Kids Birthday Party Tips

Kids Birthday  Party Tips

1.  Plan ahead for the activities. If your child’s friends are coming over to your house, then prepare well ahead of time.  Make sure to plan all the activities that will be done.

There are a whole host of activities that the children can do when they come over to your house to have fun at a birthday party! For example, you could turn the whole day into a big movie marathon with plenty of candy and popcorn to go around.

If you want to go this route then a good idea would be to hold a vote with the children about which movies that they’d like to watch. Or, if you’d prefer, your birthday son or daughter can be the one to pick out the majority of the movies that everyone will be watching.

2.  Always make a backup plan. In case a planned event  turned sour or rather things went faster  than planned and you need extra filler, it’s wise to make a backup plan with extra activities.  For example, having a piñata at your home is always a fun event for a children’s birthday party, as well as traditional birthday party games, like “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.”

You can find plenty of birthday ideas by researching different birthday games on the internet or you can ask for advice from other parents who’ve held birthday parties.   It doesn’t take much to entertain children, but the main key is to plan ahead to keep things running smoothly.   Quickly jumping from one activity to another will keep the kids from becoming bored and coming up with other mischievous things to do.

3.  Always have sufficient food on hand. Whether it’s plenty of pizza to go around or a non-stop candy bowl, children are always going to be hungry. And what’s better than being able to pig out at a birthday party!

Kids are usually voracious little creatures, so be sure to have plenty of punch or soda, finger foods, and snacks around for everyone to enjoy!

One safe thing to keep in mind, though, is food allergies of the other kids. You may want to ask each individual parent if their children are allergic to any food items so that you can be sure that it won’t be served. This is the safest way to protect everyone from anything potentially harmful!

4.  If you don’t have time to clean house or just hate the thought of sticky hands everywhere, plan your event outside of the house. You can always have everyone meet at your local bowling alley or another fun place. For example, Chuck E. Cheese is another excellent place to hold your child’s birthday party. If you decide to go this route, though, make sure you secure plenty of help and supervision which can be crucial when you have numerous kids to watch over!

Kids Birthday Party Tips by NewsletterClips.com

St. Patrick’s Day Recipes & Treats

St. Patrick’s Day Recipes & Treats

St. Patrick’s Day Cookies
Buy or make simple sugar cookie dough. Let the kids cut out shamrock shaped cookies with a cookie cutter. Bake them. While they are cooling, use food coloring to turn vanilla frosting or a simple powered sugar and milk glaze green. Let the kids decorate the cookies with frosting and plenty of green sprinkles.

St. Patrick’s Day Parfait
Prepare a pack of instant pistachio pudding according to package directions. Mix a few drops of food coloring with cool whip to tint it green. Cut up some kiwi fruit. Layer chilled pudding, kiwi fruit and green cool whip for a completely green St. Patrick’s Day Parfait.

Leprechaun Ale
Place a scoop of lime sherbet into a tall glass, pour ginger ale over it and watch it fizz. This can be made even fancier by rubbing some lime juice on the rim of the glass and then dipping it in green sugar crystals before you pour the leprechaun ale.

Lucky Clover Cake
Prepare 9 x 13 inch cake using a boxed cake mix. We like to use yellow cake for this. Get a can of vanilla frosting and use a few drops of yellow and blue food coloring to color the frosting green. After the cake is baked and cooled down, cut three heart shaped pieces out of the cake. We use a cardboard template to make the hearts even. Arrange them on a plate with the pointy ends pointing toward each other. It will look like a clover leaf. Frost the entire cake with the green vanilla frosting.

Mini Mint Ice Cream Tarts
Purchase a roll of refrigerated sugar cookie dough. Roll the dough into small balls (a little smaller than a golf ball), and press them in the bottoms of mini muffin pans. Bake according to package directions. Press the middle of the cooked dough down after you take them out of the oven. Let them cool for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a baking rack and let them cool completely. To serve, scoop mint ice cream in each of your mini tart shells.

How to Make Cheesecake ~ A Perfect Delight!

How to Make Cheesecake ~ A Perfect Delight!

There are few secrets in baking cheesecakes like a pro. How to make a cheesecake that taste and look like you had a professional create it need not be a secret any longer.

8 Tips to Make the Perfect Cheesecake:

1. Use first rate, quality ingredients. Opt only for AA grade large eggs and always remember that full-fat cream cheese can produce the taste and texture that you are looking for. Fat-free varieties of cheeses will produce a cheesecake that is chalky, soft, and slightly rubbery inside.

2.  Choose heavy cream that is pasteurized instead of ultra pasteurized. Make sure that the sour cream you are about to use has not actually spoiled or soured. Additionally, make sure that all of the ingredients are stored at room temperature before you begin mixing, most especially the cream cheese. If the ingredient is hard and cold, it will only create a lumpy cheesecake and beating it to death will also not help.

3.  Remember to bake the cake in a water bath, also known as a bain-marie. Cheesecakes that are baked using this method are insulated from the direct dry heat of the oven. This will help you achieve a creamy, custard-like moist and rich cheesecake.

4.  Fruits are best reserved for use as toppings. The flavors from the fruit can get lost and muddled in the cheesecake when baked together with the cake. Plain cheesecakes topped with fresh berries finished with liquefied preserves or cooled fruit compotes will provide a stunning presentation and optimum taste.

5.  Always avoid beating the cheesecake filling excessively. Doing so will only incorporate additional air and cause cracking on the surface of the cheesecake.

6.  Make use of a spring-form pan, with removable side and bottom. Place the pan on a baking sheet in order to aid in avoiding leaks in the oven.

7.  Make sure that the cheesecake is placed on the center rack of the oven during the baking process.
Do not be enticed to open the oven during the first 30 to 40 minutes as drafts can create cracks and cause the cheesecake to fall.

8.  Avoid over-baking and be aware that baking times are not always exact because of several oven variations. Make sure that the edges are puffed and the center slightly “jiggly” and moist; these are the most common indications of a perfectly baked cheesecake.

8 Great Ideas for Traveling Activities

8 Great Ideas for Traveling Activities

1. 20 Questions:

Everyone writes down a secret word which must be a noun (the name of an object). The others try to guess your word by asking questions about it.

Take turns until everyone has tried their word. You could have playoffs between the ones that stumped the lot, until only one was left.

2. Word Play:

This one is really good for older kids who are learning to read, write and spell.

Take it in turns to say a word. Any old word will do, the next person then has to take the last letter of the first word and think up another word and so on.

So say person one said “engine” person 2 would need to find a word beginning with the letter “e”, let’s say “elephant” next person in line would then have to find a word beginning with the letter “t”, such as “toys”. The winner is the last person to be able to think up a word.

3. I Went To Market:

This is another memory game which is really popular with my kids. Everybody takes it in turn to say “I went to market and I bought….” and add what they bought. Next person has to say “I went to market and I bought…. And…”

This carries on until nobody can remember the list of things that got bought at market. Again, the last person to remember the whole list is the winner.

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11 Great Ideas for Outdoor Activities

11 Great Ideas for Outdoor Activities

1: Ribbon Sticks:

For this you need nothing more than some strips of wide ribbon and some bamboo sticks. A few 4ft sticks will do. Snap them in half and tie a length of ribbon to one end. Make the ribbon length no longer than what the kids can handle.

Let the kids loose with the sticks and tell them to try to make shapes, circles, and snakes etc just like the gymnasts do on T.V.

2. Garden Fun:

Buy a cheap plastic double sided sandbox for the garden. Fill one half with sand and the other half with water. Add a whole lot of kitchen utensils and containers, and the kids will occupy themselves for ages.

Make sure you always cover the sandbox when the kids are done, or you might find that your neighbour’s cats may think it’s their litter box…

3. Picking Berries:

Find a place with lots of berries, be it blackberries, strawberries, redcurrants, raspberries or whatever and go berry picking for the day. Sometimes you may have to pay for the berries, but there are a lot of places where berries grow in the wild and are free to pick and use.

Kids LOVE picking berries, so take this chance to make it into an educational thing by bringing along a book about berries. This way you can teach them which berries are safe to pick and which ones they need to stay away from. Use the berries you pick to make desserts, jams and cakes. Scrumptious fun!

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12 Great Ideas for Indoor Activities for Kids

12 Great Ideas for Indoor Activities for Kids

1. Story time:

Read and discuss a book or a chapter of a book, make up your own endings. You can even make up your own stories by sitting the kids in a ring and letting them “add a sentence”. We’ve made up lots of really funny stories this way.

2. Giant Easel:

Go to a charity shop or wallpaper shop and buy leftover rolls of wallpaper. Cover a wall with the paper, back to front, stick it up with blu-tac or drawing pins.

Give the kids paints, crayons, chalks pens etc and let them create their own frieze. The little ones reach the bottom, whilst the big ones can reach up to the top.

3. Wax Creations:

Give the kids their old, wax crayon stubs and let them make shavings from them with a butter knife onto a piece of wax paper. When they’re done, carefully take their creations to the ironing board, lay another piece of wax paper on top, and briefly press with a warm iron.

Let the kids watch as the colours melt together. Put them on the table to cool down and harden.

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