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

[stealthsquiggle]

Part 7 - link to previous one to follow!

I will remember this lovely story when my pizza party ends up having possibly 4 under 2's dragged along too. Ive put a note on the invite and have said Pizza MAKING party to them. Dd1 doesnt want dd2 there even but im inclined to say no sorry shes your sister shes coming! Our good friends did some raised eyebrows when i said no siblings but TOUUGHHH, the amounts of parties ive thrown including the kids thanksgiving services and this is the first time ive restricted numbers!! Shooooo.

Ahhhh that felt good.

Is the puffy paint on yet stealth? My dad is rejigging my apron designs and ive ordered them now. Ink is ordered for the printer and i should be good to start next week. In fact i need some takeaway bags again..

I ended up with 2 younger siblings joining in. To be fair, I think they both had more fun pizza making than their older brothers!

How many bags do you need, DW? I needed 26 so ended up ordering 50

I would happily have siblings (most of them are lovely) if I could but the potter is a bit about the numbers as it is. However, since I have had one cancellation and am fully expecting another not to turn up, there should be plenty of room and food for one extra if I ever get as far as making food. Friend who is coming to help is bringing her almost-3yo and almost-1yo DDs too, so 3 "smalls" in total. I do think your DD1 will just have to lump it on DD2 being there, though (DD went to her first party aged 3 weeks - DS's 4th)

Puffy paint is on, but RL got in the way and I left it too long, so it won't puff, and a few of them somehow managed to stick to each other (probably when I was moving them all so that DD didn't see them - this whole "I want it to be a surprise" thing is becoming unsustainable).

The scrap store does take out bags now :)

I'm not even trying to hide DD's pirate ship mast. It's taller than me!

I sewed 35m of tie dye bunting last night [yawn]

Aprons hidden, cake trying to hide, toppers for fairy cakes for school tomorrow hidden, helium tank failing to hide in the back of my car...

It would be simpler if I just hid, I think.

Help! DS (6) has been invited to a Nerf Zone birthday party and I'm not sure I want him to go!

There isn't a huge amount of information on the website. All it says is "One hour of NERF Blaster fun including target range training plus combat quest in the giant-inflatables arena! A unique birthday party that’s a real blast!" and offers the "Chance to try a huge selection of Nerf Blasters in the Armoury"

Now it sounds like fun but I have a real aversion to guns and playing with guns. DS tells me it's all firing at targets but a) "Combat quest" sounds very much like firing at each other to me and b) given the birthday child and the boys I saw clutching invites, it will soon turn into firing at each other even if it wasn't meant to be.

Now, I know an adult who has just been through weeks of hospital treatment having been hit in the eye with a Nerf 'bullet' which might be making me extra twitchy but I still wouldn't like the guns element even if I didn't.

Things are also complicated by the fact that I am due to go away for a run that day. The party is over lunchtime and while I don't need to be at the run until 6pm, I do need to drive there (90 mins) and have time to get changed at the other end (halloween fancy dress) so I may very well be leaving around lunchtime and mega-shy DH will either have to drop him off and leave him or take DD with them.

Am I being way over protective? Should I let him go?

Oh Blathers I'm a bit torn on that. My dh has nigh on begged for a nerd gun to fire in the new back garden but I've got a real aversion to guns and my dd1 recently revealed she had no idea what a gun was when she asked why the local MOD troops were marching with sticks!

I just typed out I'd be letting him go, then I went back and deleted it all. The thing that pulls me is that whether we like it or not warfare games and rolling about in battle seems to inherently "boyish" to all the little 6/7 year old I know and so dare I say it's prob their idea of a fantastic party.

Stealth I can't wait to see the final photos of all this. I need 12 takeaway bags...?

Lol at typo nerd gun...nerf!

Hello there. Sorry to butt in on your lovely thread but I wondered if you might be able to lend me your creative brains for ideas for a puppy adoption party next weekend for my 4yo DD? So far I have some identical puppy toys on leads. I have planned:

• giving out puppies - treasure hunt?
• making collars - ribbon, stick on jewels, name tags
• decorate bag to put puppy in
• little "agility" course in the garden for them to do
• adoption certificates?
• colour in paper plate/ draw food to give puppy?
• maybe groom puppies (although their fur doesn't really brush)/ pretend to give injections etc

Haven't really thought about food/cake yet. I wondered about some kind of game involving maltesers and pretending it was dog poo - a step too far?!
I am not in the same league as you lot with your fab plans (am slightly in awe of you all actually). I am also now desperate to include those amazing marshmallow tea cups! I would be very grateful for any ideas - googling just shows me loads of mad expensive American parties and I'm not in that league either! TIA

DW I will post you 12 bags.

Blathers - I would let him go, but then my DC have nerf guns and DD is going to a laser quest party next weekend, and it doesn't seem to make either of them any more inclined to play "bang bang you're dead" sort of games, which I do loathe.

Right. Cake. I'm going in (will think about puppy party later)

Stealth i'll text you new address etc..

Reeves.

Firstly - interrupt, thats what we're here for!!

Secondly - Well done on coming to our thread with I think the most unique party we've seen yet! In sooo many threads thats got to be one of the best unique themes yet! I'm soo impressed.

Thirdly- how many kids are we talking about? Be prepared for us to fire ideas at you galore as we love a new theme.

I've just re-read your post, is this at home? Could you set up a little vets/dog grooming station and put a printer in it? That way they could do all the craft stuff etc and bring their dog to the vets for the injections check over and take a photo and print the adoption certificate that way they can choose its name etc.

If you make a dog groomers could you have a stash of ribbons? Mirror? Maybe thats where to take the photo then you can do thank you note "congratulations adopting spot" and include the photo with their dog.

Instead of a bag to decorate can you get some little cardboard boxes on ebay and make them into basic kennels drawn up/hole cut out then they can colour them in and write the name over the door etc?

Games : a version of simon says but with doggy instructions like, sit, beg, roll over etc..

I just read an idea of a feed the dog game make a big dog face with cut out mouth and do a bean bag toss into its mouth.

Food, hot dogs!! Obviously. biscuits like bones, paw print fairy cakes, sandwiches cut into bone shapes etc. the puppies can be fed cereal in a bowl.

Tellus more about your malteaser idea, my dd is nearly 5. She'd be thrilled with a dog poo game!

Is it really zero spend because the poundshop usually have lots of stuff for a pound obviously!

Pumpkins will be on offer at that time and i think i got two small ones for 2.00 last year for my girls. I'd focus purely on the table if i were u for minimal spend and maximum impact. Some food colouring in drinks will give a lurid effect for no money. Blathers is great for food theming if she comes along in a minute but if you can get sone cookie cutters you can do shaped sandwiches, cookies and fairy cakes or green jelly?

Wait for the others to come along cos my eldest dd is frightened of halloween so we dont do it.

Hello - sorry, being useless for the weekend as I can't think of anything except my own lists...

Doctorswife thank you for all those fab ideas. I love the idea of boxes and am trying to work out if they will fit in those lunch box ones on amazon. I think our printer is too temperamental to do printing mid party so I think I will print out certificates before and write the names on. I will definitely get pics of them with their puppies though, great, and I love all the food ideas.

Re Halloween I have done cupcakes with orange icing and then a face with black icing pen - if you google jack o lantern cupcakes there are some nice ones. And yes to the drink - you can put a tiny smidge of diff coloured food colouring in each cup and then fill with "magic" lemonade and each cup goes a different colour.

Good luck with your party stealth

So Oooh tired. Went well. Potter was fantastic and stuck around to the end of the party. I will update properly tomorrow and try and upload some photos.

Oh yes do come back and tell all!!

I need to upload some photos to Flickr album, but most of them are on my father's camera (being wielded by friend as my father was ill ) so I won't have them for a while. The potter was just amazing - he just mucked in, so much so that as DH said it was easy to forget that we were paying him to be there. Aprons, activity, and food were a success - including new "traditions" like stained glass window biscuit lollipops (and marshmallow teacups, which the boys seemed to really like ). We played a couple of riotous games of stuck in the clay and musical island with a shrinking brown paper island for them to all get on, which were chaos but fun. I am beyond shattered, but it went really well.

How are everyone else's plans going?

Oh stealth that all sounds brilliant.cant wait to see pics. Now, what have you got planned for ds?

Oh no hold on, hold on? How'd dd like the cake? I mean the pottery look as well as the reveal? In fact how'd she like it all as you tried so hard to surprise her.

Ive had such a stroke of luck. DD is on a particular table in school and in a double/adjoining room classroom her and her group are in one room six of them. And the remaining 25ish are in the other room. I was a bit concerned at first but it transpires they are given extra work/challenges! So anyway, i digress.

She keeps saying she wants her table.fine. But then keeps choosing random girls that i know are all part of little cliques of their own. I told her we'll invite just her table as thats the fairest way than cherry picking random children. Then, this week one girl she likes on the table was swapped with another boy. I told her she'll have to invite him as she cant exclude one child from her table. She was really annoyed and kicking up a fuss that she wanted the previous child too. Then the new childs mum revealed they are jehovahs witness and could i not invite him please!! See! God smiled at me cos i had the vicar round for tea i tell thee!!

So, invites are made in mini pizza boxes with the invite inside the lid and a jelly pizza in them. Dd wants to go house to house in a chefs hat and tash to deliver them!! I've had my aprons delivered and they are flimsy as hell and the neck straps are too long but you know what i dont care for 1.70 each. Need to get fil to print them.

I was gonna make choc pizzas, i have a 4" pizza mould but only one as it was about 4.00. And now im thinking how do i make 10 4" choc pizzas with just one mould whilst keeping choc melted. Unless i make them in batches by melting individiual portions of choc buttons?

Mammoth post sorry.

Wheres blathers? X

I think you will have to make pizzas individually, DW - how long have you got? Your party bags are packed up and I will post them tomorrow.

DD loved the cake as it was, and was thrilled when she saw the inside. I don't think many people "got" that it went with my rainbow tie-dye aprons and bunting, but never mind eh.

Lots of people still talking about the party today, which is good - DD kept saying "Thank you for everything, Mummy" last night before she started wailing about not wanting me to go to work/away this week so I think I met her objectives.

DS wants to take 2 friends to do "proper" pottery (a half or full day depending how generous I am feeling), so other than that we will do a family meal at some point and I might get carried away doing applique aprons for the 3 of them.