By terren in Virginia
Last week, I attended the Fall Festival at my daughter’s elementary school and had a great time. The festival consisted of the children being able to dunk their principals into the tank filled with water. Pony rides, hayrides, inflatables, and a maze were available outside, and tables were set up for tattoos and mini manicures on the inside of the building. Throughout the two-hour event, a cakewalk and silent auction of themed-gift baskets took place. However, two of my favorite areas were the disco room and the decorated pumpkins display.
The disco room was set-up in the music room. The lights were turned off to create authenticity, and a colorful strobe light was the biggest illumination in the room, besides the glow necklaces and bracelets some children wore. The music was fun and upbeat, so many children who were headed to the outdoor activities had to stop and wiggle their bodies first. As soon as the children walked into the room, they were on the dance floor. The disco room was the only room my daughter visited twice while we were there.
If I had gone to the event alone, I would have spent most of my time looking at the pumpkins. They were phenomenal! The pumpkins on display were decorated by the students and their teachers. When seeing the pumpkins, however, I got the feeling that the teachers did most of the work. My daughter’s class created Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head pumpkins. They painted two pumpkins brown and added what seemed to be the actual parts from the toys: eyes, eyebrows, mouths, ears, and so forth. They were adorable. Another class had created the monster from Where the Wild Things Are, and it looked exactly like him, fuzzy hair and all. One class decorated about fifteen miniature pumpkins to look like students reading books in a classroom and a larger pumpkin to look like the teacher. These pumpkins were not just decorated with paint, but with various accessories such as wigs, feathers, glasses, and clothes. My favorite pumpkin creation was based on the book Recess Queen, according to my daughter. The class used a huge pumpkin to make the head of Mean Jean and topped it off with black hair and a crown. The pumpkin girl also wore a red jumper.
Both the disco room and pumpkin decorating can be used at celebrations other than a fall festival. The disco room would be fun at a birthday party for young children or a pajama party. Whereas decorating pumpkins at a fall birthday party or a fall celebration would be a hit with guests of all ages be a hit.
October 31st, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Season Celebrations, Tips | Comments (0)
Photograph by photographix.ca
Taking photographs at your child’s birthday party is essential. You’ll want to have the special day captured on film, so you, your family, and your child can enjoy remembering the excitement of the day. Below are a few picture tips for your child’s birthday party.
1. You should always have a designated photographer at your child’s birthday party. Ideally, the photographer shouldn’t be you. You should be free to enjoy your child’s birthday party without worrying about taking pictures. If someone else is photographing the event, you should end up with a few pictures with you in them and even a few with you and your child.
2. Using a digital camera allows for some keepsake possibilities. If you own a computer printer or a picture printer, photos can be printed before the party is over. Your photographer can take a group photograph and print a copy for each child. Before your guests leave, you can give everyone a picture before the party ends. The photograph can be placed in a mini photo album or in a picture frame. You can even have the children decorate picture frames, and then put the group photo in the frame. Each child will have his or her own decorated party favor to take home. If you don’t want to give out picture frames or photo albums, you can make a label on your computer that says, “Thanks for coming to my birthday party.” Once the pictures have printed, place the label on the back of the picture.
3. Having disposable cameras in a bowl or placed around the birthday party area is fun for children of all ages. They’ll enjoy taking pictures of the party and will get shots that many adults wouldn’t think of taking. You can have a designated bowl near the front door, so the cameras can be dropped in it before your guests leave. If you don’t want to use the disposable cameras during the party, kids will enjoy taking one home with them as a party favor.
Finally, always make sure that at least one camera is ready for your child’s birthday party. You don’t want to miss a great photo opportunity because you didn’t charge your camera or didn’t buy any film or a new card the day before the birthday party.
October 16th, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Birthday Parties, Party Planning, Tips | Comments (0)
by David Sifry
If you love oceans, the beach, and seashells, you’ll enjoy planning a Mermaid Party. You can reference Disney’s The Little Mermaid for inspiration and even for party supplies. However, using your own passion for the “sea” create an underwater paradise.
1. Make an underwater paradise. Decorate your party area using blue and green decorations. Hang up different color fish. You can make these yourself or purchase precut fish shapes. If you have seashells, display them around the party area. Create an ocean picture on the party walls. Include seaweed, bubbles, fish, lobsters, and crabs in your wall art. However, if you can host your Mermaid Party at the beach, you won’t need any of these decorations.
2. Serve fishy food and snacks. Goldfish, fish sticks, fish nuggets or tuna fish make thematic additions to your Little Mermaid Party. Blue Jello cut in the shape of fish, sea horses, and starfish using cookie cutters make fun treats for kids.
3. Make ocean art. Buy colored sand and clear containers with tops. (You can use plastic water bottles.) Make colorful layers of sand in the containers by pouring different colors of sand on each level. Once the sand reaches the rim of the container, seal it.
If you have access to a pool, you can make this a Mermaid Pool Party. Also, if boys will be in attendance at your party, make it a Mermaid and Pirates Party. The girls can dress up as mermaids and the boys can wear pirate costumes.
August 7th, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Birthday Parties, Party Planning, Party Themes, Tips | Comments (0)
by Daveness 98
A King and Princess Royal Ball is a special way to celebrate the bond between a father and daughter. Girls will love getting dressed up to be escorted to the royal ball by their father, the king. In essence, the King and Princess Royal Ball will be an evening for father and daughter to treasure.
The King and Princess Royal Ball should be held in a hall. The decorations should reflect the royal occasion. A net filled with pink and purple balloons should hang from the ceiling and be released at the end of the evening. In one area of the hall, two thrones should be set up for the royal pair. This will be used as the picture area if you don’t hire a professional photographer. Each table should have one pink rose in the center of the table for the centerpiece.
Girls should dress up in formal gowns or princess costumes. They’ll need to wear tiaras and princess capes if they have them. Also, they must wear their fanciest shoes. Fathers can wear tuxedos or a costume, as well. For this party, no outfit is too fancy or over-the-top.
When each pair arrives, a person dressed in period attire should be at the door to announce the family’s arrival. Then the princess and king will enter into the ballroom for dancing and royal refreshments. The refreshments can be finger sandwiches, cookies, cakes, and other pastries.
Planning this celebration for fathers and daughter will take thorough planning. With proper preparation, this event will be a magical evening for fathers and daughters.
August 7th, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Party Themes, Tips | Comments (0)
By Daniel Voyager
Perfect party hosts concern themselves with the comfort of their guests. Yes, they want to enjoy themselves, but a perfect party host can’t be content if their guests are uncomfortable. Below are two questions to ask yourself when hosting a party.
1. Have I greeted my guests? In a small setting, greeting individual guests is simple, especially if you are the only person opening the door when guests arrive. Let your guests know you’re glad they made it to your party. Greeting individual guests may be difficult when your guest list exceeds 100. However, you can make an effort to welcome as many guests as genuinely possible. If you have access to a microphone, a general welcome is appropriate.
2. Have I introduced my guests? It’s possible everyone will not know one another at your party. When you can, introduce your guests to each other. Doing this is especially thoughtful when you may be the only person your guests know. When introducing people, make sure to introduce them using the names the other person should use to address them. Don’t introduce people by their nicknames unless they prefer their nickname.
Perfect party hosts know the importance of making their guests feel comfortable. If your guests are uncomfortable, it’s the perfect party host’s duty to try to make them more comfortable. Greeting and introducing guests are two ways for hosts to care for their guests.
August 7th, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Party Planning, Tips | Comments (0)
by Siti Saad
Once you’ve decided to throw a Princess Party, you’ll need to plan activities to keep the little princesses entertained. Beyond singing songs, dancing, and playing dress up, guests will enjoy making a princess-themed craft. Below are a few craft ideas.
1. Decorate tiaras. Purchase foam tiaras with the plastic coil or plastic headband. Usually, these are available at Walmart or Michaels for around $1.00. Oriental Trading carries foam tiaras, also. You can buy twelve of them for around $5.99. If you choose to buy your tiaras at orientaltrading.com, you can purchase jewel stickers to add glitz to the tiaras.
Oriental Trading sells paper tiaras that can be decorated with stickers, markers and crayons if you need a cheaper craft for your Princess Party. They cost around 12 for $2.99.
2. Make wands. You can by foam star wands from Michaels. All the princesses will have to do is tie a pretty ribbon around the stick. Then they can decorate the wands with jewel stickers. If you prefer, you can cut stars from self-adhesive foam. Give each princess two stars and a metallic pencil for the rod. Instruct the girls to take the backing off one star. Then place the eraser end of the pencil on the sticky side of the star. Remove the backing off the other star and sandwich the pencil between the stars. They can decorate the stars and add ribbon around the pencil below the star.
The princesses will be excited about decorating their own tiaras or wands. If time and your budget permits, the girls can do both crafts. These crafts are worthwhile because the princesses will continue playing with them long after the party is over.
August 7th, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Birthday Parties, Party Favors, Party Planning, Tips | Comments (0)
by Siti Saad
Long gowns, tiaras, giggles, birthday cake and little girls are the signs of a Princess Party. Little girls, as young as 2-year-olds, dream of being little princesses. Movies, television shows, books, toys, and music point them in the princess direction. Here are a few ideas to help make a Princess Party spectacular.
1. Costumes. Invite girls to wear their prettiest princess costumes to the party. Have extra costumes available for those who don’t own a princess costume. If your daughter owns enough princess costumes to share, you don’t have to ask the girls to wear their own.
2. Bubbles. As the guests walk up to the party entrance, have a bubble machine blowing. Walking through a stream of bubbles will give your party a magical feel. Make sure the bubbles are in a location where bubble residue won’t cause any accidents.
3. Red Carpet. Have a red carpet available for the princesses to prance down as they are introduced to the royal court. Be sure someone takes pictures while they do a princess wave and smile for the camera. Your red carpet can be a plastic oblong table cloth.
4. Treasure Chest. Be sure to have a princess treasure chest at the Princess Party. Fill it with plastic and candy jewelry. Little princesses view tattoos, stickers, lip gloss, small toys as treasures, too.
The little princesses will have a royal good time at the Princess Party. In fact, they’ll have a royal ball.
August 6th, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Birthday Parties, Party Themes, Tips | Comments (0)
by kekka
Around November and December families, friends and co-workers begin discussing having a Christmas gift exchange. Many people love the idea of participating in a random Christmas gift exchange. Others politely decline to participate. Why would anyone not want to participate in a gift exchange? Reasons can vary. Some include lack of extra cash, disinterest, and fear of receiving a useless and thoughtless gift. Below are several suggestions that might make more people want to participate.
1. Set a price limit. Setting a price limit for gifts is one way that may put the gift giving on equal footing. Your group can agree that all gifts should cost around $10, for instance. Another option is to decide that all gifts must come from a dollar store. Some people just are uncomfortable purchasing a $40 gift for a co-worker and receiving a $1 gift in return.
2. Bake gifts. Baking gifts gets away from the holidays being so commercial. Yes, you may run into the same problem of people being unsatisfied with their baked gifts. However, a greater chance exists that the gifts’ costs will be in the same price range if this is a bigger concern. With a baked good, the emphasis should be more on the time that was taken to produce the gift.
3. Have a theme. Instead of participants buying random gifts, organize the gift exchange around a theme. For instance, some people exchange Christmas ornaments during the holiday. A fun gift theme is holiday socks or holiday candy.
Yes, everyone knows it’s the thought that counts when it comes to buying and receiving gifts. However, at Christmas time who wants to hear someone say, “Bah humbug” when receiving a gift? These tips should make a Christmas gift exchange more acceptable to more people.
August 6th, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Holiday Celebrations, Season Celebrations, Tips | Comments (0)
by Tammra
August and September are months when smany tudents head to college for the first time or return for a new start. If you haven’t given the future first year student a gift yet, or you just want to surprise a returning student, give him or her a gift basket filled with useful items.
1. Munchies Basket: With all the late night studying students do, they appreciate a stead supply of snacks and beverages. Fill a basket with microwavable popcorn, small bags of chips, drink bags, bottled water, a can of peanuts, crackers, cookies, hard candy, and several rolls of quarters for vending machines.
2. Laundry Basket: Students can’t get around dirty laundry although they will try. Buy a laundry bag or basket and fill it with laundry detergent, fabric softener, fabric sheets, stain remover, bleach, and Lysol. Don’t forget to add several rolls of quarters to this basket, too.
3. Miss You Basket: Even though many students have cell phones and computers, occasionally they may need to communicate in writing or on a landline. Fill a small square basket with calling cards, stationary, envelopes, blank cards, all-occasion-cards, pens and stamps.
Any college student will love receiving one of these baskets. The items are thoughtful and necessary. You may find by midyear the basket will need to be refilled.
August 6th, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Gift ideas, Tips | Comments (0)
by xddorox
A birthday party with wheels is fun for active kids. They’ll be able to celebrate and get their muscles moving. Below are a few party with wheels ideas.
1. Bicycling. Invite your child’s guests to bring their helmets and bikes for some bicycle fun. Let younger children decorate their bikes with colorful ribbons and streamers. Once the bikes are decorated, have a bicycle parade. Some children will have some tricks they want to show off in a bicycle rodeo. Let them do them only with parent’s permission. You can hire someone to demonstrate some bike tricks, too. Older children may want to have a few bicycle races.
2. Skating. You can’t go wrong hosting a birthday party at a skating rink. Many kids have their own skates, so they can bring them to the party. Many skating rinks go beyond offering just skating and have game room facilities, too. When the kids aren’t rolling around the rink, they can play video games. Check your local rink for party packages.
3. Skate Boarding. Check your local area for a skate boarding facility. You’ll want a spacious facility with ramps of different sizes. Having your party at a skate boarding facility is safer than setting up ramps in your backyard. The facility should be safer because the ramps are permanent fixtures. Once you’ve secured a location, invite your child’s guests to bring their skateboards to the party for a great time.
Parties with wheel are fun way to celebrate a birthday and keep kids active. They’ll be able to eat up the birthday cake, and then work it off on their bikes, skate, or skate boards.
August 6th, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Birthday Parties, Party Planning, Party Themes, Party Venues, Tips | Comments (0)
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