Million Dollar Party

So one year on...what have I up my sleeve for Little Miss O's birthday. Not a 'party' in the sense of spending lots of money like last year. I just want her to have a lovely day. I know that the key to her having a lovely day will be her spending time with her most favourite friends, doing what she loves and having everyone sing 'Happy Birthday' to her. I just know that a fun day out with Mr O and I will not cut it (as fun as we are!)...but I'm determined to be able to give my child a great birthday memory...

Love these colours!

I've been thinking up thrifty but still fabulous kid's party ideas. Little Miss O recently went to a party where the kids just played for 2 hours with the birthday boy's toys. They LOVED it. The parents just stood around and chilled..everyone was happy. Sometimes simple things can work really well..and it's lovely to nurture children's imaginations and creativity. I love that Little Miss O believes in magic - I want to embrace this stage because like every other so far, as soon as I realise how special it is, its gone...sniff sniff! Now, my experience of party planning is that even the simplest idea can become expensive once you increase the size of the guest list. So far, I've listed key people to invite (i.e. her local friends) and we already have 12 on the list. Add the parents and ourselves and you're talking a mini soiree for 25...plus! I've not even begun thinking about 'family etiquette' yet...yikes! 

Little Miss has been soooooo good lately and I want to make an extra special effort for her to have a fun day...she really does deserve it this year more than any before. I want her to have a million dollar party that doesn't cost a small fortune...

The weather here has been lush lately and I'm feeling inspired to throw a garden party , that would be loads of fun, right?! Not sure our home can cope with 12 kids and their parents! If the sun doesn't have his [why is the sun male btw?] hat on, then it'll have to be an open house affair!


I might just go for this!

Ooooh, I'm excited...I'm thinking music (they LOVE JLS!), bubbles, a big picnic blanket, food, drink and perhaps a bit of face paint for parents and kids alike. Why should the kids have all the fun!  

Any back-up ideas in case the weather man takes a dislike to my plans?

Thrifty Ideas for a Kid's Birthday Party

Little Miss O has been on top form lately! More or less the model child! She'll be turning 4 soon and we're so proud of her and I want her to have a really fun and special birthday. Now, we had agreed when Little Miss O was one that she would have a birthday party every other year at the most... It's not that I'm a scrooge (really, I'm not), it's just that we want her to know that she can have a fun birthday without having to have a full blown party.

For Little Miss O's first birthday, she had a party...but that was more for ourselves to be honest. She was the one and only child star of that show. She didn't know that it was her birthday, so marking the occasion was fine for us. We had about 20 people in our home and it was a lovely sunny day so we just chilled in the garden. It was really nice. We didn't spend and extortionate amount of money but it was a noticeable change to our usual monthly outgoings - much like her first Christmas, I felt she needed a brand new outfit for the occasion. She had to have a matching hat, sundress and shoes etc. Of course she didn't at all - but it was her first birthday so Mr O just left me to it!

The day of Little Miss O's second birthday, was the day before I submitted my PhD thesis (for the first time!)...by 2, she knew it was her birthday, but she didn't know about birthday parties or even what it meant other than 'its my birthday'..bless...

 Needless to say, we didn't throw a party that year, but I did spend the whole night before blowing up balloons so that her day would start of 'special' you know! She chose her own cake that year too...

By the time Little Miss O's 3rd birthday came around, she knew exactly what a birthday was, and had her own ideas for a birthday party. She'd been to a few by this stage and she had high expectations. As it was the first time she was properly aware of it - we went ALL OUT. I viewed 4 venues before selecting the perfect place. Little Miss O had a Princess and Pirate themed party at a play centre. Her Princess Tiana dress was custom made - the girl even had a calico made and boy did she love her dress fittings! The making of the diva had begun... : ) The kids ate Harry Ramsden's fish and chip meals, jelly, cakes, fruit, raisins and carrot sticks (just to add a bit of balance to their diet!)..they played 'pass the parcel' (3 year olds aren't great at this by the way - I'll be saving this for age 5 and up I think!)...we did a treasure hunt where they had to seek out tiaras, wands, pirate hats etc etc... It was a complete extravaganza for about 15 kids. Of course being me, I went a little OTT and also provided extra food, donuts, drinks for the parents... I thought it was a nice touch and it was really well received. Little Miss O loved it and still talks about her 'Trafford Centre' party today. It cost a small fortune, so she better still be talking about it when she's 10! : )

[notice the recurring purple and pink balloon theme - obsessed much?]

So, this year there will be no extravaganza... BUT I do want to mark the occasion for baby girl and create a fond memory for us all to smile about in years to come....

But its easy for me to create a fantabulous party when I throw money into the mix...

This time, I'm aiming to create the same fab day without the price tag....I'm putting my party planning skills to the test... I'm challenging myself to throw her an imaginative and fun-filled 2 hours soiree for pint-sizes.. and all for.... £...

Yikes - why am I testing myself?!

Any ideas for a thrifty kids party?

No, no, don't help me - it's a test!

Consequences for Little People!

I've been writing about how we do discipline in our house (at the moment)... I mentioned that Little Miss has 3 rules:

• listen to grown ups
• eat what you're given
• don't give me any sass!

But rules mean very little to me without a consequence...so, Little Miss O's consequences are the things that matter most to her:

• No snuggle time in front of the TV with Mummy/Daddy
• Time out 
• No stories
• No dessert

These are all things that Little Miss O loves to do and they're also natural consequences. Breaking the rules in one way or another wastes all of our time. When we waste our time with 'unnecessaries', we have less time to do things we like - such as snuggle time, story time etc. Timeout is also a natural consequence because when you upset/frustrate people in grown up life, they generally prefer you to be removed from the scene until you fix up! : ) Bedtime is fixed, not flexi, so Little Miss still has to go to bed at the same time regardless of whichever delaying/rule-breaking tactic she has used 3 hours beforehand...

It has been 7 days now of her new rules/consequences and you know what, she has eaten every single meal (bar the first initiation day where she learnt the hard way!), she has done so at the designated times and she has been able to have her dessert everyday! I love eating dessert with her so am super psyched that I don't have to keep with-holding her ice-cream/crumbles because she didn't eat her main meal! We've had extra long snuggle/TV time and we've had too many stories that I have lost count! Everyone is happy and I actually think she likes her rules.

She keeps saying ' I want to follow my rules because I don't like con-sequences!'...LOL I'm offering her lots of praise and she's doing really well. She's getting praise from strangers too which really helps her to know how well-mannered she is being...

I know it has only been a week, but I think its a sign of good things to come.

What discipline tactics have you used successfully with your kids?