8 Tips To Host the Best Back-To-School Bash

Back-to-school season is exciting for a whole host of reasons:  parents get their time back, kids see their school friends again, everyone buys something new, and you look forward to a brand new start.  Why not mark the occasion with a back-to-school bash they’ll never forget?  That’s what we at Fab Kids did in NYC with our friends and followers!  Once families were settled into their new routines, we gathered everyone up at the NY Kids Club which offered their fun padded, play space, arts and crafts room and incredibly helpful staff.  And we got GEEKY!  Here are 8 tips on how to host the best back-to-school bash that your friends have ever seen!

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  1.  Send a themed invite. Choose a scholastic image that you want to carry throughout your party. For instance, our rainbow colored pencils from the invite were found as cookies at the event on a rainbow colored dessert table.  The rainbow color theme was also found in the photo booth garlands, numbers, alphabets and balloons throughout the space.  Invite text included phrases with lots of alliteration such as, “brainiac book swap, dorky dance-a-thon, and NYC nerds.”  Make it fun, descriptive, and enticing!  It sets the tone!  Get your guests excited!colored pencil invite, back to school invite
  2. Dress up!  Fab Kids events always have a fun fashion theme.  For this one, we encouraged everyone to get geeky by posting inspiration photos in our social media and eblasts. (search #fab_nerd on IG if you want to see)  And we offered prizes for ‘best dressed.’ I love having dress-up themes for events becomes they become an automatic ice breaker on-site.  Plus it encourages creativity and whimsy from all the guests making the event something special to look forward to.  Plus the pictures…  can we say, ‘Instagram-able?’how to host a nerd party, how to plan a nerd party, kids nerd party, kids back to school party, geek chic
  3. Host a book swap.  I’m a big fan of re-cycling and re-using what you have.  And I believe one person’s trash can be another person’s treasure.  We encouraged each Brainiac to bring in a book they’ve outgrown or gotten bored of and swap it for another gently used book.  We actually had so many to giveaway from our own bookshelf that each child walked away with 2 new books!  The book swap had the additional side effect of adding a fun community feel to the event.back to school, back to school party, back to school bash, preschool books
  4. Prepare arts and crafts for the whole family to try.  For our themed activity, the little ones created masterpieces on composition books provided by one of our sponsors, Ba Ba Bling.  I provided alphabet stickers, scholastic-looking, scrapbook paper, and school stickers for the little hands to decorate with.  The older kids enjoyed making bead bracelets and necklaces with colorful string and alphabet beads. Parents created mock certificates, filling in the space for their children’s “most likely to____”award, all of which became fun photo props.back to school party, geek chic party ,geek chic, nerd party
  5. Offer smart snacks and sweets.  For desserts think nerds, dum dum lollipops, smarties, gummy brains and cupcakes topped with nerd glasses.  For water find the brand Smart Water.  And for snacks you could offer alphabet crackers and dip, Smart Food popcorn, pretzels or cereal shaped as letters, or any small snack stuffed into pocket protectors! B Lee Events did a wonderful job providing and presenting creative themed options such as these.  And they were such a pleasure to work with -so professional, cheery, and full of amazing ideas!  I highly recommend them!back to school dessert table, nerdy snacks, nerdy candy, nerd cupcakes
  6. Prepare photo props.  With fashions this smart, your guests will be studying each other!  Our guests definitely got an A+ when it came to getting dressed to impress!  Fab kids and fab parents, for sure!  For your party, gather props that you already have around the house and offer them to guests to try on!  I brought ties, bow ties, a calculator, a ruler, school bus toys, nerd glasses and a giant inflatable #2 pencil.  ..yes I had all of that around the house lol.  What can I say?  This is the 3rd back-to-school nerdy NY party that I’ve hosted!  See here for 2015 and 2014. nerdy party, how to plan a nerd party, tips for nerdy party
  7. Dance the day away!  We called ours a “dorky dance-a-thon”, pumped up the music and let everyone shake it out in the colorful, play space that was NY Kids Club.  Kids danced on giant trampolines, snapped their suspenders, and busted a move with balloons, in the air waving around like they just don’t care!  If you wanted, you could have a leader teach some simple, nerdy dance moves for the kids to follow along to Simon Says style to add to the theme or make that an entirely separate game altogether. ny kids club, nerd party
  8. Giveaway goodies.  I like to always send my guests home with a little something to remember the event by.  This event came fully sponsored so our guests walked away with tons of amazing items worth more than 12x the price of their event ticket. (free event planning consultation from B. Lee Events, $50 off a NY Kids Club new class enrollment and a free PJ party, $42 worth of customized Mabels Labels, exclusive offers to get onto Little Spoon’s organic meal delivery service waitlist, trendy buttons from Kidpik, $50 off new Usborne and More books, Shopkins themed lip balms from Moose Toys, discounted Meisterdish offers, and more)!  But for your party it could be as simple as sending guests home with the remaining items from the snack and dessert bar in cute themed bags.  My daughter decorated our goody bags with alphabet stickers easily converting it from a plain purple bag to a themed one!little spoon, ba ba bling kids, curated care, ny kids club, shopkins

Thank you to everyone who came out and helped make this party such a BLAST!  I had so much fun seeing you get down in your geekiest gear.  Thank you to all the event sponsors who helped make this happen!  See below for details!  And see our FB page for the full album of event photos.

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Venue and event staff- NY Kids Club Battery Park City

Mocktails and tastings by Little Spoon

Smart snacks and sweet table by B. Lee Events

Colored pencil cookies by Baked By Tal

Giveaway prize package worth $50 from Lucky & Me

Designer nerdy tees and composition book craft by Ba Ba Bling Kids

Customized name labels for each guest from Mabels Labels

Stickers and free book offer by Usborne and More

Moose Toys Shopkins lip balms

50% off Meisterdish meal delivery kit

Jand G Handmade for the lovely back-to-school themed hair clip awarded toback to school fashion the female winner of the “best dressed” title)

 


 

 

 

 

 

Plan a Shopkins Swapkins They Will Never Forget!

As mentioned in my prior Shopkins posh playdate post, Shopkins are all the rage!  And I can see why with their cute, colorful look and collectible nature.  Tiny toys for tiny hands that beg to be bought, Shopkins scream fun!  And for that reason, we hosted not 1 but 2 posh playdates with this Shopkins theme!  This 2nd play date was for bloggers only and included fab moms Mary (and Brinkley) from Downtown Chic Moms and Melissa (and Misa) from JustaBXmom.  Together, we enjoyed perfect weather on our rooftop and giddily watched as the girls got together and celebrated their super fandom.

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(As the Shopkins theme song goes,)”We got a plan, the perfect party / There’s so much to celebrate / It’s a surprise, so let’s get started! / How are we gonna make this party great? / Got to make it extra special / No one’s ever seen before /Streamers, sparkles, party dresses / Check out what we got in store! / We’re thinking of fashion fiesta / A party to sweep me right off my feet! / Got to make it extra pretty / No one’s ever seen before / Flowers, glitter, and confetti / Check out what we got in store!”

I basically took our prior decor from Shopkins play date #1 and moved it outside!  Here are some quick notes about how I stayed within budget:

  • The paper fans were from Target’s dollar bin.  I creatively customized by adding Shopkins stickers to the center.
  • The cake pops are stuck into styrofoam that I wrapped in gift paper and washi tape.
  • The Shopkins plushies and costumes which were sent by PR companies were re-purposed as decor.
  • I added miniature Shopkins plushies and dolls to silk florals from TJMaxx that I already had at the house.

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The tiered snack tray included funtastic fruit that Juliet helped skewer, crunchy snacks and Shopkins branded M&Ms. Each tier was sprinkled with actual Shopkins toys and the top of the display was stickered with Shopkins stickers.  Matching washi tape was used as a decorative border.

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Thanks to Moose Toys, each of us bloggers got to keep a Shopkins costume which had the girls smiling from ear to ear. “This is how we party! / Dressing up, throw some flinging / This is how we party! Decorating while we’re singing This is how we party!

Speaking of decorating, that is exactly what the girls did!  They decorated themselves with Shopkins tattoos,  and decorated a Shopkins coloring page with crayons & Shopkins stamps.  Apple Blossom took home a picture of herself, Cheeky Chocolate designed a cheeky chocolate coloring page and Strawberry Kiss loved coloring her own profile pic.

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And of course, we had the first trade these girls have ever experienced!  A Shopkins Swapkins!  The girls (at age 4 and 6) were unbelievably nice about giving up items their friends wanted in exchange for new Shopkins they might have had their eyes on.

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I barely had to intervene! kids party ideas, girls party ideas, shopkins party ideas

Each girl was given an organizer box which Juliet decorated with Shopkins stickers to stay within theme before all the guests arrived (if you follow along with our IG stories, you got to see all our fun, pre-party planning details!).  I found the teal boxes and Shopkins stickers on sale at Michaels.  As the Shopkins song goes, “what really makes the party is being with all my friends!  Good times, everybody, this party never ends!”  Well OK so after a couple hours, the party did finally end but it lives on in our hearts and minds!

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“Good times, everybody This party never ends!”

Shopkins Season 8 is out on the shelves now and features a super chic world vacation theme.  Paris, anyone?

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THANKS to our posh play date sponsors without whom our party would not be so fabulous!

RenBeanie PR – Shopkins Kinstruct and Shopkins Plushies

MWW PR  / (Moose Toys) Shopkins toys, tattoos, M&Ms, goody bags, stamps, pens, erasers, costumes and plushies

Baked By Tal – cake pops

Heart N Soul by US- Shopkins surprise rainbow bath bombs

Calming Intentions – Shopkins filled glycerin soap

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You know what else is worth celebrating?? Shopkins is launching its first-ever live, theatrical show for Shopkins!  And with our media preview at Shopkins’s 1st-ever pop-up cafe in NYC, we were able to witness the live action with front row access!

shopkins pop up, shopkins pop up cafe, shopkins live

Shopkins Live will kick off Sept. 14, with tickets going on sale now.  You heard it here first!  How about planning your Shopkins Swapkins around the show??  Click through our previous (indoors) Shopkins play date for more ideas and inspiration!  And don’t forget to turn it up as you dance to “this is how we party!”

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