Top 5 Children's Birthday Party Tips

Most parents celebrate their children's birthdays with a party. From small family parties to elaborate celebrations, birthday parties can be lots of fun for everyone. They can be just as much fun to plan. Here are some tips for making your child's next birthday party the best one so far.

Let the Child Call Some of the Shots

Of course, kids love eating cake and opening presents, but many of them enjoy planning the event too. Unless you're planning a surprise party, you can ask your child to help select the theme, the party decorations, the invitations, the cake and the activities. It'll make the party a truly special event.

Keep the Guest List Manageable

If you're holding the party in your home, it's a good idea NOT to invite your child's entire 2nd grade class. Other venues can handle such a crowd, but for a home party you might want to stick to inviting family and/or some of the child's closest friends from school.

Plan Activities

It's a fact of life that kids get bored easily. Plan activities for the kids to keep them occupied, and remember to set a pick-up time for parents if kids are being dropped off for the birthday party. We're a big fan of games, and you can find a ton of helpful game ideas at MomsWhoThink.com.

Have a Back-Up Plan

If you're planning an outdoor party, it's especially important to have a Plan B for the day's events. Activity books and indoor games will be a must. You might also want to plan a few more activities that you think you'll get to. It's better to have planned activities you don't get to than to discover your games all ended more quickly than you anticipated and you're struggling to fill the leftover time.

Are you a kids' party planning wizard? What tips and trips do you recommend?

Party Planning Secrets

Pulling off a stress-free party usually means planning ahead and staying organized. But how, exactly, does a hostess manage all of that? With these party planning secrets, of course!

Use Lists

Photo Courtesy of Pinwhirls Customer Kathleen L.

Lists aren't just for shopping. Use multiple lists to manage your party through every step of the planning phase, and manage that with a master list. It might sound like overkill, but the bigger the party the more likely you are to forget something. Here are the kinds of lists you'll need:

• Master list for party planning chores and to-dos
• Shopping list for all of your party decor and supplies
• Invitation list
• RSVP list
• Gift & thank you list (used at birthday parties and bridal, wedding, or baby showers)

Offer DIY Drinks & Buffets

Skipping the bartender means guests can get those cocktails and soft drinks just the way they like them. Of course, it also means that guests can get those cocktails just the way they like them!  Plus buffets simplify meal service and make it easier for guests with dietary restrictions to create the perfect party menu for one.

Create a Kid-Friendly Space

If your event is family friendly, one of the best things you can do to keep the adults sane is offer a fun activity space for the kids. Simple crafts, coloring books, and other age-friendly games can entertain the kiddos and encourage them to socialize at the party.

Give Yourself Time

Save a little time an hour or two before the party to collect yourself and take a few deep breaths. If you're worked up into a frenzy as guests are arriving, it'll show -- and chances are you won't enjoy the event as much.

The Origins of Four More Wedding Traditions

In an earlier post, we covered some of the origins of popular wedding traditions including why brides wear white wedding gowns, why brides look for something "old, new, borrowed, and blue" and the history of the wedding bouquet.

Photo courtesy of Kristen W.

But there are many more wedding traditions and plenty of interesting stories to explain them. So we're going to cover a few more of the most popular traditions in the United States.

Tossing the Garter and Bouquet

According to a Mental Floss article, the origins of this story are pretty creepy and involve wedding guests helping the bride and groom make things "official" by tearing and pawing at the bride's dress. In time, the bouquet and garter were tossed as distractions to help the bride escape the crowd unnoticed.

Giving Away the Bride

That same Mental Floss article explains why fathers give away brides. You might not like it, but the story behind this wedding tradition is that "fathers once used their daughters as currency to a) pay off a debt to a wealthier land owner, b) symbolize a sacrificial, monetary peace offering to an opposing tribe or c) buy their way into a higher social strata."

The Wedding Cake

Smithsonian.com tells us that wedding cake has a long history. In ancient Rome the grooms smashed barley cake over the bride’s head. (We're not sure if that's better or worse than cake in the face!) Also, in medieval England unmarried wedding guests might take home a slice of cake to "tuck under their pillow."

Saving the wedding cake, according to CNN Living, was less about commemorating the one-year wedding anniversary and more about frugality. According to the article, "It used to be assumed that when there was a wedding, a christening would follow shortly. So, rather than bake two cakes for the occasions, they'd just bake one big one and save a part of it to be eaten at a later date when the squealing bundle of joy arrived."

What is your favorite wedding tradition? Do you know how it got started?

Planning a Family Reunion

We don't always think of family reunions as parties, but that's exactly what they can be if you plan them right. Here are a few tips to make your next reunion more festive and less stressful.

Pick a Theme
Instead of the same old family reunion year after year, give the event a theme. Luaus, costume parties, and pool parties are lots of fun. If your reunion is an annual event, make it a challenge to see how long you can go without repeating a theme.

Assign Committees
You can split up responsibilities by age groups or by families to make sure everyone has something fun to do. For example, you could put grandchildren in charge of picking out games and activities, aunts can be in charge of menu planning, uncles can be in charge of setup and grandparents can choose the venue and organize booking the shelter house, pool, cabin, or hall.

Send Reminders
Send out traditional invitations or e-vites so people can put the reunion on their calendars. If your family is spread out over several states, planning ahead is essential. Include all the important information including where and when the reunion will be held. If you're divvying up jobs, put a reminder on the cards so people know which aspects of planning they are responsible for.

Remember the Photos
Don't forget the cameras! You might want to plan ahead to have a professional photographer take a large group photo as well as take family and individual portraits. When you do this, sitting fees can be divided up among all the families. If having a professional photographer isn't feasible, be sure you pack your own digital camera.

What tips do you have for planning a fun family reunion?

Tips for Choosing Wedding Jewelry

Photo courtesy of Heather M and
photographer, www.catwilborne.com/

We've already talked a lot about weddings -- from picking the right bouquet to selecting the right destination, but there's so much more that goes into wedding planning.

What the bride will wear is a huge consideration. The dress has to be perfect and fit the bride's budget after all. But sometimes it's the small details that truly make the bride radiant. That's why today we're talking wedding jewelry. Here are a few tips to help you pick the best pieces.

Take Heirloom Pieces With You

If you're going with traditional wedding jewelry and heirloom pieces, select them and bring them with you as you plan the rest of your wardrobe around them. Not all dresses and necklaces will work together, so if you want to wear your grandmother's teardrop necklace with your gown, you have to make sure the neckline of your gown accommodates your choices.

Don't Be Afraid of Costume Pieces

Costume jewelry works well for many brides, if you know what to look for. It can also save you a fortune -- particularly if you are looking for bold, chunky necklaces or earrings that really stand out. Just remember that synthetic gemstones are a lot more forgiving than cheap or poorly plated metals. The last thing a bride needs is a necklace that turns her neck green!

Keep it Simple

Sometimes it's tempting to overdo it with the jewelry. Remember that accessories still take a back seat to your overall appearance. Look for items that compliment your style without making you look overdecorated and gaudy. Gowns with intricate designs and lots of lace typically call for less ornate jewelry.

Don't Forget the Bridesmaids

If you want a coordinated look, work with your bridesmaids to select pieces that flatter everyone and coordinate well with the bridesmaids' dresses. This doesn't necessarily mean that every woman should wear the same earring and the same necklace. Consistent style doesn't have to mean everyone has to be dressed exactly alike. Individuality is important too.

The Origin of Wedding Traditions

Photos courtesy of Krystal G. and draperphotography.com.

Have you ever wondered just how our wedding traditions got started? Why do women wear white dresses. Why do guests throw rice? And why do couples save wedding cake for their one year anniversary? Read on to learn about the origins of some of our most popular wedding traditions in America.

The White Wedding Gown

In "The Bizarre Origins of 8 Wedding Traditions"Jenn Grabenstetter explains that women used to simply wear their best outfit to their wedding just to convince her future husband that her family was wealthy. It wasn't until Queen Victoria came along wearing a pale wedding dress that white caught on. Apparently every girl dreamed of looking like a queen on her wedding day.

Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

Hollee Actman Becker explains the tradition of the bride wearing something old, new, borrowed and blue in her piece for The Knot titled, "Wedding Customs: Tracking Tradition." These items are supposed to by symbolic:

• Old = Continuity
• New = Optimism
• Borrowed = Happiness
• Blue = Love and Fidelity.

Keep the Bride and Groom Separate Before the Ceremony

In that same article, Becker explains why some brides insist that the groom not see them before the ceremony. Apparently this tradition originated from the superstition that it if the groom saw the bride before the wedding she would not be "pure and new" and it would mean bad luck for the couple.

The Wedding Bouquet

If you've ever wondered why the bride carries a bouquet, Rebecca Fairley Raney has the answer over at How Stuff Works in her article, "10 Wedding Traditions with Surprising Origins." Raney explains that this tradition likely got started around the time of the Plauge when people believed herbs would help them survive.

What is your favorite wedding tradition? Do you know how it got started?

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Brides: Learn how you can save 10% on wedding items from Pinwhirls.com!

Bow Tie or Bow?

Although I haven't officially announced it on this blog, my hubby and I are expecting our 2nd little one in mid-December.  Our first, Gabriel - Gabe for short, was born in April of 2010 so he's just a little over 2.  For Gabe, we didn't learn his gender ahead of his birth.  We {okay mostly myself - my hubby really sort of wanted to know} wanted it to be a total surprise when he/she arrived.  This go around, I decided to be nice and let the hubby get his way, but only if I could make it special by hosting a gender reveal party for our families - and ourselves - we didn't even want to know until the day of the party - which happened to be 2 weeks after the ultrasound (the torture!). Roger isn't from Indiana so all of his family is out of town, so we decided to mail his close family gender reveal cookies - they would bite into the center of the cookie and the color would reveal the gender.  His parents also planned on joining us on PlayStation video chat the day of the party - they were to bite into their cookies at the same time we bit into our cupcakes.
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So, to have everything come together so that neither Roger/I found out the gender ahead of the party, we hired a local baker to bake both the cookies and the cupcakes. She got to take a peek at the gender card (which the ultrasound tech slid into a sealed envelope) before we knew. But, to make a long story short there was a snafu with the cookies. The baker baked them too thin and when I went to package them to ship, I accidentally saw the color and thus learned the sex.  Huge disappointment - was in a minor depression all day while I awaited hubby getting home from work. Although he really wanted to wait until the day of the party, I told him that there was no way that I could hold onto the secret from him for 5 days.  So, he and Gabe split one of my freshly baked replacement cookies (which were oatmeal and super thick so no one would find out the gender on accident).




The theme of the party was - Bow Tie or Bow? Soon we will Know! On the day of the party, we requested that everyone wear blue if they thought it was a boy and red if they thought it was a girl. (A few were perplexed as to why I didn't select baby blue and baby pink for the colors - to put it simply - I'm just tired of those traditional colors for babies so I wanted a more fun and unique color combination.)
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When guests arrived, we had them vote on the gender by putting a hash mark on the huge chalkboard that sits above our buffet.




The baker did an awesome job on the bow and bow tie cupcakes.  Although I hate complaining to vendors, I did let her know about the cookie snafu, so I think she went out of her way to make sure the cupcakes were perfect.  Cupcakes were red velvet with cream cheese icing (our favorite). Nom.



Upon arriving, guests were also able to pin on a bow tie if they thought it was a boy ...




or, they could pin or clip on a bow if they guessed it was a girl. Many wore both including my parents - they didn't want to play favorites.




We decorated the food area with red and blue decor accents including pennants.



For the food, I kept it simple. I originally wanted everything to either be bow/bow tie themed or aqua blue or red, but the foods just became too limiting (there aren't many aqua colored foods!). So, since it was a lunch time reveal we served simple sandwiches (chicken salad, shrimp salad and turkey and Swiss roll-ups), bow tie Italian Pasta Salad, Fruit Salad with Granola, and an assortment of chips. Instead of eating off traditional paper plates, guests ate off of red deli baskets (the kind you get at diners, drive-ins, and cute hamburger joints). For drinks, I did a build your own flavored lemonade buffet where guests could add fresh strawberries, blueberries or raspberries to their lemonade.



After lunch and mingling, we did the gender reveal.  Above is my son with his cupcake. The photo makes it looks as if he's behaving with his cupcake.  So, not true - by this point he'd already torn off the fondant topper (I quickly put it back on for a quick photo) and within about 30 seconds of this photo he was covered in cupcake icing and crumbs. Now for reveal time ...




It's a boy!




So, the majority of our guests/family got the gender correct. :)
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Gabe is so going to love having a little brother. I'm sure they'll grow up being best buddies!
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To view many more photos of the party, including the gender reveal cookies, just click here.
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Products {I created most of the items to keep it on a budget}.
Gender Reveal Invites: Pinwhirls
Gender Reveal Cookie Cards: Pinwhirls
Cupcake Wrappers: Pinwhirls
Pennants: Pinwhirls
Mini Pennants: Pinwhirls
Food Label Tents: Pinwhirls
Bow Ties: I made these as well using this blog as a guide. Although I glued all of mine and did not sew. I also glued onto simple pin backs.
Bows: I made these too. Just tied a simple bow and glued half of them onto pin backs and half onto hair clips.
Ribbon for Bow Ties and Bows: Jo Ann Fabrics
Red Deli Baskets with Deli Paper: I originally bought some at Jo Anns, but they did not have enough. I found them at Gordon Food Service for much cheaper.
Red Polka Dot Napkins: Wal Mart
Aqua Blue Polka Dot Napkins: Target
Shrimp Salad, Chicken Salad, and Chicken Rollers, Croissants, and Pretzel Rolls: Costco
Fruit Salad: Recipe - I added a ton more fruit than noted in recipe including raspberries, blueberries, fresh peaches, grapes. All from Costco.
Homemade Granola: Recipe
Italian Bow Tie Pasta Salad: Recipe