A quick tip here – always do a Rolf Harris. In other words, start making the model, asking them if they can ‘guess what it is yet’. Once someone announces joyfully that they think they know what it is, agree with them, congratulate them and go with it – it’s a lot simpler than trying to justify why your bison looks like a shih tzu.

But in fact you don’t have to always use modelling balloons for modelling. In fact they can be great fun for party games. For example, Inflate three balloons, and get six people to stand in a circle, facing outwards. Then place all three balloons in the middle, and instruct everyone to reach between their legs and hold one end of any balloon in one hand, and one end of a different balloon in the other. Now the fun starts!

They have to somehow turn themselves around so that they are all facing inwards, without letting go of the balloons at any time! It’s a little like one of those infuriating Chinese puzzles, but with arms, legs and other parts not normally reached! The stretchy balloons are perfect for this sort of game, and can easily cope with the stretching, twisting and pulling, whereas normal balloons would just burst. If you have twelve or more people in the party you can actually run it as a competition to see which group can be the first to stand up, facing inwards and still all holding on to their balloons.

So here’s a tip – why not get started on your charades list now? You could each start building a list now, for use at the time. Or alternatively you could buy a pack of blank cards and write possible charades on them shuffling them up and then letting people choose one at random on the day.

If you’re really stuck or you don’t have time then we have found a great list of UK charades suggestions here: http://www.give-presents-find-gifts.co.uk/partygames-Charades-topics.html

Of course, what you won’t want to do is to hand out a pack of three juggling balls to each of the twenty children at your child’s birthday party, because the idea of 60 balls being thrown about your house is likely to be enough to have you reaching hastily for your contents insurance policy.

The solution is easy of course. Rather than handing out the balls to everyone to try out, teach them how to juggle first. If you can already juggle then you’re on to a winner, but if you can’t yet juggle three balls then here’s our very handy guide to juggling three balls. Just don’t come running to us looking for compensation. All juggling balls are sold on condition that you’re wholly responsible for any and all breakages!

Easy Guide To Juggling 3 Balls

1. Hold one ball in your left hand and two in your right.
2. Throw one of the balls in your right hand up to about eye height, and towards the left hand.
3. At exactly the moment the ball reaches the apex of the throw (the highest point before it starts falling) throw the ball from your left hand towards your right, and at about the same height again.
4. At exactly the moment the second ball reaches the apex, throw the third ball from your right hand.
5. Pick up all the balls.
6. Mop up your cup of coffee.
7. Apologise to the neighbours for the expletives.
8. Hold two balls in your left hand and one in your right.
9. Realise you’re holding the balls wrong and swap them over.
10. Pick up the one you dropped.
11. Make a mental note to ring the chiropractor about your back.
12. Hold one ball in your left hand and two in your right.
13. Throw one of the balls from your right hand up and hit yourself in the eye.
14. Drop the other two balls and check you haven’t got a black eye.
15. Mop up the remaining coffee and pick up the pieces of your mug.
16. Take a deep breath and hold two balls in your left hand.
17. Try to find the third ball.
18. Forget juggling with three balls and try juggling with two instead. Hold one in each hand.
19. Get confused, throw both balls together and watch them hit each other right in front of your face before knocking a tooth out.
20. Pick up tooth and place on table. Pick up juggling ball.
21. Try to find other juggling ball.
22. Forget juggling with two balls and try juggling with one instead. Hold ball in right hand.
23. Throw ball to left hand. Catch.
24. Feel smug.
25. Throw ball from left hand to right hand.
26. Casually pick up tooth and try juggling it at the same time as the ball.
27. Throw ball at eye, accidentally swallow tooth and start choking.
28. Pick up ball and hurl with rage.
29. Apologise to child for knocking their tooth out.
30. Give up juggling and book dentist appointment.

Of course many children have picked up on the American game of Trick or Treat, and whilst this can be fun it’s not ideal. Clearly it needs an adult to go with them from door to door simply from the point of view of safety, and then not all neighbours appreciate being disturbed all evening by gangs of children knocking at the door.

The idea of tricking a neighbour can also frighten some elderly people, and so it’s not always a good idea. In fact you don’t need to go outside, or at least no further than the garden to have a really great Halloween party, and to help things along here are a few Halloween party game ideas which have proved popular with children in the past.

Bobbing For Apples
This is a classic, and as long as it’s supervised kids still enjoy this. Just have a large bucket or even a big mixing bowl and fill this with water, and drop in some apples. The children then have to hold their hands behind their back and try to pick out an apple. It’s simple, but great fun. Of course a twist on this is to have the bowl filled with custard (with a little red food colouring of course, to look like gooey blood!) Just make sure you have plenty of towels handy!

Winking Murder
For this game all of the children sit in a circle, and one person is chosen as the murderer. The easiest way is to have an adult or older child walk around the outside of the circle, placing their hand near the back of each person as they pass them. Whenever they like they gently tap one person, and this is the murderer. Just so no one knows who it is it’s best to have the person walking around the outside carry on for a bit.

After the murderer has been selected everyone has to keep a beady eye on everyone else to try to spot who it is. The murderer has to manage to kill as many other people as possible by winking at them. Anyone who is winked at then has to die (with all due dramatics of course!) If anyone suspects they know who the murderer is they have to make an announcement. If they’re right then a new murderer is selected, but if they’re wrong, they die.

Dem Bones Dem Bones
This does take a little more preparation, but for larger parties with lots of children it’s good fun. Draw, trace or print a skeleton, including a skull, rib cage, arms and legs, and separate these items, hiding them around the house or garden. The children then have to hunt the bones, and reassemble the skeleton. For more children and more competition have several skeletons prepared, each a different colour. Then divide children into coloured teams and get them to try to find the bones of their team’s colour, assembling their skeleton before the other teams.

It Was A Dark And Stormy Night
This is great fun for children of all ages, and the adults may want to join in too! Get everyone to sit in a circle, and turn the lights off. Have a torch or a candle in the middle. It’s best if you’re using a torch to have this handed from person to person, with them holding it up under their chin for a spooky effect! The first person starts off by saying “It was a dark and stormy night”. They then carry on to complete the first sentence of a spooky story.

When they have finished their sentence they pass the torch to the next person who then makes up the second sentence of the story. Carry on going around the circle until the story either gets too ridiculous or people run out of ideas, and then begin again. Alternative beginnings can be suggested such as “The coffin lid slowly opened” or “Suddenly the lights all went out.” Use your imagination, and you’ll find the kids using theirs with much enthusiasm!

When planning your children’s birthday party make sure that you don’t just ask them what theme they’d like, and leave it at that. Try to gauge what they’re interested in, but do a little research first. Find out how easy it will be to source the various items you’ll need such as plates, cups, napkins, table covers and balloons.

If you find certain themes too expensive or too difficult to find items for them perhaps consider alternative themes. Once you have an idea of which themes are possible and affordable, then it will be all right to offer your child the chance to choose. Of course, if they say they’d like a Pirates of the Caribbean theme but your budget doesn’t stretch that far then consider choosing pirate themed products, perhaps just getting one or two Pirates of the Caribbean products. By combining official merchandise with generic items which tie in to a similar theme you can often find that your budget will stretch much further.

You can also think about alternative choices such as having a black table cover for a pirate theme. If you scatter a few gold coins across a black table you’ll be surprised just how quickly your pirate theme starts to come together, and often for a fraction of the price of using official products for every aspect of the party.

If you want to make sure that your child enjoys their party and feels thoroughly delighted and happy afterwards then the one big secret is to make sure that right from the very start they are actively involved in the entire process.

Now, some parents may baulk at this idea, imagining that involving their child in the process will either result in them spending their entire inheritance on a single event, or a series of tantrums and arguments as you gently explain that they simply can’t have everything they want because it’s too expensive. However, the reality is that if you involve your child from the very start then this does significantly increase the likelihood of them feeling that the whole event was one of the best parties ever.

By getting your child involved they can feel a sense of ownership and by helping to plan things such as having a theme, choosing an entertainer and the items for the party gift bags they will get as much excitement from the planning and the anticipation as the event itself, making the whole thing seem to last longer in their eyes. They’ll be able to look forward to sharing their ideas and plan with their friends on the day, and this will give them an extra sense of enjoyment.

Obviously this doesn’t work for very young children, or if you specifically want the party to be a complete surprise, but you’ll be surprised just how effective it can be to have your child play an active role in the planning process. It does greatly increase the chance of them turning to you afterwards and claiming that that really was the greatest party of their lives. Even if that’s only a span of time roughly equal to the credit term offered on a sofa.

Free Drink #1 – The Bottle & The £20 Note

For this betcha you need a beer bottle, one that’s preferably only just been finished with, and a paper note such as a £10 or £20 note. Place the note on the bar or table, and then tip the bottle upside down and balance it right on top of the note. The challenge is to try to remove the note without touching the bottle, and without the bottle tipping over. The usual way in which people try to do this is to hold one end of the note and then to pull really quickly.

Very occasionally you will find someone who manages this, which is why it’s always best to use a bottle that’s still slightly damp. This moisture will act like a kind of adhesive gluing the note to the lip of the bottle, making this attempt fail every time. Bet your friends a round of drinks that you can do it. After they’ve had a go themselves a few times they’ll be so desperate either to know the secret or for you to prove that it was impossible all along that they’ll probably be quite happy to go along with your wager. So how do you achieve this seemingly impossible feet?

The Secret

The secret is extremely simply. Take one end of the note and very slowly and carefully start to roll it up. Make sure you roll it nice and tightly then once you reach the bottle keep rolling. This will slowly and carefully push the bottle until the note is completely clear and you can simply pick it up, having never touched the bottle, and never let the bottle fall.

Free Drink #2 – The Pool Cue & Ball

Here’s a crafty betcha if you happen to be in a pub or bar anywhere which has a pool table. What you need to do is to clear the table completely (which for some people can be the hardest challenge of all) and then lay the pool cue across the middle of the table. Ideally the pool cue should about reach from one side to the other, but lying flat on the table – not resting on the sides. Next you take the cue ball and place it in either end of the table. The challenge is to roll the cue ball under the cue, but without touching the cue itself. Now, sit back and finish your beer or wine while you wait for your friends to come up with half a dozen bizarre theories.

The Secret

Your friends will probably want to pour your drink over you rather than buy you one, but the secret is both simple and entirely fair. Simply pick the cue ball up, bend down, and roll it under the table. In all fairness, you have indeed rolled the cue ball under the cue!

We hope you enjoy these entertaining little bar stunts and betchas. If you do manage to get yourself a few extra drinks, let us know – and don’t forget to have one for us!

What it also shows you of course is yet another way in which the Parteaz stock can be put to good use. In this case, face painting. We recently highlighted our wide selection of free face painting guides for children which, somewhat bizarrely, didn’t include any of the members of Kiss. However, feel free to use this video above to:

1. Be inspired to place an order for black and white face painting kits in order to dress up as Kiss and show us your own tribute
2. Show your kids who will be paying them a visit if they don’t tidy up their room. Right. This. Minute.

We should note that no video cameras were harmed in the making of this video, and that free counselling was made available to all crew members.

That’s the trouble with children’s parties. Most prizes seem to be edible. And fattening. Having won three games, the prize for each being a large chocolate bar, George then sits down to the inviting looking tea, which of course consists of more chocolate bars, crisps, cakes and biscuits. At the end of the party George is then handed an exciting party bag, containing a piece of heavily iced birthday cake and a few more chocolate bars. And then Mum wonders why she can’t get him off the ceiling for four hours afterwards.

By the way, did you know the UK is third in the world for obesity, with over a third of adults now clinically obese, and that the life expectancy in the UK is actually going down on average?

Anyway, on to happier things – party prizes. There must be an alternative to prizes which are gone and forgotten within seconds, and don’t help provide children with an entirely healthy diet. We know that handing George a nice stick of broccoli or a turnip isn’t likely to win you may favours as a party host, but we can provide a few alternatives.

For example, there’s our great looking winner’s medal on a beautiful striped ribbon, or our fabulous gold mini award trophy. For a movie inspired party there’s our Hollywood shooting star trophy award, and for the more creative of you, why not pick up our pack of 100 modelling balloons and pump and produce a few balloon models as prizes? Nobody ever got fat wearing a medal or carrying a deformed balloon dog.

In case you missed it, the trick goes like this: With any deck of cards at all you hand the pack out to an audience member to shuffle. They then select any twelve cards, without showing you. This is a completely free choice. You then place a prediction in the middle of the table, face down. This can either be on paper, or it could be a text message sent to someone’s phone for them to keep hidden until the end of the trick.

Once they have chosen their twelve cards they then choose four of these, and give the rest back to you to put with the rest of the deck. Next the volunteer lays their four cards out face up in front of them. Using the rest of the deck they deal enough cards onto each of the four cards to bring their value to 10. So if the first card was a 7 they’d deal 3 cards onto it; a 4 would need 6 cards and so on. Picture cards count as 10 so don’t need any extra cards.

Once they’ve done this they then add together the values of each of their selected four cards. So if they chose the 7 hearts, 4 clubs, 9 diamonds and Jack of spades they’d add up 7+4+9+10=30. They then deal 30 cards from the remainder of the pack, keeping the last card.

The prediction made at the beginning of the trick is then revealed, and the magician reminds everyone that the pack was shuffled by a spectator, that 12 cards were freely chosen, without the magician knowing any of them, and that four of these were finally selected, again completely freely. There seems no way the performer could possibly have known which card the volunteer would eventually select, yet when the card in the volunteer’s hand is turned over it is seen to exactly match the prediction!

So how is it done? It’s actually incredibly easy to do. Hand the pack to the spectator to shuffle, and then get them to choose any twelve cards without you seeing. When they hand the rest of the pack back to you, all you do is catch a sneak glimpse of the bottom card. This will be the card you predict. When they hand the 8 discarded cards back to you to add to the remainder of the pack, put these on the bottom of the deck. This makes your predicted card 9th from the bottom.

At this point maths takes over. Following the directions above the spectator will always arrive at the card 9th from bottom, which means you can predict it however you like and in complete confidence!

This is a very easy trick to do, which gives you the opportunity to really enjoy performing it, adding in whatever extra effect or drama you like. Just remember it’s best not to repeat this trick too soon, and of course never give away the secret! Have fun with this routine. If you do try to at one of your parties, why not drop us a line and tell us how you got on, and what the reaction of your audience was? You might even be tempted to use this trick to wager a round of drinks at the bar! Watch this space for more great party ideas, and lots more bar stunts and magic tricks to come.