The Family Groove | It's My Party | Party Planner Lisa Kothari gives you a Springtime in Paris Party

IT’S MY PARTY
THE FAMILY GROOVE’S RESIDENT EXPERT KIDS’ PARTY PLANNER LISA KOTHARI
GIVES YOU A REASON TO CELEBRATE WITH HER EASY-TO-PULL-OFF AND
OH-SO-MUCH-FUN FETE OF THE MONTH

Does your daughter love fashion, travel and all things fancy?
Then this “Springtime in Paris” party is a magnifique way to
celebrate a spring birthday. Perfect for grade-school kids,
ages 7 to 11, but not out of the running for preschoolers,
this fabulous fete is a one-way ticket to funville for your fille and her friends.

The Invitations
Send invitations in the shape of a plane ticket and add a small passport page to be stamped upon the guests’ arrival at the party.

The Decorations
Decorate with chic streamers, balloons and party ware. Pink, black and silver work well, or you can go with the birthday kid’s favorite colors. To continue your theme, create French signs and place candelabras around the party room, as well as handbags, faux jewelry, hats and long gloves. Turn your entryway or a portion of the party room into the runway of the famous Louis Vuitton fashion house by using a long red plastic tablecloth that can be pinned to the floor. Add music—French, of course—to give the scene that final bit of ambience.

The Menu
For the menu, serve small French pastries, such as petit fours, croissants and brioche, along with a cheese and cracker platter, crudités (veggies) with a dip, chocolate-dipped strawberries, etc. For the drinks, serve pink fizzy punch in plastic wineglasses. Ooh la la!

The Activities
Place conversation cards around the party table with topics and phrases written in French and translated into English. Have the kids read their cards aloud, in both languages, and discuss the topics together over the party table.

Go to a thrift store and purchase dresses, boas, high heels, hats, etc.—anything the kids can wear for their turn on the runway. If time permits before the budding fashionistas take the runway, they can even customize their own dresses. (Think: bedazzling, cutting, restyling.) Adults may need to help with this activity.

For the runway show, be sure to play some fun, upbeat French music and allow the kids to take as many turns as they like. Make sure to take pictures à la the photogs at a real runway show. Not only will they be absolutely priceless, but you can include the photos in your thank-you notes.

The Goody Bags
Invite your guests to take home their dress-up gear as a souvenir of their first tango in Paris.

Lisa Kothari is the founder and president of Peppers and Pollywogs (www.peppersandpollywogs.com),
a kids’ party-planning company that provides parents with ideas, entertainers and interesting web-based tools (customized rhymes and cards for your invitations!) to make kids’ party planning easy. She has recently written and published Dear Peppers and Pollywogs… What Parents Want to Know About Planning Their Kids’ Parties, which is available at www.amazon.com and www.peppersandpollywogs.com.