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!!!

"Glory to god in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men"

Christmas is one of the most favorite holidays all over the world. The celebration varies from country to country, but the spirit of Christmas is everywhere the same – the spirit of joy, happiness, elated mood. It is this very day, that angels come down from the heavens to wish us health, luck and love. But many centuries ago they came here to praise God.

One of the legends says:
There were two angel friends. One used to sunset pink robes while other used to adorn himself with sky blue robes. They were known for singing sweet duets about glory of God and playing on pure silver trumpets. They often used to lead the orchestra for angels because of their musical abilities. Once, their orchestra leader Temira gave them and other members of the angelic orchestra, exciting news. God had decided to send his Son to live among His people. They had to prepare a musical jubilee in one of the most important events in the history of the world. It just had to be the best and all angels with good voice had to sing and all instruments were to be played for the event. Temira asked his orchestra, whether they knew the importance of the assignment. Trumpeting angel in pink said that he understood that the Lord want them to appear to the shepherds in the hills of Bethlehem, who had never seen an angel in their lives and might get afraid. The trumpeting angel in blue completed the answer by adding that the angels could replace the fear of the shepherds with joy and love for the Christ Child and then, they could announce the arrival of the Savior. Temira smiled and nodded contentedly. All orchestra members felt honored for the opportunity and practiced for perfection in their roles. On the day, Christ was born in the stable at Bethlehem and as planned, the Christmas angels first appeared to the shepherds and the trumpeting angel friends played the first few notes of the glorious concert in the dark night sky. Shepherds looked up to the sky and were shocked, surprise and awed, soon to be filled with amazement and wonder and their hearts brimmed with humility and thankfulness to God for His glory. The angels then gave the shepherds the good tidings of great joy and were joined by many other angels who sang and praise God, filling the skies with the angelic words - "Glory to god in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men".

This is only a legend, but a very nice one. I wish you angels in your heart and soul, piece and love, care and tender, close and beloved people at your festive table, health and self-confidence, nice presents and more pleasant moments in your life!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Get ready for Christmas beforehand!

Christmas and New Year are those holidays which bring us back to that wonderful time of our childhood, when we believed into Santa Claus and waited for presents with bated breath. Today the reality has changed, we have become parents, but are still looking forward to these holidays and want to make them special for our children, our close people, ourselves. During the whole year we’ve been working our fingers to the bone, but it’s time to relax and enjoy the holidays in full.

Usually people tend to celebrate holidays both: at home and at work. These two “variants” of celebration are the most common nowadays. Traditional office parties are usually held throughout the whole December, depending on the specific character of work at each office. But, as a matter of course, they take place before calendar Christmas and New Year. And this can be easily explained by the fact that people are always busy before holidays – we try to get ready for celebration, to buy presents, think of a menu of our festive table etc. In general, we are getting ready for the second “variant” of celebrating Christmas at home, with close people and relatives. During the working year we are sometimes too busy to pay somebody a visit, but the season of the holidays is an excellent opportunity to say “I miss you”, “I need you” and spend more time with close people.

While planning our Christmas party we have to keep in mind the following things: choosing the date and creating the guest list, sending out the invitations, planning the menu and asking others to bring certain food items or extra silverware, setting a budget that you can commit to, decorating the house and making sure there will be adequate seating. When your holiday is well planned and organized, it greatly reduces the stress of hosting a party and will make it a much more enjoyable experience for everyone involved, you included.

One of the most important things is creating Christmas menu – you can combine traditional Christmas dishes with some new ones, which are sure to gain popularity among your guests.

And what’s the most important for these magic winter holidays is the spirit of Christmas and New Year, the spirit of magic and childhood. If you succeed in creating such spirit for your guests and close people, you’ll succeed in the whole matter!!!

Celebrate Christmas with the best New Year tree you ever had!

No one imagines Christmas without a New Year tree. We try to choose the most beautiful Christmas tree, put it in the right place, decorate it and enjoy its looks and original Christmas smell through out the holidays.

But before decorating it, we should take care of the long life of the beautiful Christmas tree. First of all, you’ll need to cut the stump of your tree (fresh cut) and put it into water. In this case it will absorb large amounts of water from the very beginning. For the first week you should refill the amount of water a few times a day!

If you want to prolong the life of your Christmas tree, you may add some mix to the reservoir with water – this is a quart of water with one teaspoon of liquid bleach and half a cup of light corn syrup. You can also keep the needles fresh with the help of a Wilt-resistant spray.

Before starting decorating your tree, think whether your decoration will have any topic, whether it will be formal or informal decoration. Besides, you may choose a particular theme for decoration: western theme, an angel theme, snowflakes theme, a certain color theme etc. will add personal touch to the whole period of holidays.

When everything is clear with the theme, we may start decorating! The best variant is to start with Christmas lights, garlands, and only in the end – ornaments. Before putting Christmas lights on the tree, check whether they work, otherwise you’ll have to do everything from the very beginning. Start off with the two sets of lights: first one that is shorter and then one that is longer. Wind the short string of lights around the trunk of your Christmas tree. With the longer string of lights, start from the top of the tree and wind down the tree in a spiral. If you want to have more lights, remember to arrange them from the top to the bottom and from the innermost to the outmost.

Decorating your tree with ornaments, choose them of different color, size and form – your Christmas tree won’t look monotonous and bore you and your guests. Place ornaments also inside your tree to give an impression of depth.

If you have small children, choose ornaments more carefully and see to it, that your children cannot reach them and hurt themselves or swallow some small parts of ornaments!

Here are some decorating ideas you may use. Don’t forget to involve your children into the process of decorating a New Year tree – make it your tradition!

Toy Christmas tree decorating ideas: you can decorate your tree with all kinds of toys. Your toys may be quite different or correspond to one theme, depending on your and your children’s desire. Use wire and ribbons to hang the toys onto the branches.

Snowflake Christmas tree decorating ideas: make all kinds of snowflakes on your own, decorate them with glue and glitter and your Christmas tree will acquire an unforgettable look!

Christmas Cookie Christmas tree decorating ideas: bake cookies, use your brains and decorate your tree with your own creations. You can put your cookies in clear or colored cellophane or bags, attach the top with ribbon and add to your tree.

The final step in your tree decoration is the top. This is usually something that symbolizes the spirit of Christmas: angels, stars, Santas will do all right. Choose the top, which corresponds your theme and enjoy the holidays!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Everybody likes Christmas. Everybody wants to make it special at the same time remaining faithful to the traditions of the family. But in order your Christmas not to become stale, add some originality to this year celebration!

Why not wearing some original fancy costumes? In this case your Christmas will be more vivid and will look like real fairy tale! You will not be bored sitting at the festive table. Besides, you may try to guess the reason why your sibling has chosen this very costume. It is sure to be very exciting! If you don’t feel like wearing some fancy costumes, you can give preference to purely Christmas costumes. No breaking traditions – no misunderstanding.

If still your tradition of Christmas celebration does not allow you to make a masquerade of it, you may dress the way you wish. In this case you can change the feast table. Lay it in a different way or add something homemade edible party pieces i.e. biscuits and cakes decorated with funny faces in piped cream, label these yummies with each diners name. On the one hand it will be very pleasant for all the members of your family, and on the other – will add more privacy and comfort to your holiday.

It is usually a woman who spends the most of her time in the kitchen preparing those dishes without which we cannot imagine our Christmas. At the same time, she forgets that this is HER Christmas too! All members of the family should mind it too and help their mom and wife to enjoy the holiday and not only cook and clean the table afterwards. See to it, that all of you should enjoy the holiday, otherwise it is not Christmas – it has lost its charm, magic and singularity!

Besides, your family is sure to have some certain traditions of decoration your house before the holidays. Don’t forget to do it this year (if you haven’t done it yet, of course). If children decorate the house and the New Year tree together with their parents, it’s so pleasant and unforgettable!!! These memories will stay with you for years. There’s nothing more valuable in life than the atmosphere of love, tender and care within the family.

For me personally, Christmas and New Year have always been and remain the best and the most expected holidays of the year! Being far from being a child, I get sincere pleasure from all Christmas preparation, from choosing presents for my friends and relatives, from decorating New Year tree, from the whole atmosphere of the holiday!!! What can be more pleasant than getting together on the Christmas Eve and feeling the warmth of the family circle. That’s why I suggest that you should have special Christmas not only this year, but each year! Your family, your children, your close people – these are the most valuable things of your life. Mind it not only when it is Christmas time!