A family friendly New Year’s Party

  

I have to admit something and it may seem strange to you. I love new years.  Don’t get me wrong- the fall warmth of Thanksgiving and the warm fuzzies of Christmas are fabulous and they seem to get plenty of attention – but  I  love New Years. The idea of a fresh start and the anticipation of the year to come gets me as giggly as a kid with a new batch of play-dough. 

  Every year I have a celebration with my closest friends and family and I’d love to share some of my traditions with you.  Here is what our family will be doing to ring in the New Year and some tips I have found to keep it memorable for all the right reasons:

   Celebration gluttony: New Years around the world

To get the most out of our party, every year we celebrate New Years around the world.  (Why only celebrate one very late celebration when you can have many celebrations all night long?)  Above the buffet of  family friendly snacks- chex mix, taquitos and other fun finger foods- hangs a giant clock (A great goodwill find a few years back) You can find one like it by searching for over-sized wall clock at www.target.com. Beside it I hang  4 clocks, set at the appropriate times (see below),  each with its own label for the location it represents.  Through out the evenings festivities we can watch the wall clock and celebrate each city’s new year as it approaches.

 Avoiding the mid-night meltdown:

My kids are young (all four under the age of 11) and the idea of keeping them awake until midnight seems like quite an undertaking. (A little research on my part has shown that most kids aren’t really ready to see the ball drop at midnight until about the ages of 10 or 11, anyways.)  In order to avoid the “up waaay past bedtime meltdown,” we will celebrate New Years around the world. 

Check out www.timeanddate.com for a nifty little new years calculator.  I used a world map and stuck flag pins in the places we will “travel” to celebrate. Use this site for flag images: http://www.flags.net/indexa.htm

We will celebrate these cities (Since we are in California, United States)

London, England 4 pm

Buenos Aires, Argentina 6 pm

Santiago, Chile 7 pm

New York, New York 9pm

 At each given hour we will do the count down and run outside with our home made noise makers (decorated painted plastic soda bottles filled with beans and decorated with ribbon and stickers) Each kid gets to open up a goody bag for each time zonewith activities to entertain for the next hour- a coloring page and crayons, some play dough and a cookie cutter, stickers and a frame- whatever makes your wee ones excited. Set the bags out for display on the buffet and decorate them with a clock for each hour you celebrate.

Our own New Year’s ball drop

  I love the ball drop at times square so this year we will have our own version:  Our New Years Pinata Party ball.  Using paper mache and some foil paper squares- make your own pinata (or buy one at the store) Hang it from the highest point of the house and lower it each hour until the long awaited ball drop (We will do ours with New York, USA.)  where you can give it a whack at “midnight.”

 Reflection: Looking back at the past year

   I love to scrapbook. Each year I grab a few pictures of each child during a memorable event and make a scrapbook station where they can scrapbook the past year and make a page for the next year’s resolutions.  Each kid makes their own page and adds it to their album.  I help the young one’s with their journal entries. It’s fun to watch how their pages morph from messy toddler pages to coherent school age creations.

I hope you enjoyed taking a peek at our new years traditions. We sure enjoy participating in them. No matter how you choose to celebrate the New Year with your family, you too can create traditions that they will cherish for a lifetime. 

Party Favors: A mystery unwrapped

Grace Avignon

 

Party favors have always been a mystery to me, a source of anxiety that I can’t seem to conquer. Now I know it’s not rocket science, but I admit, rather embarrassingly, that the crafty mom side of me is lacking. My last party, for my son, our favors were bought- prepackaged- at the store.  They seemed so… ordinary.  I marvel at the party hostess that has it all together.  What was her inspiration?  Where did she find these neat baubles? How did she do it? At the last party I was at, I stood before rows and rows of pink cellophane bags with marabou trim and vowed, “Today is the day I debunk the goody bag mystery once and for all!” So, my fellow baffled beauties, I set out on my trek to find the answers to my party holy grail, determined to find the 5 simple steps to spectacular goody bags and sisters, here they are!

 

Don’t break the bank

In my research, you can make a great goody bag without spending over $4-6 a piece.  Set your spending limit and stick to it.  By sticking to your budget guns, you’ll use your ingenuity and avoid the “goody bag meltdown” of having too many items that just don’t make sense.

 

Think of you audience

Remember, although the adults may seem impressed, it is the kids you are buying for and they don’t need a Tiffany’s bracelet to make them go “ooh” and “ahh.”  Find items that are age appropriate and fit the party theme.  (Party Holy grail hint: Sticking to a theme could be as easy as using a single overall color like ballet pink or royal blue) Here’s an age breakdown I found on Parenting.com:

            For guests that are:

Ages 2 -3 :

Buy 2 nice “B” things such as bubbles, bath toys, balls and books (The thick kind that tiny fingers can’t tear or toddler teeth can’t gnaw through). 

4-8 years

Guests this age value quantity over quality, so pick 4 to 5 little items that are sure to thrill them.  Use Items such as, stickers, clay, mini puzzles, sidewalk chalk, whistles, water squirters, bracelets and rings (both sexes equally enjoy these, by the way).

Older kids

They’re back to liking a few bigger and nicer items.  They really like things they can use to express themselves.  A small diary and a pen, markers and a stuffed animal or a neat craft that they have made at the party and can take home. Let your child help pick items for their friends, they’ll love it.

 

Use all your resources

There are so many avenues to explore what’s available for your party, here are a few:

            The internet:  give yourself enough time for shipping (usually 7-10 days) and places like www.orientaltradingcompany,com and www.birthdayexpress.com could be your best friends.  Just type your theme in the search box and see what comes up.  Also check out www.buycostumes.com, they have some pretty nifty pre assembled bags as well.  You could add your personal touch to the faboulous-ness that have already put together.

 

            The dollar store: I have found the Atlantis of goody bags!  There are rows and rows of neat little treats, specialty candy, stickers and toys- all under a dollar. Also, don’t forget the neat dollar bins at places like Target and Wal-Mart.  If you plan ahead, a few trips here could yield many items and a few bucks to spare so you can splurge on the container and trim.

 

As for the container:  Think Function and form

A pretty cellophane bag will work but use something more durable and your guests will have yet another goody to remember the event by.  On my quest, I have found things like sand pails, tiny purses, little knap sacks all work well and far outlive the party.  Use the websites above to explore your options.  You can also visit www.containerstore.com for other creative options.

 

Wrap it up with style

Packages are always more fun when they are done up with a bit more pomp and circumstance.  Use pretty trims, like marabou or rick rack.  You can find this in any novelty section of a craft store or in my favorites like Wal-mart or the dollar store.  For name tags you can use place cards, name badges, or even stuffed animals with names written on them in permanent marker or puff paint.  Your creativity is the limit.

 

Looking back on my explorations I see that the Goody bag treat is all about expressing your child’s unique personality and personifying it in a way your guests can enjoy. I feel empowered, with these simple rules, using simplicity and creativity, an amazing goody bag can be made by all! Happy hunting!

Tea for two- sexes that is.

You can have a tea party for both boys and girls without loosing the interest of the y chromesome.  The key is finding a theme that is diverse enough to entertain both.  Try a mad hatter tea party, that way your young gentlemen can find a crazy hat and enjoy the day’s festivities. OR divide your paty into 2 parts of one theme… like a Farytale party that can entertain both young knights and princesses or maybe pirates and princesses (You never know- They may even try a scone!)

5 simple steps to a memorable kids birthday party!

Birthday parties don’t have to be a source of anxiety.

I remember it like it was yesterday.  My oldest daughter Hope was turning 7, we had just moved to a new state and she wanted to have a birthday party for her entire class. As I thought of the 30 plus kids in her class, I panicked.  Images raced through my mind of hoards of unruly kids tearing through my house amped on sugar, leaving a wake of destruction behind them with their frosting smeared faces and hands. I, huddled in a crumpled heap of frustration and exhaustion in the corner. 

As I awoke from my nightmarish visualisation I realised: kids parties don’t have to be an exhausting, overwhelming chore. With a bit of organisation and some creativity, Hope and I could not just plan a 7th birthday but we could make memories together that last a life time.   Looking back, I can see the 5 simple steps that made her day amazing.  You don’t have to panic at the thought of a party either.  I’ll share my gems of wisdom with you.  Read on.

  1. Remember the audience.

Kids are simple.  Think back to Christmas;  you fretted over buying THE perfect toy and they were more excited to play with “the cool box.”  Talk with your child and see what they are interested in.  A clue might be plastered to their bedroom wall.  Hope loved the beach.  Her room was decorated to the nines with Hawaiian print, sandy beach images, and bobbly-wobbly dancing hula girls.  It wasn’t too hard to decide that a beach theme was what would make her soon to be 7 year old heart sing. 

2. Think Outside the Box

 Once you two decide on the theme, think of creative (and cost effective) ways to decorate.  To stretch your party planning dollars further, use items you already have in an inventive way.  We used Hope’s room decor to give her party a Waikiki pizazz:  Hula dolls as center pieces.  Bold colored Beach towels as table runners and dollar store flip flops and sand pails full of pinata candy as party favors. 

3. Entertainment is child’s play 

Once we established the them and had fun dreaming up the decor we moved on to decide entertainment.  I am not one for chasing kids and lots of structure (or huge messes at my house) so Hope and I settled on a venue elsewhere.  You could use a club house, a park, a restaurant, a pool (make sure all your guests are water proof…) even a relative’s house that is better suited for entertainment.  For Hope, we had the party at the river (only a few minutes drive from where we lived). Each guest received their own floaty noodle- you know those long, brightly colored  styrofoam things you use to float in the pool with? (Walmart is a God send!) and a sand pail labled with the guest’s name.  I’d like to say I did it for the personal touch but really, I knew the names would make it easier to keep track of what belonged to whom. An easy up made for a great escape from the sun and was decorated with Hawaiian themed items from oriental trading company (www.orientaltradingcompany.com) .

4. Invite the parents

Once we established the locale, Hope and I made out the invites. (You can make them with clip art and your computer, but them at your local party store or send e-vites online)  We used a hula girl invite and added some grass to her skirt for a 3-D and personal touch.  I knew I didn’t want to chase kids by myself all day or take on the responsibility of making sure every kid made it through the day above water, so Hope and I decided to invite the parents.  We scheduled the party at 2:00 pm. This made it easier on me. At 2-ish, snacks are appropriate and you are clear from having to provide dinner as well. We also let the parents know that snacks would be served for them and their teeny whainis also. 

 5. Keep the food simple

Lastly, we decided on the food.  As party favors, the parents all got their own tiki glasses for punch and had some other snacks more suited to an adult pallet like turkey wraps (use mayo in packets that don’t need to be refrigerated to avoid sending your guests to the emergency room with food poisoning) and a fruit tray kept on ice.  Since coolers fit into the beach theme we decorated them and used them as part of our snack buffet.  Brightly colored bowls of chips and crackers and party mixes adorned the table. Party tip: pre package snacks such as chips in pretzels in their own bags to keep the sand on the beach and out of your snacks. 

So you see, with a bit of planning and a whole lot of quality time Hope had an amazing 7th birthday. I know you child will too!  You’ll see, with a bit of planing and a lot of fun your child can have the party of their dreams .