Party time!
Birthdays are always fun for children, but can be such a stressful time for nannies.
There are so many party organisers around to take over that many nannies are leaving it to the party professionals. Hang on a minute, isn't that our job?
Budge over party poopers! Nanny Fi has some great ideas to make your home party cool and not so stressful that you need the help of the yellow pages.
Organisation is they key!
Firstly you need to decide if you're having the party at home or are going to hire somewhere.
If the party is going to be on a weekend, places get booked up quickly, so booking in plenty of time in advance is essential.
If you've got the space, a party at home is cheaper, and easy to do ( honest!)
Three months before gives you plenty of time to find and book a venue, and if you really cant do without an entertainer, then book one now too as they are in high demand!
One month before, send out invitations with details of the venue, time and date and the theme (if there is one). Also inform parents/nannies if it's a drop off party or if you need them to stay.
Most importantly put a RSVP deadline, and contact number, so you know in advance how many to cater for.
You need to order party essentials such as party bags,balloons and tableware now too.
Partypieces do a great selection of themed party tableware, games and party bags for guests.
Visit www.partypieces.co.uk to be inspired!
Party Themes
If your child/charge is old enough to decide a theme, why not let their imaginations run wild and try your best to accommodate their ideas. Encourage them to help with the making and sending of the invites, and organising of the activities and party bits and bobs. Let it be their day, rather than your idea of their day! Below are suggestions of themes, some of which I have done over the years.
Jungle Party
A party with a difference deep in the jungle (come on use your imagination!).
Using green crepe paper, cut out big and small leaves and decorate the room. Use snakes and animals painted by the children or stuffed animals to place amongst the leaves to create a jungle themed party place.
We had our jungle party in the garden, as one of my charges birthday is in July. We even had a visit from a lion
( cue me appearing on the balcony in hot, heavy lion costume, waving to the very excited children below!) which really made the birthday boys day.
Partypieces do a selection of jungle themed tableware, party bags, and even dressing up tabards, hats and masks.
Party games can be adapted to the theme such as musical jungle leaves instead of musical chairs, or fill pass the parcel, with jungle themed prizes such as small plastic animals ( ELC do a great selection). there are a slection of party games listed below, some can be adapted for each theme.
Using lots of imagination, you can turn party food into jungle-nosh quite easily. Sausages easily become jungle baby snakes, sandwiches can be cut into animal shapes, and Sainsburys do a selection of animal shaped cheeses! Why not make ahuge bowl of jelly and fill it with snake sweets and spider sweets.
For quietening down over-excited children, put on some jungle music ( available at music stores are a selection of 'world music' CD's) and read a story about the jungle or animals from the jungle.
Maybe sing some animal action songs. We did 'walking in the jungle, what can we see', which went down well.
Finally, encourage the children to dress up in the theme style. We had some great costumes, some children came as jungle explorers, some as lions and tigers, and some came in shorts and t-shirts with binoculars!
Pirates and princesses
Oooh arrgh me hearties! This party theme is really good fun and great for young imaginations.
Pirate and Princess costumes are easy to come by and fairly easy to make. A stripey t-shirt and old shorts, combined with an eye patch and painted mustache and there you have a very cool pirate.
Pink t-shirt, tights and a bit of net curtain with sparkles, add a hair band with a long train of netting, and there you have your very own party princess! Woolworths do a reasonably priced selection of dressing up clothes and accessories if you don't have time to make your own.
Decorate the room with pirate flags and a painted pirate ship, pink ribbons and a castle, or simply hang pink and black balloons to set the theme if you dont have the time to go wild!
Sainsburys do a great selection of pirate and princess tableware, the larger stores do pirate treasure chests filled with prizes, but you could easily make your own out of an old box painted gold, filled with chocolate coins and sweety necklaces.
Like the Jungle theme, the party food can be adapted to the theme. How about star shaped sandwiches for the princesses and jelly boats for the pirates? Give party food themed titles, sausages can become mini pirate swords with a little bit of imagination.
I did this theme for my charges 3rd birthday, and he had such a great time. There were a lot more pirates than princesses, even the girls wanted to be pirates! I dressed up too, its always good to join in!
This party can also be adapted to be a woodland folk party.
Encoursge children to dress as elves, fairies and goblins and adapt the food and games in the same way as the pirates and princess part theme. decorate the room with green tissue paper cut into leaves, or if its a nice day, have your party in the garden and have a woodland folk style picnic. Make toadstool chairs by covering cushions with white pillowcases dotted with red circles.
Circus party
Roll up, roll up for the party of a lifetime! The circus theme isa fabulous-funday birthday!
Face paints are great for jazzing up and turning any face into a circus performer.
Clowns can wear bright shorts and t-shirts and spike their hair with temporary hair colours, add a few face paints and there you have a little clown! My employer, actually made a clown costume, it was rather fab! (pictured here)
A ringmaster is easily achieved with red jacket, black t-shirt and tights, and a painted mustache,My little ringmaster wore a stripey sunsuit and really looked the part! A tightrope walker can be achieved by wearing white t-shirt and tights!
Party games can include pass the circus parcel, each layer containing circus themed prizes such as bubbles, clown noses, juggling balls or plastic tigers and elephants. How about a game of pin the nose on the clown, same rules as pin the tail on the donkey.
We hired a bouncy castle which was great for in between games and party food. It was quite surreal seeing circus characters jumping about at the bottom of the garden! We decorated the room with pictures of circus characters that I painted.
The boys still have them, as they put them up in their bedrooms afte rthe party! there are plenty of clowns and magician entertainers, if youre really stuck for games and party ideas to fill the time.
superhero party
Super-nanny to the rescue! Oh no thanks, Jo Frost will have them sitting on the naughty step in no time! Real superheroes are the ones children adore such as batman, spiderman, superman and the rest of the creative crew.
Costumes are available at most toy stores, again woolworths do a great selection of superhero costumes, and many fancy dress shops hire them out at a reasonable price.
Decorate the room with pictures of favourite heroes, make some up yourself and get the birthday boy or girl to help create some great new characters. How about supergreen saver, he swoops down and rescues children being forced to eat their greens!
Party games can include a superhero mission. Hide a prize that can be shared equally, and give clues to its location. Don't make the clues too hard or the children will get bored easily.
Using art materials, get the children to create their own king of superhero on paper. You could even make superhero t-shirts! Baker Ross do a selection of t-shirt pens and paints. Visit www.bakerross.co.uk to order.
H&M do cheap plain t-shirts, as do sainsburys.
Once again , you can name party food after certain heroes. Spiderman sandwiches, Catwoman crisps, Batman biscuits, let the birthday boy/girl help you decide on names for the food and draw pictures to label them. Most supermarkets sell superhero cake and biscuit making kits, and superhero birthday cakes are available from Tescos and sainsburys.
football party
Football is very popular with both boys and girls, and big footy fans will be thrilled with a football themed party.
A footy theme really is quite an easy party to do. Ask everyone to wear their teams footballshirt or kit.
Partypieces do a great range of football themed party essentials such as tablewear, party bags and prizes. they even do a selection of medals and small trophys.
We had a football party for my footy-mad charge who was 3! In full Chelsea kit, he greeted his friends and challenged them to a penalty shoot out.
All the children took part, and we kept a score of the goals. The winner got a great Trophy!
We made footbal shaped sanwiches, and bought round food to resemble footballs such as round crackers and babybells, scotch eggs and football crisps!
Pass the parcel contained a mini football prize in the centre, and each layer had a chocolate football! Sainsburys and Baker ross also do a selection of football mini prizes such as pencils, rubbers and badges.
These are just a few ideas to help you on your way to party happiness! There are many party books available to help with food and game ideas. 'Children's parties', by Rose Hamick and Charlotte Packer, is full of ideas for parties for children of different ages, complete with recipes for yummy party food, and Annabel Karmel's book 'party food' is full of easy to make party snacks and meals. If you dont feel confident enough to make your own birthday cake, there are a selection of cake makers that can make cakes to go with your theme. click on the Families link on the homepage for listings of party supliers and caterers.
Don't forget!
*Ask parents/nannies to inform you of any allergies to avoid any accidents!
*Make sure you have enough adults to children.
*Make sure you have enough party bags, games and prizes to avoid tears and tantrums.
* Most importantly, try not to stress and try to have fun!