Party Recap...

I helped the Mum of the birthday boy plan this party, we were very short of both time and money but we were really pleased with how it went.

There are not many photos of the details as I was dashing around so much running the games and taking photos of the kids but hopefully you'll get a feel for the party.

We held the party in the church hall at the top of my street, we hold most of our parties here to support it in it's new role as community centre, because it's easy to run home for the umpteen things I always forget and because it's cheap! (I do wish we could paint the hall white though - the awful purple doesn't half clash with my themes! ;) )

We kept the food and decor simple; black, blue and white balloons, blue crepe streamers, red white and blue confetti (recycled from the royal wedding) and I made a circle garland for the gift table. I found some 'Happy Birthday >> Party Zone' police style tape on ebay which we used around the entrance of the hall and I made a very last minute banner using the same fonts from the invite.
The catering was all done by party Mum's family (apart from the cake which I made) we served hot dogs and jelly & icecream in home made police checked table wear.

We set up a quiet area where the guests could make a 'Wanted' poster, I made a basic template and let them finish the faces, there were some hilarious ones - aren't kids awesome!?

The highlight of the party was a visit from 2 real police officers who were just great, they brought the birthday boy a hat to wear and the kids (and several grownups) had great fun looking at and climbing in the van - they even put the sirens on for them as they drove off much to the delight of the kids :)

We planned several games but reality hit and we realised a bunch of 6 year olds dressed as cops and robbers just want to run round like crazy! We played just 2 games, a box car chase (with very hastily made the night before box cars!) and 'eat as many sweets as you can whilst handcuffed before the next person runs round the circle'

I was so thrilled with the 'line up' photo backdrop, kindly made by a friend. I printed some police/criminal catchphrases and the kids had real fun with it.

After we played the car chase game we discovered that the prizes had been stolen! The kids had to look for clues and remember if they'd seen anyone suspicious at the party - they quickly learned that the 'big robber' had them so we staged a stakeout and when he crept back into the room the kids pounced on him and discovered he had a huge bag of 'loot' gold bars (biscuits), gold coins (chocolate), rings (haribo), cars, jewellery and medals The kids delighted in scrabbling round and filling their 'swag bags' with goodies to take home!

We all had a blast, the birthday boy will never forget it and I hope it inspires people on a low budget to have a go at throwing a themed bash. Cx