Halloween

Halloween is on it's way, and it's always fun to make the house or ourselves look spooky. One tool that might help is cheesecloth.
A great little material that would work for making spider webs, ghosts, even a mummy.
How about making some creepy looking creatures for your windows or walls by cutting out some rats, black cats, or witches out of black card stock and arranging them around the house. Take a couple and put them up just above some candles(not too close dont want to start a fire) and watch the shadows go on the walls.

Party Idea

Always find you or your kids struggle to figure out what kind of party to have, check out Birthday Party Ideas, it has over 150 ideas to choose from submitted by people that have actually had that type of party, with their ideas for what they did, what worked and what didn't.
http://http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/party_ideas.html

September's Holidays to Celebrate

Ok here is the list of some September holidays that I think are great reasons to party;

11th: National Neighborhood Day- go ahead and have a neighborhood bar-b-que

13th:International Chocolate Day-No better reason to have a chocolate dessert party

19th:Talk like a pirate day-

22nd:Oktoberfest, Germany-I think the men would like to celebrate this one

Catalogs

A great way to get party ideas and see whats avialable is to order catalogs. I go to many of the top party supply sites and request catalogs, that way i can always have them as a reference for ideas, pricing etc. It's also great for your kids to look at if they aren't sure what kind of party they want. Even though they will mostly carry the same stuff, one of them will have a little more, plus you can compare prices as well. I would suggest getting them from Shidigz.com, M and N International,and Oriental Trading company.

School Events

Some of you might be involved with planning school events, or you have kids that are are the homecoming and prom committee, I found a great little company that specializes in just those events. Anderson Events carries everything you need to transform any gym into a great prom or themed function you need, even float decorating supplies. Not only would this work for school events, but you have a little one that wants a princess or prince party this would be a great place to search for supplies,(I did see a princess carriage centerpiece, very cute).http://www.andersonsevents.com/

Summer is ending soon

With Summer ending soon it's always hard to get kids in the mood to go back to school. The last few weeks of Summer Vacation aren't usually filled with anything besides school supply and clothes shopping.
Why not have a end of summer bash! You could have your kids invite their closest buddies over(or to a park) and just let them have fun. Our neighborhood host a end of school year party at our neighborhood park, but why not have one for the end of summer, it's a great way to meet neighbors you haven't quite met yet, and give a chance to any new kids to make some friends before school starts.

Easy decorating

Looking for an easy way to decorate your themed party? Try Scene Setters, they are backgounds you can hang on your walls that really help transform a room. Here is a picture of the ones i used for my sons Car themed birthday. They aren't avaiable in every theme yet but you can find some great ones for kids. Most Party supply stores have started carrying them, you can also find them at Shindigz.com. If you do decide to use these, just make sure you have a little help while putting them up, it's much faster that way. Plus, when you are done with the party you could even move them into your chid's room.

Bright Ideas

I recently purchased a book all about kids parties, because we do spend most of our lives planning kids parties, and i came across a section called Bright Ideas by the M&M/Mars Company. They had such cute ideas for cakes, favors, invitations, and activites to do . Their website BRIGHTIDEAS.COM has all of this information and instructions, you can even make invitations, or like we mentioned before the ever popular e-greetings.

Online Invites

It seems that most of us have gotten so used to the world of the internet that we even send out our party invitations this way. Which is great for close friends and family invites, but I still like the old fashioned way better. I love seeing what kind of unique invitation the person has used, and it gives me an idea to the theme of the event as well,(which can usually help you pick out a gift).
But if you must send out online inites i suggest you use E-vites, they offer a lot of different designs and you can have everyone rsvp with their count of how many are coming, you can even set it up for people to pick what item they want to bring with them if you are doing a potluck.

Tip of the Week

Always looking for the best deals on your party supplies? Why not research some of these party supply direct selling companies, or sites like makes parties.com. Becoming an independant sales rep you can benefit from sales you make but also get a discount on purchases.
A Company like Makes Parties doesn't cost anything to sign up as an affiliate, plus you get wholesale pricing, and commission on sales, and you get an online store already stocked. Take a look at mine to see what it looks like.

http://www.simplywrapd.makesparties.com/