Celebrate 60 in Style

Well after a ridiculously busy few weeks, I am back to blogging. I have so many ideas that I have written down over the past couple of weeks so expect to see lots of posts headed your way. Think packing, organising projects, part 1 of my bedroom makeover, my home ideas planner, fridge organising stations, school holiday ideas and some great new recipes I have trialed recently. I can't wait to share this all with you but before I do, I thought I would share a few photos from my mum's 60th birthday celebration on the weekend and a couple of event planning tips.

1. Have a basket or tub set aside to hold all of the things you buy or collect for your event eg. coloured napkins, lollies, invitation cards etc. It will save you a lot of time looking for things on the day (I learned this the hard way!) or forgetting to use the things you gathered.

2. Choose a colout theme ... you know I love to colour coordinate right? Everything looks better when it is colour themed. Just trust me.

3. Square or rectangular platters are a great investment - they look great on the table. A trick I picked up from a good friend is to label your platters with a post it note of what you plan to serve on them. That way, you won't forget to serve that dessert you slaved over and you can organise the table before time.

4. Cupcakes make the perfect "cake" for any occasion and they look extra festive on a cute cupcake stand. We chose sparklers as we didn't want mum to wear herself out trying to blow out 60 candles (or set off the smoke detectors!)

 Happy birthday Mum. xxx

Charlie & Lola Party: Part 2

Ok so back to the party .....

The cake was Lola's head. Very simple outline with licorice and then decorated with coloured sugar. Just put a small amount of sugar in a zip-lock bag, add a drop or two of food colouring and shake well. You can create any colour you need. The girls all had pink milk boxes to drink as this is Lola's favourite.

We played Pin The Collar on Sizzles, the dog from the C&L books. I comandeered David's painting skills again and then cut out a blank collar for each guest and had them decorate them. This is a fabulous game for customising to any theme you like.

Love craft activities for the girls to do during parties. It gives them a bit of quiet time to calm down and create. Lola loves butterflies so I printed out a page for each guest with their name printed in a fancy font. Then they each had a glue-stick and LOTS and LOTS of punched out butterflies to stick around their names. When they had finished decorating the cards, we framed them as a take-home gift to hang in their bedrooms or display on a bookshelf. This activity was quite the hit and their kinder teacher told me the following day that several of the girls had bought their name frames in for Show & Tell.

Not forgetting the party boxes ... I made up a sticker for each box that said "Thankyou for helping me celebrate my 5th birthday. Love from your friend, Rebecca". The boxes had some C&L magnets I found some time ago, a box of smarties and a Build Your Own Cupcake pack. These were a really cute idea I found at http://vol25.typepad.com/vol25/kids-projects.html They are a free printable that you just print and cut out and very in keeping with Lola's style.

And now, we breathe a sigh of relief that another party is done and dusted. But just wait until you see what I have planned for next year.

The birthday girl, Miss 5

Charlie & Lola Party: Part 1

Well, we survived another party! All the last minute planning came together and the girls had a lovely time together. Thought I would share some photos but I will probably break this into 2 separate posts as there is a lot to share.

The photo opportunity was lots of fun. David drew and then painted the 2 figures and the girls enjoyed popping their gorgeous little faces through the cut outs for a photo. We have used photo props at several of our parties and have always found that the kids are more relaxed when they have something to hold or play with in the photos.

We had a new twist on pass-the-parcel this year (Thanks Audrey). Each year we wrap layer upon layer for the pass-the-parcel which uses a lot of paper, makes a lot of mess and the gifts and notes (where we have included these) often get mixed up in the wrappings being ripped off. So this year, we used a pretty gift box, and then just wrapped the small gifts and placed them inside. The girls passed the box and each time the music stopped they lifted the lid and chose a small wrapped present. It was a brilliant idea and really saved on mess and fuss with the usual wrappings. When the last gift was removed, it revealed a card which said WINNER and that child won a larger prize. We will definitely be doing pass-the-parcel like this from now on.

How cute are these cupcakes? And who knew you could create rainbow cupcakes so easily? All you need to do is divide your cake mixture into several small bowls and add food colouring. Spoon the mix into the patty cases carefully 1 colour at a time. It really is that easy and the results were amazing. Oh and make sure you take off the patty cases so you get the full effect of the rainbow cake. And here's another tip for you for making party cakes: cheat and use a packet mix cake. Packet mixes (I use butter cake) give you a really light cake that everyone seems to enjoy.

A banner adds to the theme for any occasion and they are very simple to make. I used a variety of scrapbooking papers and cut them to photo size (4 inches x 6 inches). Then just tape or staple them to a length of ribbon or cord.

I'll share more of the games and take home boxes in my next post. Thanks for checking in.

Warning: Party Planning in Progress!

I have been absent for a few days as I am neck-deep in party planning. Miss (now) 5 is having 16 of her nearest and dearest girlfriends for her birthday party in a little over 36 hours!!! (Not that I am counting down ... or starting to panic ... breathe, breathe.)

We decided on a Charlie & Lola theme some months ago and I have been gathering party items and ideas but it always seems to be the way that there is a LOT to do in the couple of days leading up to the party. I did wonder if I was up for another party so soon after Alison's Carnival and even briefly considered outsourcing the party (McDonald's was looking mighty attractive) but this is what we do in our family; we have the girls parties at home, we choose a theme and we go to town.  Which is how David found himself roped into painting a life-sized cutout of Lola and bestie Lotta, for the photo opportunity.

They have been reinforced and stood up tonight and I can't wait to have Bec pop her cute little face through and become Lola for a while. I will share lots more photos and ideas once the party is over but for now I have to get back to my cutting. So much to do, so little time. And as Miss 5 likes to say, "Toodles".

Colour my world event planning

I'm a fan of colour! I love it. And so when I start planning an event, the first things I work out are the theme and / or the colour scheme. Then everything else just seems to fall into place. My lovely husband just celebrated his 40th birthday and as he has 4 girls, he lives in a world of pink whether he likes it or not, so I thought we should have a really masculine colour scheme for his birthday. We decided on blue with orange. Blue on it's own can be a bit boring but orange is such a vibrant, exciting colour it really livens things up.

Balloons are great for decorating with - they are inexpensive and they come in such an amazing range of colours and patterns. The banner in the background I made with the girls: 40 Reasons We Love You and they each wrote their own reasons. (Some of these will be priceless as they grow older.)

David is really not a fan of celebrating his birthday, so when I saw the idea for the "40 sucks" bucket on  thesuburbanmom.com I knew it was a keeper. (David laughed when he saw it so it started off the day nicely too!) You will be amazed what you will find to coordinate with your theme when you start looking. The orange tub was a dollar store find and the blue foil was once a Christmas decoration. I also used orange cup cake papers and just made coordinating flags to jazz them up a bit in my colour scheme.

I have a tendency to go just a little overboard when it comes to party planning but owing to the busy time of year, I had to keep things simpler this time. We had a lovely birthday breakfast of mini pancake stacks with maple syrup, a beautiful fruit platter and then egg and bacon muffin cups. (You can find the recipe for the muffin cups here http://www.thehighheeledhostess.com/2011/06/fathers-day-breakfast.html - they were really easy and very delicious!)

My lovely husband with his gorgeous girls.

Now to start thinking in pink again! Rebecca turns 5 in the next week and has requested a Charlie & Lola party so I am back to party planning in a big way (but for tomorrow, I feel some more Christmas craft coming on!!!)