Sweet Tooth

Today is the final post on our Kids Theme Party tips. We would love to hear your comments and and stories about how you put these tips into action in the weeks to come! Leave them below.

Sweets for the Sweet

Hell, just give in to their whining demands once a year and have a sweets for the sweet party with no healthy food. Set up an ice-cream sundae bar with frozen yogurt or ice cream and a complete selection of candy and fruit toppings. Kids can go to different decorating stations where they can top cookies or cupcakes with frosting and sprinkles. On the floor, replicate a huge Candyland game board on a white plastic tarp either by drawing it yourself with nonsmearing art markers or having the artwork printed on vinyl at a print shot – not only does this protect your floor, it keep s the concept in mind. I also love a candy bar (in fact, I have one in my home on a permanent basis). Construct your own candy landscape by using old mason jars or simple discount-store glass vases of all different shapes and sizes; filled with assortments of candy, they’ll look like a colorful skyline. Next to each jar of candy, put a guessing jar so each guest can guess the number of candies inside on slips of paper. The winner gets… more candy! Or have a silly recipe contest, where you hand out simple recipe cards for something common like chocolate chip cookies0 but you leave out one ingredient, Mad Libs style (a la “sugar, flour, eggs, bugger, and _____”). Trust me, the responses will be hilarious. Make sure you have your guests sign their pieces of paper so you can read them aloud and crack everybody up!

Get Creative

Day Three of our Kid Party Themes brings out the artsy side of your child. We strongly believe that you should always encourage kids to express themselves and this party is just the thing to let their imaginations shine!

Inner Artiste Party

All kids are budding Picassos, so throw them an inner artiste party. Invitations should definitely be made out of some original art! At the event, provide a low table with tons of art supplies – paper, crayons, markers, paint (all washable, of course), clay, glue, glitter, stickers, and more. Give guests an easy-to-use digital camera and le the kids take pics of themselves. Print out the photos while the kids are still there, pin them on a corkboard, and let them collect their images at the end of the party. The guests could also make photo collages to keep or give away to their BFFs. Regarding nibbles, it’s hard to take a break from the creative process – especially if your hands are covered in paint – so it would be cool if each artist had his or her own apron complete with pockets. Tuck healthy, easy-to-grab snacks in the apron pockets, like nuts, yogurt-covered raisins and pretzels, carrot sticks, and cheese sticks. When your artists are ready to take a break for some real substance, offer a visual feast of food such as bowls of gorgeous fruit, baskets of bread, and luscious fondue pots filled with rich chocolate or cheese. With fondue, the artists can continue getting their hands dirty!

Dance Till You Drop

It's day 2 of our Kids Party theme ideas and we have a great one for you today! Not only will this keep them entertained but by the end they will be ready for a great nights sleep!

Dance Party

A dance party is all about music and boogying down. You should provide a dance floor where the little peeps won’t feel too much in the spotlight and get too self-conscious to participate. Make this area darker than the rest of the room by turning off the overhead lights or equipping them with a bulb in deep red, orange, or pink – or all three! If you don’t feel like purchasing a disco ball, you can buy light bulbs that have reflective surfaces or ripples in their glass that cast a cool reflection onto the direct surface they are closest to, creating that disco vibe. Provide some current playlists on your iPod and have groups of kids play DJ for the event. Go cruise Radio Shack or Best Buy and get a karaoke machine – prices vary from $19.99 to a couple of hundred for ones that come with lighting and computer graphics. Another really fun option is renting (if you don't already own it!) a Dance-Dance revolution game for the kids to battle each other on. Keep the food and drinks light because the kids will be moving around a lot. Consider bottled drink and enclosed snacks so that you don't encounter too much spillage!

Endless Summer!

Sometimes with the kids out of school it can feel like an endless summer. This week on the jesGORDON blog we will be giving you four ideas for great kids parties to keep them busy an happy before school starts back up again. There are certain fail-safe things that can make kids happy, such as candy, games, colors, sounds, and security. These theme sugJEStions combine these elements to create out of the box parties that kids will enjoy and parents will remember.

Pillow Party

For the ultimate pillow party, move everything out of a room and padding all surfaces and floors with pillows. Use oversize floor pillows for seating for adult guardians (and for kids to flop on). Make multicolored pillowcases by quick stitching fabric together, or just buy pillowcases with fun themes on them – superheroes, dolls, whatever the fads are. Send out pillowcases as invitations, decorated with those laundry-friendly fabric pens or paints from any art supply or hobby store. The guests can draw and write messages on plain pillowcases with fabric marker so they have a cool camp-like keepsake to bring home. A good snack to fit with the pillow concept is a simple sheet cake cushioned with tons of marshmallows. Keep the cushiony texture going with individual angel food or sponge cakes, Mallomars, and Rice Krispie treats. And obviously, the party game is… a pillow fight!

Come back tomorrow for the next theme sugJEStion!

What to wear?

With wedding and event season in full swing many of you are probably dealing with the common question of what the appropriate attire for the occasion will be. Summer adds even more of a dilemma because the weather widens your options. This post today is about how to make the right decision if you are a guest and keep it simple if you are the host.

Terms like black tie seem obvious, but people often wonder, "Does that mean I have to wear a black tie?" It is confusing these days: Men can wear a gorgeous black suit with a monochromatic shirt and tie, or a single breasted black suit with a bow or straight tie. Both are acceptable at a black-tie event, as is the more traditional tuxedo. With women, I have noticed that black tie conjures up one thing: a black dress. This is disappointing because formal attire is a lot broader than we have been conditioned to think. It just means dress nicely as you can. Black tie is a more conservative atmosphere - therefore, shoes not sneakers, boobs should be kept under wraps, and hair and makeup should not be too over the top. But that doesn't mean that you can't bring a little bit of your personal style to the outfit. Guys can wear outrageous cufflinks or funky striped socks that peek out only when they are seated. Men's fashion designer Paul Smith offers amazing accessories for this purpose. Women have more choices: a fabulous broach, cool hair accessories, and of course great shoes and clutches. A moisturizer with a bit of sparkle in it across the upper chest and neck can look quite magical.

When you're inviting people you know well, you can create your own attire. I've seen casual chic used a lot in regard to dress. Simply, casual chic for men means that it's fine to wear a coat, no tie, an open collar, and a great pair of jeans - but no flip flops. Flip-flops are casual but not chic! The same rules apply for women, but if the flip-flops happen to have grown a nice wedge heel, I will lay down my sword. Girls can get away with a lot more in the dress code arena simply because we have so many options. We can wear a cotton halter dress with some chandelier earrings, but if a guy wears a simple cotton shirt, he needs to at least accessorize with a good pair of shoes. Casual chic also does not give you license to dress like a slut. We have thrown events ranging from Bohemian Chic to Cocktail Fabulous to Simply White. On that note, you can demand that your guests wear one color to your party, but keep in mind that at least half the people might not be so happy to comply. Guys find it relieving to be told what to wear, but women think that being forced to wear white on a fat day is the kiss of death.

Oh, Oh, Summer Nights!

Today we have two ideas for raising the bar on your typical summer night soirées. These sugJEStions for summertime bashes are great places to start when looking for something familiar yet unique.

Recently there has been a retro-resurgence of parties like game nights; so why not mix in the recent warm weather? Summer is a perfect time to take this from cozy board-games to the great outdoors. Guests of all ages enjoy games like Bocce Ball and Croquet. If you have more active participants set-up a temporary volleyball net, but use a beach-ball to keep the game light. If the party is geared toward kids, scavenger hunts are a wonderful way to keep the little ones occupied in the yard. You could even create a European outdoor Chess area for a more sophisticated party. Be sure to keep the food light and use mini-portions that guests can munch on between competitions. As the evening winds down you can keep the retro coming with a modern version of a drive in movie. Rent a screen from a local company or use the white wall of a garage to project your favorite classics. Toss a collection of throws and floor cushions on the ground to keep guests comfy as they wind down from the day's activities.

A fiesta theme is always popular in the summer. raise the bar on yours by foregoing the typical elements and focus on what really makes Mexican and Spanish culture so unique. You could have a tequila bar that serves specialty tequila with different infusions and spins on the typical margaritas and mojitos. Be sure to have plenty of fresh ingredients on hand to keep everything authentic. If you can, hire a mixologist to turn the bar into a real experience. They can create fresh syrups and mixers from the ingredients and will teach your guests about cultural ingredients and drinks. With the menu embrace the family culture; have people seated at tables with lazy-susans full of toppings and fillers for tacos and fajitas. Serving family style encourages different guests at the tables to get to know each other and share. For entertainment hire Flamenco dancers to put on a show and then teach guests to dance as well.

The main goal with a summer party is to embrace the beautiful weather, extra daylight and fresh food options. With any event idea you can incorporate some of the above suggestions, tailor them to your theme and raise the bar!

Jes' Invites to Remember

This was a doggie vest Save the Date, so obviously Jes loved it!

With Spring in full bloom and Summer just around the corner parities and entertaining is at the front of everyone's mind. The first impression guests get of your party is the invitation so unique ideas are the best way to show the events style from the very beginning. Below are some of Jes's Favorite and most memorable invites from events she has designed and produced!

- We designed a great invitation for the launch of a new razor. Instead of paper invitations, we sent out gorgeous girls with long legs in short shorts who rode around Manhattan on pink Vespa scooters, personally delivering an invitation to each guest in the form of a razor with the details printed on it. The idea made quite an impression - the attendance rate was phenomenal, thanks to those leggy girls!

- For a one-year-old's birthday party invitation, we created a simple iMovie on a Mac mode from baby pictures and a soundtrack of "When I'm 64" by the Beatles. After the thirty-second slideshow came a page with the party specs. this type of things can be done with PowerPoint too - just e-mail it, send out a flash drive, or burn it onto a DVD.

- For a vodka launch, we sent out carved potatoes. Most people go the super-sexy model route with alcohol, but we had an artist carve the details into an actual potato, as one would using a lino block. You could even make potato prints this way if you ink them up. We sent the potato out in a box with scruffy tissue strands, much like a pet rock.

- There is nothing lovelier than using a child's piece of art as an invitation. To me, this is the most personal, charming invitation one can receive, because after the wow factor dies down from receiving a potato in the mail, all you are left with is the gimmick itself and not a treasured piece of original art.

- if you want your guests to remember your event, you could send out conceptual thank-you cards. We once did an urban awareness event for young twenty-somethings with a sex-ed expert on deck talking about safe sex. To thank them for coming, we sent a replica of a condom package with a real condom inside - hopefully one they added to their already existing collection.

There are more fabulous invite ideas and tips in Jes' book Party Like a Rock Star.