Gloss How-To: Throwing Parties for Kids

Sometimes with the kids out of school , this season can feel like an endless summer . Celebrity party planner Jes Gordon has  three ideas for great kids parties to keep them busy and 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!

Dance ‘Til You Drop

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!

Ultimate Dance Party Volume 1 | USA Cheap Toys kids Baby

While many dance compilations try to please as many people as possible by combining as many different types of dance music as possible, all the songs on this CD work together wonderfully. The Amber song This Is Your Night is the highlight of this CD, but the songs by La Bouche, Taylor Dayne, Ace Of Base and Quad City DJs are huge party starters. The only annoying song here is the overplayed Macarena, but since it’s the last song on the CD you can easily skip it. Even if you think this CD is older, still get it because it’s still very enjoyable.

This is the best dance CD compilation on the market. There are no losers on this CD. It has the advantage of being the first and thus was able to pick from lots of great music, not just stuff that was offered during a 12 month period. It also doesn’t try to cross genres like Ultimate Dance 1999. (…) UD’97 is what it is, the original, a great dance compilation. (…)

This is a great compilation! 17 of the 90s greatest dance hits on one explosive cd! What could be better! Songs like “Missing”, “Where Do You Go?” and “Another Night” represent the earlier years of 90s dance. “Dreamer”, “I Like to Move It”, and “Boom Boom Boom” are defenite club hits! But among this vast list of party smashes are just a couple of ultimate hits. “Beautiful Life”, beautifully performed by the best group on the planet, Ace of Base, is one of them. The other is “C’mon & Ride It (The Train)” by one of the decade’s biggest dance acts, Quad City DJs. These two hits are for sure the biggest dance tracks ever! This is an amazing party cd (I bought it in summer 98, and this album helped me party on down!) and everyone who wants the biggest club hits of the 90s needs this cd!

Billboard

Schwann spectrum

The Advocate

Billboard

Billboard