Be a Doll and have a Matryoshka Party!

I may NEVER be able to pronounce these dolls, but we have a ton of them at the house!  I have ALWAYS loved them.  Matryoshka dolls have fascinated generations of kids and adults for years, which is why I was so excited to stumble across a party theme devoted to them today!  Check out our Pinterest page devoted to them - and feel free to snope around and find some OTHER great party ideas for your next birthday or other family friendly celebration! 

If you are in the Sarasota or Bradenton area - Friend us on Facebook for great discounts on party rentals! Party Jumpers Facebook or check out our fun inflatables online at www.partyjumpersinc.com.

The Holiday Break (and WHAT TO DO WITH THE KIDS!!!)

I LOVE love love Christmas - and having all five kids home is incredible.  My sister is coming in from Chicago with her daughter who's 14, and I can't wait to celebrate!  They will be visiting for a couple of weeks, so we have ample opportunity to do lots of fun activities while they are here.  I've started a Pinterest page (naturally)...but here are some of the ideas that we've come up with so far!

1) Rent a Golf Cart (o.k. this was hubby's idea - and honestly - I wasn't so crazy about it) but the kids love it!  We're decorating it for the holidays and using it to deliver cookies to the neighbors! Rent it for a month!

2) Museums Museums Museums - Our family membership to the South Florida Museum is awesome for many reasons, and one of them is free or discounted access to SO many other Florida museums! Road Trip?

3) Beach Snow-people!  Coming from Chicago - they are going to need to thaw out.  Some beach snow people will be great fun!  Don't forget the carrots!

4)  Check out some fun craft ideas on that Pinterest page!

5)  Manasota Family Fun (check out links all over our Facebook page) does a great job keeping up to date listing of fun activites!

6)  Lights Looking!  We throw everyone in the car with hot coco - put on the Christmas carols - and driving around looking at lights singing!  Sounds goofy - but we LOVE it!

7) Naturally, we'll be throwing up some fun inflatables over the holiday when all the family shows up to keep the kids occupied!  Check ours out at Party Jumpers

Just the tip of the iceberg!  Feel free to comment and let us know your favorite family traditions and holiday activities! 

From our family to yours!

Office Party? Make the next one your best Ever!

The holiday season is here (if you don't believe me, check Target!). Time to start planning a company holiday party.   The Great Recession cut back on many office parties, and while they may not be as lavish here on the Suncoast as they were before the bubble, there are many wonderful and economic ways to celebrate a year well done and setting the pace for 2015!  Gone are the days of the "Anything Goes"mentality - smart executives are trying to get the most bang for the buck!





We've been busy booking some great companies that like to include the whole family in the fun - having events on the company property (yes - we have tables and chairs!) and renting incredible inflatables that not only appeal to all ages, but actually help develop team building!  Check out some of these great options to add to your next fun corporate event!


Consider a huge obstacle course (56' feet of fun!) - our awesome Sports Shootout - a Bouncehouse for the little ones - or our incredible Octodome (Jousting - Twister - Basketball - Volleyball).  It will be best best office holiday party you have ever planned!  Call Michelle at (941) 343-0370 and we'll help you Bring The Party! Check us out at Party Jumpers

Double the Fun with a Birthday Party for Twins!

You can adjust almost any party theme to incorporate twins, although it does get a bit more tricky when you have a boy AND a girl!

Some great themes that I've seen used:
Dr. Seuss Thing 1 & 2 idea...great for young kids....especially a first birthday party!
Pirates and Princesses is also a fun idea
- or pirates and fairies as well.
We've also seen "Peas in a Pod" (which is also a GREAT them for a baby shower!)  Check out our Pinterest board for more cute ideas!

The older the birthday kids, the more difficult to address the kids as individuals, so it's super important to plan ahead to make their day special!

One of our great obstacle courses! Party Jumpers

How about using the whole "Double" as the theme itself?  Do the games twice, two hats for everyone, double decker sandwiches and double scoops of ice creams...see the trend?  Don't forget one of our amazing obstacle courses or a double laned waterslide to complete the day!  Have questions?  Call Party Jumpers at (941) 343-0370 or visit us at www.partyjumpersinc.com.  I'd love to help you plan your next family friendly fun!

Two lanes make twice the fun on a waterslide!

Medieval Party Theme for Kids!

This might be the most fun birthday party theme yet!  I had so much fun putting together our Pinterest board for this party!  Knights - Princesses - Dragons - and all manor of royal court are sure to love these great ideas!

Invitations!  I used this type of invitation for a pirate themed party when my son was crazy into Captain Jack Sparrow!  Tea stained paper (or buy some that already looks old!) and then I singed the sides (after printing out the invite!).  Rolled with a wax seal or ribbon - cutest invites ever!

A Feast for a Prince or Princess!

Food!  A Royal Feast - I love the idea of huge turkey legs, but the kids might not be into them as much!  Perhaps chicken drumsticks if the kids are old enough to not choke on the bones!  Tables stacked high with grapes and assorted fruit, and small pies!  Here in Sarasota, there is a take out place called 4 and 20 Pastry Company (http://www.4and20pastycompany.com/) - they make all kinds of neat meat pies and stuff that would be a great addition!

Cake!  You can find some amazing castle themed cakes (or a dragon birthday cake idea is fun too!)  If you are looking for something that you can whip up yourself, check out my Pinterest page - there are some cute cupcake ideas, as well as a fun castle themed cupcake holder!  A simple cake with a medieval themed bunting would work great as well!  I found some great banner cupcake picks on Oriental Trading too!

Decorations!  Unless you happen to live in a castle ( or have an unlimited party budget) - decorations can run into some serious gold coins!  Banners can be made simply and cheaply.  I really cute homemade (and safe) torches up on Pinterest too.  Feeling really handy? A cardboard box castle would be a huge hit!

Activities!  Well - naturally I am bias to a jousting unit - fun for all ages.  They will love our Octodome Extreme - check out this video and see ALL the ways that you can use it (or just jousting!). A castle bounce house with a slide, or an obstacle course, would really get the party started!

In the Sarasota or Bradenton areas, Call Party Jumpers for free party planning help for your kids next incredible birthday party! Bouncehouses - Waterslides - Obstacle Courses - Jousting Units - Dunk Tanks - Concessions - Tables and Chairs - Party Games ... We Bring The Party! (941) 343-0370

Castle Combo - Call Party Jumpers! (941) 343-0370

Planning A School Carnival? Step Right Up!

Planning a large scale fundraiser for a school can be complicated.  I've planned more Jog-A-Thon's and school carnivals and fundraisers for my kid's schools than I can count over the last 15 years.  It's tough - but doable with plenty of planning - and hopefully - a little help from other parents!  Here's

dunk tank

some little tips that I've picked up along the way!

* Ask for HELP! And more importantly, TAKE THE HELP!  I get that sometimes you are running so hard that it's hard to stop long enough to really ask for help - but you should!  There are other parents that want to help - they just don't know what to do.  If you plan in advance and break down some manageable steps for people, when someone says "I can help!", you can answer "Awesome - do THIS thing!".

*Make COMMITTEES!  People really are intimidated by the whole process, and mostly just want to avoid looking like a fool!  If you have an outline made up explaining the job and the steps - people are more likely to say "Yeah - I can do that!"  Put it in a BINDER - so that future PTO's or planners don't have to recreate the wheel!

Rock Walls and Bungee Jumps

*Have a THEME! It may sound silly - but having a specific theme really does help focus you in term of planning.

*Concessions are a BIG MONEY MAKER! Need volunteers? Call your local teen organizations - they often times have access to kids that need community service hours (check how to make sure that you are qualified to GIVE those hours too!)



*Put your MOST popular pieces towards the back of the event - it will pull people through!  Have MAPS where things are - it's crowded!  Have more than one ticket booth and consider selling them in advance for a discount! (Armbands will save you a lot of hassle!)

Obstacle Course 

*Involve the staff - but NOT TOO MUCH!  They already have so much on their plate, think about how you can benefit the classrooms (or your charity) without adding to their load!  Delivering flyers to classrooms? Sure! Calling on the Class Parent to stuff envelopes for their class or assign volunteers for their booth? Why not!

*Have a AFTER THE EVENT meeting!  What was awesome - what was terrible - what can we do better next year.  This often overlooked step can save alot of heartache for the next years committee!

Want some expert help planning your next event? Call Michelle at Party Jumpers for help from Jousting Arenas -  Obstacle Courses - Rock Walls - Bungee Jumps - Bouncehouse - Giant Slides - Interactive Sports Games - to Cotton Candy - Sno Cones - Hot Dog Warmers - and Popcorn - one call does it all! Party Jumpers - (941) 343-0370 in the Sarasota and Bradenton Area!

We have 2 giant obstacle courses!

To Bake or Not to Bake...The Cake is the Question!

I'm thrilled that I have great friends that are WONDERFUL bakers....because at my house, where there is smoke - there's dinner!  When my kids were little, I made their birthday cakes - and at no small expense.  I would travel to the far corners of the Earth to find the "right" candy rocks for a construction birthday cake, or the perfect princess for that precious little girl.  And every year, I would beg my mother-in-law to NEVER LET ME DO THIS AGAIN. I don't have the patience to painstakingly attend to the details that are required to make a cake great and it ends up causing more stress (and more expensive when you consider all the time and energy it takes to find all the materials, buy all the materials, and apply the ice packs to your head after banging it on the kitchen table repeatedly).

So now I purchase cakes...and it's a beautiful thing!  What kind of cake you make/buy should depend on many factors, not the least your budget!  Custom cakes can run into hundreds of dollars...money that might be better spent on something that won't be consumed in five minutes!  Here in Sarasota, we've done Publix cakes, Sam's Cakes, A Slice of Heaven Cakes and some private bakers (who were AMAZING!) to get just what we needed - and honestly - they were all perfectly fine!

Ask yourself...

• What's my budget? 
• How many people am I feeding? Check out my Pinterest page for a servings chart!
• How will I store the cake (ask me about the time that i brought an ice cream cake to my daughters pony riding party....still a family favorite story)
• Do I have a theme? Favorite flavors? 
• Do I have the time and energy to pull off a masterpiece of my own?
• Do i even want a cake? How about cupcakes? Cake Pops? Cake in a Cup?

Purchasing the perfect cake for your special event doesn't make you a bad Mom - being a frantic lunatic who's been up all night battling with fondant and arrives at party battle worn might!  I'm including a few pictures of some cute cakes for your viewing enjoyment....and throwing two thumbs up to all you Mom's out there - the bakers and non-bakers alike! Party On - and don't forget the inflatable fun from Party Jumpers.  Friend us on Facebook for monthly specials on bouncehouses, waterslides, obstacle courses, giant slides, dunk tanks and more fun for every event!

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 

Party Jumpers

It's Big Baby! 54' of FUN! Call Party Jumpers 941.343.0370

54' on SOMUCHFUN! Our brand spanky new obstacle course can be split into a slide and a 28' course - or kept together for a great time at your next event or party!