Birthday Parties and More

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You Don’t Have to Break the Bank to Throw a Great Party! March 20, 2009

Filed under: BIrthday Party Tips — partiesbyjade @ 9:41 pm
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Times are tough financially, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t throw a great birthday party for your child!

Here are a few tips to keep you within your party budget!

1.  Schedule your party for a time that doesn’t require you to serve a meal.  Stay away from time slots that stretch over lunch or dinner.  Usually parties in the 1:00- 4:00 range work best.

2. Bake your own cake.  If you’re not a talented cake decorator then opt for cupcakes that the party guests can decorate.  You can make them from scratch or stock up on cake mixes when your local grocery store is having a big sale!  Buy seasonal sprinkles during the after the holiday clearance sales to save some money.

3. Get creative with your decorations!  Balloons and streamers are relatively inexpensive and can be used to creative a festive atmosphere.

  • Having a jungle themed party?  Turn your balloons into animals.   Tape balloons together to form bodies and heads and use marker to draw faces.  Have balloon monkeys hanging from green streamers (vines).
  • Circus themed party?  Drape streamers from the center of the ceiling out to the the edge of the ceiling and then down the walls to create a streamer “tent”.
  • Have your children help you create great decorations.  Paint water on a long sheet of (butcher) paper for an Ocean or Pirate theme party.  Then add construction paper accessories like fish, pirate ships, etc.  Hang the sheet of paper on an empty wall.

4. Save money on the invitations.  Don’t spend money buying fancy invites. Search for printable invites online.   If you’re looking for something creative trying making invitations instead.  Pirate invites can be made on crumbled up, tea stained “treasure map” paper.  Dinosaur invites might be found inside a dinosaur egg (large plastic Easter egg).

Look for more tips coming soon!

 

March Craft Ideas March 8, 2009

Filed under: Uncategorized — partiesbyjade @ 9:44 pm

I’m working on my March lesson plans for my preschool class and I thought I’d share some of the crafts that we’ll be creating this month.

Wind Crafts

Last week, we made hot air balloons that are now hanging from our classroom ceiling.  They turned out much better than I could have imagined.

1.I started out by tracing the outline of the balloon on two sheets of thick paper.   Try to make the balloon as symmetrical as possible because you will eventually be gluing the two balloons together and you want them to line up nicely.

2. Cut strips, squares and even circles from tissue paper.

3.  Water down white glue and mix with a paint brush.

4. Use the paint brush to spread the water/glue mixture on the balloon shape.

5. Place the tissue paper on the glue, overlapping and adding more glue as you go. It is okay if pieces of the tissue paper go over the outline of the balloon.

6. Allow the glue to dry and cut the balloon shape out of the paper, cutting through any tissue paper that may extend over the line.

7. Punch two holes in a small plastic bowl or cup.

8. Cut two piece of yarn or string and glue them in between the two sides of the balloon as you glue the two sides together.

9.  Thread the dangling ends of the string through the holes in the plastic cup.  Tie knots to secure the “basket” to the hot air balloon.

PinWheel

I used these directions for our pinwheel craft.  We only used one sheet of construction paper though and instead of a thumbtack we used a brass fastener.

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/summer/mpinwheel.htm

Saint Patrick’s Day

Check out this super cute leprechaun craft!

http://crafts.kaboose.com/leprechaun-wall-hanging.html

and more to come . . .

 

Why Should You Shop With Noah’s Ark this March? March 1, 2009

Filed under: Noah's Ark — partiesbyjade @ 3:47 pm
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Noah’s Ark is featuring some great incentives to shop online in March!

  • Receive a FREE “Kisses” sound chip with every animal that you purchase through the site from now until March 30th!
  • Contact me to receive a $5 off coupon code- good for $5 off the purchase of any animal!

Or book a Party in a Box and receive FREE sound chips for all of your guests!! So, for example,  if you would buy 15 animals- you would receive $45 in free sound chips, plus a 10% product credit (if you spend $150 or more- please email me to receive this deal)!  The last person to place a Party in a Box order through my site spent about $200 and received over $60 in FREE products!  A Party in a Box makes a great activity for a Birthday Party, Scout Troop meeting, Child Care, Assisted Living Facility, etc.

What a great time to order animals for your Easter baskets! Our brand new Bunny Bears, Lil Lamb or Lil Chick would make great Easter gifts at only $13 each!

Please contact me with any questions!