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These doggie themed parties are becoming increasingly popular for kids’ birthdays and other special occasions.

Galaxy Entertainment

Puppy parties are the latest trend in childrens event planning — participating companies usually bring around ten puppies to your home and set up a petting zoo for guests. Some provide extras including dog toys and costumes.

Galaxy Entertainment is a Los Angeles children’s entertainment company, and owner Brandon Jones says puppy parties are their most popular events. Packages range from $200-$500 and include a party full of small breed puppies such as Malteses and Yorkshire Terriers. The puppies are all around four-months-old, and their canine moms attend the parties to keep them comfortable.

Brandon says he has a partner who home-breeds and raises the puppies. The dogs are vaccinated, and they haven’t had any issues with biting. Brandon doesn’t use shelter dogs telling us, “You need to know the puppies are coming from a safe environment.” He advises moms interested in hosting puppy parties to make sure to hire a company that knows the dogs’ emotional histories.

Galaxy Entertainment

Once the puppies from Galaxy Entertainment’s parties are six-month-old, they are usually adopted by clients and party guests.

Would you host a puppy party for your child?

Courtesy of www.momlogic.com

Warmest Regards,

Tara & Karen @ Party Squad

Here are a couple of tips to making simple yet spectacular kid birthday cakes:Themed Cake Pans -A huge variety of themed cake tins are available at www.partysquad.com.au to hire or buy (if you don’t see it, ask! We’ll get it in for you) . These range from basic shapes to popular TV and cartoon characters. Fairytale castles, cars, soccer balls, dinosaurs, and Thomas the Tank Engine are a few examples.  Also available are 3-D cake pans which create an impressive finished three-dimensional kid birthday cake, like the cup cake pan.

Edible Cake Art Images - Edible images are flat pre-printed edible food decorations.  They are an easy, time-saving way to create a professional looking cake design. The images are simply applied to the top of the frosted cake.  (They can even be applied to an ice cream cake!)  They are available in a variety of popular themes at party supply stores.

Warmest Regards,

Tara & Karen @ Party Squad

 If your child wants to have a fun Halloween and you’re up for a true adventure, why not throw a kid’s Halloween party? Halloween parties are about getting more use out of your costumes and finding ways to enjoy each other’s company without spending too much time wandering through the darkness on Halloween night. Halloween parties for children can be scheduled during the day for younger children or in the evening for older kids. They can even be tacked onto other Trick-or-Treating activities.

Make Arrangements

To throw a great Halloween party for your kids, you’ll first need to make arrangements. What sort of party are you throwing? Are you going to need special equipment such as a large inflatable jumper for younger kids or games for older kids? Will you be doing a special activity such as carving pumpkins or decorating cupcakes? The more elaborate your party, the more arrangements you’ll have to make.   Rest assured, however, that many of the best parties have simple arrangements. You’ll want to provide food at your party, but hot dogs or delivered pizza will fit the bill nicely. You’ll want to buy decorations, and your child will enjoy selecting these along with you. Costumes will be a must, and you’ll need some sweet treats as well to make things fun and tasty. If your guests will be trick-or-treating, however, you’ll want to limit the sweets. You’ll need an activity as well – an afternoon party can enjoy an inflatable jumper or your background toys. An evening party might have fun watching “scary’ movies before trick-or-treating. Older children tend to amuse themselves, of course.

Don Costumes

As the host, once you’re gotten everything set up in advance, you’ll want to don your costume. From an adult ninja costume to political characters, there is a huge array of costume choices available for adults. You might even be able to find matching costumes for your family – there is nothing funnier than a set of family ninja costumes or a bunch of miniature politicians running around to set the mood for the festivities.

Set the Mood

With your child’s help, arrange your decorations for the party and dim the lights. You want things to be in the right mood for your party, so you might also put in a CD of Halloween sounds to really make things creepy. Fun Halloween songs might be more appropriate for younger children than scary noises.  Check out the following link for some fabulous supplies for decorations and treats! http://www.partysquad.com.au/products.php?cat=24

Have Fun

Finally, if you want to host a great party, you should be part of it. Be the first one to try new things and lead the way for other adults by taking on the role of “fun lover.” Jump in the jumper and let your kids paint your face. Be enthusiastic about everything and make it fun for the kids. Stay on your toes to find opportunities to jump out and scare older kids and always be looking for something you can do with a younger crowd, such as dancing, to make the party more enjoyable. Everyone will have a great time – how can they now with you as a host?

Easy Step By Step

• Make plans for the party with enough time to arrange entertainment, food, and invitations.
• Decorate for the party with your child’s help keeping in mind the age group of the guests – you don’t want to cause kindergarteners nightmares.
• Get in the spirit of the party by wearing a fun costume and acting the part.
• Keep the party moving and fun by staying involved and including fun activities.

Warnings, Advice, and Suggestions

If you are hosting a party with younger children, make the party a family affair. This will help you keep the guests inline more easily as their parents will also be present. You can also enjoy visiting with an older crowd without cramping the Halloween style of the younger set.

Warmest Regards,

Tara & Karen @ Party Squad 

Traditional parties still best, say mums

Old favourites are still top choices for 21st century kids but modern mums rely on supermarkets to supply the birthday cake.

The Children’s Party Directory polled 800 mums and found the majority (62%) of children’s parties are held at home, with indoor play centres being second favourite.

Traditional games are still big hits. ‘Pass the Parcel’ is played at 86% of parties, over three quarters are very likely to have ‘Musical Chairs’ and 67% still play ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey’.

Parents are sticking with tried-and-tested party food too, with 74% of children tucking into celebratory jelly and ice-cream. Only a third of mums polled still make their children’s birthday cakes themselves - 44% resort to the supermarket. However, 91% of parties end with goodie bags and slices of cake to take away in napkins.

Small-scale celebrations may be big favourites in the UK but 45% of parents are still anxious about the cost. In America, children’s parties can be so over-the-top that a group of parents in St. Paul, Minnesota have set up Birthdays Without Pressure to counter the trend. Their website has horror stories of six-year-olds waiting to find out the party bag before they accept invitations and ‘half-birthday’ celebrations so winter-born children can enjoy summer parties too… as well as their ‘real’ birthday, not instead of it.

Earlier this year, CNN reported millionaire David H Brooks of Long Island spent $10 million on his daughter’s bat mitzvah and entertainers included 50 Cent, Don Henley and Aerosmith.

If your child’s party-going habits are stressing you out, remember it won’t last too long. The Children’s Party Directory survey has identified the years between six and ten as the key ‘party active’ stage. 39% in this age group attend up to ten parties a year and 29% attend up to 15.

After that, it’s only a few years to go before the teenage parties start.

Courtesy of ‘www.raisingkids.co.uk’

Kindest Regards,

Tara & Karen

@ Party Squad

Hi everyone,

I just came across the most beautiful cookies that I had to share with you all. 

These butterfly/dragonfly shaped cookies, as you can see, are just divine.  I found them on www.cakejournal.com which also has some wonderful cake decorating ideas.  If you would like to know how to go about the decorating of these fondant topped sugar cookies, go to http://www.cakejournal.com/archives/how-to-decorate-cookies-with-rolled-fondant/ .  These cookies would be a fantastic accompaniment to your child’s next butterfly party.  

Come and visit us at Party Squad,   http://www.partysquad.com.au/products.php?cat=19 for all your butterfly party supplies.

Kindest Regards,

Tara & Karen

@ Party Squad

We all want to celebrate our children’s big milestones-especially their first birthday.  But how do you entertain one year olds???   Forget the clown…Hire toys for your party! It’s cheap and for the first couple of birthdays, even though we might want to organise lots of games, they just want to play. It’s less stressful and everyone has a good time!  If you can’t afford to hire, ask around your Mothers Group or join your local toy library-most offer party packs which are very affordable.

Enjoy!

Warmest Regards,

Tara & Karen @

Party Squad

Pinatas seem to be one of the most loved item/activity for a birthday party. Kids just simply love to have a go at the pinata and try to have a chance to get the most from the mystery ‘gifts’ within the pinata!

For those who don’t know:

A piñata is a brightly-colored paper container filled with candy and/or toys. It is generally suspended on a rope from a tree branch or ceiling and is used during celebrations.    ~Wikipedia

Generally, kids take turns with a stick of some form to hit the pinata open so they can get to the prizes within.

A great idea to try is to leave the breaking of the pinata until the end of the party and put their lolly bags (individually bagged) inside so when it breaks, there is definately one gift for each child and it makes the whole process a lot fairer (meaning less tears!).

Pinatas are also a great decoration piece-they look fantastic as a table centrepiece even if you don’t want to use it for an activity.

You can get a whole heap of fantastic pinatas these days to match most any theme.  Check out  http://www.partysquad.com.au for the range available.

Kindest regards,

Tara and Karen

@ Party Squad 

A lot of parents feel anxious over “no gifts” birthday parties, feeling unsure whether it’s really OK to not bring a gift.  While I feel it is perfectly fine to honor the party host’s request, a great alternative to showing up empty handed is a gift of a favorite children’s book.

Children’s books are my gift of choice for many occasions, and a child’s birthday is a great time to add to the birthday boy or girl’s reading materials.  There are many wonderful books available, and birthdays are a great time to choose something special, like a beautiful pop-up book, a book with great illustrations, or one of your family’s special favorites.

Need inspiration to help find the perfect book for a birthday gift? Consider the birthday child’s interests, and check any of the many great kid’s books blogs and Web sites. Have fun!

Warmest regards,

Tara and Karen

@ Party Squad

For Jasmine’s 5th Birthday Party, the brief was pony rides, jumping castle and pink, purple, blue and silver. With this in mind, we set the scene with child sized purple chairs and tables with pink tablecloths.  The tables were set with a combination of  pink and purple tableware and a scattering of pony sprinkles down the centre of the tables. The room was filled with baby pink, mauve, baby blue and silver coloured balloons. 

Our caterer prepared the most amazing pony-themed feast including pony cookies, pony themed fairy bread and pony cup cakes. 

The kids were entertained by the fabulous Mrs Balloonatic and her balloon modelling and face painting.  She also brought along her ponies-one dressed in costume as a carousel pony. They also had the opportunity to burn off some energy on the Disney themed combo jumping castle complete with obstacles and a slide. 

The magical pony cake was simply gorgeous and each child took home a themed box of goodies and a cowboy hat of course!

Warmest regards,

Tara & Karen

Consider mini-cupcakes instead of cake to control portion size.  Offer non-sugary snacks, such as pretzels, fresh veggies and dip, fruit on skewers, cheese cubes on tooth picks.

Let kids assemble their own food, such as sandwiches, fruit happy faces, mini pizzas or yogurt with mix-ins.  Incorporating cooking or assembling a snack into the party activities kills two birds with one stone.

Order pizza.  Or buy frozen chicken nuggets in bulk.

Avoid any possible allergens, such as nuts.

Fun shapes and colours can make healthier food seem more appetizing, such as pink or blue ice cubes in lemonade or water.  Skip the soft drink.  Juice mixed with soda water is a good alternative to cordial.

Warmest Regards,

Tara & Karen @ Party Squad