Celebrating

Getting Pampered at Glitter And Glam – a Fab Kid’s Review

My minifashionista is no stranger to beauty treatments.  She has enjoyed at-home manicures and loves playing with her pretend make-up and beauty salon sets.  She has even experienced her first spa treatment here in New York City (click here for our review on Milk N Cookies Kids Spa).  She therefore was more than happy to check out Glitter And Glam, an uber-girly, over-the-top kids’ salon in Paramus, NJ.  And she was so excited to have a mommy and me outing there to celebrate her 4.5 year old birthday.  Yes, we’ve started celebrating the half birthdays now..

This spa, located in the Paramus Park Mall had a huge retail floor space, something that would have cost a fortune in Manhattan.  And it was delightfully filled with a glamour girl’s favorite things.  Pink!  Tiaras! Boas!  Dresses!  What’s that?? A runway??! Our hearts pumped a little harder as we walked into this girly fantasyland.

Look at that decor!  Don’t you want to move right in?  I was really impressed.  They went all out and put so much care into making the place fabulous.  And prices were reasonable considering the beautiful backdrop, the special care needed for kids (can you imagine how many smudges they have to fix?) and all the special treats.  Mini-manis start at $24.95 and includes a “lavish kandy lotion hand massage”, nail polish, and gemstone ring.  The mani-pedi combo includes the chance to sit on the princess throne wearing pink robe and slippers, lavish kandy lotion foot and hand massage, glitter tattoo, nail polish, and mini-mani-pedi ($39.95).

She even got to pick out her own gems for her nails!  Um..where can I find this kind of diamond-encrusted manicure for myself? (spa services are only available for the kids here unfortunately)  I was supremely jealous.

The spa’s website says they aim to instill confidence in all their kiddie clients but they did so much more than this.  They gave her the royal treatment, making my little one feel like a princess!  She had so much sweet attention focused on her, received tons of compliments throughout the day and got truly pampered in this glitzy setting!

I can’t stress enough how amazing the stylists were.  They truly seemed to love children.  And this was apparent in how they took the time to get to know each child by asking questions about their favorite hobbies, princess, and colors.  I never got the feeling that they were just there for a paycheck but rather that they enjoyed and took pride in their work.

Juliet also got to try the facial (see first picture in the post above), got to pick out and have a full face of make-up applied and get her hair professionally styled.  I was dying from cuteness overload and could NOT stop smiling.  She looked like a little doll and as I looked around, it seemed all the moms were having just as grand of a time living vicariously through their mini-mes.  I seriously had just as much fun watching her get all glammed up as she did getting glam!

She and I both loved the finished product and celebrated with a twirl or two (or three) on the runway.

Thank you so much, Glitter and Glam for inviting us in!  We will have to make a special effort to come back for some more pampering.  I’m already party planning and scheming for ways to get my girl squad out there for a future birthday party.  Maybe when Juliet and her friends outgrow car seats we’ll have to rent a party bus to transport her NYC friends out there cuz I can’t think of a better place to host a glamorous spa-themed party!

 

We received complimentary treatments in exchange for this review but as always all opinions expressed are our own. 

 

 

How To Host An Ice Cream Social That’ll Have Them Screaming for Joy

Summer means fun in the sun and what screams that more than and ice cream social?  Recently, we hosted a series of ice cream socials with friends from the neighborhood and it turns out, it was a super easy, play date to plan and popular with all the invitees!  Here’s how you too can host a fabulous ice cream social this summer in 4 easy steps cuz hey, I scream, you scream, we ALL scream for ice cream!

1. Set up a sprinkle station!  The thing that makes an ice cream social so fun and interactive is getting to choose from a variety of toppings and getting creative with the choices!  Using a 3 tier stand and a cake platter we already owned, I created a lazy Susan setup with sprinkles ranging from: 3 kinds of rainbow sprinkles, to organic, teddy graham crackers, to chocolate chips, nerds and gummy bears.  For added Instagram-able fun, make sure to add in topping choices that add a little height to your final creation (think Japanese Pocky sticks, cake pops, suckers, or long cookies).  
2. With this sprinkle station, we had 5 quarts of different flavored ice cream to choose from..thus the need to keep hosting ice cream socials in order to free up space in our freezer!  But a simple Neopolitan ice cream quart would do!

tip. to create these fun ice cream cups, simply frost the rim of your glass, add sprinkles and set in fridge before party!

1. Create a craft!  Kids of all ages love to get artsy.  What better way to tie in the theme than to prepare a simple, fun ice cream craft for them to take home as a memento of the event?  For our get-togethers, I pre-cut cones and ice cream scoops from pretty patterned paper and prepared glue sticks, glitter sticks, washi tape, gem stickers, pom pom balls and all sorts of sprinkle-like toppings for the kids to pick, glue, and mix/match with.  But you could easily download free printables of ice cream cones for kids of all ages to color in too.
2. Decorate! Create a festive atmosphere by simply using whatever leftover party decor you already have!  The great thing about ice cream socials is that it can be interpreted with any color theme.  So bring out those colorful napkins, paper plates, lanterns and banners and give them new life again!  We used this as an excuse to re-use our Oh Joy for Target party decor and bought a couple new items from Target to coordinate, just to freshen up the space and make it feel festive.  A trip down Target’s dollar bin aisle will always inspire!  Juliet of course, insisted on helping me decorate and was the perfect little party planner!
3. Toys for Tots!  Gift the adults a break by preparing fun, themed toys to attract the little ones allowing the adults to mingle!  We pulled out our gifted Melissa & Doug ice cream cone set, and Duplo ice cream legos, then let the kids set up their own shop with fake money in Juliet’s play house.  And we also had our Our Generation ice cream truck with all its miniature ice cream treats nearby for kids to explore and play pretend with.

 

Hopefully this post, inspired you to get social like we did this summer!

 

 

To see the same party decor in other past posh play dates, click here!

To see our summer bucket list of must-taste trendy NYC ice cream spots, click here!

To get further inspired with a series of “sprinkle some fun” sponsored posh play dates we had, click here!