Wizard of OZ

At some point in their lives, almost every American has seen the Wizard of Oz. It's like a rite of passage, it's something everyone does. And if you haven't you better look that up on netflix, and quick my friend! The first time I saw the Wizard of Oz I was camped out on my grandparent's family room floor and my grandpa had the movie playing on a projector on their huge wall. I thought it was one of the coolest things ever....until the movie started playing, in black and white! I couldn't believe that they were showing this to us, but my grandma said, just wait Meg, just wait. And I did. Looking back I remember what fun times those were, don't we all miss being a kid at some point? Of course there are ups to being an adult, or a semi-adult in my case, but there are also the down points. The times where I wish all this real world stuff didn't apply to me.

In any case, the Wizard of Oz was something of a fascination to me, and it still is for many young kids- and a popular theme party at that! I began thinking about such parties when I stumbled across a photo of an amazing Wizard of Oz Cake, and realized, I would have to plan a Wizard of Oz party to go with it!


That cake is amazing. I am in love with it.

One necessity to a Wizard of Oz party is of course, the yellow brick road. A simple idea would be to buy a roll of yellow wrapping paper and have it on the floor (taped or held down of course) stretching from the entrance to the major party room. You can even be as adventurous as to draw bricks on it!

Stuff a pair of witch stockings with newspaper and red ruby slippers at the end of the yellow brick road, against a wall!  After all, you want to make it look like your house landed on the witch!

The party should definitely keep in mind the main goals of the characters, the tin man wanting a heart, the lion wanting courage, the scarecrow's brain. Trivia is also a great way to pass time at a party such as this, quiz your guests on different characters/events in the story!

Another great idea would be to use your decorations as prizes. For example, you can use different copies of the book as centerpieces, movie posters, etc. Use the movie posters as prizes for the winners of games!

Remember, you can also have the movie soundtrack playing throughout the party.....and who knows, maybe even have your guests dressed as their favorite character! And the host could be Dorothy!



Of course for younger kids there are plenty of other activities and games to play......can't wait to plan it all out!

Candy Party

Most kids, if not all kids, love candy. Hands down. At 23 I still have a sweet tooth. Give me a bag of candy (granted it's candy I like) there's a good possibility the candy will be gone within a day or two. Of course I'm not a total pig....well, not all the time. One party I would love to plan, would be a candy party. And for many reasons: there's so much you can do for it! Sweet Shop theme, Candy land theme....where to start?! Here's an idea of what I would do!

Invitations: I've found several invitations I love, but most of all I love the idea of a lolly-pop invitation. Pulling from the Pretty in Prints Blog I found this great candy land inspired invitation.



Seriously...how CUTE is that!? I might just want to throw myself a candy themed party! As seen in the Pretty in Print blog, you can also use the same idea for party favor tags! I've also found Lollipop theme invitations on the Passion for Parties Blog as inspired by Kim from Tomkat studios.


Although I like the candy land style lollipop invites, I'd personally go with the second type, from the Passion for Parties blog, only because I prefer that style personally. But it does depend on the birthday girl and her taste!








The next part is obvious, decorations, and candy! One thing we can do for sure is have candy centerpieces. A vendor we work with at Glamour Girls makes spectacular candy arrangements for the tables:

 I love this one from Sugar Rush Creations , as it is shaped like a birthday cake...and it has a wonderful assortment of candy to choose from! Several centerpieces on the tables would be a fun way of incorporating candy into the decor!

However, if we're sticking with the lollipop idea, then a lollipop tree could be a great centerpiece:
 

I love the pink one with the large circle lollipops-classy but not overdone. As for other decor, I would suggest to keep the colors bright and festive, bright neons like lime green, hot pink, blue, yellow, or soft pastels that people often associate with easter...after all Easter does remind people of candy! Candy necklaces can also be used as garland to be strung across tables and what not!

I love what the Passion for Parties blog did for decorations:

Amazing, what can be done with paper plates! Don't these lollipop decorations look amazing? Sweet Shop Party: Passion for Parties

Activities:

The decorations and the theme might not have been so difficult when it comes to a candy party, however I do believe the activities part might be the most difficult. After all, the kids can't eat candy for the entire two hour party....or can they?

Make Candy Necklaces: Give the kids string and different types of candy to create their own necklaces. There are plenty of types of candy that can easily be strung onto the string, or you can buy the necklaces and cut them...putting the candy in a bag for the kids to make themselves! It's a great activity to keep the children occupied and also sticking by your theme! Other great activities include:

Chocolate Bar eating contest. Buy the giant hershey's bar and see what team/duo can eat the candy the quickest.

Decorating sweets:

Although the party is centered around candy...it couldn't hurt to have a cookie decorating or cupcake decorating contest....with candy of course! Let the kids decorate with icing, different candies, chocolate chips, etc. Have prizes/awards/certificates for most creative, most unusual, prettiest, most elegant, etc.

Guessing Games:

Guests can guess the number of a certain candy from a jar. The winner (closest to actual number) takes home the candy! You could do candy corn, jellybeans, m&m's, or whatever type of candy you want!

Winding Down and Party Favors:

The best way to end a candy party is of course with candy favors! One of my favorite party add ons with Glamour Girls is our Candy Bar. I love setting up the old fashioned candy jars and filling them with candy. Watching the kids make their own goodybags is so cute, and they love it! They take what they  want!

Now that I've written all about this candy party, I totally want someone to do one! Any takers? Maybe I'll have to throw one for myself. Just saying.

Ice Cream Sundae Spa

So of course I'm slacking a little on the posting....but that happens from time to time. Last week Glamour Girls did a fabulous Ice Cream Sundae Spa party! I know, you might be thinking, spa? Ice Cream? How do those go together? And really, it's quite wonderful!

Our ice cream sundae spa is targeted towards kids in the 5-15 age range, and of course it does vary! Last week we did the party for an adorable set of 8 year old twins, who I might add, were very into it! The spa includes facials, manicures, and pedicures! At Glamour Girls we use Me Bath ice cream spa products, all of which can be found on our website: Glamour Parties


Let's start off with the facials. Of course as many people may (or may not) know, you must be a licensed esthetician to do an actual facial. Considering how our clients are usually under the age of 12, we don't do anything quite as fancy, however we do use face masks. For the ice cream spa party we do marshmallow flavored masks, which actually smell quite like real marshmallows (it's amazing). We have also had caramel and chocolate flavored masks as well! To top off the facials we do cucumbers on the eyes and let the girls lay back and relax!


As for the manicures,  the girls get their nails done up and a hand massage with strawberry flavored lotion! For the pedicures the girls place their feet in a basin of warm water, upon which we insert the flavor bath fizz of their choice. The girls can select from chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.



After the bath fizz ends we scrub their feet/legs with chocolate sherbert scrub which the girls loved, since they were laughing and giggling away. After that we dried the girls feet with towels and painted their nails. While their nails dried we coated their legs and feet with icing flavored lotion.

Of course, I think this party would be best topped off with an ice cream sundae bar, or an ice cream cake! At the party this weekend the girls had an ice cream sundae cake, fitting with the theme of course!

We also made the most adorable goody-bags, which included: hair wraps (to keep their hair from their eyes during the facial), sleep masks, two nail polishes, and a manicure set!
Wonderful party of course!

Easter Celebrations

With Easter only days away, there are tons of celebrations in the form of Egg hunts, and easter parties for kids....with the occasional dressed up easter bunny of course.


As a child, I used to love doing the egg hunts, getting candy and waiting for the bunny to come, you know the whole deal, leaving carrots out the night before. Now though, I have to look back and laugh. Did I really believe that a big bunny left footprints on my dining room floor? Did I really think a big bunny could somehow break into my securely locked house?

Apparently so. Nevertheless, looking back it is funny, and  I adore planning easter egg coloring and easter egg hunts for the family easter party! It was so much fun to be a kid....and now, well, at least I can make kids smile by planning these fun activities for them!

Happy Easter everyone! Enjoy!

Bieber Fever versus Carnival party.

      It's no secret that teens and pre-teens across America have fallen head over heels for Bieber....behavior which has ultimately been nicknamed Bieber Fever. Something which one of our clients children has definitely been infected by. We are currently working on a combined birthday party for two girls, one aged 11 one aged 9 (to turn 10 and 12). The  younger daughter is set on the idea of a Bieber party...while  the older daughter absolutely despises Justin Bieber and wants something more mature, like a carnival party, or spa theme. Therefore....what do we do to combine the two? Especially when these themes don't exactly coincide with one another....at least not well....and not without brawls.

My thought was to set up booths/tables around the yard (since it's a June party, outdoors) and do different carnival booths with prizes. We could build our own booths with wood, or we could use tables, however I'm thinking making the actual carnival booths would give it a more authentic feel....and will be much more impressionable on the kids! We could put up lights to give it a carnival  feel if we do the party at night, and if not we could hang balloons and streamers....and of course, play carnival music. We could have several game booths and a couple others such as cotton candy, popcorn, etc. Of course the real food and cake would be separate. To prevent all the children from receiving all of the prizes, we could give each child a certain number of tickets to ensure that each child is guaranteed the same number of games/prizes.


The first could be a kissing booth....but not in the way you're thinking. We could have a jar filled with hershey's kisses and the kids have to guess how many kisses are in the jar. The closest guess wins the jar!
The second booth could be the balloon booth, where the kids throw darts at the balloons to break them. This is always a favorite at the carnival...and easily made by our staff.

The third booth could be the baseball throw to knock down all of the milk jugs. Another carnival classic that is loved by all...big and small. Didn't intend for that to rhyme.


The fourth booth could be the ping pong toss into the fishbowls. I personally was always awful at this game....but some people are really good at it. At carnivals everyone always won goldfish in a bag....but I think we'd get different types of prizes!


The fifth booth could be a facepainting booth....it'll add some excitement to the carnival! Maybe not all carnivals have face painting but it is a fun add on for kids who will enjoy it...especially in a setting such as this! While we're at it we can do glitter and neon colored hairspray...kids go wild for that!



The sixth booth could be the Ring Toss game. Another classic carnival game, the ring toss is a must have for any carnival!


The seventh booth could be the duck game...in which the kids use a net to pick up a duck from the duck pond. If the duck has a star on the bottom it means they've won, and can select a prize. If not...they can use another ticket to try again.


The eighth booth could be a bouncy castle....or an inflatable slip in slide. Something fun an exciting that the kids can go on, over and over again.


Of course it depends on the budget of the parents for the specific party, however all of these would be excellent activities for a children's carnival party...one that I'd sure love to go to!  

Of course being that one of the girls for this particular party wants a Justin Bieber theme, we can work Bieber prizes into the mix, maybe do Bieber tattoos, and perhaps even add Bieber onto the cake. But after the kids see this, I don't know how they could possibly say no to a fun filled carnival theme party...I know I wouldn't.

Cupcake Craze

I often wonder what is the reason behind the cupcake craze? Personally cupcakes don't do much for me....I mean, sure they're tasty.....but a couple bites usually does it for me. I can't see going to an establishment such as Crumbs or Carlos's bakery and ordering a couple of cupcakes and being done with it....I'd want the real deal. The cakes. Cake Boss is such a huge hit on TLC...and personally I adore the cakes Buddy makes...I would love to try one of his however, is it really worth the price tag? Not to me it isn't.

Of course, being an event planner I know where to get similar cakes for a much better price...for one event Carlos's Bakery quoted me at 700-1000 and I got the cake for less than half the price elsewhere, and let me tell you, it was amazing. Looks wise, and taste wise. Next time I'm planning an event I will be attending, I am most certainly getting a cake like that!

Still, if it came down to cake cake, and ice cream cake....I think I'd have to go with the ice cream. Personally I have a sweet tooth, but ice cream is my soft spot...my go to dessert. I'd pass up cookies, cake, chips, you name it for a soft serve dairy queen chocolate cone with rainbow sprinkles. And yes, it has to be a cone, because lets be honest here, it doesn't quite taste the same when it's in a cup.

How far is too far?

As many of you know, we have a twitter for Glamour Girls and Glamour Parties....and we often tweet about our events. Especially our huge Original Glamour parties for our Glamour Girls sector. However, this hasn't always been accepted by some parents. We believe that allowing girls to use makeup, and do their nails and their hair gives them confidence, allows them to express themselves, and adds a bit of fun to their day! They're kids...they want to play with makeup, what little girl didn't? I loved playing in my mom's makeup drawer when I was a kid. It was a thrill. So what's the harm in allowing girls to do a Spa or Glamour Party for their birthday?


Well, according to some angry parents who have contacted us....it takes away a child's innocence. It causes them to be too mature too early. It isn't right for the children ,and children need to stay children as long as possible. Now let's be real here for a moment...is denying the children something they want to do for a birthday party really the way to go? I'd love to know what the harm really is.....after all, isn't it just fun a games? Beauty is a huge part of our society in today's era. But it's not like at the Glamour Girls parties we're teaching these girls how to wear makeup for the rest of their lives! We're putting glittery hairspray in their hair, glitter and shimmer and fun colored lip glosses....because it's a party, it's fun, it's something these kids don't get to do on a regular basis....and it's different. I believe allowing a child to express their interest in something, at least dabble here and there is the way to go. Completely denying them something only causes them to want it more later in life....and rebel.



So what if now, at 6 years old you deny your daughter the opportunity to participate in a hair, makeup, and nails party....ten years later she'll be caking makeup on her face as she drives to school on the bus with all of her friends. Moderation is the key to success....sure beauty isn't everything....but sometimes it is a little fun.



So I ask you this....how far is too far? Where do you draw the line on cosmetic use and play? Every little girl wants to be a princess....but can the princess have her crown and a lip gloss too?