Archive for Birthday Parties
Theming A Party With Colour
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A party with a theme is interesting and often easier to plan than a party with no set theme. One of the simplest and most effective themes to put together for any kind of party is one of colour. Whether you choose one favourite colour, a couple of complimentary contrasts or the colour of your favourite sporting team, once you know what direction you’re heading in, you can become very creative with the use of colour.
Choosing one colour (pink is a good example as this seems to be a popular colour with girls), can have its pros and cons. It might seem a simple option from the outset, but it can present you with some real challenges. For instance, do you choose one particular shade of pink for absolutely everything? Or will you include every single tint, shade and tone in the pink spectrum, so long as it’s pink? Do any of your pink colours clash? Creating a party venue that is a complete melting pot of pink colours may not exactly give your guests the pretty visual effect that you are after.
That’s where it can be good to break it up with a complimentary contrast. Perhaps you could try a combination of pink and white, pink and silver, or pink and yellow? You can still have most of your themed decorations and food in the colour of your first preference, but by adding a sprinkling of a second colour, it can break up the tones and help to accentuate the main colour.
Balloons, streamers, buntings, plates, napkins, candles, cutlery, cups and table settings can all be chosen according to your colour theme, and there are so many fun food and drink options that can be included in your colour plan. Soft drinks and cordials are available in a wide variety of colour, and it is easy to add a couple of drops of food colouring to each cup or glass before pouring drinks to give an instant colour change without affecting the flavour.
Food dyes are easy to add to any type of food – sweet or savoury – to achieve a feast that fits in with your colour theme. Plan your food colour changes carefully because if the food already has a strong colour, you need to be aware of what it will look like once the food dye has been added. For instance if you add a few drops of red food dye to something that is naturally yellow you are going to end up with an orange shade. It pays to practice a bit and select foods that have very little colour of their own if you want to dye them to match your theme. Also keep in mind that although green eggs and ham might seem like a fun idea, most people will hesitate to actually eat them. There are many natural food dyes available too if you prefer to provide a pink banquet for a little girl’s party, without giving all of your guests “the red cordial effect”.
As always, the success of the party comes down to the preparation done before the actual event. It is important to start planning a few weeks in advance to make sure you can get all of your coloured decorations, ingredients and party favours you need to fit your theme. That way you know that the day will run smoothly and you will find that you can relax a little and just enjoy the day.
Games For Easter Parties
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For many, Easter is a religious festival. For some, Easter signals the start of Spring and the renewal of life. For others it is purely fun and it is a great time to have some fun with the whole family or with close friends. And one way to celebrate this season is through a festive, joyous party.
Whether the event is held at home, at a restaurant, or a park, it is always a good idea to prepare for it. Games are traditional during Easter celebrations. It keeps the mood jovial and is an ideal way for kids and adults to bond and spend time together.
Below are a few ideas for activities you can do during your Easter-day party.
What’s an Easter-day fete without everyone’s favorite Easter-Egg Hunting game? You can buy plastic eggs which you can fill with candies, chocolates, and even small toys. Or make it unique and interesting by having the kids and adults paint eggs a few days before the party and have them hunt for the decorated eggs on Easter Day.
Another game you can play on Easter is the Easter Egg Roll where the participants are asked to roll a hard-boiled egg from the starting point to the finishing line with a stick, spoon, or foot without breaking the shell. You can even make it a relay race so you’ll have more participants.
You can also play The Wolf and The Eggs game where one player pretends to be the wolf and the others are the eggs. The eggs pick out what colour they want to be in the hopes that the wolf won’t be able to guess their colour. If the wolf chooses your colour, you must step forward, spell your colour and run back to the “basket” of other eggs while avoiding being tagged by the wolf. If you get tagged you become the wolf.
Easter provides many ideas for fun and play – so whatever you choose to do - make sure you enjoy your day.
Party Buntings
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Theme parties are so much fun and the easiest way to decorate your home or party venue is with a bunting.
You can choose from gorgeous bunting designs in popular party themes such as animals, dinosaurs or pirates as well as a wide range of colours to suit any party occasion.
Buntings are easy to put up and cleverly placed, they can make any room feel festive and help to generate a particular party atmosphere. Made from light and colourful paper, a bunting is easy to place around the room using string and sticky tape. Make sure you use removable tape or adhesive, which won’t mark or damage your paintwork.
Before you start, make sure you know how long your strings of bunting are and try to create patterns and a sense of balance by using the same colours and numbers where possible and mix it up, alternating balloons and other feature decorations between lines of the buntings.
Attach the bunting at the same height at each end and allow it to drape a little lower in the centre creating an upside-down arc. A common way of using a bunting is to hang it around each of the walls and across the ceiling, meeting in the centre. If you have a lighting fixture in the centre of the ceiling you may be able to make use of it by hanging a bunting centrepiece or balloons from, but only do this if it is safe to do so. If you have two or more lighting fixtures you can make corresponding crosses of buntings, one meeting at each light fixture and a centrepiece hanging at the centre of each cross.
Buntings can also be used to trim the table and other furniture by attaching them to the edge of the table cloth or directly on furniture edges.
One of the best aspects of a bunting is the easy cleanup aspect after the party is over. You can refold the bunting so it can be used at another party, or easily fit it into your recycling bin for disposal.
How To Have A Tea-Party Party
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Children love having pretend tea parties. Imagine how excited they will be to have a real tea party for their birthday, with all their favourite friends invited.
You can either have a general tea party or one with a specific theme and then base the invitations, decorations, games and activities, food and drinks, birthday cake, lolly bags and costumes around the theme. You can have a lot of fun here and get really creative!
Below are two ideas for a tea party theme:
Pink Princess Tea Party – basically everything is pink! Ask the guests to dress in pink clothes and decorate the area using pink paper buntings, pink balloons and a pink tablecloth. You will also need pink plates, cups and cutlery. For food, offer pink iced mini cupcakes, fairy bread using pink sprinkles, pink lollies, iced vo-vos and don’t forget the pink lemonade!
Miss Cupcake Tea Party – centralise your theme around your little guests decorating plain cupcakes. Have an assortment of icing colours as well as bowls of decorations such as 100s and 1000s, sprinkles and smarties. You will need some of the fun Miss Cupcake invitations, napkins and loot bag tags. Coordinate with some pink striped or spotty plates and cups.
Other theme ideas could include a teddy bear tea party, fairy tea party, Kings and Queens, or ask the guests to bring along their favourite doll or toy.
Of course you don’t need to serve real tea at the tea party, maybe choosing instead to serve lemonade or special juice. And don’t forget the teapots and cups! Get some cheap porcelain ones from a discount store, second hand store or perhaps even purchase a special child’s tea set.
No doubt you will have as much fun planning the tea party as your little birthday girl (or boy) will have at the actual party!
The Pinata
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A Piñata (pronounced pin-yar-tah) is made from paper mache or cardboard in the shape of a popular or traditional character or animal and then filled with wrapped lollies, small prizes, toys, balloons and confetti.
Piñatas are one of those kids party basics that every birthday party should have but they are also popular at adult parties such as Hens or Bucks nights, weddings and anniversaries. Piñatas are also a novel and unique idea for a corporate event such as a product launch, meeting or motivational conference.
Here are some step-by-step instructions on how to make your own piñata including a video.
Many people believe the piñata originated in Mexico. In fact, the origin of the Piñata is somewhat disputed. It is thought that Marco Polo took it from China to the West and it spread from there. Others believe it originated in Italy, Greece, Spain or Portugal. Nowadays, the popularity of piñatas is slowly spreading throughout the world.
To play, hang the piñata from a clothesline, ceiling or a tree. Make sure there is adult supervision and ensure everyone stands well clear. Everyone takes a turn, after being blindfolded and spun around 3 times. They then use a broomstick or bat and try to hit the piñata.
Once the piñata is broken the guests can collect the goodies that fall out. A simpler way for young children to play is not to use a blindfold, rather the children line up and take it in turns to try and “smash” open the piñata.
Here is some information on how to make a pinata including a video for you to watch. If you don’t want to make one, why not look at our clever pinata designs which are flat packed and ready to fill? They will save you time, money and lots of glue!
How to prepare a pirate party for less than $100.
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Sweetcheeks Cakes and Cookies.
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Do you remember your birthdays as a child?
Mum whipped out her trusty ‘Woman’s Weekly Birthday Cake’ book, and you were absolutely mesmerised by that pink butterfly or cricket ground cake she made just for you, on your special day.
Well, birthday cakes are still a huge part and cause of putting smiles on faces and sparkles in those little eyes; however now the smile is a little bigger and that sparkle a little brighter – and the possibilities even greater.
My sister Renee and I make up the Sydney and Melbourne branches (respectively) of Sweetcheeks Cookies and Cakes.
We create custom cakes, cupcakes and cookies for all occasions, birthdays, weddings, engagements, showers, gifts, and much more. But I’d have to say our most common orders are for children’s birthday cakes; which is lucky, as this is our favourite reason for creating our famous sweet stuff!
The themes and design ideas truly are endless. We get a lot of requests for Pirates, Princess Castles, Cars, Tinkerbell, and Elmo is another very popular request. But it doesn’t end there.
The great part with children’s novelty cakes is that you can get as creative and unique as you like. Some of our cakes are designed to tie in with the invitation and theme of the party; for others we’re asked to create a replica of the child’s favourite stuffed toy. We create cakes that include our hand crafter sugar figurines, such as Elmo or farm and jungle animals; then there are also those cakes that are hand sculpted into the shape of your chosen character. No matter what design we create, our most popular flavours – amongst both out new and our returning customers – are our light, fluffy, moist vanilla cake followed very closely by our egg/nut/dairy free chocolate cake; which now means that all children, even those with allergies, can have their cake and eat it too!
We’re seeing a huge trend evolving at the moment with dessert tables, where the cake takes pride of place as always, but is now surrounded by plates and trays of cupcakes, cookies, jars of lollies, marshmallows as well as bottles of drink. A lot of our customers ask for our package deals which include decorated cupcakes and novelty cookies to coordinate with the custom cake that we create for their child.
All of this takes me back to the days of those pink butterfly and cricket ground cakes – and that feeling we all had as children on our special day. Friends, family, fun and games – and then the cake came out and took pride of place on the table and pride of place in the day. The difference now is that the creative possibilities are endless and the ability to personalise the day, even greater.
Guest post by Danielle Emeny of Sweetcheeks Cakes and Cookies.
By Tegan Benfell, Co-Author of Additive Free Kids Parties
Yesterday I told you about the ingredients in prepackaged foods and what they can do to your children’s health. Every child wants a fun birthday party full of all the foods they love so here are a few tips on how they can have their fun and no one will suffer for it.
A few hints and tips:
1: Instead of purchasing pre-popped or microwave popcorn, you can avoid a few very nasty additives by simply purchasing the popping popcorn and popping it the day before the party. Even the “natural flavoured” microwave popcorns tend to have nastys in them, so are best to just be avoided all together. Save yourself some money and pop it yourself. To add some flavour to it you can sprinkle over some icing sugar or some salt and butter, but most children will eat it plain too.
2: Frankfurt sausages and most shop bought sausages are little chemical cocktails. The Frankfurt sausages are known to contain a combination of the worst kind of artificial colours and preservatives, these chemicals have been linked with causing asthma, learning difficulties, behavioural issues and much more. “normal Sausages” are also commonly found to contain more fillers than meat, as well as artificial colour, preservatives and MSG. My advice when purchasing sausages in to find your local wholesaler and purchase gluten free and organic, this can be a little more expensive, but if you buy in bulk you will save lots of money and they are much healthier.
2: At every single party I create, I always make sure there is either a fruit platter or some fruit skewers. These are so bright, colourful and healthy and are always the first thing to be eaten off the table.
3: Fairy bread can either be a relatively safe food, or one of the most toxic items on the table, depending on which ingredients you purchase for it. Your fairy bread will be perfectly safe as long as you buy preservative free bread, butter NOT MARGARINE and instead of buying the brands of sprinkles which are coloured with coal tar dyes that are derived from petrol, choose the brands of sprinkles that are coloured with natural ingredients, from food. Or simply grate some organic chocolate over the top. Yummy!!
4: Instead of purchasing cordials and soft drinks which are generally coloured with coal tar dyes and have artificial preservatives added, why not purchase preservative free fruit juice and natural mineral water? You can create your own fizzy drinks by simply pouring two drinks into a jug. I also always serve water at my parties, children can get dehydrated very easily while running around at parties so they should be encouraged to drink as much water as possible.
5: When purchasing lollies it is very easy to source the natural options, most supermarkets now sell the natural coloured and flavoured options, many shops even sell organic lollies and chocolate too and they are very affordable.
6: If you are buying corn chips, there is no doubt that the better tasting ones are the ones coated in MSG, but you need to remember that MSG and all other forms of MSG are like a magical powder, they are colourless, odourless and flavourless. They are simply a chemical that has been created in a lab to make your taste buds believe that what you are eating is yummy. Food manufacturers choose to use MSG instead of real flavour because it is cheaper and highly addictive. You will notice that if your children eat a lot of products with MSG in them, they will start to refuse to eat “blander” foods, as their taste buds are no longer being satisfied with the chemical they are used to. When purchasing corn chips, I always choose the plain ones, or the certified organic brands, they are a little blander but they are safe and they are what real corn chips taste like.
7: For over 150 fun, colourful and yummy additive free recipes, including hints on where to purchase foods, you can purchase a copy of Additive Free Kids Parties. Head to www.healthyshelf.com.au or www.naturalnewborn.com.au.
I wish you many, many fun, loving and joyous parties to come!
By Tegan Benfell, Co-Author of Additive Free Kids Parties
Preparing for the special big day:
During the planning and preparation of your parties for your little ones, it can be so easy to let most of the focus go into sorting the decorations, games, gifts, invitations and all of the other gorgeous themed items that will make the party look amazing and set the atmosphere for the big day. This can sometimes mean that the food is then left til just a few days before the party, leaving that dreaded, rushed run to the shops, where you are hoping you can get all of the items you need without having to visit too many shops or shell out too much money, because lets be honest, there are so many gorgeous decorations and gifts that we would rather be spending our birthday budget on.
When choosing the prepackaged foods and the recipes to make for your little ones party’s, do you often go for the cheapest and quickest? Or are you a label reader? Does the brightest option appeal to you, or will the more natural seeming option always win over anything else?
Keeping the kids happy:
When discussing additive free foods and healthy options it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that since birthday parties and special occasions don’t happen very often, we should be “lenient” or “let the kids off” for just one day and not worry about what they are consuming. Thanks to all of the clever marketing and misleading labelling it can be very easy to even feel that we are being “mean” or depriving our children of fun if we don’t purchase the more colourful or more popular brands. After seeing so many children becoming aggressive, violent, whiny, irrational, upset and having melt downs at parties, I am convinced that letting them eat a concoction of chemicals for the duration of a party is perhaps not the nicest thing a parent can do.
Unfortunately in Australia food manufacturers are permitted to put toxic chemicals into our foods, many of these substances are banned in other countries all around the world, yet are still permitted in Australia. It has been scientifically proven on a number of occasions that many of these toxic additives are known to cause symptoms such as head banging, tantrums, asthma, eczema, insomnia, migraines, behavioural issues, learning difficulties and many other awful side effects, even cancer! The scariest thing about all of this is that those toxic chemicals have never ever been tested in combination with each other, meaning there is absolutely no way of knowing what may happen inside our children’s bodies when they eat more than one of these chemicals at a time.
How many additives would be found in the foods at your party?
While compiling some information for the release of my recently co-authored book, Additive Free Kids Parties” my co-author and I did some research on just how many chemicals would be found at the average healthy seeming children’s birthday party and we were totally shocked! In just one sitting, at just one party, children are consuming over 65 chemicals that are either suspected or known to cause unwanted side effects, and what’s even scarier, over ½ of those are known to be so bad that they are not permitted in many other countries and are known to cause serious health problems. Keep in mind; this was a “healthy party” many children are easily eating over 200 toxic chemicals at birthday parties, 3 or 4 times a term.
As parents, we don’t want our children to have to miss out, or to have boring parties because we are committed to healthy living and I totally agree 100% with that, just because we want our children to eat healthy and avoid consuming toxic chemicals, doesn’t mean that they should have to miss out ever! And it also shouldn’t ever mean that they have to eat food which tastes bland or looks boring.
So what can we do to make our party’s less toxic, but still fun?
My goal of this article is to show you some quick and easy hints that will help you lower the amounts of additives consumed at birthday parties, leaving the guests far better behaved and in much better moods, and making a much easier party for you to deal with on the day. Check back here tomorrow and I will give you a list of clever and fun alternatives for you. Let’s make your life easier!
(You can purchase a copy of Additive Free Kids Parties. Head to www.healthyshelf.com.au or www.naturalnewborn.com.au.)
