Parties Case Studies
Case Study 1: Maisie’s Cinderella Party
Maisie celebrated her 8th birthday at a party in her local church hall in Hathersage on 5th February.
Maisie’s Mum, Clare, had booked A Mind Apart just to provide the entertainment for Maisie’s Cinderella themed party. This meant that she could choose a venue that was local for her and Maisie’s friends in the village. This proved very lucky due to the heavy snow on the day because the locality of the venue meant that all of Maisie’s 10 guests were able to make it!
We arrived at the church hall which Clare had decorated and got out of our wellies and wooly jumpers and got changed into our party dresses to start getting into our characters as palace officials who had been ordered to train the girls how to be perfect princesses and pass the Prince’s test.
We then set up for the activities which we’d planned for the girls. The first thing we did was create masquerade masks ready for the ball. Once the girls had perfected their designs, we left the masks to dry whilst we performed some exercises to improve the girls diction and posture to the Prince’s standards- these involved delivering tongue twisters with a straw in their mouths and tackling an obstacle course with a book on their head amongst other things! The girls did brilliantly- definitely fit for the Prince!
It was then time to teach the girls how they should dance at the ball, so we taught the girls how to waltz and salsa which they picked up brilliantly.
Each of the ladies were then presented with a certificate to say that they had passed the Prince’s test before enjoying the tea put on by Clare.
We have since received an email from Clare thanking us for the party, saying “the girls had a lovely time...they all thoroughly enjoyed it” which was lovely to hear. We’ve also had a really lovely handmade thank you card from Maisie saying how much she particularly enjoyed the waltzing and salsa.
In choosing to hire A Mind Apart just to provide the entertainment, Clare was able to have total control over her choice of local venue, food and decorations, but she was able to relax and enjoy the party itself with her daughter and friends.
It seems that everyone, including us, had a lovely time watching the girls transform into ladies and I’d say that any prince would be lucky to have them after Maisie’s lovely party!
Case Study 2: Logan’s Superhero Party
Logan celebrated his 7th birthday at his Superhero party here at Burton Street on 11th February.
Logan’s Mum, Melanie, chose our full package in which we organise the entire party including entertainment, decorations, food, venue, invitations and party bags. Melanie had initially just asked us to provide the entertainment, but after looking into the costing of providing her own venue, food, party bags and decorations, she found that it was cheaper (and a lot less stressful!) for us to organise the whole party.
We started planning the party in January, booking Burton Hall and organising the food with the Burton Street catering department. We then designed tailor made invitations and sent those to Melanie, who said she was happy to print them out. In the next couple of weeks we ordered the decorations and toys for party bags and put the party bags together. When the morning of the party came we started blowing up the balloons and dressing the rooms with bunting, banners, colourful tablecloths and other decorations. Logan and his family then arrived with finishing touches such as a brilliant Super Mario cake, which they had chosen to provide themselves.
The guests then started to arrive and Natasha lead them through some quick warm ups before teaching them some simple actions to the ‘Superman' song which they all really enjoyed and picked up really well.
We then did some character building exercises to help the children form characters for the superheroes they wanted to be, such as showing everyone how their superhero would eat, walk or sleep. Some of children really wanted to show off the actions they had made up which was brilliant! After this we then did a Q&A session with those superheroes who wanted to, in which the children asked their fellow superheroes who were in the hot seat questions about their lives and the ways in which they save the world- we had some really inventive answers which was great! Here's a picture of Logan (or should I say Batman) feeling the pressure in the hot seat!
After this, we thought it was time for some superhero action and so played a few games of Splat! in which the superheroes really showed us what they could do!
To conclude the party, we performed the song and character actions to the parents who had been waiting downstairs in the cafe. All the superheroes were fab, and I feel much safer knowing they’re about to save the day now!
We then handed out certificates congratulating the children on the brilliant superheroes they created, before bringing out the food boxes and party bags which everyone really seemed to enjoy.
Logan then had his birthday cake brought out and we all sung happy birthday before everybody left and we did all of the tidying up.
Melanie not only found it the most cost effective option to have us organise the whole day but it also allowed her to enjoy the entirety of the day with her son and his friends without any stress of the organisation. The night before the party, she emailed saying “we’re all very excited about the party...I’m not used to doing nothing!”
The party went brilliantly and everyone said what a good time they had, we’ve even had an enquiry about hosting a party for one of Logan’s guests because she’d enjoyed it so much!
We've had a lovely quote from Logan since theparty saying "thankyou for my amazing birthday party" .... Well Logan, it was our pleasure!
Case Study 3: Amelia's Narnia Party
Amelia celebrated her 8th birthday at her Narnia party at Polycarps Church Hall, Malin Bridge.
Amelia’s mum, Amanda had booked A Mind Apart for our Full Package in which we organise everything that’s involved when planning a party; you think of it, we do it! We organised the entertainment for Amelia’s party, decorations, food, venue, invitations, party bags and certificates- all according to the theme of her choice- Narnia of course!
We got to Polycarps Church Hall for 10am and started with the decorating. From white material, blue and white iced balloons, fake snow and icicle buntings, the famous lamppost and Christmas trees – we really did walk through the wardrobe and into the land of Narnia! We set up our craft activity first in one side of the room so it was ready for when our Narnian friends arrived. 
We put a lot of thinking and effort into this party, ensuring that everything we had to consider as part of organising the party was theme related. We started off the party with welcoming Amelia’s guests into the world of Narnia. They all came as a character from Narnia, including our teacher/entertainer and assistant who attended the party! It was a real nice touch and we got them started with a craft activity. Our craft activity was crown making and each child had 2 different crown templates, in which they could decorate and design in whatever way they wished! We provided them with all sorts of craft materials.
Once the craft activity had come to an end, with an outcome of glorious crowns must I add! We then moved onto our second activity of the party, ‘White Witch Tag’ (A Narnia version of Grandma’s Footsteps). This was a great theme related game for the children to all get involved and get warmed up for further activities they were going to later on attend in.
Another activity we provided at Amelia’s party was called ‘Characterisation- Who are you?’ In which we would ask the children to choose a character from Narnia, ask them to find a space in the room and act out as their character how they would sleep, eat and move. It was a great way to get the children more confident amongst the others and work on their drama skills! We then went onto an activity ‘Shape Creations’. We asked the children to get into small groups and create the objects with their body parts, a few that we asked from them was Narnia’s Wardrobe, a Ship, the Forest and the White Witches’ Castle. This helped get the children into the theme of Narnia and by disguising as an object, would help them hide from the White Witch – she is very clever!
It was then time for a dinner break! All the children got stuck into a variety of food that we had provided such as a selection of filled sandwiches, crips, fruit platters and a scrumptious choice of cakes for desert! Amelia’s aunty had also designed a Narnia themed birthday cake which looked fab, which concluded in everyone singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to the birthday girl.
To finish off Amelia’s Narnia Party, we got the children prepared for battle! We got the children to come up with freeze frames in small groups which showed the battle scenes of Narnia, and would be included in part of the performance which was shown to parents at the end of the party. The battle scene performance included using the shape creations stepping through the wardrobe and into the land of Narnia, which then went into the freeze frames. The battle scene concluded with the characters of Narnia killing off the White Witch and conquering the battle...Hooray!!! All the children loved taking part in the Narnia Party, and soon after we received a lovely email from Amanda, Amelia’s Mother, saying ‘Thanks again for a lovely party, Amelia thoroughly enjoyed it!’
It seemed that everyone, including us, thoroughly enjoyed the Narnia Party and was a real success!
Case Study 4: Ella's Superstar Party
Ella celebrated her 7th birthday at her Superstar party at the Greystones Pub on Saturday 15th December.
Ella's mum Debbie had booked A Mind Apart for our VIP Package in which we provide the entertainment for the day of the party. This meant that she could choose a venue that was local for her and Ella's friends in the village.
Ella’s Superstar/Britain’s Got Talent party went really well. The children all worked really hard being Superstar’s for the day and did a hard day’s work of what it is involved being a Superstar!
First we (Emily and Eve) got the children started off with a craft activity. The children had already played several games like musical statues and had their lunch whilst we was arriving and setting up our activities, so it was nice for the children to crack on with a different activity and mix things up. We got the children cutting out their very own Britain’s Got Talent Red Button, making holes in their button and attaching a piece of string or ribbon through the button to make a necklace for them to wear round their necks. We then asked the children once they had finished making their necklace, what act they would choose to be if they went on Britain’s Got Talent as a Superstar for the day and got them to write on the back of their buttons what act they would be.
Our next activity was order/action. We got the children to get prepared for a hard day’s work as a Superstar! The children had to follow instruction quickly- Paparazzi- strike a pose as your act! Bodyguard- children paired up and protected each other from all their eager fans! Wave to your fans, show me what you’re famous for and then after the children was set with their orders and actions the slowest ones got took out leaving the winner at the end.
We did several other activities which got the children into the characters as a Superstar and also using their communication and listening skills involved, getting the children to act as their Superstar for the day and think about how they would wake up in a morning, how they would eat, sleep and travel to work. It was interesting to see the children use their imaginations on this activity and they did a good job of getting into their character.
We then did an activity based around Britain’s Got Talent as we heard Ella (birthday girl) was very fond of the show! Myself, Emily and Ella’s Mum sat down as a panel, and got the children to work as they wished individually, as a pair or as an entire group to devise their act and show it to the panel and the rest of the audience (as if they were performing on the show!) This was great as they all worked really well together, coming up with creative ideas and acts that they may have already practiced e.g. (gymnastic routines, football skills) This was a good activity for the children as they were all around 7 years of age and felt confident enough to take part as an act on stage. If a few of the children didn’t want to take part they could join in as a judge on the panel and give feedback to the acts on their performances.
We then finished off the party by handing certificates out as the Superstars were collecting their awards for being amazing celebrities! The audience clapped as they stood up to collect their certificate and we then sang Happy Birthday to Ella. We applauded all the children for doing such a great job as being Superstars and got great feedback from the parents and the Birthday Girl herself.
Ella’s Dad: ‘Thanks a lot for today, it was really nice seeing them getting involved with something different.’
Ella’s Mum: ‘They all really enjoyed today and Ella especially has enjoyed her party.’
Overall- a successful party and the party plan worked really well engaging all the children in a variety of activities and made the children feel special and pleased with themselves for working so hard as a celebrity!
Case Study 5: Hattie and Alana’s Peter Pan inspired Party
Hattie and Alana celebrated their joint 7th birthday party this month with a shared passion for a peter pan theme! And we gave them just that... the children got stuck into a craft activity making crocodile faces from card cut outs and decorated them using their imaginations and creativity, then tied some ribbon through their cut outs and created a mask...they looked fab!
We then moved onto building our characterization up through techniques to practice learning to fly to Neverland! And read a poem together that Tinkerbell had sent over just for us! We did some freeze frames of our characters and by our fantastic costumes already we were very sure on who was who at the party and the children did great in acting out their characters- they were practically professionals at it! We then got ready to fly to Neverland, thinking about some of the obstacles that may be in our way and how could we possibly get about them?!
The children knew that to get to Neverland we had to think of our happy thoughts and shout these for everyone to hear! We used the space to get around the room without walking and expressing our happy thoughts. We then devised a kids in Neverland dance, Hattie and Alana loved showing us their best moves and then we put all our activities together to show mums and dads a small performance at the end of the party!
The performance went great the children used their imaginations and creativity throughout and was awarded peter pan certificates sent over especially from Neverland for all their hard work!
Good work girls we hoped you enjoyed your party just as much as we did! You are certainly ready for Neverland!
“Thank you for a great party we loved it!” Hattie and Alana
