"And More......."

A Royal Party
Great site. Very pleased with the party supplies I received thanks. The best party ever was my dd's 5th birthday. Spent the entire summer collecting fridge boxes from a local appliance store. Invitations were presented as a scroll and announced the princess "dd's name" was having a party at castle "last name". Invite requested the presence of princess/prince "name" to attend. It looked quite formal. Set up a tent we have for vehicles (20x30 feet) and attached the cardboard boxes with tops cut to look like a castle all the way around except for an arched opening. Set up a moat type entrance where guests were greeted (they were in proper princess and prince attire) and announced as "Princess name" or "Prince name". They were given swords and shields, tiaras and wands. Party games consisted of pin the Fire on the Dragon: Decorate the castle walls with sidewalk chalk: Musical throne. They were also presented with an old fashioned (real) key, which unlocked the treasure at the end of the party so they could receive their loot bag (paper bag with princess/prince with their name on it). Fancy lunch was served at a 10 foot long table lowered to 5 year old level, decorated "elegantly" with goblets sparkling with jewels (small plastic wine glasses with craft jewels glued to it), fabric napkins (brand new fancy dish cloths), and gold plastic cutlery. The cake was a castle I had made with ice cream cones turrets etc. The kids had a blast and the parents were in awe. I had fun too. Lots of work but so worth it. - Thanks, Tamri, in Port Elgin, Ontario

Construction Party
For my son's 3rd birthday he wanted to have a party that celebrated what his daddy does. We own a dump truck, tractors, and various other pieces of large equipment. The invitations were store bought fill in the blank because I had just had a c-section when it was time to mail them out, but at the bottom I wrote a message letting them know that works clothes would be necessary. We used a lot of yellow "caution tape" around the yard, tons of yellow, orange, and black balloons, as well as street barricades, orange cones, and signs such as "Men at Work" and "Construction Site". I printed labels on the computer that read "Josh Young Construction" and put them on plastic hard hats I got at the party supply store. I got tool belts/nail aprons from Wal-Mart and tool sets from the $1 Store. I loaded the tools into the belts along with a carpenter pencil and my sister-in-law wrote each child's name on their tool belt with a paint pen as they arrived. We did gifts and food before getting dirty. Rather than a cake I made "dirt pudding" which is a layered dessert with crushed Oreos on top. My son had a large plastic dump truck that had never been outside and we filled the back of it with the "dirt" and placed small orange cones from a construction play set on top. Everyone got a big kick out of that. After my son Josh finished eating he and my husband disappeared for a moment. As I started asking if anyone had seen Josh, just in time for everyone to hear the loud horn of the dump truck. My husband came around the corner in the dump truck with my son in his lap hanging out the window and pulling the horn. I directed all the kids to run out to the "construction site" (empty field) where my husband backed the truck up (for the beeping effect) and dumped a load of dirt. At the construction site everyone was issued their tool belt with their name on it and their hard hat. I had a large assortment of shovels, buckets, and trucks for the kids to play with in the dirt. Those kids had the most fun in that pile of dirt. They were also allowed to climb on the tractors and get their picture made if they wanted. Everyone took home their belt with tools, their hard hat, and a shovel and bucket. It was a huge success and so cheap. - Thanks, Heather in Mississippi

Elmo's Dorothy
Hi, I haven't actually received my order yet, but I just wanted to commend you on your speedy and friendly service. This is my first birthday party for my first little girl. She just loves Elmo and I can't wait to receive my order and start decorating. My husband is a public health nurse and is terrified of children being around latex balloons, so I had to find other unique ways to decorate. One idea I came up with that I wanted to share with you for an Elmo Party was to have "Dorothy" attend the party. For any of you who don't watch Sesame Street, Dorothy is Elmo's goldfish. I bought a small fishbowl for less than $3, some fish food for less than $2, and a goldfish for less than $2. I'm going to have "Dorothy" on her own little table and let the older kids feed her, I think they'll get a kick out of it. Thanks again. I'll continue to use this site for future parties and pass it on to my friends. - Thanks, Krista, in Stephenville, Newfoundland

Cheerleader Party
When my daughter was 9 1/2 (we celebrate 1/2 birthdays for our two oldest kids because they have birthdays on Dec. 20 and Dec. 24, and most of the time their friends can't make a birthday party so close to Christmas), and we had a cheerleader theme. We had a few of the cheerleaders from the local high school come over and teach the girls some cheers. I had gotten free banners and decorations from the local university alumni association and everyone had pompoms. It was great fun. - Thanks, Kitty, in Missoula, Montana

Teddy Bear Picnic
My son recently had his first birthday and we hosted a Teddy Bear Picnic. It was simple and a blast. The simplicity ranges based on your level of input. Pick one or more of the following suggestions to have the greatest Teddy Bear Picnic ever -
Decorations:
Balloons in desired color
Curly ribbon
Teddy Bears in various shapes and sizes
Teddy Bears cut out of construction paper
A sign
Food:
This is easy since you can just pick a variety of picnic food. I served:
Sandwiches
Fruit (watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, strawberries)
Cheese, crackers, and meat
Veggies and dip (standard veggie fare)
Birthday cake (for a really easy cake and clean up, I made a Teddy Bear shaped cake out of cupcakes so that each piece of cake was easily handed out and cleaned up)
Ice cream bars (fudgesicles, creamsicles, revels, and ice cream sandwiches were on hand for easy ice cream serving and selection)
For the party games we had the Teddy Bear Olympics. I chose five simple games. The Teddy Bear Shuffle (a simple game I made up - they have to shuffle with the bear between their knees to the finish line, no hands, and if they drop it they have to start again), ring toss, toss the bee in the honey jar (I made a bee out of felt and used a plant pot as the honey jar), balloon animals (blow up the long skinny balloons and each child gets to have a hand at making a balloon animal {not recommended for really young children}). Since all the guests were over 5 except for the baby I went ahead with this game. Pin the Ear on the bear (I made a construction bear and cut his ear off, I used double sided tape to fasten the ear). After the Olympics each child received a certificate stating that they completed the Olympic circuit (I made these on the computer).
Some additional touches I did were make a CD with all teddy bear music. I had ten versions of the song "Teddy Bear Picnic" (of course), some songs sung by Winnie the Pooh, and just other teddy related songs. I also bought some fabric (yellow with teddy bears dressed as bees) for a tablecloth for our picnic table. The loot bags were really fun but took some way ahead planning. Every time I was out and about I picked up teddy related stuff. It can be sort of tricky finding these things but that's where the early planning came in. I had teddy reflectors for their bikes, teddy stickers, teddy erasers, teddy pencils, various candy (GUMMY BEARS, OF COURSE), teddy paper, a pad of tic tac toe paper and just some other fun stuff all placed in a little teddy bear gift bag. The loonie stores are of course the best place for these finds. I probably could have not done all that, and my son would not have cared either way but we all know the joy of theme parties, and besides everyone had a blast. Oh and by the way, National Teddy Bear Picnic Day is July 10, so for some kids it fits right in with a July birthday. - Thanks to Natalie

Lizzie McGuire
Kate's Lizzie McGuire party:
When the guests arrived, they could do a foam door hanger craft. We had alphabet stickers (to personalize their hanger i.e. Kate's Room or "Lizzie"), and little craft jewel do-dads and a felt flower to glue on. Hangers dried over the next couple of hours. As each girl finished their hanger - always such a difference from one kid to the next how long this will interest them - they then had an appointment at the "manicure salon" and had their nails done with a choice of 3 "Lizzie" polishes I found at Zellers. The "salon" was a large cardboard box turned on its side that my daughter had decorated with crepe paper streamers and helium balloons on either side (think Lemon-aid stand). Big hit - one little girl even lay down and proper her feet up on the box for a pedicure. Very funny - my sister, the manicurist, found this hysterical. Girls with wet nails danced around to a Hillary Duff CD. Then with nails done, salon closed, we next did a treasure hunt with clues taking them to different locations where the next clued was located - 7 clues (ages of kids) in all.
Look for me where letters and parcels you'd see
Out to the street, with the key, with the key
My names rhymes with SNAIL SOCKS
I'm in the coldest place in the whole entire house
There's water here when you come visit me
My name rhymes with MIDGE
I'm the final clue, you're almost done
I have a trunk, 4 wheels and wipers
I am the red one, don't pick the blue
My name rhymes with "Gran"
Each clue was printed on a little piece of paper with a Lizzie sticker. Note: You'd be surprised how some of them were really not able to figure out the clues. The day before the party, my husband read them and pronounced them "too difficult" so we added the "my name rhymes with" to each. Our "locations" were mostly in the house for safety's sake but we had one hidden in our community mailbox down the road a wee bit. So the clue ahead of this (freezer) also had our mailbox key with curly ribbon on it. That was cool. The final clue directed the gang to our car. The "treasure" was a big box wrapped up with gift-wrap and bows and a sign that said "Don't open me until cake and presents are finished". So, then they marched back in, thirsty and ready for cake and presents and excited about this big box addressed to all of them. Finally they all got to open this giant mystery box, which contained a large flower power pinata. We rigged up the pinata to be "pull string" instead of the kind to whack, as I knew Kate would like it for her room afterwards. So the girls just lined up in alphabetical order and took turns pulling until the special string released the goodies. Then, they tore around with their noisemakers, etc. until the parents came, which was about 10 minutes later. The funniest part of Kate's party for me was when I was taking a group photo of the girls. I took a couple of the usual giddy girl group pictures and then, for some reason, I said for the next picture, they should all look really SAD. My daughter got "it" right away and started wailing: "This is THE worst birthday party EVER" waa waa waa and all the girls were a little shocked, but then they all "got" it and all started mock crying (loud) and then they laughed like heck because, I guess, it was sooo the opposite. It is a hilarious picture. - Thanks Kelli

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