Today I have to thank Ewan Cambell MacDougall for his great advice on how to use camcorders to record memories of your child’s birthday parties

Guest Post [...]]]>

I have mentioned quite a few times how important it is to preserve the memories of your child’s birthday parties by taking lots of photos and turning them into scrapbooks.

Today I have to thank Ewan Cambell MacDougall for his great advice on how to use camcorders to record memories of your child’s birthday parties

Guest Post by Ewan C. MacDougall:

One of the most fun birthday parties I remember from my own childhood was my 4th. My mother had been able to borrow a video camera from work to make a recording of the day.  Camcorders were not something most people owned then and just the camera’s presence was immensely exciting.

All the children were desperate to record there own birthday message on the tape and to see themselves on the screen; the camera itself was an activity for the children.  We still have the tape now and sometimes when my birthday is coming around again I happen to know my Mum still likes to watch it.

Twenty something years later the cost of this technology has dramatically fallen, and everyone seems to have some kind of device capable of recording video.  Any video of your child as a youngster will become hugely valuable to you as they get older, so making something that you will want to watch again and again shouldn’t be too hard.  However, here are a few tips to make your video extra special.

Planning

When planning your party you should give some thought to making your video.  It’s important you have everything set up and ready before the children arrive, once the party gets started you may not have the chance.

One of the first things to think about is if any of the parents will mind having their child filmed, it may be prudent to ask the parents in advance particularly if you don’t know some that well.

Think about the camcorder accessories you will need and make sure you have them in advance; it can sometimes be easy to forget the obvious things like exactly which drawer you’ve buried the camera cables in, are the camera batteries fully charged, have you got enough recording space on the video or memory card, that kind of thing.

When you plan the location of your party activities try to have some idea of where the camera should go, maybe try framing a few test shots in advance to make sure.  Also make sure there is enough lighting in the area, as a well-lit video will come out in far better quality.

Also consider who will be doing the filming and who will be supervising the party; it’s not always advisable to do both jobs at once.

Party activities with the camera

The novelty of video cameras may be wearing off, but for some children they will still be exciting and could even prove distracting.  The best videos are the ones where the camera is not the centre of attention but in the background recording the action.  If you think keeping the children focused on the party, it could be useful and fun to come up with some activities that let the children interact with the camera early on and get it out of their system.

Video Messages

Let all the children have a chance to be filmed individually.  Have them record their own birthday message for your child, once they know they have  been filmed they may be less interested and better able to focus on the actual party activities.  Your child will also love seeing all their personal messages later and in years to come.  This also gives children a chance to introduce themselves in case they are unrecognisable 20 years later.

Record from the TV

If the camera is an exciting part of the party for your child and many of the guests why not incorporate this.  Most cameras can be connected to televisions, maybe fill some time in between activities by placing the camera on top of the TV and let the children watch themselves play in front of it.  This can be really fun for young children, and capture some great footage.  Just make sure they are supervised well enough not to push into the camera or television set.

Let the children do some filming

If you think the children are mature enough you could let them all have a short turn at filming.  If the camera is mounted on a tripod (lowered to their level) and the children are closely supervised the camera should be fairly safe.  All the child will really be doing is looking through the viewfinder and panning the camera.  However it is advisable to set strict rules on this activity, impose a time limit and insist that only one child at a time uses the camera so that there can’t be any fighting over it.  It is also a good idea to do your own filming in between each child’s turn so that the child who is going next does not get impatient waiting for their friend to finish.

Template Resource: http://www.psdgraphics.com/category/templates/

DVD Thank-You-Notes

Many children will be desperate to see what you are filming; a good way to encourage them to ignore you and take part in the party is to assure them that you will send them a DVD or Video – CD (both of which are now fairly cheap to create) so that they can watch later.

If you want to make these DVDs even more personal, you could have your child record a video Thank-You-Note for their friends and put these at the beginning of the DVD.  This unique kind of  Thank-You-Note will be both more fun your child to create and more interesting for younger recipients to receive.

Technical Tips

There are plenty of detailed tutorial websites that can help you with the technical side of home movie making, but here are a few of the most useful tips for filming a children’s birthday party.

• Use a tripod

Smooth videos look far more professional and are much easier to watch.  Modern cameras may have image stabilization but this is not a replacement for a tripod.

• Light your environment well.

Dark videos will come out grainy and unprofessional looking, make sure you are allowing in as much natural light as possible and turn on any artificial lighting you have available.  If the party can be held out doors this is ideal for lighting purposes.

• Keep the camera still

Although there is room to be creative with the occasional camera pan or zoom, generally it’s best to keep the camera still.  Film something for 9 or 10 seconds and then cut to another angle or activity.  This will help to keep the video interesting and professional looking.

• Edit the video

Videos should be edited; in the future you are more likely to want to watch 20 minutes or highlights rather than attempt to relive the entire party again.  (You can always keep the footage you cut on a separate DVD)  In your edit try to keep shots short.  In most professional productions the shot will change with in 10 seconds.

If you are planning to add any special effects to your video it is best to do this in the editing stage as in camera special effects are normally permanent meaning you can’t change your mind later.

• Make a B-Roll

The filming you do of the actual party is you’re A-Roll. The B-Roll is shots you take separately of things that are not part of the action. If you make a B-Roll you can put footage from this in between cuts from you’re A-Roll.  For example as people are arriving at the party you can cut in shots of the outside of the party location and close ups of party decorations to let people know where it is.  If you are filming party food being served you can put in close-up footage of the food sitting in the kitchen waiting to be bought in.

You can break up long sequences of the children playing with close up footage of birthday cards or gifts.  This all helps to keep the video interesting and professional looking whilst helping you to remember any decorations or food you made.  If you let the children record there own personal messages for the birthday child you should treat this as B-Roll and use them to break up long scenes when you edit.

• Have Fun

The more practice you get making and watching your videos the better they will become, have fun with it, and even if you struggle at first, remember in 20 years time you won’t be watching how smooth your cuts were,  you will be watching how small, unbelievably small, your child used to be.

Author
Ewan Cambell MacDougall has spent several years working with children at Kids Summer Camps.  He currently works in online marketing with several different companies including Sony camcorders

There are still a few pieces of the cake left over but the face is still intact. She does not [...]]]>

My granddaughter Mia with her BIG LION FACE cake on her 5th birthday. After spending quite a few hours at the zoo as mentioned in the previous post, she was  really impressed with this lion cake.

There are still a few pieces of the cake left over but the face is still intact. She does not want anybody to touch/eat the eyes or mouth. The “whiskers” had to be put aside to enable us to cut the cake, but even those are still not eaten.

I am quite satisfied with how this lion cake turned out at the end of nearly 3 hours of cutting, pasting, carefully spreading the first layer of icing to the sides of the cake up to the final positioning of the whiskers.

It had a very crumbly texture so the piece of cake that was shaped for the nose gave me  some trouble, but in the end I managed to “suppress” the crumbs by spreading a thin layer of smooth apricot jam all over the “nose” and let it stand for about 10 minutes before spreading it again with a thin layer of icing and gradually building it up.

Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to make the lion face cake.

I used my favourite cake recipe to bake two chocolate cakes in rectangular pans (about 30 cm x 23 cm x 4 cm) but you can use lamington pans – 28cm x 18cm(11in x 7in) as my two cakes were quite big.

The cakes were quite high as well and afterward I realised that I could really have baked only one cake and then carefully have split the cake in half horizontally to have the two pieces that were needed to make the lion’s head and still had enough off cuts to shape the face and nose.

Anyway, let’s get on with creating the cake.

After baking, leave the cakes to cool completely (preferably overnight) and then place side by side on a prepared cake board or tray covered with aluminium foil. Place the paper template on top of the cake and “pin” in place with a few toothpicks to make cutting easier. My template was about 33cm in width and 25cm in  height.

Download your lion face template – right click on the link and select “save link as” or “save target as” to download and save the template to your computer.

Using a serrated knife, cut carefully all around the template, then remove the template and you will have this shape for the lion’s head.

Set all the off cuts aside for the time being and make 2 quantities butter icing. Here is a link for  Butter Cream/Icing Recipe

Cut and shape the lion face from the left-over pieces of cake about 15cm x 12cm and a height of 2cm (see image), then spread a thin layer of icing to one side to “glue” the face on top of the head shape.  You can of course make the face smaller if you like.

Spread a thin layer of icing around the sides and on top of the cake to seal in the crumbs. Cut the nose from another piece of left-over cake (mine was about 10cm x 5cm – 4in x 2in)

Shape at an angle on one side so it will sit almost flat on the lion’s face near the eyes. Spread another layer of icing evenly around the sides of the cake. spread the icing fairly thick for the mane and use a fork to give a curly appearance. (And I must apologise, whenI got to this point, I was so anxious to finish the cake that I really forgot to take another photo of the “curls”)

Melt about 30g (1oz) of chocolate over simmering water, dip a fork in the chocolate, shake off excess and use fork to define some of the curls. I had some trouble getting the fork to work so I dipped a toothpick in the chocolate and used it to make darker hair for the lion. Spread a small amount of chocolate in triangular shape on the end of the nose.

Use  white marshmallows and flat green sweets for the eyes, cut two orange jubes to make the tongue, stack two orange jubes one on top of the other for each eyebrow and make the whiskers from licorice shoelace.

Lastly, colour coconut with green food colouring and sprinkle all around the lion’s head to represent grass. And here is a photo of the finished lion face cake!

Read more about lions and their habits:

Weekend Wildlife Series-Lions .

Oh yes, the two women holding the lion cubs are my daughter and my mother – photos were taken in 2001

Have a ROARING good time when you make a lion face cake for your child’s birthday!

Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful for ALL the comments I receive and many of [...]]]>

This post may not be really appropriate on a kids-theme-parties site/blog, but I think the time has finally come for a little ranting and raving and it is aimed at all the spam comments I receive on a daily basis.

Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful for ALL the comments I receive and many of the ones that are picked up as spam say very nice things about my site and about the ideas I write about. I also sometimes get a good laugh out of the comments which brightens my day considerably. To those of you who post these comments, thank you, but sorry, I am not going to approve it if your site does not add value and information to the other readers of my site. Sorry, guys (and gals)

Every now and then I also receive a comment that tells me that my last few posts have been quite boring. Hey, that’s ok, maybe another reader or two or hundred liked this post that you found boring. We (or I, since I am the only and sole author/writer/contributor of this site/blog- except for the guest post by Brian McGovern on magic theme parties) cannot satisfy the masses all the time.

Sometimes I would really like to “unspam” your comment just to add my own comment/thoughts on your comment, but hear me out tonight! I will NOT approve your comment and provide you with a backlink to your site if you have a PORN SITE!!! No matter how nice and complimentary your comments are!

kids-theme-parties.com is a site aimed at providing information to plan birthday parties for children! I am sorry if you have been deprived of such things in your youth, it is not my fault, but at the same time, if you are a mother/father/parent in this industry and find my articles/posts helpful to  bring pleasure to your children (if you have any), I am glad that you find if useful, but DO NOT EXPECT me to approve your comments and provide you with backlinks to your sites, I WILL not do it!

Here’s an example: For all photos, I think I’m gonna start lifting up my shirt, showing off my gut, and demanding to be called The Fatuation

My Answer: Sorry, sweetie, no matter how nice you look underneath your shirt and how cute your butt may be, the only “fatuation” you will find on this site is with the  ideas to make your kid’s birthday party the coolest event of the year!

Ok, with that out of the way, here are some other comments that either irk me or bring a giggle or a “what the he…ll”, even sometimes a “sigh, not again“  to my mind!

Comment: Thanks for that awesome posting. It saved MUCH time

My Answer: Boooriiinggg…. but glad to have been of help. Please share some ideas or even photos of what you achieved with my other readers by contacting me through the contact form on the menu bar on top of my site.

Comment: You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be really something which I think I would never understand. It seems too complicated and extremely broad for me. I am looking forward for your next post, I will try to get the hang of it! – comment on Rapunzel theme Party

My Answer: Hallooo! What do you not understand? I provide you with ideas for invitations, decorations, food, birthday cake, games and even give you some free printables to download to use for this party! You just have to read the full post, follow/click on the links and then put the whole party together.

Comment: great writing skills brotha! you are really talented.   Comment on Notebook from a Floppy Disk

My Answer: Sorry to disappoint you, I am not a “brotha” – I am not sure if I can call myself a “sista”, because I am so white and living in South Africa. But if you have enjoyed this post, I am glad, it did not really call for a lot of writing skills, as it is a photo tutorial, so the hard part was making and then taking the photos of these cute little notebooks.

Comment: Great article. I tried to get your rss feed but I ran into a few problems it seems. I am not able to see your full posts it seems. Any clue going on with it?

My Answer: Thank you for your thoughts on the article. As for the RSS Feed, if you look at the sidebar, you will see an option there to subscribe to my RSS Feed. As far as I am aware, it works, because I have subscribed myself to test it and I receive regular updates of my own posts. As for not seeing the full post, I edited the settings to show up like that, so you have to come back to my site to read the full post. I hope you will then browse and find other interesting posts to read.

Comment: Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with some pics to drive the message home a little bit, but other than that, this is great blog. A great read. I’ll certainly be back -  comment on Finding Nemo Theme Party Photos

Another similar comment: Phenomenal post but a load more pictures would make it greater

My Answer: I am sorry, but as much as I appreciate your comment, HOW MANY PHOTOS do you still need to “drive the message of planning a “Finding Nemo Party” home??? I think I provided quite enough ideas for you to work from and plan this party for your own kid?

One thing that should be remembered is that kids-theme-parties.com is not a “reality” blog/site about actual birthday parties although I have posted photos of my granddaughter’s first few birthday parties.

I originally started this site as a niche site with a few PLR articles and my main aim was to sell a birthday planning e-book, but as it happens so many times, the site took on a life of it’s own because I love to share my knowledge with other people.

Apart from adding individual photos to blog posts, I also have quite a few full photo tutorials on my site, for instance the last two posts about how to recycle empty plastic bottles into useful party favour boxes and how to make spiral hanging decorations from another part of the plastic bottle. The post on how to make your own origami boxes features exactly twenty six photos!

I think maintaining a blog/site that caters to birthday party ideas for children, demand posts with photos as it is a very visual niche. I myself do not like to read an article on how to make something without actually seeing at least one photo of the finished product, so I really try to incorporate one or two photos on a post where it is called for. If I do not make the items myself, I try to find appropriate images to add to the visual effect of a post.

So yes, I feel this comment is totally out of line and that this person did not really spend a lot of time on my blog but merely posted his/her comment in the hope of getting a link back to his/her site. Sorry boet! (“Boet” is an Afrikaans word meaning son, brother, or man)

Comment: ugh i hate valentine’s day… i can never decide what to get for my wife – (comment on spiral hanging decorations)

My Answer: Sir, Valentine’s Day is just really a commercial/man made day to commemorate love. The best gift you can give to your wife (and children) is to show her/them in small ways just how much you love them EVERY DAY! You don’t have to buy expensive gifts, just be there for her/them – listen to her/them, tell her you love her/them, spend time an do things together!

Comment: Ooh shoot i just wrote a big comment and as soon as i hit reply it came up blank! Please tell me it worked right? I dont want to submit it again if i do not have to! Either the blog glitced out or i am an idiot, the second option doesnt surprise me lol. thanks for a great blog!  -Comment on the post : notebook from floppy disks

My Answer: Don’t sweat! Same thing happened to me right here on my site while I was writing this post! I was on a roll replying to various comments when the Internet seized up on me and my post “disappeared”. You are never an idiot! These things happen in cyber space. Thanks for thinking I have a great blog!

Next time just make sure you add your name, e-mail address and if there is an option, add your website’s URL. Then write something that will add value to the post you have read, type the letters/characters see you in the captcha code (if there is one), click the submit button and bam!, your comment will be approved and appear on the relevant blog/site where you have submitted it (this may depend on the spam/approve settings of the site’s/blog’s owner)

Also remember, my comment section works with the “comment luv“  option. So if you leave a comment and I approve it, your last post will automatically be shown and you will receive a backlink to your site. You can also add your Twitter ID that will give you the opportunity to gain more followers on Twitter.

Comment: Aw, this was a very nice post. In idea I wish to put in writing like this moreover – taking time and precise effort to make a very good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and not at all appear to get something done.

My Answer: Don’t worry, as you say, procrastinating is the name of the game in Internet Marketing and trying to maintain a blog. Readers do not always appreciate the fact that people who blog, also still have a “home life” with all the every day happenings and troubles. You just have to try harder to write good articles and it would also help if you leave really “insightful” comments on other websites and blogs.

Comment: Awesome writing skills.. Did you write this yourself? Either way I’m impressed, and I will be back to read more in the future.

My Answer: Glad you feel this way. Of course I wrote it myself.  Read the third paragraph of this post, and you are welcome to come back and read more any time.

Comment: aaaammmm howd you get that layout yo! its FREESSHH!!

My Answer: I use the Atahualpa Theme by BytesForAll -  really easy to customize to suit your ideas and they have a great forum where you can find answers to  questions to make your theme look good.

Disclaimer: It was and never is my intention to sound disrespectful to visitors who leave a comment on my site and I hope in some ways many of you have found answers to questions you have about various aspects of the site.

I would love to approve and publish your comments but like I said in the beginning of the post, if I feel that it does not add any value to the post and to the readers, I will not publish it. kids-theme-parties.com is after all, my blog and although I appreciate (and read) all the comments I receive, I still have the right to choose the ones to be published.

Tonight I am going to show you how to make these glittery spiral hanging decorations from another part of the bottle.

All you will need to make them apart from [...]]]>

I hope you have not thrown away the top parts of the plastic bottles you used to make the party favour boxes featured in my previous post.

Tonight I am going to show you how to make these glittery spiral hanging decorations from another part of the bottle.

All you will need to make them apart from the plastic bottles, are white glue or Modge Podge, glitter and a brush and an hour or two to make enough spirals to use as decorations at your child’s next birthday party.

Use a single spiral or add two to four together to make  a spiral bunch, attach some cutouts like stars, flowers, or cutouts that fit in with the theme of the party.

Hang them from the ceiling, hang them on tree branches outside, hang them against a wall, as long as you hang them and watch the delight on the party guests’ faces when these spirals  twirl and swirl all on their own.

I made another photo tutorial to show you just how easy it is to make these spirals.

This is the part of the bottle that was left over after I made the favour box – Using a craft knife and scissors, cut the bottle as shown on the photo.

Cut the edge straight and then just start cutting in a spiral until you reach the bottom edge. The plastic will curve naturally into a spiral.

If you would like to add some glitter, you can do it before you cut the bottle in two. Apply a layer of white glue or Modge Podge to the lower part of the bottle and sprinkle all over with glitter.  Work on a newspaper or magazine to “catch” any excess glitter. Simply fold the newspaper page in half afterward and use as a funnel to add the glitter back into the container. Leave the bottle until the glue has dried completely, then cut into a spiral as shown in the previous photos.

Spirals decorated with different coloured glitter.  Add a loop to hang the spirals by using a sharp needle to make a hole in each spiral, then thread fishing line through all the spirals, pull the fishing line up and towards you until you have a big enough loop, then push the needle and line back again through each hole.

You can also add cutouts to the top of the spirals at this stage if you like.

Make a double knot in the loop, pull the fishing line tight and make another double or triple knot on the side where the fishing line comes out of the spirals.

Here are photos of the spirals hanging on branches of my lemon tree

I hope you will have fun when you decide to make these spiral hanging decorations for your kid’s birthday party!

Oh yes, do not throw away the top parts of the bottles, you can also use them to make other party decorations, so “stay tuned” for another tutorial in a few days’ time.

Kids Magic Theme Parties :  Guest Post by [...]]]>

Magic is well and alive and if you don’t believe me, take a look at this guest post from Brian McGovern, a magician from New York who knows how to add mystery, comedy and excitement to any event and transform an ordinary event into a truly magical occasion.

Kids Magic Theme Parties :  Guest Post by Brian McGovern

Magic and wizards have never been more popular with children thanks to their growing interest in Harry Potter and TV magicians like Criss Angel and David Blaine. Here’s how to make your child’s next birthday party a magical and fun event.

First, make sure your child is enthusiastic about the theme. Then pick a day, time, and spot for the event. Kid’s parties work best in early afternoon or just before lunchtime. Make sure your party date doesn’t conflict with a major event like a religious holiday or local game.

Next, create your invitation list. The more kids you invite, the more money you’ll need to set aside for meals, beverages, entertainment and goodie bags – and the more supervision you’ll need. Mail or email your invitations at least  half a month prior to the party. The sooner you invite them, the more guests you can expect. Set the mood for the party with a magic related invitation.

Get Creative! You can save a lot of money with just a little bit of creativity. Here are some low-cost decor and activity ideas to help set the magical mood for your theme party.

Fun Food
With just a little bit of imagination you can change ordinary food into fun, party theme treats.

Delicious Magic Wands
Get some black licorice sticks and dip the ends into some melted white chocolate. You substitute dark chocolate dipped pretzel rods in place of licorice. Add some edible sparkles to create  whimsical wizard’s wands that are  sure to disappear like magic!

Strange Brew
A great way to serve beverages  is to purchase a toy  witches cauldron and create “magic
potion” by adding blue fruit punch and lighted ice cubes to the mix.

Magical Décor
Keep the party room dimly lit but don’t make it too scary for the little ones! Replace your standard light bulbs with red and yellow ones to transform your living room into a magician’s den. Cut out some yellow stars and hang them on the walls and off the ceiling at different heights. Add to the mysterious mood by playing some music like the soundtrack to Fantasia or Harry Potter.

For even more magical ambiance add some glow in the dark props and use black lights to give them an eerie light. A bubble machine can be fun but be careful not to let it make the floor slippery.

Buy some inexpensive plastic top hats and fill them with magic themed items. Include a deck of cards, a toy bunny rabbit and a magic wand and maybe a magic trick or two and you’ll have an attractive place setting and goodie bag all in one.

Activities

Transform pin the tail on the donkey into “pin the wand on the magician. Draw a simple stick-figure of a magician with a top hat on a piece of poster board and place it at the children’s shoulder level. Give each child a piece of paper cut out like a magic wand with his or her name written on it. Instead of a pointy pin, use tape.

A Harry Potter Trivia game with prizes is lots of fun if the birthday child and friends are big fans of the books and movies. For a game of skill have the kids try to toss playing cards into a magician’s top hat set on the floor across the room.

For a real magical treat, put on a magic show. If your child is a budding magician, let him or her put on a short show for the guests. Hire a professional magician to really make the day memorable. Always choose a performer who has lots of experience entertaining children and ask for references before you book you entertainment.

Brian McGovern is a magician who entertains at dozens of kid’s parties every month. To find out more about his show visit http://www.hijinx.tv.

As always, have fun when you plan your child’s magic theme party!

A drinking straw by any other name will still be a drinking straw, but oh boy, drinking straws have come a long way since Marvin Stone decided that [...]]]>

Apologies to Shakespeare for editing his phrase ” A rose by any other name…” but I just could not resist using something similar for today’s headline.

A drinking straw by any other name will still be a drinking straw, but oh boy, drinking straws have come a long way since Marvin Stone decided that he did not like how the drinking straws made from dry, hollow,rye grass that were in use during the 1880′s in America, changed the taste of beverages.

Mr. Stone worked in a factory that made paper cigarette holders.  One day he got a piece of paper from his factory and started playing around with it by winding strips of  it around a pencil and glueing it together.

He experimented further by coating the paper tubes with  wax so it would not leak or get waterlogged, and thus the first paper drinking straw were born.

On 3 January 1888 Mr. Stone patented his drinking straw and by 1890, his  factory was producing more straws than cigarette holders.

Today you find many types  of straws that can add to the fun of your child’s birthday party. “Crazy” straws, “bendy” straws, “colour-changing” straws, spoon straws for slush puppies, even “musical” straws and “architect set” straws

Short straws, long straws, thin straws, thick straws, extendo straws, decorative straws, delicate glass straws… there’s even brushes to clean your straws, dispensers to hold your straws…

And don’t forget the many candy straws (such as licorice straws), chocolate straws,  cereal straws  and sipahh straws, all made to add to the “sweetness” of a party.

DRINKING STRAW CRAFTS

Apart from the fact that different types and coloured straws look nice on a party table, they can be recycled to make party favours like friendship bracelets and  necklaces:

Cut coloured or striped drinking straws into short pieces of about 5 cm. Thread them together, with a small wooden bead or any other beads of choice,  between each straw. Tie a knot when the bracelet or necklace is long enough and secure with a dab of glue.

You don’t just have to use beads between the straws;  smallish paper or fake flowers will make lovely lei’s. Use feathers or other “boyish” items to make cowboy and Indian necklaces for boys.

Drinking straws can also be used to make mobiles;  single string of straw pieces interlaced with paper cutouts with a plastic ring tied to one end of the string so you can hang it on tree branches when your kid’s birthday party is outside.

Candy or chocolate filled straws can be used to make stems for egg carton flowers that can be used as a party table decoration.

DRINKING STRAW BIRTHDAY PARTY ACTIVITIES

• Bubble blowers: Collect a handful of drinking straws and tape the two ends together. Dip this in the bubble mixture and blow through one end, for a whole lot of bubbles.

• Paint blowing fun: Mix poster paints with plenty of water to make the consistency runny. Splatter bits of paint all over  white or coloured paper  with a paintbrush or paint a few runny lines. Let the kids blow the runny paint all over the page using a straw.

DECORATIVE DRINKING STRAWS

Decorate ordinary drinking straws according to the theme of your party with easy paper cutouts to make ” straw buddies“. Here’s another example of how I used them to decorate Mia (my granddaughter’s) 4th birthday party table.

Of course you don’t just have to limit yourself to paper cutouts, fabric or paper flowers, plastic bugs or anything small that will fit in with the theme of your child’s birthday party, can be glued to the drinking straws. A blob of ordinary white glue will work fine if you do it two to three days before the party.

So, a drinking straw by any other name will still be a drinking straw but with a little imagination (and sometimes  a lot of patience and knowledge),  drinking straws can be turned into very lovely items. I am sure that Marvin Stone would never have thought that his innovative idea would bring so much pleasure to future generations.

If you have more ideas for drinking straw party crafts, activities and decorations, why don’t you share it with all the visitors here at kids-theme-parties? Use the contact form in the navigation bar or send me an e-mail at kidtheme at kids-theme-parties dot com. I would love to hear from you.

Look at these fun drinking straws: Click on the images to see more…

Oh yes, before I forget…the 3rd of January has official been declared as “Drinking Straw Day” in the United States of America. (Yes, yes,  I know this post was supposed to be published yesterday the 3rd of January… but kids have birthday parties every day of the year, so in a way “drinking straw day” can be celebrated every day of the year and all over the word, not just in the United States.)

Resources used for parts of this post:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Stone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_straw

Shakespeare’s  “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”: http://bit.ly/hgz2K

More interesting stuff to read about the drinking straw:

How the “bendy” straw came into being: Joseph B. Friedman

The benefits of using a drinking straw: http://bit.ly/abxns6

Always wanted to know how drinking straws are made? Find out here: http://bit.ly/f0xVK

Last but not least: Have lots of fun when you try to buy the right kind of drinking straws for your kid’s birthday party.

May you have lots of fun when you plan your children’s birthday parties this year and may they and their party guests think that you are the coolest MOM (and DAD) on the block.

If your child has his or her birthday in the last week of the year, you can easily combine it with a New Year’s Eve party.

We all like to preserve the memories of our kids’ birthday parties but with a New Year’s Eve birthday party your child and [...]]]>

New Year's Eve birthday party time capsule

If your child has his or her birthday in the last week of the year, you can easily combine it with a New Year’s Eve party.

We all like to preserve the memories of our kids’ birthday parties but with a New Year’s Eve birthday party your child and the party guests can do it themselves by making their own time capsules. This can double up as a party activity as well as party favours that can be taken home the next day.

Time capsules are containers that hold interesting documents and items from a certain era. Normally the container is marked with the date, buried somewhere and instructions are left for when it should be opened.

The tradition of time capsules can be traced back to the 7th century BC.  The time capsules of those early times were filled with documents and items and provided valuable information about the history and lifestyle of people all those many centuries ago.

A New Year’s Eve birthday party is a great time to give your child the opportunity to “bury” items of value. Of course these kind of time capsules will not be buried for hundreds of years. The idea is to keep it only until the next birthday and then to open it to see how your child has changed in the past year.

If your child is enthusiastic enough about this particular birthday party activity, it can become a whole new tradition in your house, not only for the child who will have a New Year’s Eve birthday party, but for all your other kids too.

How to make the time capsule:

Container:

A birthday time capsule can be made by using any kind of container,  like  empty coffee cans or jars,  shoe boxes, plastic containers, ziploc bags or even evelopes. The main criteria is just that it should be large enough to hold all the items that will be placed inside.

Decorations:

Let the children decorate their time capsules with brightly coloured paper; now is the time to use all those bits and pieces of the gift wrapping paper that is littering the tables and floors. They can also decorate the containers with paint or paper that goes with the colours of the theme of the party if you have a particular theme.

Tip: Supply them with glitter glue or glitter pipe cleaners to draw or paste patterns on the container.  ( If you cannot find glitter pipe cleaners, let them use tinsel from the Christmas Tree).

Let them cut out  number shapes (and any other shapes they like) from card stock and decorate these with glitter confetti, glue these the container. The number shapes will be used for the date the time capsules have been created or your birthday child can use it for his or her actual birth date.

Idea: You can also buy number stickers from toy and craft shops but the kids will really enjoy making and decorating their own numbers with glitter glue and confetti.

Remember: All things glittery goes on a New Year’s Eve birthday party!!

Items to put inside the time capsule:

Obviously photos of your birthday child and the party guests will be number one on this list. If you have a digital camera and printer, you can take and print a few photos of them in a group during the party and give each guest his or her own photo to use for their time capsules. If you don’t have a camera, ask each guest to bring along a recent photo of themselves as an additional gift for your child.

Type or write questionnaires for the kids to fill in and put in the time capsules. Things like their names, ages, height***, school and favourite teacher, best friends, favourite movies and/or stars, music, sport/activities they take part in. Anything that they are interested in in this time can be written down or added to the time capsule.

Other important items for your child will be the invitation card to the birthday party (kids love to have their own invitation cards even if it is their own party – it adds to the memories) gift tags, maybe one or two pieces of gift wrapping and  some of the party decorations like a balloon, streamers, the party hat and other items you used for the party.

Obviously you will have to keep an eye out so bits of party cake and other food that can go off, are not put into the time capsule. You and your child do not want to get the surprise of your life in a year’s time when you open the time capsule. However, hard candy like lollipops are ok to add as they will keep for a long time.

Of course, photos of the birthday cake and other snacks are important, too. If you have to use a printing service for these photos, don’t seal the time capsule at the end of the party so that you can add these photos later.

*** Something else that you can do to lend a special touch to the party and the time capsule, is to make a “photo height rope”.   (Obviously this will only work if your kids are still quite young). You will also need photos of every child at the party to do this if you decide to include it in their time capsules.

Measure a piece of rope twice the height of each child;  let an adult hold the rope firmly (and straight) against the wall, then measure the height of each party guest and mark it by gluing the photo to the rope.

Add the photo rope to all the other items in the time capsule. When you open the capsule in a year from now, you can bring out and use this rope to measure how much your child has grown over the past year.

Finally, once the birthday child and party guests are satisfied with the items they have used to fill their time capsules with, use glue or tape to seal the top closed. Don’t forget to add a note that says when this time capsule should be opened again. Depending on the age, help your child to find a secret place to “bury” the time capsule.

As always, do enjoy the time you spend suggesting, planning or helping your child and the party guests to make their own time capsules.