At a party this past winter, I had the great opportunity to meet Laura Ward (of WardComm Public Relations). Besides for just being a great person, she is also amazing at her job. In just a few short weeks, she landed IC an opportunity to go live on NBC 30. My first thought when she called me was, “That’s terrifying” which was quickly followed by “What should I wear?” After Adam so graciously took me shopping at Ann Taylor and Laura talked me through all the “do’s and don’ts” I was ready for my T.V. debut.

I brought with me the treasure chest, grog, the crocodile and other pirate paraphernalia. At 11:41, I was interviewed by Yvonne. She was so warm and even before the tapes were rolling seemed excited to be doing the interview, which really put me at ease. The basics that were covered were how our birthday parties unfold like stories out of a picture book, that we are affordable and that we bring everything for a party and than bring it all back when we leave.

All in all, (and I did trip up my words a few times) I found it easier than I expected to be in front of the cameras. I think this is because I love what I do! I love to make a parent’s life easy! The greatest compliment Adam and I ever received was that a mom at a party had a cup of tea. She told me afterwards how bizarre that was, for her to actually feel comfortable enough, calm enough, and have time to relax, sip tea and enjoy her daughter’s birthday party. And I love, love to see children’s imaginations come alive at our parties. It gives me great joy to see little ones become pirates, or divas, or princesses. The joy and happiness I see in their faces is priceless. I love my job.

So, how did said croc steal the show? I just got one segment, but Buster (as the NBC 30 crew called him) actually got a shot in the weather as well! I think Buster may be getting too big for Imagination Celebrations.

Jenn, Imagination Celebrations

This past weekend, Adam and I were able to escape to Ithaca for his birthday. What’s in Ithaca? I am glad you asked.

1. The Friends of the Library sale where we both purchased many, many books. Too much in fact for our poor book shelves to support. However, with the most expensive book being fifty cents, we will make due. I cleaned out a good section of the children’s department with William Steig, James Marshall, Cynthia Rylant and other terrific finds.
2. Fabulous coffee
3. Beautiful, beautiful scenery! We saw fawns playing, climbed to the top of a water fall and just spent time outside reading.
4. The best empanada I have ever had. Fresh cilantro, fried goodness, hot smoked chipotle sauce. I would drive the 5 hours just to have one, than leave and come home.

Lastly, the best part of Ithaca (in my opinion) is the Dane Emerson House, which is actually in Newfield, NY but is minutes from Ithaca. It was our first time ever at a B&B and I am sure we are spoiled. Craig (the innkeeper) has an amazing eye for decorating that made me content to spend my entire stay in his warm and inviting home. One of my favorite little details was the napkin holders at breakfast. Each morning they were different. I would hold one up and say, “Ooo, this would be perfect for a mermaid tea”, or “I would use this one for a royal ball.” His presentation for breakfast, the snack bar, the tea stand, and displays through out the house really inspired me to incorporate other items into our service.

All and all, it was great to be away from the computer, be in nature, staying at a gorgeous inn, spending time with Adam and….well, the empanadas, of course.

Happy Birthday, Adam! I love you!

“Do you offer boy parities, too?” I get asked this question so often. My answer is always: “Yes!” We offer a lot of themes that were created with boys in mind. Other themes were created with no gender in mind, and work great for either sex. However, for some reason or another we book far more little girl parties than boys. Sure we do a great deal of pirate parties for the under six fellas. But, after six we rarely see them again. For girls we book spy parties, wizard parties and of course spa parties up until nine, ten sometimes even older! In Story Time Explosion (my interactive story time program), there is so much more attention and interest from parents of daughters than those with sons. I have heard that the boys desire being active, or experiences that are more literal as “playing pretend” is corny or useless to them. This is so hard for me to believe. At these illusive boy parties, I see boys equally “jumping” into the story with their own ideas and thoughts. They are thrilled to drive the pirate ship (which I might add IS quite physical) and are completely engrossed by the stories twists and turns. Where then do these ideas come from?

When looking around children’s literature, it is surprising to see how spoiled our little female readers are with the most fabulous girl characters. There is of course wonderful, well written books starring boys, however, it seems that the chain bookstores prefer to carry the sassy girl books. I am of course talking about Olivia, Fancy Nancy, Eloise, Lilly (and her purple plastic purse) and many other picture book divas. Then you scan the isles of small chapter books and you see Ivy and Bean, Clementine, Judy Moody and a plethora of girl heroines (not to mention the entire section of American Girl books!) What is going on? I know that you are screaming at your computer the most obvious boy hero: Harry Potter, but he is surrounded by bookshelves of “girl’s only” reads.

My worry is that reading and in turn imaginative play as turned into a girl’s sport or at least that is the perception among adults. In working with children, I have asked many times, “What is your favorite book?” I am always amazed at the number of boys who respond by mentioning a Star Wars book, Sponge Bob book, Scooby Doo Book, etc. You know the ones that are for the most part poorly written about a TV show or movie, and are used as mass marketing? But, the characters with in these stories have much more appeal to the guy reader than a girl who wears a feather boa everywhere. Like previously stated, there are amazing books out there that are geared with boys in mind, but they may be harder to find. They aren’t going to be on every card board cut out in Barnes and Noble, or at the checkout line in the grocery store.

In my rant, I must also mention that there is a great deal of good being done for our dear boy readers. There are a few great series that have become commercial enough for the big books stores to take notice like the Spiderwick Chronicles, A Series of Unfortunate Events and of course the literature super star Harry Potter. Also exciting, Jon Scieszka our new ambassador of children’s literature (I love that there is such a thing!) has just introduced a new series of books called Truck Town. The series focuses around a group of vehicles that also happen to be in pre-school. It’s adorable, and the cast of illustrators is unbelievable. More impressive still, is Jon’s website that houses a collection of guy reads. My favorite is the search engine where children or parents can put in specific interest and press a button, and viola! The perfect book is found. I played around with the site for awhile listing every possible interest I could think of. I was super impressed to see terrific reads mentioned by wonderful authors like Richard Scarry, Mo Willems, Dr. Seuss and Jon himself.

The truth is boys love to read. They love to play pretend and they have superb imaginations. For some reason or another, this in my opinion, is not represented at our book stores. Why?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Jenn, Imagination Celebrations

Ah Spring. There is nothing better than a picnic in the spring. Well, perhaps, it would be better if you brought along a great read. I love the idea of having mini parties as often as possible. So here are a few of my thoughts on having a themed picnic with your favorite little ones.
Pebbles and Picnics
The book: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble By: William Steig

The Menu: Has to be the same as Sylvester’s parents of course (with a few re-interpretations)

1. Alfalfa Sandwiches (A BLT or any lunch meat heavy on the lettuce, I mean alfalfa)
2. Pickled Oats (yogurt with toasted oats)
3. Timothy Compote (strawberries and sugar)
4. Red Pebble Punch(any red drink)

After dining on donkey food and enjoying the great book search for pebbles. You will be amazed that the day you go to the park there will be so many magic ones! You may even want to pick up a non-fiction book about rocks so that you can identify your treasures. Oh, be sure to bring a few tissues along as many adults seem to tear up during this book.

A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Picnic
(This picnic is dedicated to my husband as it was his favorite book as a child)

The Book: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst

The Menu:

1. Going to Australia Ale (sprite with fruit punch)
2. Nothing but the Crust Sandwiches (slice bread very thing to appear like crusts, toast them and serve with thin slices of deli meats and cheese)
3. Grewl (apple sauce with dried fruit)
4. Forgotten Desert Mud (chocolate pudding, whipped cream, crushed oreos and lots of gummy worms)

Read the miserable book, eat the wretched food and be sure to have an awful time. Your attire should be drab, your talk should be boring and be sure to not be caught smiling.

Monster Munch

The Book: Leonardo, the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems (yeah pigeon wants a puppy!)

The Menu:

1. Hector’s just plain weird drink (ginger ale, sparkling grape juice and weird ice cubes-anything creepy and gummy placed in an ice cube tray, pour in water and freeze)
2. Eleanor’s BIG toes (this is so gross so kid’s will love it)
3. Tony’s toothy smile (It’s the classic English muffin pizza. Pre-spread the tomato sauce than bring the fixings with you to create monster faces. Make sure to slice cheese sticks to make great teeth)
4. Best Buds Baking (the day of the picnic or a day or two before bake up some cup cakes and let your child make Leonardo, Sam or their own friends)

Devour the book and the munchies like little monsters! This would be a great picnic to bring a best friend along. Have the kid’s pretend to be monsters. Ask your kid’s to describe what they would look like if they were monsters. If you dare, even ask them what their teachers would look like if they were monsters! Just try not to get nightmares.

Any other ideas?

Thanks to Risa, today I participated in a First Day of Spring Tea Party. Even though today was in the thirties, windy, and overcast, inside Samantha (my favorite 6-year old…and one of my most favorite people in the world) and I celebrated all things Spring. Before the tea, we colored eggs which added to our decorations. Samantha helped me fill a couple of old glass canisters with plastic eggs and fake grass. She also created a wonderful “Happy Easter” sign. The menu was homemade mac’n cheese (Samantha’s favorite) broccoli, brightly colored hard boiled eggs, chamomile tea, ginger ale (in champagne glasses, but of course), and sliced strawberries with chocolate ice cream. Yum!  As we sat down to dine and sip our tea, Samantha said, “We really went overboard, didn’t we?” And we did, and it was completely worth it.

To all of you other tea party goers, please enjoy our pictures. I wish you all a wonderful Spring season. Here’s to going overboard and having a blast doing it!

Jenn (and Samantha), Imagination Celebrations

As promised, here are some brand new pictures of the “party” room! I have to tell you, that some of my “before” pictures were too horrifying for my husband to allow the public to see!

BEFORE…

My Crazy metro shelf. Love the Easter eggs?

Notice the classy curtain on a bungie cord.

AFTER….

Look the floor! Its such a difficult room, its small and has a piano in it. However, I took the two metro shelves and made an L shape with them and it seemed “flow” better.

On the metro shelves, I organized items by need. This is one of my “dining” shelves. I found that placing things in a pretty way seems to make the room more appealing.

This my favorite part of the room. On one side of the metro shelf, I hung a cork board. Then I purchased a variety of tool organization items to hang my craft stuff. I have a feeling, the board will soon be covered.

Lastly, I put a large table in the room to use as a workspace. The table is up against the window. Its amazing how with just a little work a room that was once a closet at best is now a creative space.

Thanks for the encouragement, Jenn Imagination Celebrations

I  come to you from the not so sunny nor warm shores of Cape Cod. I love this area off season. It feels as though my husband and I are the only ones here! 

I get caught up in finances, insurance the day to day and all the things that are not so exciting about my job. But, this week is time for thought, prayer and quiet. (And fabulous food)

P.S. I can see the floor of my work room now! I will post pictures when I return!

Jenn, Imagination Celebrations

We just made this craft a few weekends ago at a Winter Luau. Usually, for this snowy and tropical party we make sand art. However, my local craft store was out of sand art bottles. What to do? Well, since it was the night before the party ( I shouldn’t admit that, should I?) I had to think quickly. So, we created our very own mini islands instead. The girls loved them, and looked forward to putting them in their rooms as a year long piece of summer. This is a craft we will defiantly be doing again! As I slip on my LLBean slippers over my freezing feet, and look out the window at the slowly melting snow, I kind of wish I had my own little island, too.

How to make your own island:

Materials: a small round glass bowl (I used tiny fish bowls), sand (either colored or uncolored), sea shells, mini umbrellas, tiny palm trees, etc.

Directions: Throw them in the bowl, sit back and enjoy!

Jenn, Imagination Celebrations  

In an earlier post, (that sounds like I have so many) I discussed my spare bedroom that contains all sorts of strange items. I didn’t however mention that, that room is the bane of my existence. Ok, that is harsh, but every time I pass by the room I sigh…one day it will be so organized. Believe me, I have tried. I have purchased bins, shelves, see through containers in every size and shape imaginable. I even own a labeler. But, alas, every attempt ends in chaotic failure. Almost a year ago I met a woman who is a professional organizer. I picked her brain for a bit, but still no ideas. There is just so much clutter! It’s favors, dining items, the previously mentioned crocodile (that’s what it is, I am sure) and table linens and so much more. One day I will have a craft room just like Martha Stewart (I particularly like the picture with the cat..that’s exactly what I look like when I am working, too). So, why do I share this with you? Well, that room is my new years resolution ( I know its March…I can make resolutions then, too) After my long rant, I hope to change the look of that room once and for all.

Here is the goal:

1. To see the floor
2. To create an organized creative space
3. To have detailed list of inventory on hand
4. To keep it up

For added motivation, I promise to post pictures of my progress. I took “before” pictures and am far to embarrassed to post them…maybe I will do a before and after. We will see…

Jenn, Imagination Celebrations