Sunday, March 10, 2013

Party for a cause!

When it comes to parties for my own kids - I'm one of two things - the worst Mom EVER and just do the minimum (and do THAT late!) - or I go completely overboard and make other moms growl for setting the bar too high.  For that, I do apologize.  Two of my kids had fall birthdays - and I'm just getting around to throwing something together now, in March.  Not because they don't deserve more - but because I just get distracted by ALL THE OTHER parties that I deal with daily!

In my defense, my youngest will turn seven in May, and I'm already planning that one.  Mostly because she's decided to do something so TOTALLY cool that I have no choice to get on THAT party train.  Jackie is passionate about cheetahs and has been her whole long life.  While researching cheetah conservation recently for a school project, she bumped into the Cheetah Conservation Funds website and noticed that other kids had donated birthday money towards the cause.  That was all she needed.  In spite of Jackie's tiny stature, she has never done ANYTHING little and this was obviously going to be no different.  Our initial conversation went something like this...

Jackie  " I want to have a party and everyone has to bring money for cheetahs instead of presents"
Mom "Cool!  Do you want to invite your whole class?"
Jackie "I want to invite the whole world.  I am going to raise more money than any other kid on that site"
Mom (nervously) "Well Jacks, about how many people are we talking about here?"
Jackie "I want to raise $7,000,000 - so allot Mom"

As a general rule, I don't try to limit my kids expections, but I felt like maybe we needed to set a more attainable goal for a six year old.  But even her scaled down goal was more than I could get my head around - which meant that it was going to require thinking outside the box.  And that's my speciality! 

If your kid comes to you with a similar idea - consider setting up a community page on Facebook with links to their charity.  (see below for our links!)  We checked out our charity with the Charity Navigator first to make sure that they use their funds in a responsible fashion.  We then set up a First Giving page - so that people can make donations directly to the charity and we can keep track of it. She's also asking every person she meets to help out! (thinking about a business card maybe?) And we are working on a fundraising /birthday event where we can invite a bunch of people.  We're still within a 24 hour window of starting this project, so there are allot more ideas to come.  If you have any, please feel free to share!  

If you are here because YOUR family has a birthday coming up - Happy Birthday!  Happy Planning!
If you would like to check out what Jackie is doing, click on these links!

Wild Jackie's Cheetah Chase
Jackie's Fundraising Page
The Cheetah Conservation Fund


And for help with planning your next party, check out 


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Summertime...and the party is ON!

Sitting here - trying to find the perfect waterslides of this coming season of fun here in sunny Sarasota!  If you have kids with birthdays in the summer, you know that water is a mandatory!  Pool party - dunk tank - waterslide or slip and slide party (or both!) - water balloons - you NAME it!

I love the following game (courtesy of Livestong) - would work great with the Dalmation bouncehouse!!


Fire Engines

"Fire engines" is a relay game that requires children to hold onto as much of their water as possible. To begin the game, you will need to form two teams and have each team line up in their own single file line. Place a large bucket full of water several feet away from the head of each line and provide each player with a smaller bucket. Use the same size bucket for each player to encourage fairness. The first player from each team runs to the bucket, fills their bucket, runs around their team's line, and then runs back to the bucket and dumps their water back inside. Each player follows suit and the winning team is the one with the most amount of water in their bucket at the end.


Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/164282-childrens-water-party-games/#ixzz2MgcUML1I


Well, I've got to get back to my waterslide shopping.  Wish me luck - I wish you luck on YOUR party planning!