested cone of sweets. For simple decoration i'd get loads of red gingham table cloths or fabric if its cheaper and ideally some haybales. Do benchlike seating around a big long table.

red check tablecloth here

gold star balloon weights/balloon

personalise the sherrif badges

Haybales are about 3-4.00 on ebay but you'd need to check for collection.

Looking at cowboy hats they are quite a bit each! What i'd do is get some tubs of pick and mix from a cash and carry or suchlike. Mark bags up as loot and let them scoop some up for their party bag. Minimal effort for you.

loot bags

In fact these have gold coins in which could work even better. Bag them up in advance. Home bargains have choc couns for about 59p each or you can but choc coins online. That'll make it dirt cheap, brown paper bags n choc couns. You'll need to print the bags up though.

Jesus im sorry about typos. I must have sausages for fingers.

TheDoctorsWife thanks for some great ideas. Will spend this evening googling!

You could approach a local appliance shop and see if you could get a massive box to turn into a jail too? Somewhere for you to hide from the kids at least

I have had a go at personalising a plant pots (plastic) with a sharpie pen and have decided it look pants!
Maybe just a plain pot is ok? I was thinking could put some stickers in the party bag for the children to decorate their own pot when they get home. Maybe I'm just trying to make it too hard for myself but wanted it to be different/unusual!

Slp yellowmoon do paint your own plant pots here

I dont know if you've seen on pinterest but you can apparently use sharpie on ceramic and bake it to fix it.

cowboy hats for £1.95 each?

Lilibet - what sort of decorations are you thinking of? These paper lanterns are my current (as in I really, really want to do it) favourite thing. Combined with tissue paper pompoms they are very trendy, and could be done in pretty much any colour you like. What time of year are we talking about (sorry, you probably said)? It would be lovely to extend the same decorations outside as well - with some LED tealights in the lanterns, maybe?

Assuming the fruit will be in season, I think the DIY eton mess is a lovely idea - that way everyone can have the balance they like.

Those cowboy hats/easter stuff i saw in poundworld the ither day(nit sure if its different to poundland?) but saw them in there if its easier to run in store to grab them but bravo stealth thats the cheapest i've seen for a hat that wasnt plastic.

And i second those decorations i made the pompoms with dd1 when she was 3 so v v easy.

Who is doing seaside parties? I have lost track clearly I would never make a party planner in RL as I am too disorganised

Anyway, if you have the patience to deal with their international shipping processes (not great) or a friend/relation in the US who could ship stuff on to you, there are some bargains to be had here

Where's blathers gone?

She flopped in exhausted and left but we've had no party update

Last seen on FB making Easter bonnets. But no party update there either [sulk]

I'm here. Just had a bit of post-party fatigue (made worse by the fact that DD has was getting up at 4-5am all weekend!) and had nothing useful to add to the thread.

Sledging went really well. One little girl was a bit nervous of the slope - it is quite high once you get to the top! - and spent the whole session going down on DH's lap but she was so happy afterwards that she's asked her Dad (who was with me watching from the gallery) if she can go again so she must have had fun. Only one little boy got off early and that was because he'd got soaking wet feet and was freezing. Quite how he managed to get wet feet through salaupets (sp?) and snowboots, I'm not sure but he was fine when he got warm again. I'm glad I took more than one spare set of clothes too as DS got a wet bottom and one of the girls got absolutely sopping wet too. She'd been sent in jeans and wellies and the wellies had about an inch of water in the bottom of each one and it took two of us to peel her jeans off! I saw her Mum yesterday who said she had meant to send her with spare clothes like I'd said in my note that Stealth helped me write, but had forgotten. The only thing we didn't use was the spare gloves

Hand warmers went down a treat and they were all excited to be able to take them home and the cake was a hit too. I haven't had any but I'm told the inside tasted very good which is a relief. Nothing worse than a cake that looks great but tastes awful.

I've been told by a few parents that the kids were raving about it for the rest of the day so I'm counting it as a party-win.

Easter bonnet is now done ready for tomorrow. I was going to make something with DD but after seeing the efforts some of the mums kids went to with the fundraising smarties tube creations, I decided to take charge I'll stick a photo up later.