Cool Theme Ideas for Kids Fabulous Parties

Old MacDonald Had a Farm of Barnyard Toothpick Candles

1st Barnyard Toothpick Candles features an array of barnyard animals that include a pig, chick, sheep, and cow. These decorative candles are a great way to add an extra touch to your celebration. Whether a farm, barnyard, or animal theme, these candles are a perfect way to top off child’s birthday cake or as adorable toppers for cupcakes.

At Dylan’s Racecar First Birthday Party He Races To the Checkered Flag

One look at the kids’ table and you knew you were at the race track. A black-and-white checkered table cloth marked by orange cone-shaped cups led racers to their place, where each setting was made of a steering wheel placemat. The napkin rings were made of engine hose clamps topped with a toy Dylan racecar driver.

Both drivers and the pit crew filled their tanks on mini cheeseburgers topped with checkered flags and racing tire wheel macaroni and cheese. Butter cream frosted cupcakes topped with racecar wheels were offered as dessert as well as car-shaped sugar cookies in red, yellow and blue.

What’s a party without a cake? Dylan’s tiered birthday cake had twisting roads of fondant and cars racing down the side. A checkered flag topped off this fun racing confection.

A Mad Hatter Tea Party Alice in Wondland Style

Stacy Coon is a gift and stationery buyer, not a professional party planner. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at this Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter party she hosted. “This was a very fun party to create! I wanted it to be a magical event and I think I definitely accomplished that.”

“When planning events like this I find it extremely helpful to have a color theme that compliments the theme of the party-It helps with the decision making. I keep a sketchbook that I fill with ideas and inspiration during the planning process–I clip photos and keep copious notes.”

If you love this table, you should know that it’s trash. Coon found it on someone’s curb with one leg that needed repairing. After she transformed it with a fresh coat of paint, Coon hand lettered part of the through the looking glass story around the edge of the table.

I picked the candy by the color but also in some cases to tie in the Alice in Wonderland theme-example -The Flamingo Lollipops and the M&Ms-I ordered with text from the story on them.”

“One of my favorite things was the tiered stand that I had the black and white cookies on-because I made it out of melamine plates that I purchased and with my husband’s help drilled the plates and used lamp supplies for the pipe that held them together-The “finial” was a place card holder I had purchased at a craft store in their dollar section but it was perfect! I also love the bird on the glass dome covering the cupcake. He came from the bridal section of the dollar store.”

Olivia’s Parisian First Birthday Party Inspired by Madeline in Paris

Lucky little Olivia got to celebrate her first birthday in Paris. Ooh lala! Inspired by the classic children’s book ‘Madeline in Paris,’ this celebration transported all the guests directly to Paris. Authentic looking passports set the tone for the event as they were mailed out as invitations. Once the guests entered the hotel, they were ushered to the “customs agent” aka Uncle Albert to stamp their passports and collect a meal color coordinated drinking straw and a French flag.

“While my guests munched on French baguettes and hors d’oeuvers, mommy Monica acted as the “tour guide” to Paris. I wanted to keep them busy so we had four stops/destinations to visit and participate (old-fashion candy shop, the patisserie, Madeline’s book and souvenir shop, and Madeline’s World). In addition, to the shops, we had a street vendor artist do caricatures of the visitors. We also had a movie theater to view the Madeline movie.” In Olivia’s World, a Madeline doll house complete with accessories was set for the children to play with. Paris isn’t complete without a visit to the Louvre, but all the artwork was ‘stolen’ so children had to hunt down 150 laminated copies hidden around the hotel.

The centerpieces were huge hot air balloons with French flags to represent the very first hot air balloons flown in Paris in the 1800’s. Décor included a huge Eiffel Tower created from balloons, a candy shop lining the rue (streets) de Paris and a sweet patisserie of cookies for kids to decorate. Local bakers whipped up sugar cookies with Madeline designs and came with edible ink marks and bags of fresh butter cream for the kids to decorate (and get messy) with.

A Frog Prince First Birthday Party

Sometimes it actually is easy being green. But don’t tell Kermit the Frog that we said that! Green was the color and theme of this Frog Prince first birthday party for Roman Alexander. Wanting a unique theme, mommy Katherine Noller-Fernandez of Custom Celebrations chose to make her son a crown prince, and went to complete with two froggy cakes, cookies, gummi candies and much more to make her guests ribbit. Looking for a really special touch? We love that Katherine presented her husband and baby Roman’s grandparents with Oscar-style trophies from the Academy Awards. Thanks to Stacie Tamaki at The Flirty Guide for sharing this great party!

A Boy’s Construction and Building Theme First Birthday Party

Our new Submit Your Baby Party to our Party Girl process has led to some amazing parties coming in. Our Party Girl loves seeing all the ways that you celebrate expecting a baby and enjoying motherhood. And first up in showing off their baby’s party is Stacy Finkelstein, who threw a construction themed first birthday party for her son Logan.

“I decorated the room in construction colors of yellow and black,” Stacy said. Spirals of yellow and black balloons greeted guests into the construction zone while yellow ‘caution’ tape decorated the walls. “We had a lot of babies coming to the party, so I blocked off a play area on the floor with brown construction paper and orange cones.”

Stacy served candy goods to the smallest guests in construction dump trucks and yellow builders hats. This dump truck was filled with yucky trash like ‘dirt’ brownies and gummy ‘worms’. Placemats were triangular signs that read ‘Oversized Load’.

Stacy turned to family friend Joanne Moskin to make Logan’s first birthday cake. With a construction theme in mind, the cake was designed for construction and dump trucks to move dirt around the cake. The dirt in this case was crushed up crumbs of graham crackers and oreo cookies. Detour and stop signs made from sugar were stuck into the cake which looks so yummy.

Lucky little Logan got his own birthday cake to smash. Notice his adorbale bib which reads “I dig being one!”.

Lollipop Lollipop Oh Lolli Baby Birthday Party

Kim Stoegbauer has a passion for all things pretty. When it comes to her daughter Kate, there’s nothing she won’t decorate, design, plan or craft for her little girl. Kate — or perhaps mommy Kim — has a definite sweet tooth. For Kate’s first birthday Kim, author of the TomKat Studio, went all out creating a cupcake themed birthday party. To continue giving sweets for her sweetie, Kate’s second birthday party was a Lollipop bonanza!

With her cupcake party, Kim went with an all pastel color palette, because she “tends to wards more muted colors in my designs and decorating.” But brights were much more fitting for her daughter’s big personality. “The bright colors are a perfect reflection of her! I started by finding the perfect paper for the layered lollipop invitations. It is a rainbow striped paper and was really the inspiration for all the decor.”

A major talent in the world of ‘do it yourself’, Kim created the labor intensive invitations herself using a circle cutter made by her idol and DIY queen, Martha Stewart. “Each invite I made required three circles in different sizes. It takes a bit of strength if you are cutting cardstock, and I have to admit that my arms were actually sore the next day! But who gets sore from crafting?!”

Kim considers herself ‘obsessed with details,’ but paper products are her specialty. Her favorite detail of the party were the cupcake toppers, which she customized with Kate’s name, initials, sayings and photos. “They turned out adorable in the bright colors, on the white frosting topped with bright yummy sprinkles…who could resist?

If you like the decorations Kim made, you can purchase them at her Etsy store. Stay tuned for next year’s birthday party extravaganza. (Kim’s thinking ice cream!)

Avery’s Hot Pink and Zebra Diva in Training Birthday Party

For little Avery’s second birthday party, chic was anything but shabby. This hot pink and zebra colored birthday party let everyone know that she’s not just a little girl, but a diva in training. A touch of walking on the wild side were apparent in everything from bows to her birthday cake. Photographer Navy Sou captured the untamed atmosphere of the party with her camera, and contributed by creating the invitations and Avery’s birthday outfit “complete with Chucks encrusted wtih bling and pink ribbon laces!”

Here I go again ...

Well, I have just gotten a call from a prospective employer this morning and I cannot close a blink of an eye because i am cracking my head trying to think what the heck am i going to tell them why i left my old working place ?

Here i am in the middle of the night trying to get some info on nice things to say about my ex-employer when EVERYTHING was not so nice. In fact it was such a sour experience that it turned into a phobia. While i was searching for some clue on what i could say, i have stumbled upon this article on corporate communications vs organisational culture. It is ironic because corporate communications is often the person holding together the organisational culture should be the last person on earth to advocate negative behaviour. Sigh.. sometimes i wonder if my ex-boss knows what the heck she is doing... and i thought i didn't know what i was doing..

Well, based on that experience, i have officially declared resentment to people with a certain set of background and i know what kind of behaviour to expect out of them since it has been demonstrated to me over and over again... I guess it is the frustration that had me build this wall inside of me.

Anyway, for the sake of me reading in the future of my current thoughts about my work experiences, i have pasted below the article :

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS VS ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

Should corporate communications managers play a role in creating and sustaining a corporate culture within their organizations?

It’s a topic of frequent and often heated debate that ranges from: “No, because corporate culture is something that evolves and should not be managed”, to: “Yes, because corporate culture can be a valuable asset in communicating vision and values internally and externally.”

A tangent to the debate is that corporate culture should be handled by human resources managers, not corporate communications, but that’s a topic on its own. This column will address only the role of corporate communications managers in corporate culture.

The first task is to define corporate culture. In essence it is how an organization gets things done, sometimes referred to as “the way we do things around here”. It can be good, bad or indifferent, and every organization has one whether it is obvious or not.

In some organizations corporate culture simply evolves without any proactive efforts by management, in others emphasis is placed on vision and values, which, in fact, are the basis of corporate culture. Not many organizations have a specific strategy to develop and strengthen their corporate culture – and they probably don’t need one.

What is important is to create the structure within which a healthy corporate culture can grow and be sustained, and that calls for a variety of skills and experience within the organization. But the corporate communications manager ties it all together.

Paul Sanchez ABC, APR, worldwide partner for Mercer Human Resource Consulting based in London, England, believes there are four building blocks of corporate culture all of which flow from an organization’s mission and purpose:

Strategy – how resources will be applied to achieve the organization’s mission and purpose.
Structure – how the organization will arrange itself to implement its strategy.
People – the employees who will implement the strategy.
Process – how the strategy is implemented.

Based on this model it is clear that different teams within an organization are responsible for specific building blocks. The corporate communications manager’s role is to ensure a continuous flow of information across all levels of the organization to ensure understanding and acceptance of the basic premise underlying the corporate culture. For that reason, he or she needs to be involved at each stage of the process to ensure that actions and intentions are unambiguous and can be communicated clearly.

For example, are there any aspects of the organization’s business strategy that can be misinterpreted by current or future employees to mean that certain unethical practices are condoned? If so, it’s up to the corporate communications manager to point them out and develop messaging that leaves no doubt that unethical behaviour will not be tolerated.

Similarly, in the structure of the organization, it may be deemed necessary by management to have off-shore subsidiaries, perhaps even in a tax haven. How does that impact the corporate culture; does it create suspicion and promote secrecy? Corporate communicators need to address an issue like this in a way that protects the organization’s reputation and maintains credibility by being as transparent as possible.

Communications should be aimed at promoting harmony within the organization. Typically, harmony contributes to a positive corporate culture while disharmony undermines positive corporate culture.

The values on which a positive culture can be built include:
Trust
Accountability
Transparency
Empowerment
Fairness
Respect
Sincerity

Yes, cynics will say they are all nothing but clichés, which is true unless there is substance behind them, and here again it’s up to the corporate communications manager to ensure that they are substantial. He or she must bring each of these values to life for employees by providing ongoing examples of how they are being promoted and achieved within the organization. Of course this also means that the corporate communications manager must ensure that the organization is living up to the values by, in effect, becoming the organization’s corporate conscience.

The tools for communicating will obviously vary depending on the size and resources of the organization, but can include e-mail, newsletters, town halls, informal gatherings etc. One of the most valuable ways of promoting corporate culture is to encourage senior manager to do “walk-abouts” as often as possible. A couple of minutes of informal chat at an employee’s desk indicates interest by managers and helps sustain positive corporate culture.

The benefits of a strong corporate culture are fairly obvious; it promotes and encourages good work and makes the organization an attractive employer. But it has other benefits as well, not least of all a cushioning effect when bad news has to be announced, such as lay-offs. It is also far more likely that employees in an organization with a healthy corporate culture will pull together and be willing to sacrifice if necessary when business conditions turn bad.

A word of caution to end with: don’t confuse climate with culture. The climate within an organization is usually transient and can be influenced by factors such as the resignation of a popular senior manager, the loss of a major customer or a general downturn in the business environment. Climate needs to address by corporate communicators, but it is not as ingrained and permanent as the corporate culture.

Here isthe link to the article http://www.cfpr.ca/corporate_comm.html

What is this blogging all about ?

There goes another busy day at the office. While I anticipate waiting for my phone to ring for an interview, I can't do much but wait, search and apply for jobs. I gotta earn my doe to feed the flocks at home..

So, I started this blog thing yesterday. I don't know what makes me want to start it, i guess i think it will help me sort out my cluttered mind. In my younger days, we just write out our daily affairs in the good old journal or diary. Now with this blog thing up and everybody donig in, it is quite irresistable. But then again, I cannot keep from thinking that i cannot share my private thoughts here because the whole world has access to it. And I believe i am not alone. I would be terrified if i sneered a word online about my boss and she happens to read this blog... what in the worl would happen.

So, with no guidance on blogging and no one to share, I am full of curiosity as to how to make this blog thing work. And the funny thing is, i don;t even own a computer ? I wonder how long can i keep this open. What about my old blogs, will it just dissapear 1 fine day ? How long can i keep up with this ? I guess the answer is... who cares for the long term ?

So, here i am back at square one, wondering what made me started this blog. How do i continue and what should i write about ? Should I promote it ? Should I let my friends read it ? I really am clueless. Well, at least 1 good thing will come out of this, a place which i could express myself and declutter my thoughts. I guess i have a lot pent up in my mind, my own opinions about life, work, world, economy (as thought i understand it) and no one to tell. So maybe blogging will help me . So all you bloggers out there, if you can share how can i move on from here, please do let me know, if at all my blog reaches anyone... hahahaha...

Another day passed, another day older, not knowing what lies ahead of me .. funny, only in my 30's do i feel insecure about myself, well that's another topic then.

Mid Life

When chatting with friends about mid life crisis, we often talk about being forgetful, being neither here nor there, too much to do, too little time and for the women visible signs of aging starts to appear. Growing more facial hairs, getting wrinkles, getting more round in the middle is just some of the things we discovered we are facing. Well at least, I discovered.

Sometimes it is good to still have a mother around to tell you or at least pre-warn you what you are about to face in this stage of life. At this age, sometimes we wonder is it normal to still wonder about things in life or is there something wrong with me ? Having too much uncertainty is certainly not something good. Well, thank god there is Oprah Winfrey and buddies with the good old teh tarik for advises.

Being forgetful certainly will not do much good for the career and it is such a struggle to learn up how to cope with short term memory. Lack of energy is also another obstacle we have to face. Well, one thing for sure, it is not something that we women of the 30's face alone.

A friend reminded me to think happy thoughts just about 2 days ago. So, with so much to deal with, a family, kids and career to juggle .. it's easy for one to forget how to be happy and how to keep your family happy. Ironically, in our pursuit for happiness, how did we come to this stage of so much complications in life ? Is life getting complicated or more sophisticated ?

Whatever happen to simple happy life...