Shirley's party advice part 6 - don't be afraid to interrupt us!

[Tinkerisdead]

Okay, this is shirley's party advice part 6. Shirley ducked out a while ago and you'll notice us chatting about all kinds of stuff whilst we wait for party planners to barge in.

So, don't lurk, jump in and chat. We'll give you any advice on parties from costumes to cakes....

I feel your pain Poppy - as you can probably tell from my frantic posts about cake!!

Personally, I would do as you just said, I call it a 'food table' and I do have tables and chairs for the DC to eat together - it's nice and social and makes for good photos. The cake is the centrepiece of the food table for me.
The parents hang around the DC, ensuring they eat and don't make a mess and embarrass them! hehe Then everything is contained as it possibly can be and tidying is easier than just having them eat wherever.

I have been to parties where the platters are put in front of the children, but IME some DC can be 'excited' and grab too much food and not eat it and it makes a mess too.

Can't cancel it as it's been despatched! That's the reason I checked, I ordered it at 11pm and had an email early hours saying it had been sent. So I thought 'hang on a minute.........' and yes, it's from China. I am a genius!
I can't find a cake supply shop near me! How terrible is that?

I've just done the maths (not my strong point so I could be wrong) but capes for 19 and masks for 21 children comes to @£1.50 each!!!
I just need to find the material now......... lol
I'm making I hope some nicer capes for DSs so I still have bits to get for those but I think that's really good going for me! Now some paper bags to decorate and the cake and party bags are done!

I am refusing to acknowledge that I actually need to make the capes and masks yet

Thanks for replying Nonsense especially when you've to so much to organise. I'm luckily having cake made by a friend.

I just imagine the food table to be like a scrum with 25 adults & 25 kids all trying to get the food & eat it in the 20 minutes so I can just see it being wasted & like a food version of a jumble sale.

I was hoping we'd have a few parties before ours so I could pinch some ideas but ours has fallen first so worried we'll be the chaos & disaster that everyone chooses not to copy

Capes & masks sound fab! Might have to work my way up to something so adventurous in next few years!

Poppy - just split things onto smaller plates and put them at intervals along the table - so 4 small plates of sandwiches instead of 1 large one. It will be fine, and is the norm for parties round here.

It's hard going first .

Sorry - x-posted and hadn't seen your last post, Poppy. For under 3's yes., a side table - just say cheerily to parents "you know what your DC will eat, so I will leave you to sort them out"

In truth, most of them probably won't eat much at all at that age. Somewhere between 5 and 7 they go straight from eating hardly anything at parties to being a swarm of locusts.

Thanks again. I feel like I'm being thick because I can't get my head around it!!

Just had email confirming we can have access to hall for 40 minutes before party (was originally 15) so will prepare all food at home & transport it in boxes/tubs then can plate it up before party starts while DH sets up room. I've drawn him a plan so no excuses for getting it wrong while I'm not able to supervise.

I like the idea of smaller plates of everything then I could dot it all over the table & just let them help themselves. I know my DC would just sit there looking helpless.

A friend has given me some little plastic pots with lids today so tempted to fill them with fruit & veg sticks and do enough for each child then they can help themselves to sandwiches, crisps & biscuits.

My mind is spinning & keep changing my plan every few seconds so with 2 weeks before this party I could be doing a roast dinner by then

I'll let you know how I get on.... Thanks again.

Nonsense you could always resell it .

Poppy - deep breaths and tea are called for. I will come back to this later - flat out with work panic today.

Poppy, your plan sounds perfect and exactly the type of thing I have been to and I provide. My food table is usually quite big as I feed so many but it's only 6 dishes on repeat! The fruit & veg sounds like a good idea as it also keeps it a bit fresher.
Honestly, the DC won't have a clue what to do, but the parents will have been to plenty of functions where they form an orderly queue at the table to get their food.

With regards to your mind spinning and your plan changing; welcome to my world! I don't think that will ever change for me either. I always second guess myself and am in search of something 'better' than what I have come up with so far.
Last year I planned a Gruffalo party, outside, whilst pregnant with my third. I had my DD 10 days late, on her brothers 3rd birthday, and we all went to the party the following day and the DC are still talking about it now. It's all down to the planning. And a great DH in my case!

Just thought - If you now have your hands on some pots for the fruit & veg, could the lunchboxes now be do-able? All you would need is sandwich bags which are super cheap (I don't know what else you are planning on feeding them) but a tube-type yogurt would be perfect and I can't see littlies eating much more than that tbh. You could put in a packet of crisps for the older ones (SIL gets a huge amount of 'snax' I think they're called from a 99p store).
Then you can do the boxes at home and spend the whole 45 minutes making the place look gorgeous! Hand out the mini rolls at the end and voila - party food is done!

I left a message a few weeks ago to say I was thinking about having a rainbow theme party for my daughters joint party in September. I have the hall and bouncy castle booked but my eldest daughter now has her heart set on a despicable me / minion party so any suggestions would be so helpful.

My friend is going to make cakes so I've been googling ideas for that. I also found someone online who made party bags out of plain yellow paper bags, blue card for clothes and printed out pictures of the eyes so I thought something like that would be good. Other than this though, I'm stuck.

Poppy, the party I did for my daughters last year was just like what you're planning. We had the one, long table and I just set out a plate and a drink at each space then had all the plates and bowls of food spread up the table so they could help themselves.

Sayhello - my Pinterest feeds are full of Despicable Me party ideas at the moment - I will link to some. I was discussing with DS this morning (as you do) how the absolute definition of OTT party would be to make mini minions out of tic tacs

Who is planning Hawaiian parties? I have lost track, but I saw this table skirt and thought of you..

Of course, why didn't I realise that the party boxes are do-able now, that's great idea & makes more sense to me. Thank you so much, you have all been amazing help!

Just off to buy sandwich bags & party food boxes now & I'm all sorted.

I feel loads happier now that's decided & I've even managed to buy party outfits for the DC's today so everything coming together nicely.

Got a feeling I might be back for more advice in next 2 weeks, I'm sure I'll suddenly panic over something silly!

to everyone for helping

minion bowling and pin the goggles on the minion

I like the hats

T shirts and decor are cool

sayhello - your friend who is doing the cake - how good is she/he? Only I have somewhere a mail from cakecentral.com with a roundup of their favourite despicable me cakes.... [evil grin]

Thank you so much for these, I was struggling and thinking about watching the film again for more ideas. I especially love the bowling, hats and the box of shame!! Would never have thought of any of that.

I think she's pretty good at cakes, I'm seeing her this week and was going to go over ideas with her so if you have any photos / ideas then that would be brilliant :)

Poppy - looking forward to hearing the plans as they develop.

I just spent more than I care to admit on rubber stamps for making DD's pottery party invitations. I have a very full basket waiting at Baker Ross for them to send me a better offer than free postage (I think they owe me one given the number of recommendations they get on these threads ) so you will see me go into my own full on overthinking panic mode in September.

here you go despicable me cakes galore

LOVE all those minion cakes, I'll show her some photos and see what she says! Think I'll order some plain yellow party bags and start making some minions.

such cute mini minions I suspect they are made from twinkies, but I am sure if you perused the cake aisle in a supermarket you could find something that would work.

Just popping my head in as back from holiday. I'll catch up properly when kids go to bed. Stealth when is dd's party?

Hello, DW. How was the rest of the holiday?

DD's party is mid October but I know when we get back from our holiday, between getting DC back to school and work stuff, September will be gone before I know it.

October, I'd have had the whole lot made and stashed in crates waiting by now so no excuses needed with me buddy!

Oh and MIL came for last 4 days of holiday and totally took the shine off it.