Kid's Party Blog Comics

Sunday, March 15, 2020

Planning a Preschool Birthday Party

Usually, around the time that children get to be in preschool, they discover that there is a whole new world of birthday parties out there which can be just for them. It usually starts with one child having a party and inviting her entire class. From there the party invitations start to come in by the droves for the rest of the preschool year. When it's your child’s turn, there is no need to panic; you can plan a fantastic preschool party even on a low budget or without a lot of time commitment on your part.

The best way to start to plan your preschooler’s party is to ask them what kind of party they want to have? This is important because he may want, or not want, a party similar to the one which they have attended. By asking them what they want, you are on your way to being able to start your planning. You don't need to be fearful that if you ask what your child wants that she will tell you they want expensive options; most children have pretty simple wants such as a specific theme or color scheme they desire.

The next decision you need to make is the location of the birthday party. For young children, who are prone to being messy, you might want to have their party at a local fast-food restaurant or similar venue. This can have the effect of the kids having some fun, and you not having a large mess to clean up after the party has finished. Another good option, if the weather in your area permits, is a local park.

If you dread the idea of spending hours with a pack of preschoolers on your weekend, you might choose to have the party in the evening or for just an hour or two on a Saturday afternoon. Preschoolers can only have a limited amount of fun before they become stressed out and start whining and crying. You can use this to your advantage by planning a relatively short but fun party.

If you plan to have more than a couple other children at the party you will need other adults to help you. Because preschoolers need lots of help and attention, you should have an adult for every three or four children in attendance. This will be a great help when children need help using the bathroom and other things as the party goes along.

When you are distributing invitations to your partiers, it is very important to remember that if you will be sending them to preschool to be passed out, you must invite each child in the class. To do otherwise is prohibited by most schools and just simply rude as well. Nothing is more hurtful than a group of preschoolers all taunting another child for not being invited to a party.

On the day of the party, you will want to have as much for your partiers to do as possible. While you do not want to overwhelm the children, it is important to keep them busy and occupied the entire time they are there with you. This will keep them out of trouble and having fun.

It is very important that you insist on good manners from your birthday party guests as well as your own birthday boy or girl. Everyone should use the words “please” and “thank you” as well as being courteous to others. In addition, you should go over how your child will handle opening presents and what is, and is not, appropriate to say to other people about gifts.

For more party planning ideas see some of the party planning choices offered on my Pinterest boards.

Thursday, December 26, 2019

Your Party Timeline

One of the best things that you can do when you are planning a party or event of any size is to have a written party timeline and a master shopping list. By creating a good solid timeline and a comprehensive list for shopping, you can ensure that your party goes off without any unexpected hitches. The following is a list of seven tips professional party planners use to get you on the right track in planning your shopping list and timeline:

Tip 1, Whether you are party planning for children, adults, or a wedding or a simple birthday celebration and whatever the size of your event, you must have a master shopping list as well as a good timeline. With a pen and paper decide on how long things will take you to do and start filling in your timeline. While you are going through the process, is the time to start a shopping list as well.

Tip 2, Before you can start to build your timeline and shopping list, first you must decide on where your party or event will be held and how many people you will be inviting. If you will be using an event location like a restaurant, you need to secure your space before moving along to do anything else.

Peanuts | Snoopy & Friends Winter Scarf Paper Placemat
by peanuts

Tip 3, Once you have secured your location for your party, that's when to start your shopping lists. To start building your timeline think about the things you will need to do before the party, such as send out your invitations. If you will be having them custom printed you will need to allow extra time for the printing before you can mail them out to your guests.

Tip 4, Once you have your date and location secured, and you have ordered your invitations, if necessary, then it is time to think about what you will be doing at your party, what type of food and drinks will be on the menu, and how long you want the party to last. Dedicate a single sheet of paper just to your party day and list everything you will need to do, in order, by time. For example, preparing food before guests arrive would be at the top of the sheet of paper, while giving out party favors may be at the absolute bottom.

Tip 5 In addition to your timeline for the day of the party, you will also want to formulate a timeline for the two weeks or so leading up to the event. Here you will need to block out time for cleaning, shopping, decorating, etc…

Tip 6, As you do each of the steps above, you will start to develop a good timeline and a great shopping and supplies list of things that you will need. This will be a great help to you and can even help you to remember to pick up things that you might otherwise have forgotten. In addition, you will also start to see if there will be any conflicts in your timeline where you might need to move a few things around or enlist the help of others.

Tip 7, Once you have your lists generated then it is time to stick to them and make sure everything gets done. If you are finding that you have more work to do than time to do it in, it is perfectly acceptable to ask other people to help you with various parts of the event. In fact, most people you will find would be happy to help you.

If you will be hosting a party or event, the best thing you can possibly do for yourself is to follow these tips, and if you're like me (not a first-time party giver) then don't be afraid to add lots of ideas of your own, and develop yourself a good timeline and master shopping list. By writing things down, you will much more clearly see what you need to do and what you will have time to do yourself.

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Surprise Party Planning Tips

I can remember only one time being treated to a surprise birthday party and unlike other birthday parties given for me over the years, I can still remember every detail. Back then I lived my life as a musician so when my band members all suggested I accompany them to a party at a fan/friend's house I agreed to go along. Looking back now I knew it was my birthday, (at least I think I did) but somehow I never caught on to what my bandmates had in store for me until I was suddenly showered with the calls of "Surprise!"

I'm sure the shocked look on my face and my sudden lack of words told all of the smiling faces around me that I was genuinely surprised. Feeling congratulation slaps on the back mixed with words like "happy birthday," and "we got you this time! I remember feeling a little embarrassed, that I didn't have a clue, and it made me feel good to know that a group of R&B musicians, who as we traveled the country had accused me of being nothing all business and Zero-Party. Somehow the fact that this same group of guys would conspire to give me a surprise birthday party made me smile.

Ever since then, I have come to appreciate that particular birthday, even more, when I think about the planning that was put into it. My band members hiding that secret until the actual day of the event. I would later find out that the party was actually our friend and fan's idea, and that they were able to contact and enlist the entire band to go along with their surprise which left me feeling very grateful for a fantastic group of friends and fellow musicians. Thinking about that experience is what made me want to share these few tips with those thinking about planning a surprise party.

When it comes to planning a surprise party planning can be done that will result in a fun and enjoyable gathering for all of the people involved. Especially if you and your co-conspirators can keep up the charade until the party happens you'll end up with one very surprised and happy guest of honor.

Even though the secret of your surprise party lays with all of the people who will be in attendance, there are some simple things that you can do, as the party planner and host, to help ensure the best possible outcome. Here are some tips to get you started on the road to planning a surprise party that your friends and relatives will be sharing on Facebook.

First, find out from your guest of honor, or even better from their significant other, what their schedule is like within the time frame you are considering for the surprise party. Use this valuable information to set the date for your surprise party.

Next, enlist the help of someone who can devise a fictitious activity for the guest of honor to partake in on the day of the party. Keep in mind, the closer to your home this activity is, the easier it is for your helper to “find the need to stop in at your home for a moment” the day of the party.

Install a cloak of secrecy when extending your invitations to all of your invited guests. Make your invitations carry instructions so that each of your guests understands that the party is a surprise and should be kept that way. Ask them to please not share the information with your guest of honor or anyone else who might mention your surprise party plan.

Come up with a planned event that everyone who may run into your guest of honor can use it as a diversion if they need to. However, if your guests don’t think they can “lie” to the guest of honor with a straight face, suggest that they avoid them for the time leading up to the party, whenever possible and practical.

Recommend that all of your invited guests arrive at least thirty minutes before you expect your guest of honor to arrive. If your guest of honor generally arrives early to events, then you might want to ask your invited guests to come a bit earlier, just to be safe. If possible, ask your guests to park down the street and out of sight. The only caveat to this is if the guest of honor believes they are attending another event at your home on that day. If this is the case then it won’t really matter much where people choose to park.

When you have done all of the other things suggested, then the only thing you can really do is pray and hold your breath that no one will slip-up and tell your guest of honor about your planned surprise party.

Planning a surprise party can be a lot of fun. If you take the time to build some diversions into your plan, you are able to help those who might be asked questions by the guest of honor. This will ensure that they are not caught off-guard and without a good, solid, quick answer to give to any questions that they may be asked.

In my only experience with a surprise party, I was caught totally and completely off guard. Knowing all the things I know now about setting up and giving a party I realize and appreciate the effort that went into the secret operation that brought a big smile to my face, and the faces of all those around me. Doing the things listed above will lead to a wonderful surprise party.

Best of luck!

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Some of my Sweeter Memories

These days there is a lot of posts about how to eat healthier, losing weight and getting in shape. I'm not trying to knock these articles and posts, but sometimes when you're doing the party planning it’s fun to think back to when you were a kid.

Remember all the games you used to play? Board games like Monopoly, Life, and Scrabble? From my childhood days, I can even remember playing Tag, hide n’ seek and pin the tail on the donkey.

There seemed to always be running around, riding bikes, skating, rolling down grassy hills. Anyway, I hope you can see where I'm going with all this, let’s have a little fun. What I remember best about my birthday, and my sibling's birthdays is the candy!

What was your favorite candy when you were a kid? Some of mine were Licorice, Chocolate, and good old Laffy Taffy?

I remember the delight of the days I was old enough to go to the store to buy candy without my parent's supervision. No mom there to tell me I couldn’t have what I could afford to buy. Lemon heads were always one of my favorites.

I'll admit that my younger brothers and I no doubt spent way too much of our allowances on candy, but it was SO much fun! We’d hide it so that our mother wouldn’t find it, and call it our midnight snack making sure to throw the wrappers straight into the trash after eating the candy. My mother laughed about that to me once a couple years ago, my brothers and I could not believe that she had known of our candy hiding secret, but she did. We all laugh about it now but the candy had been eaten after all; she couldn’t undo that, so what did it matter if she knew then?

Halloween was, of course, the best. As we got older we got to be the kids that went around the neighborhood later than just about anyone else, so the people who didn’t want to have leftover candy would just dump their excess on us. No worries back then about poison.

Another funny memory is that just like the squirrels that used to frequent our neighborhood hiding food for the wintertime my brothers and I were always trying to find the best places to hide each individual piece. Of course, that meant that every here and there we’d find a piece that had clearly been hidden for a year or more... yuck! When our house was destroyed we move a few times before settling into a new house my parents had built. I can't help but smile thinking about the people who moved into the houses we had once lived in when they came across pieces of candy we had hidden as kids.

Despite my best resolutions these days, I still love candy. Cinnamon candies are my main weakness now, but I know how to be pretty good about it, buying a small quantity once in a while so that I get the taste without the feeling of OD-ing (Over Dosing) on Cinnamon candies. But then come those days when I have to get into my old favorites, Lemon heads still feel good on a sore throat.

Yes, it does pay to eat healthily. But everything in moderation, and that includes moderation. Sometimes you just have to revisit a few old memories in your party planning. When my own kids were still small it seemed like everything candy-wise was a gummy this or a sour that, and while I was able to migrate my taste buds somewhat to the more contemporary candy flavors nothing can match my favorite candies from the time I spent as a kid.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Monster Party

Custom Retro Monster Postcard
by My_Favorite_Things

Party with Monsters at your very own monster party! And feed them some of the best monster food in the world, chocolate party favors! All monsters love chocolate, in America alone, Monsters (both large and small) eat 10-12 pounds of chocolate every year. You will also see that, as you near the end of this post, consuming that much chocolate is really not all that bad for the human body. So take it from a big chocolate-eating-monster (me) chocolate can make the perfect party favor.

Chocolate is considered a food that promotes relaxation and because of the cocoa mixed into it has a calming effect; something I could appreciate when planning a birthday party for my own hyper-active little chocolate-eating-monsters when they were small. Chocolate calms the nerves and can help you feel good, and celebrated, even when your name isn't on the birthday cake. Some consider chocolate a sinful indulgence but not me, chocolate is all about tasting good to me. Chocolate, at a fun party setting, should be enjoyed especially as a party favor guilty feelings.

Party favors are small gifts the host gives each guest to show their appreciation. It's a great way to say “thank you for being here.” In my opinion, chocolate is the most popular party favor ever.

Chocolate party favors can be further enhanced with personalization. Customized chocolates enable you to communicate a message to your guests. For example, if you are celebrating a birthday party you can include a message such as “Happy Birthday Joe.” You can have a date, the place of the party, or any other message printed on the chocolate wrapper.

Your personalized wrapper on your chocolate party favor can serve as a pleasant reminder and keepsake of a really nice birthday party, that add a little personal appeal in the form of a milk chocolate party favor.

Chocolate not only tastes great, but it may be good for your health to some. Research shows that chocolate may help your body use insulin more efficiently and lower your blood pressure. Chocolate includes essential minerals, such as magnesium and potassium. Vitamins B1, B2, D, and E are found in chocolate. Chocolate also includes antioxidants that can help protect against cancer and premature aging.

The history of chocolate dates back to the Maya civilization, and we still can’t live without it. According to recent surveys, chocolate is America's favorite party flavor with over 50% of adults favoring chocolate to other party flavors. Chocolate party favors are a great way to add to your party enjoyment, and to my surprise, with moderation, chocolate can even be part of a healthy diet.