The TWO Party Method (THROW TWO PARTIES IN ONE DAY)

PARTY/PARTIES
For those of you who follow my social media platforms you will have seen that I planned and created my daughters 13th Birthday Party.... and if you know me even a little, you will know that we host 2 parties on the SAME day for the birthday girl. Why you may ask?

How to plan a budget friendly party

Everyone wants to give their child or someone special in their life a beautiful birthday party. But if you have tried to plan one you will know how much it can ALL add up... and quickly!
Just cause you have a budget doesn't mean your party won't be fabulously stylish and fun.

Here are a few tips I use when planning a party or get together. 

BAKING / FOOD
Bake things that go far but don't cost very much like

• Meringues which require 2 eggs and 100grams of sugar to make roughly 12 - 15 meringues. 
• Jelly/jello - you can use fresh fruit juice and gelatine place in molds and they look super cute when molded into shapes. 
• Fresh fruit chopped up into cubes and then threaded onto kebab sticks. (seasonal fruit would be cheapest and healthy) 
• scones - bake a big pile and place on a pretty plate then place beaten fresh cream, butter and 1 or more types of jams nearby in cute bowls for people to help themselves.
• Potato wedges - take fresh potatoes rinse and slice up and cover with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and roast in the oven until tender and crispy - serve in jars or teacups and servewith sauce

EXTRA TIP* Make a lot of one or two things instead of having a bit of this and that as most people like to try everything. Rather they can have their fill on something than you run out of somethings making you look like you under catered.

GAMES VS ENTERTAINMENT
Playing games instead of hiring entertainment! For kiddies there are games like:

• Pass the parcel
• scavenger hunt 
• dunking for apples
• hide and seek 
• statues 

and many more just do a search on the internet

EXTRA TIP* Get a family member or friend to help you with the games and maybe do some face painting. **Extra hands ALWAYS help**

  

Table centre piece for an Oriental themed Party - it was a thrift find (bought at a 2nd hand store)

PICKING A THEME
Pick a theme where you don't have to buy branded merchandise... like mickey mouse or hello kitty. Rather pick a country (eg chinese, Italian, French) or a colour theme like a rainbow party, or pink and white polka dot party,  or an item (eg mustache, circus, ranch or farm, horses, kittens, puppy etc). Anything really and expound on it! This applies for adults parties too.

 

Glitter and double sided were used to make these flags on straws for a Bling Party

DECORATIONS
Make you own decorations... coloured papers, off cuts of fabrics, beads, glitter, paint and fake flowers (optional) can make:

• cute bunting
• flags 
• cupcake toppers
• thank you tags
• pretty bands to go around cups
• party boxes

PARTY PACKS
Try to make your own party packs: make them out of things you have like:

•  recycling jars or containers that you can collect over a few weeks or months before the party then paint them or cover in scrap book paper or fabric. 
• fill with a few sweets, tie with a ribbon and a thank you :)
• for adults a cupcake in a small jar, box or recycled (washed) plastic container and tie with a ribbon 

 

Sew your own felt purse

ACTIVITIES
Use things that you have..or are cheap to buy.

• Felt to make purses to sew or glue
• Colouring - Print out pictures on paper (cute colouring pics can be downloaded from the internet) for them to colour and glitter. 
• Cheap beads to make bracelets
• Cardboard crowns to cut out and decorate
• Tye dying - ask each child to bring an old t-shirt to breath new life into
• clay modeling and painting (make little jewelry bowls) or your own clay beads - then have fun dipping in paint and glitter!

EXTRA TIP* Don't forget to ask someone to take some photos for you as you will be busy and the party will be over before you know it and you will have fun seeing all your work afterwards in the photos - plus they make for GREAT memories


TIME MANAGEMENT
Have an idea or plan of the order of things and a rough idea of how long things take (write it down and see if it will all fit in and if you need to add anything)  This way you hopefully won't run out of time or have kids asking what they should be doing. Allow extra time for people to arrive as some maybe running late.
Remember to make time for singing Happy Birthday and cutting the cake :)

THE EXTRA TOUCHES
There are extra little things you can do to make your party extra special and run smoother whether for big or small!

• Adding some theme appropriate music softly in the background can add a nice vibe
• bubbles make everything pretty -bubble machine even better 
• Have some cups with tea, coffee, milk, sugar and a kettle laid out for adults at a kids party for them to help themselves - add a little cake or biscuits nearby for them too
• If you can ask a teenager for help with your party for the activities things can run more smoothly for you and be a bit more stress free
• make sure to have one or two extra party boxes available in case one gets dropped or goes missing or a sibling comes to fetch the brother or sister
• Have a few extra prizes and hand them out if you need to ;)
• Have a photo taken with the birthday boy or girl and use as a thank you a week after the party can be fun! (but only if you can make the time) don't stress!

Remember you don't have to provide a jumping castle or clown if its not in your budget.  

Children like to have fun and as long as you have things for them to do and eat with their friends it will be GREAT!

What would you add to make your party budget friendly and easy to organise?

ORIENTAL PARTY

In February this year was my daughters Oriental Party. To have a look at the invites I made, take a look here. I have finally got round to editing the photos.

low oriental inspired table to eat at.

 I started with the colour scheme of white as a base colour and then used red, black and different shades of orange as accents and touches of blue.

Oriental figurines

I found this cute Japanese figurine couple at a 2nd hand shop. They formed the center piece for the table surrounded by mirror boxes filled with red, orange and yellow flowers.

Each girl had a pillow to sit on, a square dish, a pair of chopsticks and an oriental jelly sweet that I made. For the candy/jelly sweet I made a version of this Agar-Agar Candy

Homemade sushi

For the main course I made sushi. (I had to get up really early in the morning to make it so it would be fresh for the party) maybe next time I will order it from a good sushi restaurant.

pink and white coconut ice AND pink and white home made marshmallows

In between the flowers were little white bowls of treats. As it was an all girls party - most of the food/treats were pink and white. Pink and white coconut ice and pink and white marshmallows (marshmallows were made by my sister in-law).

Party packs in Chinese take away boxes

I bought Chinese take-away boxes and filled them with pink and white sweets, a little Chinese purse, some hello kitty stickers and other cute things. Tied it up with black packaging ribbon and a black feather with a silver gem stuck on top. Label each box individually with the girls name with a picture of a Chinese lantern next her name.

Party packs ready for happy little girls to take home

alice band accesories

For our craft for the party the girls made Alice band/ head bands with feathers, flowers and jewels.

Other games played were fishing for paper koi fish were they won prizes of little silver rings- which all the girls seemed to love.
(I also had pass the parcel ready with little prizes wrapped in Chinese newspaper between each layer but never got round to playing it.)

my daughter picked jewels to decorate her cake - so I borrowed these from my mom, they were my grans.

And the cake - my daughter had no idea I had made her a rainbow cake, so when the cake was cut it was a huge surprise. I used Whisk Kids famous recipe for rainbow cake but i made mine gluten-free :)

Rainbow cake

It was very delicious cake :)



 

ps linked to a linky party at  http://lilluna.com

Smooth Banana Ice Cream

I love this treat/snack SO much as it is one of the EASIEST things to make, so very cheap on ingredients and easy to adapt to your taste!

I have seen this blogged about as the 1 ingredient ice cream. ... and I suppose it can be called that. I just adore it because it can be given to babies all the way through to adults. AND IT DELICIOUS AND HEALTHY. Think easy for kids on a hot summers day. No need to buy ice cream and fill them with preservatives and glucose syrup when this tastes just as delicious and is twice as healthy. Great for kids parties - especially toddlers. You also can add chocolate chips or peanut butter or nuts and cherries to make it an even more special treat.

INGREDIENTS

1 and a half bananas per person

2 Tablespoons cream per person (optional) - don't add if giving to babies

extras: chocolate, peanut butter, cherries, nuts etc... 

METHOD

Peel your bananas and slice into 1cm chunks.

Place in a glass (freezer proof) bowl or jar and freeze until hard (I freeze mine over night) but I'm guessing 3 hours should be fine.

Then place in a blender jug and blend until smooth - adding cream if you so wish to make it even more decadent and ice cream like but not necessary. 

Once smooth you can stir in any goodies if you wish .. chocolate, nuts etc..

Enjoy straight away or place in the freezer to keep cool until needed

so creamy and delicious - you can also use mangoes instead of bananas :)

enjoy

Little Girls Grand High Tea Party - party photos

So almost a week has past since my daughters 6th birthday party. This time last week I was baking like crazy and assemblying party packs. Backing some more and hanging butterflies and jewels from the roof of my moms outside canopy. I went to bed way after midnight and rose at 6am the next morning (saturday) to bake scones and a second birthday cake (my daughter had 2 parties - 1 in the morning for the kiddies and 1 in the afternoon for the adults/family).
Wow to think of all the craziness we went through for her party ... but it was ALL totally worth it. Take a look at the pics... I hope you agree :)

 

the craziness started out like this 

  I made these little jars to go in the party packs and filled them with all sorts of pink and white sweets

 

I am so happy with how they came out - all that was used was some old little bottles, some scrapbooking paper, glue and some plastic flowers...  a little white paint around the edge of the lids.

 

Inside the party packs were cute cupcake stickers, a small juice, a heart chocolate, a  fake tattoo, the little jar of sweeties, some bubbles with heart shaped lids, and a string of faux pearls.

the bags/packs looked like this 

The party looked like this....

the table set up

fine china tea cups filled patterned with butterflies and flowers

watermelon cut in the shape of hearts

 

teaspoons and a blue butterfly

 

elegant scones and cream 

coconut ice and pretty purple butterfly

pink heart jewels in "peace in the home" plant 

 

Pink bunch of roses 

 

another view of the table with latte bench at the end with pretty cushions

the crafting table

crafting at the party - ceramic hearts

grouting the hearts

single yellow roses were used randomly down the tables

wheat and wheat-free cupcakes

wheat-free butterfly cake that was used for the morning girls tea party

wheat-free decadent chocolate cake with a whipped ganache icing - was used for the afternoon adult and family party

 Thanks for looking - Have a fab weekend

Hugs Betty