Tag: parties

Budding archaeologists

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If your child is into ancient History, then maybe an Egyptian party would be just the thing;

You could ask your guests to come dressed as an Egyptian (not only would it be great fun but also very educational)

There could be lots of crafty making (seeing as the Egyptians love to build things) why not have a Pyramid building competition which cardboard recycling could be put to very good use. All you need it glue, glitter pens and the children’s imagination to build an amazing Pyramid!!  

PARTY GAMES & ACTIVITIES;

Mummy wrap game;

Divide the children into 3 teams and had them wrap one person as a mummy. Best wrap in 5 minutes’ win.  You will need lots of toilet tissue, try and buy the more expensive stuff as the cheap tissue will rip easily.

Next game is a scavenger hunt. Divided into teams and gave them hieroglyphic clues which they had to translate. There are a lot of websites that give ways to translate hieroglyphics, but not all of them use the same letter-to-hieroglyphic translations.  Tell the children that archaeologists weren’t always given complete information!

The first clue led them to an archaeological dig site (the sand box). They had to dig up a ring, necklace, gold coins, and their next clue. Use one of the pyramids to give instructions — particularly, one item per person; I wanted everyone to get one of each.

The second clue took them to buckets that they had no idea what was inside.  There were all sorts of horrible feeling things inside for example, Jelly, baked beans and custard and they had to dig deep to get their clues!!

The third clue took them to the Nile River. Planks were laid out in the garden and pretend water was underneath them.  The idea is that they balanced and didn’t fall. At the end of the Nile was a crocodile’s nest. They had to get the eggs from the crocodile’s nest for their next clue. 

Final stop was Tutankhamun’s tomb, for their prize there were sweets and prizes all stuffed into a treasure chest 

KIDS PARTY FOOD;

Sandwiches and crisps were laid out and ice cream scooped into bowls, so just had to bring it out from the freezer.  Oh and of course a Pyramid Cake!!!

A Disco Roller skating party

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This party was inspired by a family who hired out a hall for a roller skating party, loads of fun was had by all and of course it wore everybody out!!

Kids party invitations:

Invitations were homemade and drawn skates on each piece of card shaped into a ‘roller-skate’. The time and venue were written and also the duration etc.…

Kids party venue:

A hall at the local gym is able to accommodate ‘roller-skating’ and because it was a council run sports centre it was really reasonable as in price.  It was £50 for an hour and we had to include the food etc. 40 Children were invited and the venue was just the right size – not too big and not too small.

Glow necklaces were purchased for each child and as the lights dimmed everyone’s glow sticks started to glow.  They played the standard skating rink games of limbo and the dice game and each winner was given a “prize”. They skated for 1 1/2 hrs and then it was time for cake.

Kids party food:

They had pizza delivered and had a cake. For the cake they made a girl with blond hair and blue eyes out of fondant. It was made sure she had on a pair of skates and an outfit to match what the birthday girl was wearing that day. 

At the end the guests got downloaded pictures of the day and on the pictures read ‘Thank you for sharing in my 6th Birthday’. 

A party for the 4th of July

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Join in the fun and celebrate the United States’ Declaration of Independence with all the fireworks, stars and stripes that go with it for your 4th of July party this year! All you need is an assortment of traditional patriotic foods such as apple pie, hamburgers and ice cream, and a firework-worthy location to create the most magical commemoration of American freedom you and your family have ever experienced. 

4th of July party besides the fireworks is fantastic food. You can start by pledging allegiance to your grill and making some of America’s favourite barbeque foods like hamburgers, hot dogs, ribs, steak and chicken. Try adding an Independence Day twist to some of your favourite classics by incorporating an American flag or the colours red, white, and blue in each dish. For example, you can buy some toothpicks with an American flag attached from a party store and stick them in each of your hamburgers.

Your 4th of July party success depends largely on the location of your family gathering, whether it is a cosy barbeque or fun picnic for the kids and all the family.

Since this sunny holiday takes place in the summer, it is wise to select a party location where you and your patriots can enjoy the beautiful weather and even a firework show after the sun sets. If you aren’t willing to host your 4th of July bash in your garden, try staking out a spot at the beach or the park where you can best enjoy the sunny weather. Although many cities do not allow fireworks to be set off to avoid accidental fires, there is always the option of driving the family over to a park where fireworks are not prohibited. And don’t forget to be safe and bring a bucket and some water to ensure that all the fireworks are properly extinguished.

Easter party ideas

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Easter is a time to celebrate the renewal of life with flowers, eggs, rabbits and chicks as you and your family celebrate Easter!  Easter commemorates Jesus’ resurrection and the coming of the Spring season when flowers begin to bloom and baby animals are born.  What better way to embrace this special time of year than with an Easter party? 

Easter Decorations – Decorating for Easter can be lots of fun! You can keep things simple by incorporating traditional baskets around the house filled with eggs, toy animals and spring flowers. Or if you enjoy getting a little more creative, try hanging colourful eggs from a tree, making flowers form tissue paper or even creating an Easter centrepiece by surrounding a candle with decorative grass and tiny blue robin’s eggs.  There are countless other ways to get into the spirit of the Easter holiday just by using materials found around the house and tapping into your artistic side. 

Easter Egg Colouring- There is a basket full of fun activities to choose from in preparation for Easter that you and your friends and family can enjoy.  The first and most popular one that comes to mind is egg decorating. It is amazing how many fun things you and your kids can do with eggs that include dyeing, painting and decorating with everything from glitter and stickers, to stencils and tissue paper. In addition, newspaper or string Papier-Mache can be handy materials to create model eggs, bunnies or chicks which can be painted spring colours after they dry. These children’s party activities and many others are a great way to welcome the Easter bunny and embrace the coming of the Spring season.  

Easter Egg hunt and games – There is only one way the children can know for sure that the Easter bunny has come to visit their home: when there are eggs hidden in the garden to snatch up and collect in their baskets! Not only is the “Easter Egg Hunt” the most traditional children’s party game of the Easter holiday, but it also allows for a variety of ways to play it.  You can have the children in your family collect eggs that they have painted, or plastic ones which you can fill with yummy snacks, chocolate or candy for a sweet surprise. But besides the egg hunt, there are countless other games you and your family can enjoy such as a bunny hop race or Spring art contest to celebrate Easter Sunday. 

Easter egg snacks and treats- All those blissful games and activities wouldn’t be the same without a smorgasbord of savoury Easter dishes and sweet treats to fuel the festivities.  In fact, when most people think of Easter, chocolate bunnies, jelly beans and cream-filled eggs easily come to mind! The Lamb roast is an easy choice for a traditional Easter feast, as well as spring vegetables and new potatoes and of course a simnal cake.

Mad about Mario

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This particular boy loves Nintendo, especially Mario, so for his 9th birthday party he had a Mario themed Birthday party.   

Mario desktop wallpaper on Nintendo’s website which was used to make invitations. On the front with the picture it said It’s a Mario Party and Josh is turning 9 won’t you join us and have a good time?”. On the back was a map to out place as well as all the party info. 

It was an outdoor party so for decorations there hung blue plastic tablecloths along the fence and placed cut-outs of Mario goombahs coin blocks and hills that was drawn on poster board. 

Music was downloaded from the games which was copied to CD and was played in the background. When the children arrived they were given a fake moustache. They were also given red visors with the letter M painted on it (like Mario’s hat) which was really handy since it was so sunny outside.  

After all the children had arrived they played a balloon pop game. There were also stuck gold plastic coins or pictures of goombas and other villains in balloons and inflated them. The children had so much fun popping the balloons! The children with the most coins won a little Mario toy that was bought.

The next game was Mario Party musical “chairs”. Instead of chairs they put a picture of each character on a piece of construction paper and put them on the ground in a circle. 

Next the children decorated their own Mario sun catchers. There was a piece of masking tape on the back that could write each children name on so we could tell them apart when the paint dried.   

For the cake it was covered on a sheet cake in green icing and put a Mario figurine on top. To make it look like a scene from the game then added mini marshmallows for clouds mini chocolate bars for blocks a gummy mushroom and premade cake letters that said “Joshua 009” like the score keeper on the game. 

After cake the gifts were opened and the children got to take turns playing Mario Party 5 on two of the GameCube’s or Super Mario Brothers on the NES that was set up around the house.  

Hire a Limo for a teen party

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The birthday diary of a teenage girl….

Three girls, 2 boys. We got picked up on a Friday night in a Limo supplied from my dad. We all rode around for a half hour making lots of memories by taking pictures. After that we rode to our favourite place to hang out a big shopping centre complete with restaurants, movie theatre, and tons of shops.

We went to dinner at TGI Fridays We enjoyed the 50’s feel of the restaurant.

We had burgers, fries, and milkshakes. At 6 o’clock the waiters and waitresses all danced to the song “stayin alive” We all enjoyed and started singing along. After this we all went to the mall. We all shopped and hung out at the mall. This is where they used their money.

Then after this we went and caught a movie. We all laughed through the movie. After this we went outside to and ice-cream parlour where we had ice cream and I opened presents. I also handed out the gift bags.

For the boys they had sweets and these really cool sport pens. I had trouble finding things so I also gave them these cool posters of skateboarders and skate board keychains. For my girlfriends, they all got sweets, lip gloss, nail polish, eyeshadow, keychains, a bracelet, a necklace, and I bought us all matching shirts that said “Best friends”.

After the boy’s parents arrived my Mum took my 3 friends and I home to sleep over. When we got home we talked, read magazines, did each other’s make up and painted each other’s nails. Each girl used the stuff provided in her gift bag to do her makeup and nails. I bought them in special colours for each girl.

I had the best teenage Birthday ever and my Mum and Dad are just brilliant at organising and they also gave me my privacy.”

A teenage beach party

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It’s tricky when the children reach their teens, you want them to have a teenager birthday party but they are not too keen on grownups being there.  If you live by a beach and your teenager’s birthday party is in the Summer, weather permitting too, it would be great fun to organise a beach party for your little grown up.  Here is an account of one such beach party which you will see he really enjoyed:

“For my 14th birthday, I had the most AMAZING party! I invited 14 people, 7 girls and 7 boys. Everyone met at my house on the morning of the party around 10:30am. At 11am, a limo came and picked us up and drove us to the nearest beach, which was about half an hour away. We blasted the music in the limo and took a load of pictures from our smart phones. We had a lot of fun. We arrived at the beach around 12:15. We rented a room for the day at the coolest little hotel opposite the beach. The hotel had a pool, lounger chairs, tables and a refrigerator in the room to keep drinks and stuff in.

When we got there, we had lunch. We got burgers and chips. We also had sweets, cookies and stuff to munch on. My mum and dad set up our spot where my mates could sit and chill on the beach. By our wind breakers we had plenty of towels, drinks, and sunscreen.

After we ate lunch and changed into our bathing suits in the room, some people from a surf team came and taught us how to surf! We had 6 boards and 3 instructors and everyone took turns. When they went surfing, we were playing in the ocean or tanning. After the surf pros left we all played in the sea some more and had a huge sand fight! After that Everyone got into teams of 2-4 people and we had a sand castle building contest. 

 We had just the most amazing day and it was so cool!! My mates talk about my birthday all the time and I am pretty chuffed that my Mum and Dad arranged all of this, they are the best parents EVER!!”

Inspiration for a princess party

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When your little princess has asked for a princess party, you have only got to give them the best. The colours you may decide on could be pastel palette of pale pink, icy blue, yellow and lilac, and you could use a princess silhouette and our custom patterns throughout your whole party.

When guests arrive, they can be greeted with two princess towers made out of balloons flanking the front door.  Rose centrepieces can be put on tables and your guests can be invited into the “Fairy Godmother’s Dress Shop” where dress-up clothes, magic wands, jewels, crowns & tiaras, can be worn.  

The kids table can be decorated with a striped table runner with the princess silhouette on each end, white chairs can be accessorized with colourful stars, and a centrepiece that can be magical: dense rose vases (wrapped in gold glitter paper. Milk bottles can be dressed up with glitter, and each place-setting says “make-your-own-necklace” kit on our cellophane bags with custom bows.

Guests can be treated to a delicious lunch buffet, set up in the dining room.  Decor can include a large princess silhouette cling on the mirror, large rose centrepieces in white vases.

The dessert table will steal the show!  The table can be draped in pink satin, and flanked by two oversized pink balloons with hanging tassels.  The custom fabric backdrop featured our pastel star pattern with your little princess’s name on with a glittered crown. A princess cake will take centre stage, with candy necklaces and bracelets, colourful cup cakes, cookies, and various sweets.   

 A horse-drawn carriage will be the ultimate surprise and gave the children rides around the venue. These ideas will create such a magical experience for the children and your beautiful princess will love every minute of it.

Parties on a budget

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Kids parties can be hugely expensive. With growing pressures to keep up with the Jone’s, kid’s parties can be a big stress if you’re on a budget. 

The good news is that you don’t have to spend a fortune to give the kids a good time. In fact, we’d even say the kids will quite possibly have more fun if you don’t!

When it comes to parties, kids love simplicity! They don’t need loads of different things to have a good time. It’s amusing to see, that often the more lavish a party is, the less the children enjoy it. Quite simply because there are too many activities competing for the kids’ attention: a bouncy castle in one corner, entertainer in the other, then a face painter, a mascot thrown in for good measure and why not a popcorn machine? Sounds amazing but it’s too much!

Kids will become frantic and not be able to concentrate on very much for very long and it’s usually a big stress and panic to squeeze it all in to the 2 hrs.

But having less does not mean doing away with the fun. Far from it. 

The first thing is to decide what you want to do for your kid’s party. Give your child a few options and ask what they think they might like.

Themed children’s parties have loads of mileage and give you a lot of room for creativity at very low cost.

Costumes- You can have a lot of fun making your kids costume and it will cost you nothing. e.g. a pirate costume -get out the scissors and snip away at an old white shirt and tatty old pair of school shirts/ trousers, and a nice red scarf around the head.

Or what about fairy wings cut out from card board and covered in pink wrapping paper and sprinkled with a bit of glue and glitter. These give just a few ideas of how to make costumes from very little. 

Party Invites – if you are computer savvy and have a bit of creative flair you could do your own cool invites on the computer, of just do an Internet search for party invites and download free templates available. 

Make your own Cake – the sky is the limit when it comes to cake ideas.

Decorations – balloons are very cheap and usually all you need to create a super party atmosphere. Just have lots of them!!! You could also make your own colourful paper chains, or get some reasonably priced party decorations from any online party store.

Entertainment – every party needs some sort of entertainment. You could of course do the entertainment yourself but you’d need to be confident you could lead a group of kids through sufficiently fun activities for 2 hours. If you can’t then this is something you might want to budget for. if you are hiring a Children’s entertainer then this is likely to be where most of the cost of your party will go, but you needn’t spend a fortune – if you went for a week day after school, then entertainers are far more likely to give better deals as weekdays are not as busy as weekends. or a morning slot like 11 am – 1 pm. 

Food – parents can work tirelessly in the kitchen to create the most amazing party food but you’ll be surprised how little kids can eat at parties so do remember this before buying loads or going to loads of trouble. If you want to keep it cheap and simple, sandwiches and crisps and a few finger foods like sweets and small fruit like strawberries, grapes etc. is perfect. Finger food is always best. But if the creative guru in you can’t resist to try and dazzle and amaze, then you can be super creative and theme your food in so many different ways whilst still sticking to your budget. 

Party bags often go in the bin or get left lying around the minute kids get home if they’re just cheap toys, so you might want to settle for a piece of cake and a small but decent quality toy. Or maybe give kids a small pocket sized children’s story book. This has become increasingly popular and kids are far more likely to keep them. You can pick them up in shops for about 50p – £1 each.