Teachers appreciation gift ideas

School's almost out and I thought it'd be nice for H to give something to his teachers as a token of appreciation. I found these really great and creative ideas while googling for inspiration. Simple enough for a weekend DIY, H can definitely help too!

Tea-rrific Teacher. Fill a reusable cup with thank you notes and individual instant tea packets and top with a cute flag topper. Download straw flag printables here.



You Were Mint to Teach. Wrap up a container of Mints with printed or scrapbook paper, twine and a small note of thanks. Simple and inexpensive, but effectively says “thank you” for being a wonderful teacher.


Thanks for making me wiser.  Owl theme for "wrapping" the teacher gift.  Simply cut angles from the top corners of a small treat bag and fold down, staple once filled with goodies to secure.  Add eyes made up of circle punches and a rounded chest freehand cut with scissors.
 

Owl miss you. Made to fit around Hershey Miniatures Chocolate Bars. Great for handing out to  classmates on the last day of school. Download PDF printables here.

For a Popular Teacher. Who doesn't like popcorn? Pop some in your kitchen, bag them and add a tag and you have an excellent treat for a popular teacher. Download PDF printables here.

One Smart Cookie. Fill up a box or bag with homemade chocolate chip cookies and attach a mini notecard that says, "Thanks for making me one smart cookie". Download PDF printables here.

Party venues in KL

I was asked recently by a friend for suitable party venues to celebrate her son's birthday. If you don't want the hassle of throwing a party at home, here are some options.

Kids gym

1. Jungle Gym @ BSC. I blogged about this earlier. The good thing about Jungle Gym is that they don't charge for guests under 2 years old. They are also flexible about you bringing your own food (they only provide food for the kids). Basic package starts at RM38 per child (includes simple finger food, minimum 15 guests).
2. Kizsport. This is my other favourite. I've only been to the one in Bangsar Village II. What I like about Kizsport is the toddler friendly zone so your little toddler guests won't feel left out. Their packages do not include food so you have to bring your own or organise separate catering. Basic package starts at RM36.90 per child (no food but includes party pack, minimum 15 guests).
3. Kids E-World @ Gardens. Can't really comment on the play area as I've never been there. The basic party package starts at RM20 per child for the use of the party area and playland. You then need to choose the meal plan from them (cannot bring your own food). Meal plan starts from RM25 per child and RM32 per adult.
4. Others: Yu Kids Island @ Curve and One Utama, and J Kids @ Tropicana City Mall. Don't have the party details but personally I don't quite fancy the moving play systems. I much prefer those play structures you can climb like the ones in Jungle Gym and Kizsport. But that's just me.

Kids friendly cafes / restaurants

1. Marmalade. Food is good, ambience is good (make your photos look great even if you're a not so good photographer). There's a small play area for kids. If you don't have a big contingent, you can just make a reservation and ask for tables near the play area and do à la carte style. Otherwise you can book up the party area (i.e. a section of the restaurant) and do a buffet style. Minimum spend for booking up a section of the restaurant is RM2,000.
2. FitFor2. We've eaten there a few times, food is so-so but the place is extremely kids friendly. There's a small play area as well as a changing area for kids. There's also a studio you can use if you need an open space for party games. Catering for kids start from RM10+/child (minimum 15 children).
3. Chili's. Kids eat for free so what's there not to like... hehehe. Good for small parties but can be tricky if you have a big crowd since you can't make reservations and they won't seat incomplete party.

Outdoors

1. TTDI park. Have a picnic party by the stream. Just bring your mat and picnic basket. We did a party here for Little C's 5th birthday. The kids loved it - well how often do you get to play by the stream right? Only problem is that you need the weather to be on your side.
2. Lake Gardens. I guess this is another FOC option. I've been wanting to take the kids there but have been procrastinating. There's a nice big playground and a lake, and of course large empty  fields for the kids to run about. Not sure if they still have those gazebos and picnic tables.

One thing I learn from doing kids parties for young kids, they're just happy to play, play and play! And they don't even need organised games. Venue, decor, food etc. are secondary, really. So don't stress yourself out too much :-)

October Halloween Holiday Fun

Halloween is again around the corner. I'm so tempted to throw a Halloween party. Imagine having little kids over, all dressed up in their spooky costumes, and the spooky games and food we can have. How fun!! Unfortunately Halloween is just not well celebrated in Malaysia, so we've never really gotten the chance to showcase our spooktacular ideas.

Thankfully, L's play-school is having a week-long Halloween themed holiday programme this October, with a Halloween party to end it all. Hooray! What a great opportunity to get our creative juice flowing...

More about Halloween party ideas later. Meantime if you're interested in the October Halloween Holiday Fun, please contact bluedaisies_kidsclub@hotmail.com

More DIY party cakes

I blogged earlier about alternatives to expensive celebration cakes. Here are a few more examples of what you can do to jazz up your cake. These are all done by Aunty Lynn (aka our creative director) with no formal training... just a dose of creativity and lots of fun!

Bride and groom (opps groom is missing shoes :p)

 

Angelina ballerina

 

As requested by her little girl "I want Baby Bob, BJ & me in a blue convertible Beetle"

This cake was for her celebration with family members

Great thing about sugarpaste, you can recycle them ;-)

After the cake was eaten, the figurines were re-used on a rainbow cake for her celebration in school

 

 

 

 Cuppies for charity sale - under the sea, garden bugs and flower / fairy

 

Inspired? Try it out and happy moulding!!

A Roar-ing Jungle Party

I'm not sure what's with kids and animals - both little boys and girls alike, they just love animals. Wanted to have a girly theme party for my little princess (more for me really cos i've already done a jungle party). Something like a garden party or a butterfly party would be nice. I can already imagine how to transform our garden into a flowery wonderland - pretty & sweet. But no, my little girl wouldn't hear of it. She wanted a LION party. So oh well, a jungle party it is.

Jungle Gym in BSC is a great venue if you want a hassle free party (and it suits the theme just well). In case you are considering, party packages start from RM38 per kid for the most basic package. The basic package will do, since the kids most likely wouldn't want to eat or play games as was the case with our little guests. All they wanted to do was to run free in the 'jungle' playland.

And what's a jungle party without a cake befitting the theme? For a cost effective alternative to expensive decorative cakes, just buy your favourite cake from your local cake shop (we got ours from secret recipe) and decorate it yourself. These days you can buy ready made rolled fondant. All you need is a little bit of creativity and lots of googling for inspiration. And just like how you would do with playdough, just go ahead and do some modelling :-)

I'm making it sound really simple eh? If you're not up for it yourself, give us a buzz and we'll see if our in-house creative director is up for some freelance project at a reasonable fee. This is what she did... amazing isn't it? Except of course the cake turned out to be smaller than expected so we couldn't fit all the jungle buddies on the cake. Oh well... next time we have to coordinate better :-)

Party goody bags

It's been a while... a loooooong while since I last posted. Another birthday party is coming up and I'm scrambling to find the perfect goody bag to hold all the goodies I've purchased for my little guests. Problem is the ones out there are either too small, too big or too expensive. Wouldn't you rather spend the money on more goodies insetad of on the bag itself?

I've googled and googled, even comtemplating making my own paper bag (I need one that is of A4 size - yup i have some large items for the goody bag). Finally I stumbled upon Musings of a Mom who blogged about where to get brown paper bags in KL (refer to this link http://www.mom2ashley.com/blog/?p=3762). You cannot imagine how glad I was. Thank you so much mom2ashleyaidan for sharing. I hope the brown paper bags are still available :-)