Party-Extras.com Blog

So I finally had my breakthrough idea for what to do at my son’s Bakugan birthday party.  I’d been googling to get ideas for cakes or cupcakes.  Saw some cool stuff out of Australia!! But location and cost ($350) were a bit of an issue   Anyway, I finally had a good idea – I have a recipe for Oreo ball candy.  We make it at Christmastime and the last step is to dip the balls into almond bark.  I thought if I make a few different colors with paste food coloring (again), it’ll be kind of like the Bakugan balls.  A neighbor was saying too, maybe to just wrap a few of the Bakugan cards (or maybe copies of the cards) with plastic wrap or laminate them to set on the cake.  I checked with the Wal-Mart bakery the other day and they said they could make the background of the card with the black, orange, and yellow burst.  Anyway, these ideas are a bit more my speed.  I like watching the Ace of Cakes and the food network cake decorating challenges, but I’ve never even done the character cake pans, like Mickey Mouse or Winnie the Pooh with all the different colored piped stars on them.  I admire folks than can spend hours decorating a cake, but I’m more for something a bit easier.  Call me lazy, but I like projects like dipping Nutter Butters in almond bark or white icing and making a couple of black dots for eyes to get ghost cookies.  I’ve used both of these ball candy recipes for a few Christmases now.  I think somebody at work told me about the Oreo balls and I just found the other recipe online somewhere.  I was looking for candies that the kids could help with one year.  Anyway, hopefully this will help some moms out there scrambling for Bakugan ideas.

Oreo Ball Candies

1 package Oreo cookies, crushed
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 package white almond bark

Using a hand held mixer, mix Oreos and cream cheese together. Roll into walnut size balls. Chill for an hour. Melt approximately 3/4 package of white almond bark. Stick a toothpick in an Oreo ball and dip it in the melted white almond bark. Allow to harden on wax paper.  Serves/makes 25.

Peanut Butter Balls

2 cups rice krispies or crushed graham crackers, etc.  (Put in big zip lock bag and the kids can crush)

2 cups chunky peanut butter

1 cup corn syrup

Mix together.  Make balls (kids helped here too).  Freeze at least 1 hr.  (Can even leave stored at this stage for probably a week).  Dip in chocolate.  We used almond bark this year.  Really good.

Okay, here’s another great tip to make a memorable party on the cheap – paste food coloring.  It used to be hard to find, but I think I got my last set of colors at Wal-Mart.  Maybe we’re weird, but my kids really remember it if we dye all the food green for a party.  We had a Shrek party years ago with green cake, green frosting and green cheese dip.  It’s a conversation starter, if nothing else.  Actually, we now have a tradition of having a green cake for St. Patrick’s Day.  I always use a lemon cake mix; somehow it seems good green.  Then we try to surprise someone with it, like our daycare lady, because we just use regular white or cream cheese frosting on top.  Last year, I googled to get a shamrock image, printed it on plain copy paper, cut out the shape and used it as a stencil on top with green crystal sprinkles.  It doesn’t cost much, not really that hard, but it’s something memorable that the kids really enjoy.  Actually it’s like playing for me.  This weekend we had blue ice cream and blue star-shaped cupcakes for my son’s third birthday.  He’s been talking about what all was going to happen at his “blue birthday” for a few months now, so as not to disappoint, I had to actually make it a blue birthday.  The kids got a kick out of helping mix the blue cupcakes too.  We just put the dye straight in the cake batter.  You have to have the paste food coloring to get a dark color and not water down the batter.  Plus, I think it’s a little less messy and more surprising to dye the cake instead of the frosting.  Anyway, here’s some pics:

Okay, my party planning season is officially underway.  We have all 3 kids’ birthdays, hubby’s b-day, 2 nieces, my brother, and my dad’s birthday coming up.  They’re all crammed in with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years too.  At least it works for stocking up on party supplies at one time of the year.  We usually plan it so that some things left from one party can go toward one further down the line.  This year I’m actually getting a late start though.  I’m trying to get my three-year-old’s party together in less than a week, which is definitely not my usual style.  Anyway, you get the benefit of my quick list – where to hit and in what order to get the job done as cheaply as possible.  What can I say, the budget’s a bit smaller this year

1. Dollar Tree – Awesome for solid color party supplies, plastic spoons and forks, stickers, cards, and gift bags.  Why spend more than a dollar if you don’t have to?  I often buy solids that will work for more than one party and they’re great to mix with patterned items for a more balanced look.  You can usually find a few things for goodie bags too, like bubble sets, bouncy balls, and candy.  We’re lucky too that our kids’ birthdays happen to fall at the time of the year when Halloween candy is on sale.
2. Wal-Mart – Sometimes you can get lucky that the theme your child wants will be carried in their little party supply section.  I don’t get the solid colored items here though.  There’s more to a package at Dollar Tree.  We get their small helium tanks though which can usually cover balloons for a few parties.  We’ve even kept the tanks in the garage before until the next year with no problem.  Of course, you can get your cake and a gift at Wal-Mart too.  That might save some on gas.
3. BirthdayDirect.com – I can’t say enough good things about this website.  They have a three-day delivery guarantee and it just couldn’t be any faster if you’re in Alabama.  I have seriously gone online when the kids were asleep, ordered everything for a party, and it came right to my door the very next day!  I don’t think anyone can beat that.  Plus, if you order for a few parties at once or get some generic items (I totally recommend the tablecloth clips), you even get free shipping on orders over $55!!!!  Sorry I’m a sucker for the place and truly I don’t have any affiliation with them, I swear.
4. Oriental Trading/Celebration Express/Party City/etc. – After that I head to the well known, but definitely more expensive options.  I always feel like you have to have more time planning here too.  My kids and I love browsing these catalogs.  It’s a great way to find out what they want, but I usually end up finding a cheaper way to get something similar.  Plus, I’ve been stuck a couple of times paying the express shipping to get something in time for a party and that just hurts.

Eventually we want Party Extras to become a place folks can check in with quickly to see if people near them already have something they could use for their party.  That should be the most inexpensive option available!  We’ll have sponsors that provide coupons or other discounts to members that share their “extra” items.  Working together I think we can help everyone to still have memorable events for their family and friends, even when budgets are strained.  Getting the site together has taken a bit more work than we originally thought though.  It’d be great to hear some feedback about how you’d like this service to work.  What features would be the most helpful to you?  What kinds of issues do you face planning your parties?

Okay, so I had these Spongebob cups (as my family called them) left from my daughter’s 3-year old and my husband’s 34^th combo birthday party. I lined them up on the bookshelf to take a picture to sell them on ebay. Then, there they sat for almost two years.

I know I’m horrible. My husband nearly went nuts. He threatened to throw them away many times. (We have a bit of a difference in our personal levels of comfort with clutter Anyway, I had to figure out someway to solve this problem without just throwing them out. They were in perfectly usable condition, and besides they were unique and cute. The whole shipping issue with ebay was the problem for me. I somehow can’t get everything packaged up and then taken to the post office. It’s like two more hurdles. Even taking the picture and getting it posted is more for me than it ought to be. Anyway, now Party-Extras is my long drawn-out solution to the Spongebob cups. I just can’t go for the quick, take-care-of-the-situation-at-hand type solutions when I’m sure there’s an overall answer just waiting out there that can solve so many more problems (or create different types of problems depending on who you ask). At this point I’m sure there are people around me that wish I’d just gotten rid of the damn cups! Truth be known, my oldest asked if he could have the Spongebob cups at his next birthday party about a year ago. I thought awesome! It’s so satisfying - like when you have a coat or some mittens ready for a cold snap because somebody grew into the ones you saved when the older kid grew out of them. Anyway, when I started planning the party, (actually for both my oldest and my youngest together) I realized I was going to have to buy more Spongebob cups to have enough. Don’t you think I kept that a secret! We ended up having a Spongebob Pirate Party. I made some super cute invitations with messages in a bottle and a treasure map to our house.

But now I have lots of pirate “extras” and don’t tell my husband, but there are still 12 plastic pineapple cups floating around our house. I keep them hidden for his sanity. Anybody planning a luau or a Spongebob party? Let me know, seriously, I’m sure I could meet you somewhere and hand them off. Maybe we actually go to the same grocery store already – you never know.

So I came to this all quite by accident really.  I was explaining to someone the other day that I had no idea I enjoyed planning parties at all until I had my first child and their first birthday came along.  I made a homemade dinosaur shaped cake with dark green icing.  I saved cereal and cracker boxes to make dinosaur feet for the kids.  I had a friend at work print out a huge dinosaur poster and dinosaur tails for pin-the-tail-on-the-dinosaur.  We had a dinosaur piñata and goodie bags.  Obviously, I made plans for older cousins coming and actually that’s probably my favorite part – trying to imagine how the party will go and planning things for the guests.  That was almost 7 years ago now.  Two more kids and several parties later, I’ve ended up with lots of party “extras” around my house. Everyone in my extended family told me over the years that I should start my own business as a party planner, but I know myself a bit better than that.  I have trouble sticking to my own budget for a party.  I’m usually throwing up decorations at the last minute no matter how early I try to start.  Truly it’s the brainstorming and researching for different ideas that I find most enjoyable, not as much actually getting everything done.  It’s the kind of thing that would get me up an hour or two early to play before work.  It was something fun to think about, not the everyday gotta get this and that done.  Really that’s what Party-Extras is all about though – trying to make party-planning less stressful, more fun.  Have some incentives built in that take the strain off the pocketbook when doing a party, have more fun by sharing ideas and working together, ultimately foster an atmosphere where party-planning is seen as another way to create positive childhood experiences and family memories.  Anyway, I hope folks will find some value in this undertaking.  I think it’ll become something I love.

I know there are some that think kids’ birthday parties are out of control.  You see articles all the time that make reference to feeling some kind of pressure or competition when it comes to party planning.  There’s even a site now, www.birthdayswithoutpressure.org, that’s devoted to getting rid of elaborate birthday celebrations.  I agree some of the examples they cite are really awful.  But why can’t there be a middle ground?  In general, our family uses birthday parties as a way to diffuse the “I wants” throughout the rest of the year.  Of course, my kids still ask for things when they see commercials on TV, but I always say, “OK, tell me again when it’s closer to your birthday (or Christmas)”.  Over time they seem to be getting the message that we buy things we need generally and save buying the things we want for special occasions.  Also we try to focus much more on the party itself.  My kids and I see their birthdays as much more about hosting an enjoyable event than about the gifts (at least I try to think so).  I don’t think they can tell you any of the gifts that they got from their last birthday or Christmas anyway.  We do think creating memories are important though.  I also see it as a way to teach them about being a good host and being considerate to their guests.  Of course, they just love having a party, no matter what happens really.  As the kids get older, I’ll probably try to have them more involved in the budgeting of a party and let them see that having an inflatable that everyone can enjoy is a reason that they don’t have expensive gifts at the same time.  I readily admit that my kids are still young and that there are a variety of parties that we have yet to host, especially various holidays.  I’d love your input on some of the ways you make your parties memorable and fun (all with an eye towards keeping a reasonable balance). 

Who doesn’t love a good party?  Well we’re starting out with a hum-dinger!  (I wish), but somehow starting a business just doesn’t seem to go quite like that, even when it’s supposed to be all about parties.  Still there are tons of occasions to celebrate and I hope Party-Extras will become the first place you go to find something for your next party.  You might find someone giving away exactly what you need.  How cool would that be?!?  So best of luck to you on your latest adventure (planning parties can sometimes be just that) and please check back from time to time to hear about mine.  Party-D, that’s me J