Kitchen Bridal Shower

Chances are, soon-to-be newlyweds need just about everything but the kitchen sink. Get their lives started right with a kitchen or house-warming shower.

INVITATION:

A microwave party invitation opens up to reveal the details about the shower. There's room for the time, date, place, etc. -- plus where the bride and groom are registered.

GUESTS:

Showers can be intimate gatherings with just the bride and her entourage. They can also be a great way to celebrate with friends and acquaintances who might not be close enough to attend the wedding itself. Include them in the festivities; a low-key open house is a great way for lots of people to stop in and share good wishes.

Our shower was an open house that included neighbors and church friends. About 35 were invited which kept a nice flow of 8-10 people coming through to visit with the bride throughout the night.

ACTIVITIES:

Bridal shower games can be fun with a smaller group. Should you have an open house (or people who'd just rather visit with each other), get everyone involved by sharing some advice or a favorite thought or memory about the bride. We had people write something they loved about the bride (so her groom would remember how lucky he is!) on pre-designed pages that match the invitation. At night's end, the pages were collected and bound into a book along with pictures of the evening. The bride received the book as part of her wedding gift.

FOOD:

Good girly stuff (can you say, chocolate?). A selection of homemade and store-bought treats can go a long way without too much effort. Our menu:

Homemade chocolate cake, cashew cookies, slush punch (easy but fancy)

Purchased cream puffs, pastries, sugar cookies shaped and decorated as bridal dresses

Fresh fruit

DECOR:

Pick something the bride loves:

Seasonal -- our shower was close to Valentine's Day, so we leveraged the holiday theme of hearts and love. It was easy to transition pink, red and white decorations into shower decor without feeling like a Valentine's party. Think blushing bride and use any of your seasonal decorations to give your shower a relevant feel.

Interests -- What does the bride love to do? At a previous shower, our bride was well envied for her closet's fabulous contents. We raided her shoe selection and decorated with them. Shoe boxes were wrapped in black paper and her colorful heels displayed on top of them. Inexpensive mini "glass slippers" came from a party supply store and served as decorations as well as favors.

Gift Specific -- Try keeping with the party theme of kitchen/home and decorate using gifts the bride may have already received (place a new toaster on a pedestal, arrange flowers in a blender, make a display of her dishes).

THANK YOUS:

As part of the bride's book with wishes from the guests, a few pages served as a record of gifts received. Not only could the bride look back at her friends' generosity, she can use the list to write thank you notes. Matching thank you notes were given to the bride as part of her shower gift from the hostesses.

Halloween Party Invitations

Invitations are half the fun of parties for me. And this one's my all-time favorite. To invite the neighborhood to a Halloween party, we attached a ribbon to this Halloween bat invitation and hung him upside down from the front door frame of each house. A spooky surprise in itself -- then unfolding his wings uncovered the information about the party.

Another favorite from www.funproperlydone.com is the witch hat invitation. Pull the buckle on the brim and the spider spins her web to crawl up the invitation.

Best tips for invites:

1. Make it interactive (can it move? does it surprise? do you want to keep it on the fridge as just a dang cute decoration?)
2. Throw in some bewitching wording (Wand to party with us? I vahnt to see you next Saturday... etc.) Puns are fun -- just don't go too overboard.
3. Remember the basics: Who's giving the party, Where and When, What should the guest expect (wear a costume? will there be a meal/refreshments? should they bring anything?), How to RSVP

Got any ghoulish invite ideas to share?

Halloween Party Invitations: More Ideas

Here are a few other great ideas we've come across:

• Skeleton invitation. Its arms and legs move! (Credit to Martha Stewart)
• Mad scientist invitation. Spooky stuff in a test tube. (Martha, again.)
• Mummy invitation. Print your invitation on a paper mummy shape then wrap him in long, thin strips of toilet paper. Kids get a kick out of unwinding him.

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.

Safari Party: Lion Invitation

I've got two little wild things at my house -- this party theme was perfect for both of them.

Invitations

The king of the jungle roars out the party details when you open his mouth wide.

Party Favors

I went a little wild myself on this one. Each child got a plastic safari hat (available at party supply stores like Zurcher's for about $1), a t-shirt stenciled with the same lion as on the invite (found cheap t-shirts at an overstock store and at that point in my mothering life had boundless energy to do stuff like stenciling...), and a pair of "binoculars" fashioned out of empty toilet paper tubes (or when you run out of them, paper towel tubes cut in half). The binoculars came in handy during the Lion Hunt game.

Food

This party was for 4- and 5-year olds, so safari gourmet it was not. But the titles on the menu raised little eyebrows. "Giant Fried Butterfly Wings" were potato chips. "Boiled Snakes" were hot dogs. And apple and banana slices became "Orangutan Hors D'oeuvres."

For the birthday cake, we made a basic 8" round cake, frosted it orange, and cut out tiger stripes from fruit leather. Nilla wafers were the big cat's muzzle. Pretty easy for a homemade cake, and the kids loved it.

Construction Party: Dump Truck Invitation

Got a truck lover in the house? This dump truck invitation was a favorite for my 5-year-old and friends. The truck bed pivots like a dump truck to reveal the party info underneath. Ours stayed on the fridge door for weeks after the party, and little hands "dumped" it over every time they passed by.