PARTY FOOD

Of course one of the most important things for any event is the food. Yet we always find ourselves at the last minute trying to come up some new recipe with usually no success. Try planning out your menu a few weeks in advanced and start browsing recipe websites for some new ideas that are easy enough to make. I came across http://www.myrecipes.com/, it's a great little site that even offers how to videos for those of us that are not as talented in the kitchen.

Party tip of the Week

Always remember when having any event to make note of kids that may be attending. Obviously if it is a chidren's party make sure it doesn't last too long, the younger the kids the shorter their ability to stay entertained and happy. If you are having a mix of adults and kids take into consideration the kids need something to do as well. You may even want to designate someone to run some kid activities for you.

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.