Special Someones by Victoria at www.perfectgiftboxes.co.uk

They can be men, women, or even your pet!

Often the hardest people to buy gifts for are the ones closest to you. So much pressure. Am I spending enough? Will they like it? Is it their style? Your head could explode with what they will think of your gift.



Personalised Lips & Cherry Cocktail Glass


People often ask me, what do you think about when choosing what products to put on your website? My main answer is that I don’t have anything that my friends and family wouldn’t want for themselves. I take a lot of my friends and family’s thoughts on what they would like when deciding what other people want for their friends and family. I also think that the stereotypical gifts should stay too such as personalised glasses and baby bouquets for new babies. Traditional gifts are still so very very popular and most people love them! Everyone has that silver Money Box for the Christening gift or silver picture frame. These are simplistic, stylish and beautiful gifts that are timeless classics.



Mum and Baby Twins Tin

 Gadgets and toys are pushing through now for the men in our lives and I know my man would quite happily have every techy gadget under the sun in our house. These make great quirky gifts for men!



Shots Gun

 So the next time you don’t know what to get for that ‘special someone’ pop over to my website and see what my friends and family love!

See you soon. Love, Victoria x

Victoria is a mum of 2 boys age 7 and 2 and lives with her husband, David, in Cheshire.
She runs her business http://www.perfectgiftboxes.co.uk/ fulltime from her office in Crewe town centre.
Victoria loves a good natter especially about gifty things so if you are looking for ideas for your next gift give her a call or visit her website http://www.perfectgiftboxes.co.uk/ for lots of inspiration (and fabulous customer service too!)

Current offers - Free delivery on everything PLUS 5% discount in February! "FEB2011" is the code you will need at check out for this offer.

Why choose a party theme?

Choosing a theme for your party can help when choosing games, activities or which professional children's entertainer to hire.

A theme doesn't have to be complicated or tied into a popular character from films and television. You could find inspiration in all sorts of ways.

Does your child like to dress up? You could use a theme for the costumes - prince and princess, occupations and animals are all great choices.

You could ask the children to arrive at the party dressed up and either DIY some face painting or hire a professional face painter to paint the kids faces to match their costume.

Arty crafty children might like a party around a simple concept such as their favourite colour. This can easily be applied to the party food, particularly cupcakes.

Sporty children might like a party that has lots of activity, sports, races and parachute games.

Once a theme has been decided it makes choosing activities, food, entertainment and party bags much easier as you can focus your research.

The earlier you can choose a theme the more organised you can be and a greater number of venue, entertainment and food options would be available to you.

Crowd control - The beginners guide to having a birthday party

This is our guest post created especially for Tup Tup Toys last week!

Many thanks to the lovely Angie from My Funky Party for this wonderful guest post on hosting a child's birthday party. Don't let the title deceive you - it's not just for beginners, there are some fantastic tips the rest of us can use too!

When faced with a bunch of giggly, squeaky, hyped up kids at a birthday party, the idea of getting them to do what you want (in order to play any games or fun stuff) can make you so worried you go running for the hills. But with careful planning and a few knowledgeable tricks (the kind teachers use in the classroom), the daunting task of entertaining children for and hour and a half can be turned into a breeze.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user jessica.diamond

First - Know Your Enemy

There's no point going all out with a "Giggles" theme party for a bunch of 9 year olds, or "Princess and Pirates" for 20 boys who are into Ben 10. The aim of a successful party theme is to choose something that is universal to all the children attending, not just the guest of honour.

Second - "Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail"

You may realize this but kids actually like routine and scheduling, even at a party. Take a piece of paper and list time slots of 10 mins, like this:

2.00pm
2.10pm
2.20pm
2.30pm
2.40pm
2.50pm
3.00pm
3.10pm
3.20pm
3.30pm
3.40pm
3.50pm
4.00pm

Allocate three main time slots for arrival, food time (which includes singing Happy Birthday) and opening presents. Food takes approx. 30 minutes for savories, cakes and biscuits. Put it about half way through.

Arrival - there's always one that's late. Actually, scrap that, lots of people are late and it usually takes about 10-15 minutes for all the guests to arrive. Try to plan an arrival activity. This could be colouring for youngsters with printables of their favourite characters. Older children can get crafty and make something to take home (this could be something that's popped into their party bag at the end).

Opening Presents - always a good way to while away the last 20 minutes of a party. You can schedule this to happen during the party, or have it on standby just incase your guests clear through your games faster than you thought possible.

Photo courtsey of Flickr user Mark & Marie Finnern

So, now your schedule should look something like this:

2.00pm Arrival activity (15 mins)
2.10-2.15 Arrival activity
2.20pm
2.30pm
2.40pm
2.50pm Lunch (30 mins)
3.00pm Lunch
3.10pm Lunch
3.20pm
3.30pm
3.40pm Present Opening
3.50pm Present Opening
4.00pm End
This leaves you with two blocks of 30-35 minutes.

Games


Depending on the number of children coming, allocate approximately 1 game per child. There are lots of ideas online and you can ask your family about more retro games you can play. Some ideas to get you started....

Pass the Parcel - put a small sweet in between each layer, or for a smaller party with less than 10 children, put in a piece of paper with an action suggestion, such as 'pretend to be a dog', 'hop on one leg', 'sing a nursery rhyme' etc. For larger groups, this game can go on forever and you won't be able to hold their interest, so try splitting the kids into 2 groups and have 1 parcel per group travelling around each circle at the same time.
The Chocolate Game - You will need, a large bag of chocolate buttons, a plate, a fork, a scarf, a pair of wooly gloves and a dice. Sit the kids around in a circle. Put the buttons on a plate, with the scarf, gloves and fork in the centre. Pass the dice around the circle. Each child takes turns to roll the dice, then they pass it to the next child. If they roll a 6, the dice keeps going around the circle, as before, except the child who rolled a 6 has until the next child rolls a 6, to put on the scarf and gloves, then eat as much of the chocolate as possible. Lots of fun!

 

For boy's parties, any relay races and sports day style competitive games will go down a storm. Passing an inflated balloon around a circle without using your hands is always a good way to while away the time.

Photo courtesy of Flikr user goldberg.

 So the last thing - What if they don't listen to you explaining what's going on? What if they just run around crazy? There are a few steps you can take to ensure your party runs smoothly.


Firstly, delegate all non entertaining stuff to other people, including supervising toilet trips and serving the food. Entertaining the kids isn't just about playing games. It's about making sure that despite running around like a nutcase entertaining the kids, you are also clock watching, and making certain that the momentum is kept running throughout.
Secondly, don't give the kids options. Tell them at the beginning of the party what the schedule is (make it fun, of course!) and stick to it. If a game is going down like a lead balloon, just skip to the next one. Don't make a big fuss, just move on and the kids will think it's just time for the next game.

Thirdly, have a few teacher's tricks up your sleeve. Here's my personal favourite! All children from reception to teens are familiar with the "put your hand up if you can hear me" routine. If you are trying to tell the kids the instructions of a game and some are a bit giddy, as can only be expected at a party, put your hand up and very loudly say "put you hand up if you can hear me". The children will all put their hands up, one after another, and magically should all become silent and await your instructions. It's magic and works again and again.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user micn2sugars


Lastly, be confident. have your plan, have other party tasks delegated to others and enjoy being the most popular kid at the party!
 
Hope you find something to help you at your next birthday party. Do let us know if you use any of our ideas and tips!
 
Good luck!
 
Yours colourfully, Angela x
 

Tup Tup Toys is a lovely online toy shop which has lots of unique toys for children with great customer service.
 
We love their range of baby toys and gift ideas. The lovely people at Tup Tup Toys can even wrap up your special birthday gift too! How useful is that?!
 
Tup Tup Toys also have a blog - so when you subscribe to our blog make sure you go have a look at theirs and subscribe too!

Animal Party Ideas

Animal parties are lots of fun!
Heres some party tips and ideas to get you started:
Four Corners.

The more people you have for this game, the better (more than ten, preferably). Find a room with four corners, and number them one to four (make sure everyone playing knows what corner is what number). Pick one child to be 'it' and blindfold them, then have everyone run to a corner (any corner, but make sure people split up). The kid known as 'it' calls out a number from one to four. The people in that corner are all out, then everyone scatters to another corner, or stays in the same one (it's okay to go to the corner that was just called, but it might get called again, so watch out!). Play like this until one person remains, or everyone is out. It's fun and exhilarating, especially if you're a youngster. To make this suitable for an animal themed party have each corner named like cats, dogs, horses, tigers etc to suit your theme.

Who am I?

Write a different animal on a postit note and stick em to their foreheads as they arrive.

the children have to guess their animal by asking questions.

A great ice breaker for any party - even for grownups!

Birthday food

Serve a picnic - sandwiches cut into triangles, mini cocktail sausages, cold pizza slices, sausage rolls etc with cartons of juice. Follow with cupcakes and biscuits.

Set out picnic blankets and cushions on the floor and sprinkle confetti around.

Decorate

Use light and dark green streamers either attached from the ceiling or from the floor and against a wall. This would be good for jungle parties (from ceiling) and for underwater parties (from the floor and attached up a wall).

Make giant butterflies from wall paper samples and cut out monkey shapes from brown cardboard.

Hope these tips are useful for your next animal themed party. Let us know if you use any and if you send us a picture we will feature it!

Yours colourfully, Angela x

The perfect Charlie and Lola party!

About Charlie and Lola

Charlie and Lola is available on Cbeebies in UK and Disney Channel in America.

The program tells the story of how siblings Charlie and Lola navigate through life through imaginative storytelling, quirky images and fun music.

Charlie and Lola live in a flat in London with their parents. Their parents are not animated in the program however the kids frequently refer to them throughout the program.

Charlie and Lola have a number of friends. Charlie's best friend is Marv Lowe and they often take Marvs dog, Sizzles to the park and play football alot too. Lola's best friend is a lively little girl called Lotta. They love to play at each others houses and they are in the same class at school.


Lola also has an imaginary friend called Soren Lorenson. Soren Lorenson is a real mischief maker that only Lola can see and interact with. In the program he is animated as an almost see through character. He appears to be a male version of Lola and looks so much like her they could be twins.


A Charlie and Lola party is ideal for pre-schoolers and appeals to both boys and girls a like.


We have gathered some of our favourite ideas for creating a lovely party for your little Charlie and Lola fan. Hope you like them!

Invites:

Crafty arty people may like this idea!

Line draw the characters onto a sheet of A4 paper, take up as much space as possible. Water colour the clothes etc.

When dry scan the image as a .jpg file on your computer (a good mail box depot like Mailboxes etc will be able to scan things and put them on CD for a small fee if you don’t have this at home.

Use the scanned image in Microsoft Publisher to create the cover for an invite, you could make a folded card or a postcard is a nice easy invite to design.

Of course if that’s just too fiddly or you just simply haven’t the time you can also buy them.

Decoration ideas!

Use pink construction paper to make a giant staircase and attach it to a wall. Surround the staircase with butterflies made simply from 2 large and 2 small tear shapes of pretty, colourful wallpaper samples.

Copy the Charlie and Lola characters on to large sheets of paper and colour them with poster paints – don’t forget Soren Lorenson, Lotta, Marv and Sizzles!

To create Soren Lorenson instead of copying the outine on paper try painting or drawing with a permanent marker onto a large sheet of cellophane wrap which is available to buy by the metre from all good florists.

Charlie and Lola party plates, cups and napkins are available from online shops. Also available are invites, thank you notes, party bags and table covers.

Activity ideas!

Lola's Music Box:
Lola loves to use her imagination. Have a big brown wooden box and label it “Lola’s musical instruments” inside place saucepans, wooden spoons, bottles filled with dry rice and pasta, the plastic trays from inside sweet and biscuit boxes and other everyday household items that make interesting noises.

Colouring in fun:
Print out some colouring in sheets (enough for 3 different designs per child) and lay themout on a table with wax crayons to colour in. Ensure that there is 1 small packet of wax crayons per child (6 in a pack). You could even stick them to the pink staircase decoration with sticky tape when they are finished.

Party Food ideas!

To eat:
Traditional cold party fayre is the order of the day – Think sausage rolls, Fox’s Party Rings, cupcakes and small triangular ham or cheese sandwiches.

To drink:

Pink Milk

Most young children would probably like water or cordial to drink at the party food table and Pink Milk could be served as part of the sweet course.

Lola’s favourite drink is Pink Milk and it’s easy to make a healthy version without the need for red food colouring or rocket fuel such as Grenadine!

To make a 250ml cup take a glass of milk and put in a blender. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and approx 100g strawberries. Whiz the ingredients in the blender for a minute or so until all ingredients are combined. This is a really easy recipe to make more just multiply the ingredients by the number of cups you want. One 250ml serving should be plenty for 2 paper party cups.

Ideas for Games!

Pin the mask on Batcat
Bat cat is Charlie and Lola’s favourite cartoon super hero – you could either play pin the tail on bat cat or pin the mask on bat cat.

Pin the lead on Sizzles
You could play pin the lead on Sizzles. Marv Lowe is Charlie’s best friend and he has a dachshund called Sizzles. In “We Do Promise Honestly We Can Look After Your Dog" Lola and Lotta are charged with looking after Sizzles and loose him when he comes off his lead at the park.

Make a picture of a sausage dog on a sheet of A1 paper, and make a lead, back it with some sticky blue tack. Blindfold each child, turn them around 3 times then have them try to attach the lead back onto Sizzles collar. The winner is the child that gets their lead closest to the collar.

Lola Says
This game is the same as Simon Says except you shout Lola Says instead of Simon Says.

Other traditional party games are good fun such as Musical Statues and pass the parcel.

Music:
Play “The Bestest in the Barn” throughout this is a compilation of all the Charlie & Lola songs including the theme. Released in 2007 it includes "The Bestest in the Barn", "Sizzles", "Batcat" and "It's Snowing".

Storytelling:
Read a favourite Charlie and Lola story out loud to the children. Sit on a chair and have the kids sit around you. Hold up the book facing the kids so they can see the pictures as you read. Charlie and Lola stories are typically short with lots of engaging pictures to hold the attention of especially younger guests.

Party bags:
Fillers can include: Wooden animal yoyos, anything with butterflies and ladybirds on, curly straws, seed packets, mini note pad and crayons.

Thank you notes:
If you made the invites yourself use the same template, change the wording and keep the picture (or watercolour new pictures for the thank you notes).


We hope these ideas are helpful.

Enjoy your Charlie and Lola party – please do let us know how you go with your party!

Yours colourfully, Angela x




Even more Charlie and Lola websites!


Charlie and Lola official website


Charlie and Lola Cbeebies website (Lots of printables to colour in)


Official Lauren Child website 


Charlie and Lola Playhouse Disney America website