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

[stealthsquiggle]

Part 7 - link to previous one to follow!

Sorry about that, Blathers - I have been looking for the blooming thing all week. Now I need to find the "stuff pot" which DH has also hidden tidied - he got really grumpy when I said it wasn't where he said it was - because I think the cheapy rugby ball I ordered for DS to give to a friend in their "secret santa" has a puncture - which would mean I have to find 2 hours which I definitely don't have this weekend to go and swap it.

It's OK. I think the jelly things will work well anyway and it means I can justify buying them :)

Cake is done. house is still a tip. Why oh why are we having this party at home?

We need the option to include pictures on this thread! Would be so much easier than putting them in albums.

Why are you having the party at home? Cos the grinch said so, so he can tidy up .

Now that's the sort of thinking I like stealth

It went well-ish. Everybody said they had fun but I felt like I spent most of it trying to finish food in the kitchen. The pin the flag game didn't get done and we didn't even get around to pass the treasure chest until after the official end of the party and one child had gone home. DH did spyglass decorating which they seemed to like and treasure making went down well. The food all seemed popular too. I really wish we had a bigger house though as it was all rather cramped!

There is one shark infested jelly left and it has my name on it. All the bloody sharks turned belly up while the jelly set and sank to the very bottom despite me doing the jelly in 2 layers and letting the top layer cool before I pored it on! Ah well, no-one seemed to notice.

Ready for a nice long sleep now.

Sharks must have been snoozing. They snooze in some very interesting positions - DH has photos to prove it.

Teachers' cakes * 7 done, plus bags to pack them in, bag for DS to give his secret santa target (with rugby ball in) done. DD's Christmas cards done. My clothes in the wash. As soon as the are done I am off to bed.

Sorry guys i too have been busy with stuff, trailer for the xmas dvd, another dvd of dd1 telling a story for our story sacks course, christmas decorations to give as teacher gifts, a party today that was three hours long, swimming lessons and numerous elf of the shelf activities. Tonight i went to bed at 9pm and was shaken awake by dh telling me something. I said "a penguin in coming?!" He said no you idiot the elf needs doing!! So now i cant sleep cos he woke me!

Blathers the cake looks excellent, you gotta be pleased? Party sounds excellent, theres no crime in running out of time as it sounds fun filled! Although i want that jelly for meeeeeee.

DW Christmas is a full time job in itself in your house . I am never telling my DC - we have a scramble to fit advent calendars in .

That cake is the best treasure chest cake I have seen Blatherskite Sounds like all you guys have been having lots of fun!
I don't have any parties to plan til next May - current fave is Rainbow party (was thinking about it in bed last night!)

Thank you jetSTAR. I think I went a little OTT, it even had hinges on the back! No-one saw them obviously but they were there

DW and I have both done rainbow parties before. Just shout if you need any ideas. Rainbow cake is a must obviously and you need to decide whether to include blue into your rainbow jellies

I feel a bit bad about the cake actually. I posted a photo from my phone once it was done so stealth could see and carried on with party prep mania.

I logged onto Facebook from the PC later to find that a friend had posted a picture of a cake she'd made for her little girl - a treasure chest! Mine was slightly more involved! I hope I didn't upset her

Oops. On the whole, though, I think most people I know think I am nuts and are pretty philosophical about the different party/cake ethos.

So, got to hotel, went out for a stroll, first shop I ambled into - they have black jelly sharks (with white bellies) in their pick and mix.

My timing sucks, clearly.

Ha! Brilliant timing. I have a box full now though!

You didn't distribute them in party bags then? Your DC are going to be getting sharks and treats for ever more..

Sharks as treats

I gave big bag fulls to my brother and sister. They'll get eaten :)

I forgot to put gold dubloons in the party bags too. We have a few left

Maybe pirates stuff their Thank you letters with dubloons??

That is a genius idea!

Unfortunately, I am too organised for my own good and Thank you cards were given out/posted this morning

Bloody Hell, woman. I only posted DS's (early Nov birthday) Thank you letters this week (I am not sure if it makes it better or worse that they had been written for a while, and waiting for me to print and attach photos)

I decided that as nobody else did Thank you cards at all, I could do something really simple - so I wrote "Dear X, Thank you for coming to me party me hearty, the treasure you brought was super cool, Love from DD", added a picture of a parrot and printed off a load.

Easy. Done.

Ah - I am at the stage of standing over them/ threatening to send presents back unless they write decent messages . Most of their classmates do seem to do Thank you letters too, though, so I am not strange parent (in that regard, at least).

Actually, that's not fair - DD wrote hers this year all by herself with very little prompting, so I refrained from comment and posted them / handed them out unedited.

Ahhh see i too gave out thankyou letters last week in my xmas cards, i got dd to write a note saying thankyou for my...love dd1 with a picture that she drew, scanned it, copied it and then she only had to write 24(24!!!) notes of one word like money, jigsaw, thats plenty when your only just five isnt it?

But sending them early in xmas cards saves me postage.

You are right about xmas being a fulltime job here stealth. They have choc advent calenders, ive got a yankee candle one, then the elf on the shelf brings them a choc coin each day and a task or treat. Today he gave santa hats and told them to take an xmas photo. I put them into a bubbly bath gave them bubble beards n shoved the hats on quick. Now i have a photo to make the grandparents cards. Tomorrow the elf is poorly, he wanted to go to the school disco but he's ill in the dollshouse bed. He's left glosticks and flashing light hair extensions though.

And im still nowhere near finishing the bloody dvd which has now become a tradition with the grandparents all pressing fir it. Its not lengthy, think big brothers here are your best bits kinda montage but it takes foreveeeerrr.

well this is my sole effort at Christmas so far (close up here) and even that was inspired by something Blathers tweeted for me