Make and Bake Party Boxes

Hi there everybody,

I was hoping you would be able to help me!

If you're a parent could read this article and tell me whether you think this is a party idea that your children would like? I would be most grateful.

"Make & Bake Kids Party Boxes"
These would come with plates, cups, napkins, tablecloths, plain aprons and fabric pens to decorate them, all the food ideas and cooking instructions, games with prizes, balloons, banners, music and party bags.

The party would last 2 hours and the structure of it would be as follows;

Allow the children to arrive and perhaps play a game of musical statues (or similar) to get them in the party mood.

The children then decorate their aprons. In my experience some children have a longer attention span than others so make sure that if some children have finished this then you have the music to hand and they can dance whilst the other children are finished decorating.

Split the children into 3 or 4 groups and rotate them round the kitchen. So one group makes pizzas, another makes chocolate crispies, another decorates cupcakes and another makes cookies (these are example types of foods and all suggestions gratefully received!). Once they've all finished their activity then they all rotate to the next activity. This does take some supervision so maybe rope some of the parents into staying and helping!

Whilst the food is cooking play a variety of games (the party box will come with all the instructions and prizes).

Sit and eat the food.

If there's time play another game and then by this time the parents should be arriving. Children leave with their filled party bags and a big smile on their faces.

You collapse in a heap with a glass of wine in your hand.


What do you think of this as an idea? Would love to hear your thoughts! If you would like to see my other party boxes then please get in touch maxine@lifesacelebration.co.uk

Thanks everyone.

Keep smiling

Max
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Friday Fun 70s pop quiz

To celebrate our ever popular 50th birthday party boxes - today's blog is a 1970's pop quiz. So c'mon pull on your kaftan, kipper tie and cheese cloth shirt (!) we're going back to the 70s.

1.       Alice Cooper started his rock career in the 1970s, what's his real name?

a.       Vincent Damon Furnier

b.      Frank Townsend

c.       Alexander William Grayson III

2.       Which band caused a furore in the 1970s when they swore on Thames Television's Today programme?

a.       Queen

b.      Sex Pistols

c.       The Clash

3.       What was the first album released on the new Virgin record label in 1973?

a.       Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

b.      Carole King – Tapestry

c.       Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells

4 .      In her 1973 song Killing Me Softly, Roberta Flack was paying homage to which singer?

a.       Don Mclean

b.      Elvis Presley

c.       Jerry Lee Lewis

5.       Which Abba song are these lyrics from: "Walking through an empty house, tears in my eyes."?

a.       The Name of the Game

b.      One of Us

c.       Knowing Me, Knowing You

Send me your answer to maxine@lifesacelebration.co.uk and I'll send you a discount code for 10% off your next purchase at www.lifesacelebration.co.uk

Our party boxes - a great chance to get everybody together to celebrate!

Have a fab weekend everybody

Keep smiling

Max
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The Royal Family

So as you may or may not know the Queen is celebrating her Diamond Jubilee this year! So obviously here at Life's A Celebration we have put together some Jubilee Party Boxes.

I've spent most of the last couple of weeks getting organised with these and now I'm on a mission to get the whole world knowing about them. Anyway I don't want this blog piece to be about them! If you want to find out more about them (and see how fantastic they are) check them out at http://www.lifesacelebration.co.uk/index.php?id=jubilee 

Ok so being surrounded by all things red, white and blue got me thinking about our Royal Family. I love our Royal Family! I love everything about them.

I've also been thinking back to 2002 and the last Jubilee celebrations that we had. It may just be me but I don't think people celebrated it much. I have a theory that the level of Jubilee celebrations is inversely related to the economic times of a country. For example in 1977 there were lots of street parties and celebrating (I don't know - it was the year I was born!). It was also a period of high inflation and unemployment in the UK economy.

In 2002 there didn't seem to be as much celebrating (or am I just not remembering things very well??) and this was a time of low interest rates, low inflation and low unemployment in the UK.

We all know what's happening in the economy at the moment I don't think I need to remind you of that. There also seems to be a high propensity for celebrating the Jubilee this year.

So in conclusion I think a country's ability to celebrate collectively is inversely related to the state of it's economy. In fact if this was an A Level essay it would have the word 'discuss' after it.

I think I have struck on a theory here!! So tell me; do you agree or am I talking a load of old claptrap!!! Tell me I want to know!

Keep smiling

Max
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A Guest on Monday - Sue Page from Ice The Cake

Today's guest blogger is Sue Page from Ice the Cake. Ice the Cake is an invaluable resource for anybody out there who is planning a wedding. They source great wedding suppliers who are as passionate as they are about creating the perfect recipe for your special day. Working with an extensive list of 'Credible and Incredible' suppliers, they offer ideas and inspiration for every layer of your wedding. I can totally recommend and you'll also find me on there!

Here's what Sue had to say;

"When Maxine from Life’s A Celebration asked me to write a blog for her site I was absolutely delighted.  In my job I am constantly looking for new and unique ideas for Weddings and Celebrations and I absolutely adore Life’s A Celebration’s ‘party boxes’.  Not only do they create imaginative boxes that are perfect for Hen Do’s and the night before the Wedding; more importantly (for me) they have some really helpful ideas when it comes to keeping the children entertained!  We had a whole table of children at our wedding and I would’ve loved to have been able to give each of them a Life’s A Celebration’s Wedding Activity Bag to keep them occupied during the Wedding Breakfast.

Life’s A Celebration has recently joined the Ice the Cake Network and I am delighted with the involvement they have already had with my company.  Ice the Cake source ‘credible and incredible’ Wedding Suppliers to provide every ingredient for your wedding. We cherry pick suppliers and venues from across the UK from bespoke stationery to classic cars, fantastic photographers to creative caterers, and I strive to provide advice and suppliers for everything that might be needed for that big day. We all know that planning a wedding can be really stressful and I want to try and take some of that emotion away and offer brides, grooms and everyone else involved a wide range of ideas in one place.

Photo by www.leighpics.co.uk

With Valentine’s Day last week another wave of delighted ‘Brides to Be’ have joined the Engaged status.  However, if you are in a long term relationship and are desperately waiting for your other half to propose all is not lost!  This year is a Leap Year which traditionally means that on the 29^th February the lady can propose to the love of her life.  According to tradition Queen Margaret of Scotland ordered that if a gentleman was proposed to and he declined he would be fined £100!  Now this was back in the 13^th Century so with inflation I am sure that would be enough for him to say yes!  J

But whichever way you get engaged the most important thing is that you are proposing and accepting that the two of you will be together for the rest of your lives.  Many people get swept up in planning the wedding but it’s the marriage that is going to need the most work if you are going to last the duration.  We have a lovely story on our website about a couple who have now been married for 63 years and I love that the wife in the relationships 'secret to happiness' is tolerance!

Congratulations to all those who are planning their weddings or are recently married we hope to see you over on Ice the Cake soon."

You can chat to Sue on Facebook and Twitter  Get in touch with her and have a chat. I'm sure you'll find her very friendly and Ice The Cake is a great place to start if you're planning a wedding.

Hope you've all enjoyed todays guest post. As always I love to hear your views either on here or you can drop me a line at maxine@lifesacelebration.co.uk Pop across and tell us all what your secret is to a long and happy marriage!

Keep smiling

Max

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Make your Jubilee Party an event to remember

Hello everybody,

As you probably already know we have a very simple 3 step party planning concept here at Life's A Celebration.

1. Choose your party box

Take a look through our great range of party boxes and select how many people it’s for. There’s everything you need in the box so there’s no need to look anywhere else.

2. Receive your box

Your party box will be delivered to your home or party venue for you to get into the party spirit.

3. Have all the party fun

Relax and enjoy the party knowing it hasn’t caused you a lot of hassle to organise.

Well we're all very busy getting our Jubilee Party Boxes organised. These follow the same 3 step party concept and I thought I'd take a minute to tell you all about them!

The Jubilee party boxes come in 3 different 'sizes' - 30 guests, 40 guests and 50 guests and all have everything you need to celebrate the Jubilee in your garden, down your street or anywhere really.

Jubilee plates

They all include plates, cups, napkins and table cloth.

Cake stands

You'll also get everything you decorate the table. Things like sandwich stands, cake stands, trays for the food and table centrepieces.

Waving flags

 

 You'll get all the decorations you need like bunting, balloons, streamers and a giant Union Jack flag.



Cupcake decorating kit



 

You'll even get some cupcake decorating kits and face painting kits.

To make things even easier we also provide you with a games pack full of games ideas and some traditional recipe ideas of recipes from the last 60 years.

What do you think? These will be on the website very soon and we will also start to take pre orders for these party boxes very soon. However if in the meantime you want to know more, you know what to do. Email me on maxine@lifesacelebration.co.uk



 

Keep smiling my friends

Max

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Baby Showers Made Easy

Hi there everyone. Is your friend pregnant and you're struggling for ideas for the baby shower? Well don't panic because I'm here to help.

Let me explain! Baby showers take a lot of organising so I've put together a Baby Shower Party Box that takes all the hassle out of everything.

Baby shower party box

The first phase of the planning stage is making sure everybody is there that wants to celebrate. So you'll need invitations.

Everyone's invited

Once you know who's coming you need tableware. All our party boxes come with plates, cups, napkins, tablecloth and table confetti. You'll even get some recipe ideas in the box for some light finger food and some 'Mocktail' recipes. If you're baking a cake we even provide the candles. It couldn't be easier!

All the tableware you need

Once the table is set up and the food prepared you'll need to decorate the house. Our baby shower party boxes come with decorations, banners and balloons.

Everything to decorate the house

No baby shower is complete without games and quizzes to play. You'll get a full games pack with our party box which comes complete with loads of games to play and loads of quizzes. All the quizzes also come with answers sheets (and the answers!). Games include 'Guess the Number of Jelly Babies in the Baby Bottle' (jelly babies and bottle included), 'Never Say Mum' (safety pins included), 'Ice breaker games', 'How many baby items can you name' and more. Quizzes include a 'Celebrity baby photo quiz', 'How well do you know the Mum to be', a 'Nursery Rhyme quiz' and loads more.

Quizzes, games and prizes

We even put some novelty baby items in there for prizes for all the winners (we include some chocolate too -obviously!).

Cute novelty prizes

Each party box comes with an advice book for all the guests to write their pearls of wisdom.

Advice book for everybody to contribute

What's more you'll even get the music to listen - a gorgeous nursery rhyme CD.

Nursery rhymes to listen to

So as you can see planning a  baby shower doesn't have to be stressful. All you need to do is visit www.lifesacelebration.co.uk click on the baby page and tell me how many guests are coming. Your baby shower will arrive at your door and all you need to do is unpack it and enjoy the fun.

Keep smiling

Maxine
maxine@lifesacelebration.co.uk

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The Queen's Jubilee

So will you be celebrating the Queen's Jubilee?

The national treasure that is Gary Barlow has been all over the news promoting the concert that will be screened on 4th June and will include acts such as Dame Shirley Bassey, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Ed Sheeran, JLS, Alfie Boe, Jools Holland, Jessie J, Tom Jones, Lang Lang, Annie Lennox, Madness and Cliff Richard.

So do you think it's a good idea to celebrate the Jubilee or are you bored witless of it already? I would genuinely love to hear your views.

Personally I think it's fab for the nation to actually have something good to celebrate. I don't know about you but I am totally sick of all the doom and gloom that is purveyed all over the media. Let's enjoy ourselves and show the rest of the world just what us Brits do best.

But then again I'm bound to say that aren't I?? Celebrations are what I do! As soon as this blog is posted my job for today is to get my Jubilee party boxes completely and utterly organised.

I'm actually really excited about these boxes. They will have everything included that is needed to enjoy a jolly good knees up! From tableware to decorations, face painting kits to flags I am certain that you will love the idea! There's even going to be a games pack brimming with games ideas for both the kids and the grown ups to play.

These party boxes are going to have limited supply and I have already had loads of enquiries about them. So if you do like the sound of having a Jubilee party either in your street, in your local village hall or in your garden then email me on maxine@lifesacelebration.co.uk and I'll let you know all about these wonderful party boxes.


However there is just one thing that could scupper everybody's plans for a good old fashioned street party and that is......................well of course the good old British weather!

Keep smiling

Max
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A Guest on Monday - Liz Beavan

Good morning everybody. Today's Guest on Monday is Liz Beavan from Photo Fairy Designs.

Liz runs Photo Fairy Designs offering photo editing, fairy/ fantasy photo edits, Word Art, Photo DVDs, and graphic design support for small businesses. Her blog features Photoshop tips, her experience as life in Norway as a UK expat, being a mum to two little boys and a mumpreneur! http://www.photofairydesigns.com/blog.html

Liz is also a fab tweeter and you can follow her at @photofairydesig. She has some very interesting tweets that I know you'll love.  Pop across and say hi to her sometime. You can also email her photofairydesigns@gmail.com or find her on facebook. Liz is currently running an absolutely fantastic competition on facebook. Pop across and enter her Model Competition  http://www.photofairydesigns.com/2/post/2012/01/win-the-chance-to-be-a-photo-fairy-designs-model.html 


Here's what Liz had to say!

 

"Not Another Birthday!

There are few certain things in life, and ageing is one of them. So many of us dread getting older, the thought of grey hair and wrinkles is quite often top of our ‘avoid’ list! We spend a fortune on hair dye and ‘miracle’ anti wrinkle creams; mankind has gone through some pretty crazy phases in the search for eternal youth.  The media seems to be obsessed with the way celebrities look as they age and delights in printing unflattering photographs of time-ravaged celebs.

2012 is going to be a year full of special milestones for a lot of people. The queen celebrates 60 years on the throne with her Diamond Jubilee with celebrations taking place from the 2^nd to the 5^th June.  Many celebrities are reaching a special birthday, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law turn 40 this year, Tom Cruise will be celebrating his 50^th and Paul McCartney, Harrison Ford and Barbara Streisand all hit the big 7-0 this year! Even celebrities haven’t found a way to stop growing older.

So perhaps instead of groaning and checking for grey hairs as another birthday approaches we should be grateful for the life we have lived so far, and look forward to the future that we are lucky and blessed enough to have. As one of my favourite quotes says “Birthdays are good for you – the more you have the longer you live”!

So whether you are feeling fabulous at 40, nifty at 50, sexy at 60 or super at 70 make sure you live each day to its fullest. Burn the nice candles, use the best crockery, and wear your favourite shoes. Don’t save it for a special occasion – today is special.

If you have a milestone birthday you are going to be celebrating this year and are struggling with inspiration of how to celebrate in style take a look at the fabulous party boxes ‘Life’s a Celebration’. Everything you need for your party in one box! 

One of the most magical gifts for a special birthday is to create a ‘This is Your Life’ style Photo DVD. This is a perfect gift solution for even the hardest person to buy for. Photo Fairy Designs have created many Photo DVDs for customers and the feedback has always been fabulous. Collecting photographs from when a person was a small baby all the way up to the present day, showing first time homes, favourite places etc and put together as a slideshow set to their favourite music. The reaction when they see their photo DVD is always an emotional one filled with wonderful happy memories! 

So look back at your life so far and what you have achieved, share stories and photographs with family and friends as you reminisce – who knows perhaps the best is yet to come!"

I absolutely love what Liz is saying in this blog piece and I hope you do too! If you've enjoyed today's guest blog then pop across and let me and Liz know! We both look forward to speaking to you all very soon. Don't forget that Life's a Celebration has everything you need to celebrate so why not take Liz's advice; embrace life and create lots of memories.

Keep smiling my friends

Max
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Friday Fun - Brew a batch of ginger ale

As you may or may not be aware I am currently reading a Secret Seven book to my daughter so this Friday Fun blog is in homage to the great Enid Blyton - "How to Brew a Batch of Ginger Ale".

It's a great activity to do with the kids and fizzy ginger ale is a great addition to any party especially if it's homemade!

The ingredients are:
1 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp of granular, active bakers yeast
Fresh ginger root, peeled
1 lemon

You'll also need a dry 2 litre plastic bottle, a grater and a funnel.

Funnel the sugar into the bottle, then add the yeast. Don't get the amount of yeast wrong (quarter of a teaspoon) because your ginger ale might explode. This is why you never brew ginger ale in a glass bottle.
Finely grate the ginger - you'll need about 1.5 tablespoons
Squeeze the juice from the lemon into the ginger and stir.
Funnel the mixture into the bottle then add cold water, leaving an inch or so of space at the top of the bottle.
Screw the lid on tight and give it a shake.
Leave the bottle in a dark cupboard for 20 to 30 hours, checking on it after 18 hours, then at regular intervals.
You can tell when it's ready by squeezing it; once the bottle feels hard and your thumb diesn't leave a dent, pop it in the fridge and chill for 24 hours/
Open the bottle carefully to release the pressure slowly, strain the ginger pieces out.
Finally enjoy a glass of cloudy, fresh brewed ginger ale.

Hope you've enjoyed this - I want to know how yours turns out.
This would be a great addition to our fab children's party boxes. Let your child impress all their friends at their party with home made ginger ale!
If you have a childs party coming up and you want to make it as enjoyable but as stress free as possible then get in touch and we'll chat about how I can help you. maxine@lifesacelebration.co.uk