Sleepover 12th Birthday Party

Well I have to say that my daughters recent sleepover party was a real success both in terms of the girls having fun (no 1 priority obviously) and the amount of work I had to put into it!

If I am honest this party was easy and would have been easier still if I hadn't stressed out about cleaning the entire house before hand (my only excuse here is the same I have before I go on holiday IT MAKES ME FEEL BETTER, OK!)

Here are my top tips:

• get rid of annoying siblings (younger brothers just get in the way and in the case of my son make me shout!)
• if you think your husband will find any of the following difficult to deal with then get rid of him too:
• screaming, giggling girls until at least 2pm
• loud music
• spending the evening "out of the way"
• just the thought of having 5/6 12 year old girls in the house
• not stressing over how much pizza, sweets or fizzy drinks are consumed.

Far better to deal with all this on your own than have to worry about how the other half is coping and if he is prone to shouting (thankfully my husband is not) then definately send him out for the evening!

• order in food (we had a voucher for take away pizza) the girls loved having their food delivered and I loved it too because there wasn't any cooking to do!
• make sure you have plenty of things for them to do, even if they don't end up using them. Heres what we did:

• Kiss the Poster (bit like pin the tale on the donkey except they have to try to kiss the lips of a famous popular person eg someone from 1 Direction or whoever they are in to, while blindfolded) so that they can see where they have kissed they have to apply lipstick and this caused lots of hilarity for my girls :)
• Crazy dress up - provide some bizarre items like silly hats, masks, grass skirts etc and the girls take turns to dress each other up while the person being dressed is blindfolded! This caused loads of giggles and made some great pictures!
•  Make a movie - so easy I just handed over the camcorder and they made a film of each other larking about - they watched the film over breakfast the next morning to much laughter!
• They also watched a couple of films with popcorn and sweets to nibble on
• Remember to keep some spare activities just in case they get bored I had stuff for a few more games but didn't need them.
• stay in the background, as hard as it was (because I like to control things) I stayed upstairs most of the evening and let them get on with it.

The girls had a really lovely girly, giggly evening and eventually at about 1.45 the noise stopped and they fell asleep.

I didn't have room upstairs so they all slept in the lounge which was decorated with fairy lights, throws and pillows with cuddly toys dotted around. There were little dishes of sweeties for her friends when they arrived (all in their pj's)

The next morning they were up surprisingly early and watched the film they had made, ate their breakfast, sang happy birthday to the birthday girl and then it was time for them to all go home and for us to go back to bed, I wish.................................

Christmas Pressies

Are you a great gift giver or do you need help to get it right?

You know those people who just seem to be able to get it right every time. Like my friend Bernie who always gives great gifts, once she sent me the most beautiful delivery of hand made cupcakes. Unlike the gift my husband received one year which had us chuckling into the mulled wine. A non smoker, never even tried smoking type of chap was a little surprised to receive a Dunhill gift set of a lighter and cufflinks, why, why oh why!

I think this year I will be turning to this great website for inspiration, why  not take a look and to see what I mean, the christmas gift section has loads of ideas to get you inspired!!!http://www.dotcomgiftshop.com/home?qt-homepage=3#qt-homepage

Christmas Parties

Do you have a children's Christmas Party to organise this year if so keep your eye on this blog as we will soon be posting lots of great party ideas for your festive fun!!

And once again if you have any ideas you would like to share we would love to hear from you.

Sleepover party

Do you remember these, I can remember having lots of fun with these funny little "fortune telling" fish! I have just ordered some (didn't know they still did them) for my daughters birthday but are they are bit tame for todays pre-teens?

Help my daughter wants a sleepover party!

This year my soon to be 12 year old is desperate to have a sleepover for her birthday bash! To be honest I have avoided the sleepover thing so far as I find it a bit stressful especially if my 10 year old son is around. I have arranged for Ben to go on his own sleepover so no excuses!!

Any ideas that have worked for you on this would be so appreciated.!

Halloween Parties

It's almost that time again and whatever your thoughts are on trick or treating or Halloween as a celebration you have to admit that it is a great opportunity to have a party and the children seem to love it. It's one americanism that we have embraced in our house although I do understand that its not for all!!

It started off for us one year when a neighbour knocked on our door to say she was waiting with sweets for the children and why hadn't we called? The truth is I didn't like the idea of trick or treating so my only effort that evening was to send the children to bed in their skeleton pj's and hope that the flaming door knockers didn't wake them! But faced with a disappointed neighbour I got the children out of bed put their coats on over their pj's and took them over where they eagerly accepted the sweets despite not really having a clue what was going on!!

Following that, every year since, we have gone trick or treating to the participating neighbours houses (those with children ususally) and they to us. Our principle is that if you have a scary lantern on or a pumpkin on your doorstep then you are inviting us to call. If your house is in darkness we assume that you have decided it is not for you!

Soon though trick or treating wasn't enough and it is so cold so we moved the fun indoors. We have a great time decorating the house and getting dressed up (although my husband still refuses to do much more that wear a scary mask). I can't help myself and really get into my character of scary witch.

When the children were small (up to about 8 depending on the child) we kept it fairly tame with the usual apple bobbing (children seem to like getting wet!) and our own favourite named the touchy feely game:
The Touchy Feely Game:
Place several items on a tray and cover with a tea towl
Each child takes it in turns to have a go at guessing what they are feeling

In our game we have:
Witches Fingers (raw sausages)
Worms (cooked spaghetti)
eyeballs (Olives)
cold baked beans (this can be many things I will leave it to your imagination)

This can get a bit messy but so much fun!

And to round up the evening a game of musical zombies followed by witchy poo stories (in the dark with the odd prop)

I love it and the parties have become a bit of a legend round our way!!!

But they get even better as the children get older and more daring. In my next post I will tell you more.......................................

The Party Maker Blog

Welcome to my new blog.

I hope to be able to bring you lots of news and views on childrens birthday parties. I know how difficult it can be to come up with something different for your youngster without spending an absolute fortune.

Each week as well as posting party tit bits I will give you a party theme to try. So if you like my blog or have any ideas you would like to post please do!

Thanks

The Party Maker