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

[stealthsquiggle]

Part 7 - link to previous one to follow!

Excuses, excuses, Blathers.

Now remind me. Lego. Home. What else? How's the Lego cake plan going?

Home. 3 friends plus DS. After school on a Monday. Plan so far is kids arrive and build Lego model (4 bought, will wrap in paper and they choose and build) Then food. Then time to play Minecraft.

Not exciting from a party planning point of view but is exactly what DS wants.

Need a minecraft/lego cake and decorations. Maybe food ideas. Lego model and sweets will form party bags. Already ordered little clear cubes to fill with red liqorice sticks to become Minecraft TNT - littleblueegg.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/IMG_32691-300x225.jpg

Minecraft TNT

Looks good. I found some more stuff last night but my phone wouldn't let me link. On my way to Blatherstown now.

You're here!! Busy all day?

Potentially not, but I am sure you have plenty of stuff to do!

I can always make time for you stealth!

Lovely to see you and DD, Blathers.

How about this cake?

I like the popcorn

blue jelly a must!

I can't find the bags I had last night (I will look again) but the ones on here are quite cool too and I like her "cut anything into cubes"" approach to food.

AhHa!

these are the ones that I found last night.

I don't want to go crazy with food as I think all they'll really want to do is get on with playing on the Xbox. I think good old pizza might be the way forward. I am open to the idea of making little square pizzas though

I still need to find a way of mashing together Minecraft and Lego for the theme. Maybe I could just do a "DS" party as it is all of his favourite things once we add in the pizza?

You could do a cake like that one with the hama beads and throw in some sugar paste Lego bricks as well?

I like the jelly water cubes

Hi all, i'm in need of some help! I posted about 6 months ago when my DD decided she wanted a Zog party for her birthday and you came up with loads of great ideas. The party is going to be next weekend so I only have 9 days to finish everything off - eek!

There will be 25-30 children at the party so it may be a little manic! (Mostly 3 and 4 year olds but a few younger siblings as well).

The plan is for children to arrive - balloons, music, colouring in some zog pictures.

When everyone (or most people) are here we will read the book in stages and do a craft/game for each of the dragon lessons.

Learning how to fly - everyone gets dragon wings (cut out of card, reinforced in the middle and elastic threaded through some holes) and we play musical statues (flying rather than dancing, and stopping before they bump into a tree)

Learning how to roar - a game of "What's the time Madam Dragon?" "Roaring time"

Learning how to blow - i've put together some kits for everyone to make fire breathing dragons out of toilet rolls, pom poms, wiggle eyes.

Capturing a princess - i've made a castle (still need to paint it) from a big box that we had. Loads of windows so it looks a bit like a block of flats. I've then made lots of princess peg dolls (will finish them tonight) so they can sit in the windows. The children will go on an "obstacle" course and capture a princess from the castle (by obstacles, just things to run round and jump over, possibly crawling under a table).

Then party tea - white lunch boxes with a red cross on them so they look like medical bags plus cake.

Last lesson, learning how to fight - I've got some cardboard swords from Baker Ross along with lots of stickers and gems so that they can decorate them. I need to finish painting the swords - tomorrow's job!

Party over, everyone goes home before they start fighting with the swords. I haven't got party bags but instead will give out some medals with a gold star on one side. Then tidy up, go home and have a very large drink to recover!

The part I'm stuck on is the cake. I'm thinking of a cake with a fondant zog topper on it (I think I can do something like this gruffalo tutorial - zog is just a gruffalo with wings). Then maybe some "golden stars" bursting out of the cake on wire. But what else? I don't want to do something too complicated but a single zog figure sitting on a cake will look a bit odd......

I want a Zog party now . It sounds fantastic and you will be needing that drink by the end

I wouldn't advise telling any passing dragons that they are "just Gruffalos with wings" though (and get some flower paste/ gum paste for the aforementioned wings, or they will collapse [bitter experience])

Looking at pictures, when not flying into trees, Madam Dragon's academy seems to be in a sandy clearing, so I think I would make the whole cake sand-coloured (and maybe add soft light brown sugar for texture) and scatter fondant rocks around. Add Zog, stars, DD's name and maybe a medical bag (since it is Zog that carries it) and I think the cake would look "busy" enough.

Thanks Stealth, that sounds like a great idea. I bought some flower paste when I was out this morning as I thought I would probably need it. How far in advance do you think I can make the zog, rocks, etc? I'd like to try to do them early next week (party is on Sunday) so that I'm not under any time pressure (and to come up with a Plan B if all goes wrong.....) I was going to make the cake itself on Friday and ice Saturday.

I will keep quiet about the similarities between Zog and the Gruffalo

I would do wings now, Zog and his rocks as soon as you want - sugarpaste/fondant/whatever will last happily for weeks and weeks in a dry place (not the fridge).

Hello

Thanks for your help so far with my under the sea party. I have spent ages browsing the web etc, and introduced myself to the world of pinterest!

These are my ideas so far - though having just read about the Zog party, I am thinking of chucking it all in and nicking that! (must remember I have two boys coming up behind this DD...). Can you cast your expert eyes over them and see if I am being daft about anything, or you have more great ideas? Am very grateful...

So, there should be about 20 kids there. Age 4 and 5 (plus 2.5 year old and couple of 3 year olds). It is in a village hall type place. There is a main room which is quite big (10.5m x 7.5m) with big windows down two sides, and then a little yard adjacent.

For decorations, I am planning:

• blue net over the windows (at least on the sunniest side)
• jellyfish made from paper lanterns and streamers hanging down
• maybe a shower curtain with fish on it somewhere
• balloons - I would like to fill a net with balloons and attach it to the ceiling, then let it down in Happy Birthday song, but I need to go and look at the hall and figure out if that would be possible. If not, then balloons on streamers coming down from ceiling like bubbles
• blue tablecloths for party tea.

My thinking on a plan is:

1. Mask colouring/ decorating (have bought sea creature masks). (I decided against painting treasure chests because of potential mess and problems getting them dry enough to take home).

1. When kids finished masks - hunting in sandpit for treasure (little plastic sea creatures, placky jewellery), and "diving for pearls" - apple bobbing. Is this OK? Am conscious some kids won't be that bothered about spending time on colouring, whilst others might want to spend hours... I am thinking that 1 and 2 could be done in the outside yard bit, then go inside.

1. Silly dancing with masks on - dance like a crab, fish, shark, jellyfish, penguin, pirate with a wooden leg etc. Could be musical statues too.

1. Walking the plank. I was wondering about embellishing this, so they walk the plank, and when they get to the end, they rummage in a treasure chest full of props and dress someone up e.g. as a pirate/ mermaid? could then do in two teams. Either a kid can offer to dress up, or we can get adults to look silly. Will this take too long though, if we have 2 teams of ten? Will kids not immediately doing something get bored? If so, maybe add walk the plank to item 2?

1. Hungry sea monster (like grandmother's footsteps)

1. Pin the shark fin/ mermaid crown. Was thinking of having two of these on the go at once to shorten waiting time.

1. Pass the parcel. It isn't a proper party for my DD without this!

1. Party tea. I think I will do normal sandwiches/ crisps etc, but make some starfish biscuits/ fishy cakes (seen some lovely ones with smarties as scales). And I need initiation into the blue jelly cult... how does it work?

1. Birthday cake / song and net full of balloons descending (if that isn't wishful thinking)

10. Playing with balloons. Maybe bubbles too. Maybe a piñata if I get enough time to make the really cool one I have seen.

Is that going to fill 2 hours? What else do I need to do? Is 4 family adults (including me and my DH) plus hopefully a couple of willing other mums/ dads going to be enough to run it?

Thank you!

Lynx that sounds fantastic. I wouldn't be worried about not having enough to do, that sounds like loads.

Right, DD and DP went to the shops and park this morning leaving me to play with cake stuff. I've made an orange gruffalo and left the wings and tail to harden separately over the next few days. It does look like zog although I should have made his nose pointy. I've also made rocks and stars. The rest of the cake can wait until Friday. Princesses finished last night, just need to finish the swords and castle.

Lynx you have plenty there. Unless you have lots of adult volunteers then I would keep it simple - st that she a fair amount of anarchy will result (DD's lot were 6 before they really knew how to play relay type games, although they were impressively good at it then). Decor sounds amazing - how much net do you have? Could you net the whole ceiling??

at that age... anarchy. Not whatever my phone wrote

Hiya

Thanks. The net is 6 x 1.5 m so won't cover whole ceiling. It is just plant support netting from pound land! I need to get it out and check if it is actually fit to do anything. If not, my parents might have something as they do lots of gardening - don't want to spend a fortune on something... But it would be cool to cover the whole ceiling. I could go and get another one or 3 from pound land if it looks ok and even tack it together... Hmmmm...

Sorry to pester - but - blue jelly secrets???

Cheers.

Blue jelly is Blather' and DrsWife's speciality - I have yet to find an excuse to use it. I believe the secret is just in the sourcing, though...

this is the stuff you need, although I have no idea if this is the supplier they use.

Blathers - square marshmallows?

Oh thank you