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If your house is anything like mine, there's probably a drawer somewhere that's full of mysterious children's treasures. A plastic ring. Three stickers. Half a bracelet. A tiny notebook. A toy that nobody remembers receiving. And somehow a collection of birthday party bag items that have survived against all odds. Children receive a lot of things. Birthdays. Christmas. Reward charts. Pocket money treats. Well-meaning grandparents. The list goes on. And yet if you ask most chi

When most parents start planning a birthday party, one question always comes up. How long should it be? Would three hours be better? Should we make a whole afternoon of it? Would longer mean more value? It sounds logical. After all, if children are having fun, surely more time is better. But after hosting lots of parties, I've learned something surprising. Two hours is almost always the sweet spot. In fact, I'd argue it's the perfect amount of time. Children arrive excited. R

If you've ever spent time with children, you'll know that imagination doesn't really need much encouragement. Give them a cardboard box and suddenly it's a castle. A spaceship. A café. A secret headquarters. Possibly all three at once. That's one of the reasons I love Fairy Quest Berry Studio so much. It's creative, yes. But it's also wonderfully imaginative. Children arrive expecting a craft party. What often happens is something completely different. A fairy world starts to

There comes a point in every parent's life when the traditional birthday party starts to lose its magic. You know the one. A village hall. Pass the parcel. Musical statues. A party bag full of plastic bits that somehow end up scattered across your car before you've even made it home. For years, it works brilliantly. Then suddenly your child is nine, ten or eleven and things start to change. They're not little anymore. But they're definitely not teenagers. And finding somethin

There's something about a sleepover. Ask most adults about their childhood birthdays and chances are they won't remember exactly what flavour cake they had, what games they played or what was inside the party bags. But they probably remember the sleepovers. The whispered conversations that were definitely supposed to stop an hour ago. The excitement of choosing pyjamas. The matching snacks. The feeling of being allowed to stay up just a little bit later than usual. The giggli