My original plan was to have Toots' birthday party at my mum's house. She has recently landscaped the back garden and had a huge deck built. It was the ideal place to have a birthday party. We were going to barbecue, have lots of baked treats and a bouncy castle for Toots and her friends.
With the rising cost of everything and after I priced everything for the party, even sticking to the basics, I realised that the party was going to be quite expensive. I phoned around a few places we've been before for her friends' birthday parties and got a great deal with the Play Cafe.
The Play Cafe has a huge soft play area which the kids can play in for 90 minutes (30 minutes longer than anywhere else) and then we have the use of a birthday room for 45 minutes which is plenty of time. The viewing area also has a lovely coffee shop so the parents can all relax with a latte while the kids entertain themselves. The kids can have something to eat in the birthday room (which is fully decorated, apart from balloons), then we'll have time for a quick game or two of pass the parcel before blowing out the birthday candles and clearing up for the day.
I'm really pleased with this set up, partly because it means my mum and I don't have to scrape walked in cake off her new deck but also because the Play Cafe have thought of everything.
A full 90 minutes in that play area will mean that the kids will be starving enough to happily sit down and eat without putting up a fight. Plus because of the limited time in the birthday room, once the kids have finished eating we only need to entertain them for about 25 minutes before the party is over. Just time enough for a quick game, blow out the candles and hand out party bags.
The Play Cafe will provide party bags for an additional charge of £2 per child, but I've made my own up for the kids. They cost less than £2 plus I have more control over what goes in to them. Each kid gets a little pocket sized instrument, a balloon, a small bag of sugar free gummy sweets and a funsize bar of chocolate. I also have some cake boxes in case anyone wants to take their cake home.
Hopefully it will all go as planned.
All I really have to do is bring the birthday cake. I'm going to make a simple round sponge cake with the Pink Panther face above on top of he cake. Its a nice straight forward version of his face so I shouldn't have any trouble (famous last words) transferring it to the top of the cake.
Sounds like a good plan - and not weather dependent either!
ReplyDeleteWe made a similar decision last year: by the time the budget had been set for a "home" party, we realized we could host it somewhere else (an indoor playground, similar concept to your description) for less, so we did. It went really well.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a wonderful party and I love the cake! Thanks for commenting on yesterday's post!
ReplyDeleteOhhh sounds like FUN and very wise too! I'll be looking forward to hearing how this turns out. What a CLEVER idea for the rain stick - I will pass this along to our Sunday School teacher - perhaps the kids could have a little 'concert' afterwards!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your visits Leanne - I really appreciate them!