As a parent/fairy godmother/aunty (delete as applicable) I know that the struggle is very real when it comes to that time of the year when it’s almost birthday time so here’s my idea – a better kind of soft play. Pompom parties at The Paint Box!
Kids have access to such a range of activities now, through family days out and school that it can become really tricky trying to find something a bit different. Pompom parties at The Paint Box are a fab way for the kids to have a mega time and take away beautiful goodies that they’ve made – bye bye party bags!
There’s only so many times you can endure hours in a soft play centre, bust out a local disco firm or pray for great weather so that the bouncy castle idea doesn’t end up being a damp squib. Please know that I’m not saying that any of these aren’t perfectly good ideas, and if it was my choice then it’d be a good old buffet & party games at home every year if it wasn’t for the horrendous amount of money and time spent on sandwiches, cakes, crisps, jellies and so on when all they really want is chips (not as Instagramable though, am I right?)
I offer parties with a twist(ish). I mean there’s nothing new about Pompoms or embroidery, I’m very aware of this and it’s one of the reasons that I work with these techniques. It harks back to a simpler time, when you handmade things, spent time working and perfecting things rather than buying factory made stuff in bulk – no love, no story.
Craft parties work well with both kids and grown ups – and, I find, especially well with a mixture of both. There’s something about being the parent where you want to control the mess, control the use of colours, how much glitter is enough (there’s never enough – fact) and so on – and I get it, because when I’m in parent mode, I’m the same. When it’s not ‘your’ party, not your carpet, not your kitchen table then those things become less important – you don’t have to tidy up, you don’t have to worry about fluff getting into every single nook and cranny in your house, about glitter becoming so engrained in your carpet that you’ll never remove it. That’s what I’m there for.
It doesn’t matter what eye blinding, clashing colours they use. You want more glitter with that glitter? Of course, no problem! You really want a green camel button peeking out of that pompom? Great idea, wish I’d thought of it!
They have a creatively fun and untidy couple of hours – you get to help with the tricky bits (standard parenting) like snipping and tying knots, and I do the gluing, explaining and most importantly, the tidying up.
As well as kids parties, we can also cater for baby showers, hen parties, retirement parties or just because you bloody feel like it. Kids parties obviously come with sweets, and as they are bespoke – we can go as all out as you want – just get in touch
A big thank you to The Paint Box Ceramic Café in Cleethorpes for such a great venue!
Gem x
This post was written by Gemma
