There's a Party for Everything

Feel like celebrating? You don't need much of a reason. Check out this article about partying it up around the world with party themes galore:

Cheese rolling

Wife carrying

Monkey feeding

Tomato fights

Playing in the mud

Little radish people

Celebrating turnips...

A naked festival?

Who needs a birthday -- hand over the turnips and let's have some fun!

Pet Store Party

When people ask if we have pets, my typical response is "yes, two boys." They're wild enough. But truth be told, they're dying for a pet. My answer: regular trips to the pet store. And we have so much fun you'd think it was, you guessed it -- a party!

INVITATIONS

Choose a favorite animal to be the star of your party (examples here on the wild and mild side). You might consider asking guests to bring a can or bag of pet food in lieu of a birthday gift (more on this momentarily).

ACTIVITY

Take a trip to the local pet store or animal shelter. If you've got more than 4-5 kids in the party, call ahead to ensure you'll be welcome. While most kids can entertain themselves the whole time just by peeking in the cages, looking for the lizards hidden behind plastic tree leaves, and making up wacky conversations with the parrots, you could come prepared with a few games of your own. Try an age-appropriate scavenger hunt (can you find the Yellow Canary? a 20-lb bag of Alpo? a furry purple kitty toy?). Learn where the animals originally came from. Or see what animal best matches each guest in the group.

A thoughtful twist is to turn the birthday gift booty over to the animals. Guests might be invited to bring a can of food, a dog toy, etc. in lieu of a child's gift. The group can then present the gifts to an animal shelter (or to the pet store who will often donate them in turn).

THANK YOU'S

Take each guest's picture with their favorite animal and send it home in a customized thank you card. If he/she gave a gift to an animal, you might include a "pawprint" of thanks from it too.

Tea Parties, Past and Present

So I got a kick out of all the Tea Parties hosted yesterday in protest of government spending. All political views aside (I'll decline to get into mine here), I love the clever factor. And, it got me thinking about (what else?) party opportunity!

Whether or not you make yours as a statement to the government, a Tea Party may be the ultimate in proper parties. Since they can lend themselves so well to teaching good manners (and even peaceful activism), here's a Tea Party invitation that's a lesson in etiquette itself.

Attached to the invitation is a tiny envelope with three dainty messages reminding kids of the three Golden Good Manners: Please, Thank You, and You're Welcome. Each is an instruction for the party.

Please arrive on time

You're Welcome to enjoy (describe your activity)

Say Thank You to the person who invited you

I used this originally for a classroom party. The kids were taught basic etiquette lessons for a couple of weeks, then attended a matinee play and a "formal" luncheon served by the parents at the school. Those students who remembered to thank their teacher for the invitation received a sticker with captions like:

Hello, my name is Well Mannered

RSVP is French for "My Manners Rock"

You know my name. Good Manners is my game.

Clearly, this invitation could be used for much simpler Tea Party celebrations. So grab your table manners, tea cups, and teddy bears. Heated political discussions are just a bonus.

Good Manner Watch: Lousy Lesson from World Leader

Sadly, today's Good Manner Watch is a bad manners bummer -- especially since the whole world could see it.

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been hammered by the media for his lack of etiquette in public situations. Now, in my humbly polite opinion, a few of these were more a matter of personality quirks (not everyone's meant to be as prim and proper as Her Majesty). BUT, here's a bad manner that's too common, too awful, and almost too painful to watch.

What does this have to do with kids' parties? Let's play a little pretend.

When arriving at a photo op event to honor fallen soldiers (or in our case, a fun event to honor a birthday kid), Mr. Berlusconi (or our invited guest) is on his cell phone. The host of the event, who has planned for his arrival, his comfort, and his presence, is left waiting while she and her preparations are simply ignored. Mr. Berlusconi missed the photo op, the host is understandably irritated, yet he feels justified that he was "on the phone." Scortese! (Or, Rude! in anybody's native tongue.)

Lessons to be learned:

- Arrive on time. Your host has worked hard to make things happen during a particular timeframe.

- Greet your host with your full attention. Real people always get first dibs. That means don't put off real people for phone people (with rare emergency exceptions)

- Plan ahead. Your host has planned for your attendance; you should plan for it, too. Don't take calls that will overlap this scheduled time. Turn off your phone and turn your attention to the real people at hand. (That is exactly what voice mail is for.)

Here's the thing. Kids might not have cell phones to pull egregious gaffes like this (though we're seeing phones in littler hands all the time!). But they DO watch the grown-ups around them as examples. Hopefully, we're not watching our world leaders for the same....