Family Days Out in Summer

What is your favorite activity in summer? Do you prefer to travel, to lie in the sun or work as usual? Do you have time to spend it with your kids?

Lots of parents are so busy today and can hardly find time to spend with their kids altogether. And it is really a problem, because your children need your care and attention, notwithstanding your work, carrier and other endless “yes, darling, but…”

It should be born in parents’ minds that while spending time with their kids, they are sure to enjoy themselves and moreover, they don’t need much time or money to give the members of their families a bit more love, tenderness and care.

So, forget about one-in-a-year family holiday and do your best to spend time with your family in summer. It goes without saying that traveling and having family rest is a great opportunity, but even if you cannot find so much time due to your work or some other problems, you are sure to find from 2 to 4 hours a day to go with your kids to the park or to the nearest museum.

Popular indoor activities include laser quest, ice skating, bowling, going to the cinema, and if you are more of a great outdoors family then you are not short of options either. Popular outdoor activities include having a picnic, going on nature trails, walking and cycle rides, festivals (there are more new family orientated festivals starting up every year now that cater for the whole family), and not least forgetting the amusement parks (it’s not all about candy floss!) to name but a few.

So, as you see, you only need to have a strong desire to spend time with your family and there is nothing difficult in organizing your family days out. I believe that for normal and caring parents it is a matter of urgent importance to spend time with their kids, to show how they care and love… And, on the other hand, if parents are constantly at work and say to have no time for their families, I’d search for deeper reasons of such behavior…

Tips on speech delivering

Whenever we have to deliver a speech, that is to speak in front of a large audience, we feel nervous up to the point of trembling. It doesn’t happen to everybody; however, the majority of us do not possess this, sometimes so desired, gift of the gap. Still, in our life there appear moments, when we have to speak. What to do??? To drink sedatives and look like a robot without feelings and emotions or better try to pull oneself together and be absolutely ready for this event? Let’s consider the second variant…

Get ready: morally, physically. Good preparation and planning will give you the confidence to deliver your speech. This will calm your nerves and make the experience more pleasurable. Preparation, planning and practice are absolutely vital to the success of your speech. If you are not used to delivering speeches, practice your speech at home in front of the mirror – thus, you’ll be able to analyze your mimic, your gesture and the way you present the speech. You may do the same procedure with someone you completely trust.

Remain yourself – do not try to imitate your favorite orator or comic (especially, if your speech is far from being funny).

Make a good and thought over presentation of your speech, don’t forget to introduce yourself.

Even if you possess phenomenal memory, make some notes of your speech. This may be a full record of every detail you are going to mention, just a brief plan, including main ideas, or cards with main theses of your speech.

When it comes to delivering your speech, you should:
1. Use a microphone, if the room is too large. Never try to shout to be heard.
2. Pausing at the end of a point can be a powerful statement. Allow for responses such as laughter, sighs, gasps and other emotional responses.
3. Make eye contact with your audience, but try not to speak to every person in the room as you can not make eye contact with everyone. Select a few key people/ positions in the room, and address these positions to give the impression that you are speaking to the whole audience.
4. Make sure you pace the speech and do not race through it as it will appear as though you cannot wait to finish. Speak distinctly, in normal tempo, making sure that everybody understands you.
5. Try being animated when delivering your speech. Avoid using one tone of voice as you will put people to sleep. Vary the emotional emphasis and your speech will hold the listeners interest. If possible, use some visual aids for making the audience interested in what you are speaking about.

Always set your mind to something positive and be sure that your speech will be the best!

Unbelievable summer party ideas

If you don’t know what to do during hot summer weekends, these summer party ideas are just for you. A bit of fantasy, desire to enjoy yourself and do something pleasant for your family will make even the most unbelievable ideas possible.

For an outside party in high summer give preference to Provencal style. Try to find or hire in rustic furniture, cover your tables with Provencal fabric, hang bunches of lavender tied with lavender raffia to the back of the chairs and use great bowls of lemons or cherries as table centers. Serve sticks of French bread, smelly cheeses, olives, huge bowls of tossed salad, gallons of red wine and lashings of strawberries and cream!

Light the walkway to your venue with a series of flaming Olympic torches - these are not genuine flames but very realistic simulated fabric flames powered by electric fans.

For adding personal touch to your party and in order to avoid routine, have a Hawaiian style barbecue with barbecued seafood, which can include crab and lobster and small roasted exotic vegetables, followed by tropical fruit and ice-cream. Give all your guests grass skirts and tropical flower leys. Cooking outside on a barbecue should be well away from where guests can inhale smoke and fumes. Try to make the food adventurous with lots of exotic salads and side dishes to complement the meat.

Hire an ice bar to stand near the dance floor. This is a really great gimmick to cool down vigorous dancers. Both the bar and glasses are made of solid ice and if lit from behind with coloured lights the effect is absolutely stunning.

Place tall glass vases around the room filled with submerged seashells and orchids, which can be held, as if suspended under water, by the employment of thick clear but invisible cellophane.

If you are anticipating a hot weather, place a small decorative fan at each table setting.

Instead of the normal champagne reception, employ a talented barman or two to run a Caribbean-style cocktail bar. Be inventive, as well as exotic cocktails use lots of different flavoured ice cubes and fresh fruit in beautifully decorated bowls with non-alcoholic punch for children and elderly relatives.

For midsummer parties in a marquee, where it can get horribly stuffy, strategically place great bowls of coloured ice-cubes around the perimeter of the marquee. Make sure you use food colorings in case people are so hot they decide to suck the ice cubes. The cubes can be coloured to complement your flowers etc. An alternative idea to coloring is to freeze a small rose-head in each cube.

If you are serving a fruit punch adorn it with slices of strawberry and ice cubes with a rose petal frozen into the centre of each one.

To keep your guests extra cool purchase tiny lemon-coloured flannels, soak these in water with a few drops of lemon oil added, then offer these refreshing aids to guests, hot and bothered from high activity on the dance floor. The trick here is not to offer these refresher pads from an ordinary bowl but from an ice bowl made with pieces of lemon frozen into the sides.

Freeze small fruits, like grapes and strawberries, for a quick refresher.

Hire a bubble machine to add froth and fun on the dance floor.

A really cool effect can be achieved by hiring dramatic water effects from lavish fountains to waterfalls.

Finally why not hold a beach themed party, either inside or in your backyard. You can replace chairs with sand and beach mats or a few park benches and have some polystyrene boulders, large seashells and beach pebbles lying around. Put up a few beach umbrellas and use seaside posters on prominent walls. Add a surf board to the décor and have sea sounds CDs playing. Keep the party dress code for the beach and serve a selection of seafood and lots of cool fruity drinks. A good touch would be to hire a real ice cream stall for guests to have a seaside cornet when they wanted.

Planning a picnic…

Feeling like going on a picnic? Great! And be sure that nothing can spoil your intention to have rest and spend time with your family or with your friends outdoors. You think, it will need much time to plan your rest, buy food and think up what you can do out there? You may not bother at all! What you really need is to get up in the morning, look through the window, smile to the shining sun and look forward to the coming weekend!

Now you may not even bother about food – on your way drop in into the supermarket and buy something appropriate for your picnic. Besides, if you have a picnic hamper with all necessary things like plates, plastic glasses, cutlery, bottle opener, and even napkins, you have everything you need for complete comfort! If not, take what you consider necessary, don’t forget about games – if you are going with children, involve them in the process of packing – they will pack badminton, croquet etc., or collecting the family’s swimming or sports gear with more pleasure than doing their rooms.

If you are going to organize a kind of a party outdoors, you’ll need more planning. If everything is planed in advance, you’ll be less stressed and everyone present will enjoy themselves much more. What you need to think up:

· Date – you can have picnics any time of the year
· Time – daytime or evening – or even a night out under the stars
· Reason – there doesn’t have to be one!
· Theme – choose one or relax just being eager to spend time in leonine doze.
· Location – close to home or further away, by the sea or in the country. Choose some really picturesque spot not to have to breathe traffic fumes.
· Weather - Do you know if it’s likely to be hot, warm, humid, windy, cloudy? Is rain a possibility? Even if it is so, a bit of planning will save your weekend and your mood.
· Who will you invite? Will you have invitations? If yes, what kinds? If you want some kind of help from your guests, write it down in your invitation cards in detail.
· Don’t forget the food and picnic equipment!

The season of numerous vacations is on the threshold. Do not spend this great time in stuffy offices working, working and working! Make spontaneous decisions and go out closer to the nature – enjoy it in full, but don’t forget to clean everything after your visit – nature doesn’t like ungrateful guests!

Kiss and Get Kisses in Return!

Humans’ imagination is very rich on different events, holidays and traditions. People always wanted and needed something to eat and something to entertain themselves. Perhaps, this is another reason for abundance of holidays and special days we have every month all year long. But even if it is so, we have nothing to complaint of – just on the contrary, we are glad to have another opportunity to have some fun and spend more time with our friends and close people.

The 28^th of April is such a day – Kiss Your Mate Day! Even if you don’t need a special day to kiss your mate, let it be another opportunity for keeping romance and intimacy in your relations. It goes without saying that kissing is not only extremely pleasant – it is also very healthy! If you kiss regularly, you’ll avoid wrinkles; have better mood and positive attitude to life! Once one of my lectures said, “If you grumble and are in a bad mood, it means, nobody kisses you”! There is sense in his words, isn’t there?

So, I’m sure you know that kissing is appropriate always and everywhere. Here are some tips and traditions of this holiday.

· There is no upper limit to the number of times you can kiss your mate today.

· There is no upper limit to the number of kisses you can share today.

· It is highly recommended that you limit your kisses to just one mate.

· If you don't have a mate, it's alright to kiss someone who is not formally your mate.... Hey, you never know. This day may be a beginning.......

· You can kiss your mate wherever you want (location/place).

· You can kiss your mate wherever you want (anatomically speaking)

· Giving candy or flowers is not required. But, we suggest that those who do will receive more kisses.

Kiss and get kisses in return, get more positive emotions, have Kiss Your Mate Day, Love Your Mate Day, Take Care of Your Mate Day… of your own. Take care of your relationships, and this day will become a good tradition in your family!!!

It’s time you fell in love with Garlic!

You don’t like garlic??? I’ll pretend not to hear you! Why? Because today we celebrate the National Garlic day! Perhaps, it is not the best day to kiss your better half, but it is sure to be a great opportunity to fight against microbes. Used across the world for millennia, both for culinary and medicinal purposes, garlic has been successful in treating wounds, infections and intestinal parasites. It's even mentioned in Egyptian hieroglyphs!

Today many scientists have concluded from the results of numerous clinical trials, that garlic has anti-bacterial properties and helps lower cholesterol and blood pressure. It also contains allyl sulfur compounds and these are currently being studied by the National Cancer Institute for their ability to slow or prevent the growth of tumor cells, which may prove effective in fighting certain cancers.

Cooking wise, it's worth noting that the smaller you chop garlic, the more pungent it becomes. Garlic which has been through a garlic press is 10 times stronger than garlic which has been chopped with a knife. So, if you want a milder tasting dish, either add whole of halved cloves.

Garlic is also well known in repelling vampires, curing warts and protecting against the plague!

Whilst National Garlic Day seems to be an American invention, this awesome little bulb merits being celebrated the world over. Celebrate National Garlic Day by using it heavily in your meals and snacks today. Spend some time researching its medical benefits. You might find you are adding more garlic to your menu everyday.

Garlic Linguine with Mushrooms

Vegetarian Main Course Serves 4 Prep and cooking time 20 minutes

Ingredients

Salt

Water

450g/1lb Linguine

25g/1oz Butter90ml/

3fl.oz. Olive Oil

4 Garlic Cloves, thinly sliced

450g/1lb Mushrooms, sliced

2 tbsp freshly chopped Parsley Black Pepper

Instructions

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil.

2. Add plenty of salt and the linguine and cook for 8-10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, heat the oil and garlic in a saucepan then add the mushrooms and sauté gently until golden, stirring from time to time.

4. Add the parsley, salt and pepper to the mushroom mixture and mix well.

5. Drain the cooked pasta well, return to the rinsed out pan and stir in the oil and garlic mixture, tossing to coat well. Serve immediately.

Garlic Artichoke Dip
Ingredients
1 cup marinated artichoke hearts - drained, finely chopped
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup mayonnaise
1 small can chopped green chile peppers
4 cloves of fresh California-grown garlic - crushed
Mix all ingredients in bowl, spoon into baking dish and bake for 20 minutes at 350x. Serve warm or cold on crackers or bread.

Tired to do the chores? Quit… for today!

Every month of the year seems to have some holidays or any other reasons for celebration. We are glad because of this, ‘cause we get a chance to relax a little bit, forget about our problems and troubles and spend time with our friends, relatives, family etc. If you think that All Fools’ Day is the only holiday April can boast of, you are mistaken!

I’m glad to announce that you may do nothing about the house today! Why? Because today we celebrate No Housework Day! The origin of this holiday (yes, I really mean it!) it still unknown. Perhaps, one day a person decided that he/she is sick and tired of all this routine work and arranged a day off! In any case we can be glad we have this nice tradition!

The majority of women who do the chores will say that this is the most thankless job. It often goes unrecognized and worst of all.....is taken for granted. Usually men do not appreciate all that amount of work their spouses do about the house. There is at least one day of the year, when they can revenge. There are two ways of celebrating this holiday. If you normally do the housework around the house, cease and desist for this day. Instead, kick back and enjoy the day. Relax and do anything, except housework.

If you are a spouse or significant other, do the housework for your mate. It gives her (or him) a break from the housework. And, you just might get an appreciation of how much work it takes to keep up the house.

Perhaps, it would be nice to have such a day at least once a month – but who said, we couldn’t create such a holiday on our own? Remember the saying, “all work and no game made Jack a dull boy”? I mean not only daily routine here. Do not forget about rest and life around you! Have a nice No Housework Day!

Some funny tricks for the coming holiday

The first of April is marked in our calendar as All Fools’ Day. It is this very day when we like to play tricks on our friends, relatives and colleagues. For such a long history of this holiday, there appeared lots of different tricks, pranks and practical jokes. Here are some of them for your good preparation for the coming holiday.

· Rearrange somebody's drawers or file cabinets in a different order and see them baffled.
· Hard boil an egg and place it in the regular egg carton the night before. In the morning, ask someone to help you make breakfast and beat the egg to make omelets. Hand them the hard-boiled egg and watch them trying to crack it!
· On the other hand, you may just glue the eggs to the carton and ask someone to hand them to you in the morning. As the victims struggle to take the eggs out of the carton, they break.

There are lots of fantastic tricks for heavy sleepers. Some of the popular ones are:

· Draw funny eyebrows and moustache on their faces while they are asleep.
· Place some whipped cream in their hands and tickle their nose with a feather.
· Placing someone's hand while they are asleep in a bowl of cold water is a sure way to make them wet their beds.

· This one is to play Dr Doolittle. Tape a little walky-talky on your pet or hide it somewhere near where it is laying. Walk off to a safe distance where you can keep yourself hidden from others with the other piece. As soon as another family member tries to pick up or pat on the back of your pet, say in a gruff voice, "I hate you doing this to me." See them jump with fright and shock.
· Late at night, fill the hair-dryer with baby powder. Catch the expression of someone who has just washed his or her hair and turned it white by using the hair dryer.
· This can be done in class, office or home. Ask your friends, colleagues and siblings to perform particular actions together at the same pre-planned time like dropping their pencils at the same time, to tie shoelaces, to reboot their computers, to drink water or any such innocent actions. These synchronized actions are sure to surprise anybody who will wonder about what is happening.
· Good for teachers. Tell your students that you are just going to note the scores that they have got on their tests or exams and will hand out to them after an hour. Go to the room and them keep running out looking like very scared and tell them that the principal has just spilled coffee or ink on the test/examination papers and they will have to take them again. Note their reactions and exclamations. You can bet that the dullest of all students will loudly claim that they had done their best this time and it is not fair to them. Then you can tell them how much they have really scored.
· If you are good at graphic designing, this one is for you. Make fake parking tickets or buy them from the market and put it on the cruisers and bikes of the traffic police officers who take liberty and park their vehicles in no parking zones. Make sure that you or your vehicle are not watched or can be traced back.
· Put an elastic band around the push button of the sprayer in the sink and make it face towards where the person stands. Similarly, you can turn the showerhead towards the spot where a person stands and. As soon as the next person turns them on, they will get all soaked. Be sure not to forget that you don't get soaked yourself.
· An easy way to fool others is to tape down the click-button of the phone with a transparent tape so that whenever someone picks up the phone to receive an incoming call, it still keeps ringing. Works only on landlines.
· Try it with your teenaged kids. Set the alarm clock for 3:00 a.m. and hide it under their beds. See them tearing down their room in a sleepy fit to shut it up.
· Take an orange. Slit it at the bottom and use a needle to take its pulp out through the slit. Thinly slice an apple and insert it carefully inside, arranging it with the help of the needle. Offer the orange to the friends when they call at your home and peel it for them. See them gasp in surprise when they see the apple slices instead of orange pulp. Needs skill.
· Squeeze a banana softly until it becomes very soft and using a needle make some holes in its black spots so that they cannot be seen easily. Ask someone to hand you the banana and watch them as the smashed pulp comes pouring out!
· Put toothpaste/shaving cream/whipped cram or any such thing in the socks of your roommates. Make an escape before they try them on.
· Add yellow or beige food coloring to the milk to make it look like rotten milk. Works every time someone pours out the milk and is stunned to find it rotten.
· Make a small hole just below the edge in the plastic disposable cups. Offer juice or some other drink to your guests in a way that they would pick it up with the hole facing them. As soon as they will try to drink, the liquid will spill on them through the hole.

You are sure to have some tricks of your own which always work for you. If you do want to try something new this spring, choose one of suggested above. The most important thing is not to offend or spoil anybody’s mood by your innocent jokes. Do not forget about it as well.

Easter activities for children

Easter is considered to be one of the most important Christian Holidays. The resurrection of Christ is celebrated all over the Christian world with slight difference in the date of celebration. But it is not so important when we celebrate the holiday of God, Love, Forgiveness and Good. We want to believe that God still cares for us and won’t leave us in peril. Unfortunately, not all Easter traditions are still being observed. Very often we forget what kind of holiday we celebrate – it is enough for us just to have another holiday. I wish we were not so ignorant and indifferent!

The most important thing is to explain our children the origin of this holiday and its major symbols and traditions. To make the holiday closer to hearts of your kids, there are some games ideas for them:

1. An egg decorating competition with boiled eggs! It may be even more interesting if you take part in this game! This is a fun game, however if there is to be a winner there is going to be a loser, kids do not like losing so have some extra treats to give those who were not chosen for first prize.

2. Egg Rolling is commonly popular at this time. You need hard boiled eggs and a spoon. You can either have the children roll the egg along the ground to the finishing line or have them balance the egg on the spoon.

3. Have a baking competition so as to speak, you the hostess bake sponge cakes and have the children decorate them. Place before them bowls of hundreds and thousands, jelly beans, cream, piped icing etc. This game will give so much pleasure to the Easter baker and eaters, (kids). Have a video camera to hand for all events so you can look back and enjoy every Easter moment.

4. Make sure to have different types of music, although we celebrate the resurrection of Christ - the kids may not see this quite as important for their party until older and may want to sing or dance to nursery rhymes like Humpty Dumpty as opposed to 5 little ducks (chicks) went out one day.

Remember that all you do or don’t do is reflected in your children. Do not neglect them and their upbringing – spend more time with your kids, have parties, holidays and games with them – especially in such a day – Easter.

Have a great holiday, enjoy yourself and give joy to people who are close to you!

St. Patrick’s Day coming…

Tomorrow the whole world will be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. Today I’d like to dedicate my article to some Irish traditions of celebrating this holiday. Because it is well-known that this holiday has Irish roots and Irish origin. Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated to honor Saint Patrick, a missionary credited with converting the Irish to Christianity. It is believed that he was not even Irish. Some say he was born in either Scotland or in Roman Britain. When he was around 60 years old, St. Patrick traveled to Ireland and spread the Christian word.

This holiday, as well as many others, has its own symbols. The shamrock is one of Ireland's most famous symbols. It is said that Saint Patrick used the shamrock, or seamorg, and its 3 leaves to explain the concept of the Trinity - the father, son, and the Holy Spirit. It is true that the shamrock is associated with good luck, thus, in order to become happy and have luck all year long, many people wear shamrocks on St. Patrick's Day.

Another symbol of Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day is Leprechaun. The legendary leprechaun is an elf-like creature. In most representations he looks like a small, old man. Leprechauns like to spend their time alone making shoes. They live in the woods and hide from everyone, but maybe this has something to do with their mysterious pots of gold! The leprechauns are said to keep their pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. Some stories say if a leprechaun likes you, he will share his gold. Others stories say you must catch a leprechaun, and then he will take you to his pot of gold. During the holiday you can try to lure him to you and grab him, or you can try to build a Leprechaun trap to capture him in. If you are lucky enough to capture a Leprechaun, your work is not done yet! Legend says you cannot take your eyes of the Leprechaun for even a second or he will disappear. The first thing you should do is to build a trap and lure a leprechaun into it. There is not a sure-fire way of doing it – you may use all kinds of things you have and which, to your mind, can be of good avail. Do not forget about bait – for greedy leprechauns coins will be the best baits, either real or sweet chocolate. There is no guarantee you will catch this mysterious elf, but you are sure to have much fun!

Besides, as far as the story goes, St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland and into the sea. He did this by beating on a drum. It was believed that snakes were a symbol of evil and by driving them away St. Patrick helped to rid Ireland of evil.

You are sure to have heard about Blarney Stone, haven’t you? The amazing news is that it does exist! It is set in the wall of the Blarney Castle in the Irish village of Blarney. You can visit and kiss the Blarney stone, but it is not an easy fete. To reach the Blarney stone, you must lie down on your back and bend your head backwards and downwards to reach it. It is said that kissing the Blarney Stone will give you the gift of blarney, or speaking convincingly to all you meet! If you want to try your luck, do not allow anybody stop you!

Apart from symbols of this holiday you also should know what basic meals of the holiday are and what people in Ireland will eat this very day. Most will start the day with a good old Irish Breakfast: fried rashers of bacon, fried sausage, fried black pudding, fried tomato, and a fried egg. If that's not enough, you can always go one step further and have an Ulster Fry. It's the bread that makes it special: fried potato bread made out of yesterday's leftover spuds and fried soda farls to boot.

Irish stew is part and parcel of holiday menu in many restaurants and homes, as broths and stews are the cornerstone of Irish gastronomy. There's no disputing that it is still one of the best casserole dishes in the entire world.

Everyone knows that the Irish are fond of the potato. They talk about last year's potatoes, this season's potatoes, great potato vintages--people in Ireland talk about potatoes the way the French talk about wine. Potatoes dishes such as Colcannon and Champ, therefore, are always popular choices.

Colcannon (from the Gaelic word cole, meaning cabbage) is made of cabbage that has been cooked in milk and blended with buttery mashed potatoes. It's traditionally served in a fluffy pile with a sort of well in the centre that's filled with even more melted butter for dipping each forkful into. Champ is more favored in the Northern counties of Ireland. It's equally heavenly in taste; the only difference is it's made with scallions.

So you my cook some of these dishes and enjoy St. Patrick’s Day as if in Ireland! Have fun and enjoy the holiday!

Add more light to your party!

If you are tired of all ordinary methods of decoration, you may go ahead with some new ideas. The market offers thousands of ideas for party decoration. Each of them, however, needs personal approach and your own creative interpretation.

Why not, for instance, use glow sticks for your party decoration? Instead of ordinary balloons you may activate a glow stick and place it inside the balloon. Now you don't just have a balloon, you have a balloon that also glows in the dark. For getting the desired effect you may use the same color of the stick and of the balloon. Perfect for decorating the walls and ceilings and they will still be glowing well after your guests have left.

Besides, if you have brought some glow bracelets in tubes of 50 you should find that the end caps from the tubes double up as glowball connectors. You may make up some glowballs using the connectors and use them as table center pieces or as lanterns and hang them from the walls or ceiling. These will add your party cool atmosphere and won’t leave your guests indifferent.

Another idea for table center piece is to use a larger glow stick, pop them into a candle holder and you have an instant table light. They not only look great and give out a nice relaxing glow but they are safer than candles too. If you don't have any candle holders try using some tall slim glasses. Use a blob of play dough on the end of the glow stick, pop it into the glass and stick it to the bottom.

Just a bit of your imagination will help you to make a nice surprise for your guests and enjoy your own work immensely!

Never part with your sweet-hearts…

I know people, who claim that St. Valentine’s Day has nothing to do with romance and love due to its pagan origin. I am not much of a historian, but frankly speaking, I am not even interested that much in direct meaning of this holiday. Perhaps, some one will criticize me, but I’m glad to have this holiday and to celebrate it with a person I like and care for.

Isn’t it wonderful to awake your sweet-heart by a romantic message (if you are not with her at the moment) or present her with a bunch of flowers, or cook breakfast for her, or spend a couple of hours looking for a gift or… I may continue this list for hours.

Do we really need to analyse the roots of the holiday, searching for more and more details??? What for? Can’t we simply enjoy this excellent opportunity to say “Darling! I’m so happy to be with you! I love you so much!” and to here the same words? Isn’t it worth living for? Can’t this be the sense of our life, but not money, endless attempts to earn more and more?

I wish this holiday could be celebrated more that once a year. Unfortunately in this every day struggle we tend to forget about more important things, which really make our life filled with deep sense. Job can bring us money, money can bring us power, fame and other privileges, but it can not make us happy and loved. And without love we cannot be happy! As pathetic it may sound, but I really think so and live according to this principle.

To cut the long story short, I want to wish all of us love, care, tenderness and understanding. Those who have it all, do not make a mistake and never lose hold of it and those who are still single, never give up – love is waiting for you and is looking for an appropriate moment to enter your life and stay there forever!

Let St. Valentine protect you and your love…

This old nice St. Valentine’s Day…

Do you know any traditions connected with St. Valentine’s Day? This holiday is known for many centuries. In some countries it is one of the most favourite ones, in others it is considered to be pagan and is not celebrated. We, however, do not consider this holiday to be out of place and are simply glad to have one more opportunity to say “I love you”.

If this holiday has long history, it means that it was celebrated in different times and in different places differently.

May be you know, that in Wales wooden love spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favourite decorations on the spoons. The decoration meant, "You unlock my heart!"

It is interesting to know that in the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. Since that time “to wear your heart on your sleeve” means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

In some countries exists a tradition to present your girl-friend with a piece of clothes. If the girl took the present, it means she is ready to marry you.

Some people used to believe that if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine's Day, it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be very happy. If she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a millionaire. So be attentive and try to notice everything during this day. Perhaps, your destiny has a present for you :-) .

Traditionally, if a young female is curious enough...and brave enough...she can conjure-up the appearance of her future spouse by visiting a graveyard at midnight on the Eve of Saint Valentine's Day and singing a prescribed chant while running around the church twelve times.

In Britain and Italy, some unmarried women would rise before sunrise on Valentine's Day and stand by the window watching for a man to pass. It was believed that the first man seen...or someone who looked very much like him...would be their husband within a year.

In Denmark, it is customary to send pressed white flowers called snowdrops to friends.

For a lady to sleep with a sprig of rosemary pinned inside the pillow on the Eve of Valentine's Day was once thought to encourage dreams of a future sweetheart's face.

These and many others customs and traditions bring us closer to this nice holiday of everybody, who is in love or is eager to fall in love and find his/her better half. In doesn’t mean much, whether you believe in these superstitions or not, whether you will try to find out the name of your sweet-heart (if you still haven’t one) or not. Just try to add to your life more romance, tenderness and care. Another tradition of this holiday says that to be awoken by a kiss on Valentine's Day is considered lucky, thus, do not hesitate and don’t forget to tell your sweet heart about this nice custom. I wish, it were so every day…

Choose presents for him and for her on St. Valentine’s Day

Looking for a present is always a difficult task, especially if you want to do something pleasant for your sweet-heart. The choice of a present needs much consideration and thinking. Even if you know a person quite well, the choice is not less difficult, because you wish to touch his/her heart with your present.

If choosing a gift for him, you may either make it on your own, or buy it, taking into account his interests and hobbies. Sure thing, the present, made on your own, will be unforgettable. So if you can do something of the kind, even don’t think whether you should do it – you should! Moreover, you still have some time! In case you are creative and have the skill you can knit a sweater or muffler, paint a portrait, prepare a memorable photo-album with pictures of you two or trace his life from birth through pictures. This gift will be forever in his memory!
If you’ve made up your mind to buy a present, think of what your boyfriend or husband wants. Perhaps, he has told you about something, perhaps, it is the time you could make his dreams come true… You may go in for general Valentines Day Gifts for men like wallets, wrist watches, shirts, perfumes, chocolate hampers, sweets etc. If nothing good comes to your mind, you may simply organize a romantic date, cook supper, use candles and… your romantic date will slowly move into romantic night. By the way, if men say, that they don/t like romance, they are not quite frank. Just nobody made them feel how great it is! Deep in their hearts they are real romantics…

The case is more difficult with women… Women like nobody else will try to guess what they may get from you for this occasion. Thus, it usually takes much effort in order your choice not to result in abject failure. While choosing a present for her, keep all you know about your sweet-heart in mind! Her favorite color, her favorite accessories etc. Besides, a woman is likely to make a hint of what kind of present she wants to get. Be careful and keep your eyes peeled – she will tell you about her desires. In case you are still not able to decide there are some general Valentine's Day Gifts like jewelry and jewelry box, hand bags, fresh flowers, teddy bears, chocolates and cards. Do not turn buying present into a real torture, do it with pleasure, think how she will be glad to get what you have got for her… Even if you don’t have millions to buy her a star, she will be pleased with a teddy bear. The only condition – you should do it sincerely, with all your love…

Generally speaking, I’d like to say, that it is not so important what present you will buy. More important is that you should be eager to do something pleasant for the person you love, to make a nice surprise, to organize a date of your dream even if you have been living together for 25 years. Your care, tenderness and love will surely do their business…

Valentine’s Day… It is never late… to start getting ready for the holiday!

Even if we still have some time till the most favorite holiday of all who are in love, Valentines’ Day, I’d like to speak about it beforehand, so that you have enough time to arrange everything and make your sweetheart a nice surprise for this holiday.

Today we’ll speak about DECORATION.

Party Colors. If you are organizing a party, consider the colors of this holiday: these are usually red (sure thing, the color of love), white and pink. It would be a nice idea to decorate your flat using these colors, you may also use candles, balloons and other heart-shaped nick-necks. Your guests may also attribute to the whole theme and wear costumes with the colors of this holiday. Even if you are going to have a romantic date, you will only win with these colors, waking passion and desire in your partner!

Decoration with flowers. This variant will be especially appropriate for a romantic date. Decorate the flat (don’t forget about the bed!) with white and red roses. The effect will be simply wow!!!

Decoration with Cupid. As a symbol of this holiday and of love in general, Cupid will be welcomed at every party. Imagine, what fun it will be if one of the guests comes in the costume of Cupid and tries to arrange some love-affairs! Consider it… What if you have been waiting for him? No one knows what can change our life in a matter of seconds!

Decoration with Hearts. I cannot imagine Valentine’s Day without hearts! This is actually the most important thing in the process of decoration. You may take heart-shaped balloons, cards and make your invitation cards also heart-shaped. Complete freedom of action here!

Lights for the party. You are eager to surprise your sweet-heart? You are dreaming of having a romantic date? Then see to it that you have enough red, pink and white candles to decorate your room. Don’t forget about safety!

Table decoration. Depending on what kind of party you are going to have, you may also decorate your table. For instance, cover the table with a white or red tablecloth and arrange some cards, heart-shaped pictures and candy kisses. Chairs may be decorated with pink tulle and a fluffy bow may be tied at the back.

Next time, we’ll discuss some other things; we should keep in mind for organizing a nice, romantic unforgettable celebration.

No Magic for children below 3?

All children seem to like magic. They believe into Santa and cannot imagine their lives without fairy-tales. According to this their parents try to bring as much magic as possible into the life of their children. For this very reason, they invite professional magicians as entertainers to their children’s birthday parties.

But some professionals in this sphere claim that a magician is not actually a good choice for children that are too young, specifically children aged 3 years and below. Why? There are several reasons that explain this point of view, but they are all based on the point that children aged 3 and below have quite a different perception of reality and their environment than adults. Thus, they have difficulty in understanding magic. Having no life experience and possessing no knowledge of physics, they take magic “for granted”, “as a matter of fact thing” as opposed to an impossible occurrence.

Moreover, children below the ages of 3 have difficulty following elaborate sequence of events or complicated actions that are supposed to mean something. This is simply because they have not developed the mental faculty needed to understand such activity. And because of this, when they are to follow the sequence of some actions that are to mean something, they get lost and fail to understand the effect achieved by means of magic.

Another reason to prove this point of view is that small children cannot be attentive for a long period of time – a birthday party show usually lasts for 30 – 45 minutes and for a child of 3 it is a real torture to sit still all this time especially if he/she doesn’t understand what’s going on!

But it is also important to admit, that this is not a rule, but rather an exception. There are professionals-magicians, who work with such small kids, and create their shows taking into account all those things and reasons. They will often use colorful props, large movements, lots of action, pantomime and perform very direct and easy-to-understand magic effects. For instance, children are sure to like when a stuffed toy or teddy bear starts speaking. Even though they are young, they do find it interesting that a “Creature” is making sounds and moves. Balloons and balloon animals can be good for very young children as long as they do not put un-inflated balloons or even parts of the balloon in their mouths. Take note that a bursting balloon may also scare children. However, because balloons are colorful and long balloons can be twisted into interesting shapes, young children are also intrigued by them.

So, next time before organizing a birthday party for your child, take all these things into account and if you are still eager to have some magic, see to it, that your magician is a real professional in this sphere.

Bachelorette Party Game Ideas

What can make a bachelorette party exciting, interesting and unforgettable for the bride and for all the guests? Sure thing, proper organization and well thought-out scenario. The main thing is to see to it that your guests are not bored. For the purpose of entertaining your guests and yourself there are some games, special for this occasion.

Stripper Quiz
Stripper is part and parcel of every bachelorette party. Why not making a quiz after he has left the house? Ask your guests if they remember some details about him: "What was the stripper's name?" "What time did he arrive?" "What was he wearing before he took everything off?" "Did he have chest hair?" "What was the first song he danced to?" etc… A person, who answers the majority of questions correctly, wins.

Love is
To play this game you need index cards and markers; write down 25 sexy and romantic words like lips, roses, wine, candles etc. On other 25 cards write non-romantic images, like bikini wax, nose hair, motor oil and so on. Your guests should get two cards – romantic and non-romantic. Their task is to write a silly love poem, using suggested words, e.g. "Roses are red, they make me hot! Your eyes are sexy, your nose hairs are not!"

Truth or Dare
Everybody knows and loves this game of truth or dare. Here it is a bachelorette variation of it. Buy enough balloons for each guest, write truth and dare options on small cards and put them into the balloons, blow up the balloons. At the party give a balloon to each guest and have fun of doing a truth or dare.

Trivia
By means of this game you may check how well your guests know the bride and the groom. You simply ask questions like "Where did the couple go on their first date?" "How long before the wedding did the bride cut the groom off from sex?" "How long was it between the couple's first meeting and their 1st tumble in the sack?" There sure to be a person who knows more about the couple – she gets the prize.

The Condom Queen Game
You are eager to relax and to have fun, don’t you? Play the following game. Take lubricated condoms, ripe bananas, hand lotion and a box of condoms. Before the game, unwrap condoms and put them on the top of bananas, divide your guests into two teams and give each team one banana with an unrolled condom on the tip of it. Then put a large squirt of hand lotion into the palm of each player's dominant hand, on the count of three the first player must unroll the condom down onto the banana then roll it back up again, each member of the team does it by turn. When the last player is finished, she must wave the condom and the banana in the air while the whole team shouts, "We are the Condom Queens!" By playing this game you may not only have fun, but also find out who is skilled in the art of love!

As far as the presents are concerned, these may be condoms, Gift Certificate for Exotic Dancing Lessons and other naughty prizes you are sure your guests will like. Have fun and enjoy yourself!!!

Party invitation cards for different occasions

Christmas holidays are over, but it doesn’t mean we are not willing to have fun and entertain ourselves till the next year! Life continues, it goes its usual course and in order to add more excitement and joy to it, we are sure to have different types of parties. But each party begins with an invitation, which not only indicates the theme of your celebration, but also specifies it and adds a personal touch to your fancy. Here are some ideas for your invitation cards for different occasions.

If you are going to have a Tea Party (which have become extremely popular recently, because they allow to relax with a cup of tea and chat with your friends), you may add some flowers, pictures or tea itself to your invitations. Tea Party as well as all the rest types of parties may be formal and more intimate. Taking this fact into account, you can choose (create) your own invitation card suitable for this very occasion.

If it is going to be a party for children, you should also think about invitations. Usually, invitation cards for children are rather cute and simple, but at the same time some of them have unique and rather interesting design. If you come across such a card, don’t forget to buy it!
Especially, if it is Sweet 16 Party. This party is very special, because it means for the Sweet 16 birthday girl her approach to the womanhood! The latest fashion in designing your Sweet 16 invitation cards is adding photos to it – this will make the expectation and memories more bright and personal! Besides, write a message you consider to be important, and don’t forget about Sweet 16 birthday thank you cards!

Surprise party invitation cards have also their own specific character. The main thing is that the birthday boy or girl are not engaged in creating these cards, for this purpose you may use his/her address book. Depending on how you are going to organize your surprise party; your invitation cards will contain different messages and will have different content.

If you, your children or friends are fond of sports, you can organize a Sports Party. A number of appropriate invitations can be found on websites dedicated to sports. You may choose one of them and add some personal touch by choosing a nice saying about sports or putting a picture of your favorite sportsman!

Retirement Party invitations are sure to have a personal touch as well! If will look great if you add a picture of a retiree as a child and subscribe it like, Look, who’s retiring!!! Besides, you may use some other photos of the retiree and subscribe them in a different funny way! Depending on the theme of the party, write appropriate message into your card!

As I have already mentioned, a bit of fantasy and your burning desire to organize a real hit will do their own business and despite the fact, what kind of party it is, you are sure to have the best party ever possible!!!