Introductions – Welcome to my blog

Hello and welcome to my blog. Firstly thank you for stopping by and, secondly, just in case you are all wondering I can tell you now that Ellie Kelly is my real name.

Well, actually, the name my parents gave me is Eleanor but, as my mum tells it, I explained to her aged three that I preferred Ellie and that was what I was going to call myself from now on. I can see the small, blonde mini-me telling this to mum with a look of so that’s that on my face.

Anyway my maiden name was Haywood so I was Ellie Haywood, nice and normal. Then I met Mr Kelly, we married in 2009 and I am now Ellie Kelly. The children love it though so I decided not to hold the slightly comical name against Mr Kelly for too much longer.

For my first blog I thought I would write about good entertainment and how important it is for a party. I kind of fell in to hosting children parties – if you had told me this is what I would be doing a few years ago I would have called you mad. But I love it, I get to meet lovely parents, fantastic children who make me laugh every day and I also get to be creative and run Buttons Children’s Parties in a way that inspires and motivates me.

I strongly believe that children’s parties are a really special part of a child’s life and that life lessons are learnt at these in the same way as they are in school. At parties children learn how to interact and socialise with others, how to share and play and most importantly – how to have fun. Yet they can be quite stressful for parents and I see on a daily basis exactly why that is.

These are just a few of the things I hear said at most parties; ‘Bobby just hit me on the head’, ‘I was playing with the balloon when Milly took it’, ‘I am hungry’, ‘I need a wee’, ‘I don’t like that colour cake’, ‘I want to play pass-the-parcel again’, ‘I bumped my knee’ and so it goes on.

While these things don’t bother me at all and can be dealt with very easily, I do understand why 25 children, a lot of noise and all the above being fired at you from every angle could be a tad scary. The pressure to make sure that your child and all their friends have a good time and leave the party happy is lot to take on board when you also have to think about food, drinks, party bags, thank-you notes and all the other things that have to be done that day.

A good party is one that is stress-free or at least one that creates minimal stress to plan, a party where the children have fun, the parents relax and magical memories are made. To get this you need to have lots of different activities planned to keep even the most restless child entertained, a tried-and-tested structure, bags of energy and lot of patience.

During my blog I will be covering the perfect types of parties for every year of a child’s life, some great themes to try out, food ideas and crafts that are perfect for parties and that children enjoy making. I will also be talking to amazing people in the party industry that I have the pleasure of working with and introducing them to you and I will also be taking lots of pictures that I hope inspire.

So sit back, relax and I hope you can join me for the next instalment.

Ellie Kelly 🙂