Shirley's Party Advice Part 7 - how did they all get so big...

[stealthsquiggle]

Part 7 - link to previous one to follow!

Thats all brilliant Blathers! Sounds like your mojo is back!

What's left to do?

Ive finished the cakes, inflated giant pizza slice balloons, labelled and filled all the party bags, i'm going to wrap that pizza playdough set just in case the games run short.

I'm going to wrap all DD's presents tonight and make up her new surprise desk and chair.

Our elf on the shelf is due to arrive on the 1st so tecnically i'll have about five days grace between dd1 birthday and advent to indulge in some planning for dd2. Really thinking of doing the playdoh party or going the whole hog and doing full messy play..

Left to do:
Put on extra coat of brown on the spy glasses, paint woodgrain and gold bands
Paint the mast that I've just made brown. That will need wood grain too and then it needs yellow ball pool balls adding for the finials.
Sew sails
Make boat surround for table
Sew loot bags
Finish treasure chest
Make cake
Make shark infested jelly
Make food
Make sails for hot dogs and jellies
Fill treasure chest
Make pin the spade bits

Off the top of my head...

Jewels and elastic are ordered as is Jake bunting. I need to buy the sharks for the jelly. I've got 2 local sweet shops I can check on Monday otherwise I'm going to have to get a big tub from Ebay. I'm going to use jelly whales rather than sharks as a) the kids won't know the difference and b) they're grey and will show up in blue jelly when blue sharks wouldn't. I thought I might get some jelly crocodiles to put on the top next to the orange segment boat and give the boats Hook's ships sail.

Stealth for fun i spent an hour looking at messy play ideas and found crayon shaped balloons on oriental trading three for under two dollars. Just as you came home!!

Blathers can you finish your mast and spyglasses tonight watching telly?

I've already done the last coat of brown on the spyglasses. Am now weighing up putting a yellow coat on before the gold to make them a bit more disney looking.

I've also put another coat on the chest.

Just remembered I need to paint the flag too. I wanted the JanNP skull and crossbones or at least something very cartoon-ish so I ordered a plain black flag with the intention of painting my own as I couldn't find anything suitable.

Blathers this is a neat way of doing bags without faffing around threading ribbons through (I hate that job, although FC may have a special threading thingy for me which he bought in the US).

DW - blooming typical. I am going again, but too late for DD2's birthday, I think (late Feb, IIRC).

I'm torn between saving myself the faff of threading ribbons through when making them and saving myself the faff of having to tie the ribbons every 5 minutes for DD once I give one to her.

You could always make one with a threaded ribbons for DD

Good idea :)

Damn it stealth yes shes early feb birthday.

Blathers does it absolutely have to be this fabric bevause if you made them from felt you could snip buttonholes along the top seam and weave a ribbon in and out.

Or just wonderweb them! No sewing channels then. I made three huge drawstring bags on my sewing machine ...you know the argos one that died. One was double lined and they took me half hour max and thats cos i had no frigging idea. The pirate dress i made for dd2 was the same principle except it had armholes took about an hour to sew by hand. You can do this!!

And a jake flag although last time i googled the jake flag my phone was bombarded with a site called "local sluts" which always nice

Im off to our party in an hour. Dd1 has dissolved into tears, shes had excitement all day and just erupted!! Its my faukt cos i timed the party for teatime knowing that she'll finish there, friends presents, bed and wake up to her birthday but its too much for a five year old to wait all day for a party ut seems.

I am returned from the pizza party!

Firstly im exhausted. It went so so well. One child didnt eat as they didnt like the food etc but it was fine. We completely overran as the kids were having a great time.

Im so glad i made all the stuff i did though because pizza express really dont give you anything other than a certificate. Ive already had messages from people saying they cant believe the effort i'd gone to, and that the party bags were the best they've ever had. So another Shirley thread success I'd say.

Tomorrow its the family tea and presents etc. its been sooo much nicer doing the party on a different day to the actual birthday.

Well done DW - job well done. My DC look forward to party day almost more than birthday itself, but I agree it's a lot easier if they are different days.

I had a disturbingly realistic drug induced dream in the 3 hours sleep I got last night. Amongst other things it involved me meeting Blathers' DH at the conference I am going to today. It was so real that I almost packed he little skull and crossbones mould this morning so that I could give it to him .

Ha ha ha The scary thing is - that could really happen one day! I'd be so jealous!

Good news on the pizza party DW. I still get told that the one I did was the best party some of the parents have been to! but yes, you do need to provide extras as the party itself is fairly basic. Good for us though

Right, talk to me about pirate sweets. I'm going to make a treasure chest cake and stuff it with sweeties and then put some extras in the party bags. I've got jelly rings and candy necklaces and lots of chocolate coins but whet else could I use? Do I pay out for proper edible gems or shall I just go with fruit pastilles or similar?

I may need to save some money as I have my heart set on jelly whales for the 'shark infested jelly' but aquarterof are out of stock which leaves me looking at buying a whole tub of them for almost £8 from ebay!

I assume he's not actually at a conference in London today? I even thought of it when the train stopped at Blatherstown Central this morning.

Go for fruit pastilles. Gems are expensive and end up looking grubby because they show every fingerprint really badly.

Not today. You're safe :)

Thanks for the reassurance on the gems. The kids aren't going to car are they and it'll save me about a tenner which I can then spend on jelly whales

Right, as much as I hate gender stereotyping, I've bought the boys a little ball that looks like a globe each to replace the hair clips the girls are getting. Neither have enough hair to need clips anyway

They're also getting whoopie cushions rather than necklaces. I bought those a while ago for reasons I can now not fathom. I know DS thinks they're hilarious but I hate them.

All pirates love a good whoopie cushion and it will get them out of your house

Almost. One of the boys is DS.

Thats mafe me laugh blathers!

Im so so so tired, we've been up since 5.30am, dd has played with nothing of her presents other than wait for it...facepaints!! We had a family tea and she painted all her grandparents, dd2 and me. Ive never laughed so much she painted mil with a complete brown face as a rabbit. She looked like a miner!

So shes in bed now listening to her new paddington story cd on her new cd player. So thats it now, another birthday done and dd2 to plan for now.

It sounds like she's had a lovely time. Well done Mummy :)

It occurred to me today that boiled sweets were probably even more jewel like than fruit pastilles. Going for one last hunt for jelly whales and crocodiles tomorrow and then I'll have to order them online!

Oh and just to distract me when I get going - DS needs a top for 'Christmas jumper day' at school! They want us to buy them a special christmas jumper and donate to the charity of the day! DS would never wear any of the ones I've seen through either embarrassment or overheating so I'm making him one. I've got a bright cheap stripey, long sleeved top from M&M this morning and have cut a tree from felt. Going to buy some 'baubles' tomorrow (hoping to find some mini jingle bells), some tinsel-ly ribbon and will pick up some battery powered fairy lights. I'm just going to tack the finished tree to the front of the shirt so that I can remove it afterwards and he can wear it again.

My DC each in turn owned a plain red jumper which I tacked a green felt Christmas tree onto for "Christmas jumper" purposes. Same jumper, same tree, 4 years apart [cheapskate]

DW - it sounds as though DD1 has had a wonderful birthday. What is even better is that she will remember this one, for sure.

DS got to spin out his birthday a bit more at the weekend by sharing a lunch and cake with DB2, who is exactly 3 times his age . They both liked the piano cake, even if it did cost me a night's sleep.

Talking of which....bedtime!