6 Tips My Son Taught Me for Helping Kids Write Thank You Note Cards

My son, Isaiah, recently celebrated his 9th birthday. Today he worked on his birthday gift thank you note cards. He was very bossy (yet cute) about the whole process. First of all, he wanted to use note cards he designed. (I need to write an entire new post about that process. :D ) He designed a cute little snail thank you note card. I wrote a script for him to use for each card. He promptly ripped it up and told me "I know what to write." Most of them were well written and cute: "Thank you for the Target Gift Card. Target is the best store ever!" For another one, "Thank you for the race car. I love it! I have about 100 of them at my house."

There were a few in which he was a little bit too honest. "Thank you for the.... I did not really like it." I made him rewrite that one. In another he pointed out the gift's shortcoming: "I really like the horse even though it does not stand up straight." In a third he shamelessly lobbied for a party invitation: "Thank you for the....Make sure you invite me to your party."

Overall the experience was very positive. He even taught me a thing or 2 about how to help kids write thank you note cards.

1. Explain to your child the reason for writing thank you note cards: to let people know that their gifts are appreciated. So, no Isaiah, you will not tell people that you dislike their gifts!

2. Encourage your child to write the thank you notes as soon as possible. Isaiah wrote his note cards a few days after the party when the excitement of the event was still fresh in his mind.

3. Write a special note to each recipient. Lesson from Isaiah to Mommy: "'form' thank you note cards are not the way to go! Therefore, I rejected the 'script' you wrote to use in each note card."

4. Let your child pick out the thank you note cards. Isaiah was much more enthusiastic about using the note cards of his choice—and they were acceptable to Mommy as well!

5. If your child is old enough, let him or her take control of the process. You may be surprised as to how creative and heartfelt the result is. In the words of Isaiah, “I know what I am doing!” This may be a little difficult because you do not want your child to mess up too many cards. So check in on your child every now and then to make sure things are going well.

6. Let your child take breaks during the process. If your child has several thank you note cards to write, allow him or her to write the note cards in sessions- 2-3 at a time. Isaiah’s enthusiasm quickly diminished after the first 3 note cards. So we stopped and he finished later on in the day.

The most important result of Isaiah's taking control over the process was that all of the sudden writing the thank you note cards became a fun activity and not a necessary chore.

Stacey M Design offers a variety of note cards for every occasion and age group, including for baby gifts, fill-in thank you note cards for kids and grown up note cards.

Basketball Hysteria

With all of the excitement surrounding the recent NBA finals, I decided to design a series of products featuring basketball kids. The fun thing about this series is that you can select the uniform colors.

Click here to see all of the products with the basketball design, as well as the uniform colors.

The Benefits of Using a Professional Party Planner

Your child’s birthday is coming up and you need to plan that special party. But you also have to get the kids to soccer and swimming classes, plus meet a big deadline at work. When are you going to find time to plan the perfect birthday party with everything else going on in your life?

This is when a children’s party planner can help bring some peace of mind to your hectic life. A children’s party planner works like a wedding planner, providing everything you need to make your child’s party magical! The party planner can do everything from printing and sending your party invitations, catering the party food and birthday cakes, to providing all the party games and activities so your guests stay busy from the time they walk in the door to the time they leave with their goody bags in hand. This way you can relax and enjoy the party as much as your guests will. And the best part is the party planners clean up everything afterwards so you don’t have to lift a finger. What could be easier?

How do you know if using a party planner is right for your child's next party? Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do you have the budget for a party planner?

The prices vary depending on your area, the services and party packages offered, and so on. Do your homework to find a local planner that fits your budget and makes you feel comfortable and confident in their services.

2. Do you have enough time to plan a party yourself? Or are you too busy to sweat the details?

If you're like most parents, you're getting pulled in a million directions. If your time is limited, a party planner could pull together a magical birthday party much faster and more creatively than most parents have the time or energy to do.

3. Do you want the party at your home or 'off-site'?

Most party planners come to your home for the party. They do everything from setup, to hosting the party, to cleaning up afterwards. Some party planners even provide refreshment areas for the parents as well as the pint-sized guests, for an additional fee. The only limit is your imagination! But if you want to have the party somewhere other than your home, then a party planner may not fit your needs.

4. Can you 'relinquish control' of the party planning?

Some party planners allow parents to have as much (or as little) involvement in the party planning as parents desire. Other planners expect little or no parental involvement - other than attending the party and paying for their services afterwards. Discuss these options with your party planner up front to determine the level of involvement that's right for you. But remember, you're paying the planner to work for you. So sit back, relax, and most of all - enjoy the party!

[Special thanks to children's party planner, Kent Jackson, of Pint-Size Parties in Atlanta for offering these tips on using a professional party planner for children's birthday parties. If you live in the metro Atlanta area and need a party planner, contact Kent! Check out her website for contact information and details about her party packages: www.pintsizedparties.com.

Father's Day

For Father’s Day I bought Harold and Isaiah a father/son cooking class at A Kids Kitchen. I thought this would be a great gift because Isaiah loves A Kids Kitchen and always enjoys helping me out in the kitchen. The class is perfect for Harold because they will be making Harold’s favorite food: RIBS!!!!

I must say that Harold is indeed a wonderful Dad. He spends a great deal of time with Isaiah, doing everything from driving Isaiah to his various activities, helping him with his math homework, taking him to get a haircut, taking him to the water park, taking him to Panera Bread or California Pizza Kitchen (Isaiah’s favorite restaurants), or taking him a doctor appointments. I often come home and find Harold reading a book to him or snuggled up together watching Sponge Bob or a movie.

Happy Father’s Day Harold and to all Fathers!!

Rock Climbing Party

This Spring Isaiah will be 8 years old. It is hard to believe that that scrawny little preemie, who weighed 1 pound 14 ounces at birth, is almost 8 years old! I recall visiting him in the Neo-natal intensive care unit every day for the 57 days that he was there. In the hallways were photographs of children who were once patients in the NICU. The children in the photographs looked as if they were about 2-4 years old. I recall saying to my sister that I could not even imagine Isaiah looking like that. At the time Isaiah had a bunch of wires attached to monitors, a feeding tube and was just so tiny.

Fast forward to 2008. He is now this tall, skinny kid who is constantly running around. He is in 2nd grade, is a Cub Scout, loves to use the computer, wants to be an architect and is currently obsessed with Sponge Bob. He also loves to rock climb!

Sometime in 2007, seemingly out of the blue, Isaiah told me that he wanted a rock climbing birthday party. I thought the idea was kinda cool and agreed to it. His birthday was still over 6 months away, so I figured there was a strong possibility that he would change his mind. Every once in a while when the topic of his birthday would come up, we would mention it to me again, “Mommy, I want a rock climbing party.” Two months before his birthday he was still insisting on a rock climbing party. I gave him other options. He was steadfast in his desire to rock climb. I decided that we would have to at least try it once or twice prior to his party to make sure he really likes it and that he can do it. We signed up at Vertical Endeavors to climb during one of their open climbing sessions. Isaiah was beside himself with excitement. Harold, Isaiah and I all put on the climbing gear. One of the instructors gave us an orientation on climbing and instruction. It really is not that difficult to learn how to do it. the difficulty is to have the strength to push your body up with your legs and/or pull your body up. Now for Isaiah, who barely weights 40 pounds, this is not so much an issue. We attached the safety equipment to him and practically scrambled up the wall!! I was shocked that he showed no fear even when he was all the way up—about 20 feet above the ground. Because Isaiah is so light, we had to attach an extra rope to his climbing belt that we would pull to bring him down. Typically, the climber’s weight would help him quickly descend.

When Isaiah was back on the ground after climbing once, we had a huge smile. He was just beaming. He loved it. We spent about an hour climbing. Isaiah climbed about 5 different areas of the wall. I also attempted to climb—with little success. I just was not strong enough to pull my body up. But I have not given up!

I took Isaiah climbing again the next 2 weekends. Since he loves it so much, we plan to purchase a family membership so that we can climb regularly.

So Isaiah is having a rock climbing party. Now that I have secured the location, my next task: design the invitation! For this invitation I am not sure whether to do my traditional style of invitation with one of my characters wall climbing. The other option I am considering is designing the invitation with a photo of Isaiah climbing. I think that a photo of him would be so cute and compelling that I may just go that route. I would still design a more traditional invitation and I would use my traditional design to make the accessories such as the favor labes, thank you note cards, etc.

Stay tuned!! I will post the invitations in a future post-- as soon as I design it!

Cooking Birthday Party

Last year, for his 7th birthday, Isaiah declared that he wanted his party at A Kid’s Kitchen. We discovered A Kid’s Kitchen in 2006, shortly after it first opened. This wonderful little kid’s culinary institute offers numerous cooking classes for children. Isaiah has attended classes on making ice cream sandwiches featuring fresh baked brownies, pizzas, donuts and several other scrumptious, kid-friendly fare. Harold and I even took a “grown-up” class which doubled as dinner for 2. We made barbecue spare-ribs and salad and brought in a nice bottle of wine!

A couple of months before Isaiah’s party we took him to a class at A Kid’s Kitchen. It has been several months since he had taken a class, but he quickly remembered how much he enjoyed it. A week or so later I gave him several options for his birthday party: another bowling party, ice-skating, baseball game or a party at A Kid’s Kitchen. Without hesitation he selected A Kid’s Kitchen.

After contacting Chef Michelle, owner of A Kid’s Kitchen, the next thing I had to do was design a party invitation and accessories. A few days late my “Chef Guy” invitation design was born!

This party involved very little work. A Kid’s Kitchen’s license provided that no outside food could be brought in. All we provided was the goody bags.

The activity was making pizza. The kids did everything from rolling the dough, to adding the sauce and picking toppings. Some of the adults got involved as well and made personal pizzas. The great thing about his type of party is that kids love to put their hands into gooey, messy things. Add to pizza to that concept and you have a winning recipe for a birthday party. There is also an educational component. Chef Michelle instructs the children on kitchen hygiene. There are hand-washing stations that the kids had to use multiple times throughout the party. Chef Michelle also gave a mini-lesson on measuring ingredients.

After the kids (and a few adults) designed their own pizzas, Chef Michelle popped them in the oven. While they were baking, the kids decorated cupcakes to eat in place of a traditional birthday cake. (We had a traditional birthday cake at home.). We opened gifts and everyone went home with very happy tummies!

I designed the invitation to feature a boy. Soon after I posted it one of my clients requested a girl version. The Chef Girl invitation was born!

Bowling Party

Many of my design ideas are based on my son, Isaiah’s, parties. Two years ago for his 6th birthday party, he wanted a bowling party. A few months prior to his birthday, Isaiah, Harold and I went bowling. Prior to that I had bowled about 2-3 times in the past 20 years. However, when I was in elementary school I was on the bowling team and was pretty gold. I even won a trophy! My assumption was that if I was able to bowl pretty well when I was 8, against other kids who were 8, then 30 years later I should still be able to bowl pretty well—especially against my 6 year old.

The first indication that my logic was faulty was when I tried to pick up a bowling ball. It was sooo heavy. After bowling a couple of frames my wrist ached. I was able to barely win the first game. However, both Isaiah and Harold handily beat me the second the game.

On the way home Isaiah could not stop talking about how much fun he had. They just happened to be a bowling match on TV. Isaiah sat and watched it…. mesmerized. It naturally followed that we would have a bowling birthday party. Soon after he made it clear to me that he wanted to have a bowling birthday party.

We had the party at Brunswick Lanes in Naperville, IL. Of course I had to come up with a cute birthday party invitation. Although my son’s party was the inspiration for the invitation, I wanted the invitation to be unisex. The invitation features both a boy and girl bowling. I also designed matching fill-in thank you note cards and favor labels. We used white paper bags that we purchased at an office supply store. We filled them with candy, small toys and a book. We folded the top of the bag over and sealed them with the bowling-themed label that read, “Thank you for coming to Isaiah’s 6th Birthday Party.” One additional special touch was that I designed a coordinating, bowling-themed t-shirt for Isaiah to wear to the party. He looked so CUTE!!!

Besides my designing the invitations, we had to do very little to prepare for the party. Brunswick provided the food and beverages. We brought in ice cream and toppings from Harold’s favorite ice cream store and a bought a cute little bowling themed cake from my favorite bakery. In addition to about 10 of Isaiah’s friends, the usual family and family friends came to the party: my mother, my sister and Karen (Isaiah’s speech therapist).