Wacky Warehouse Exclusive Party

Somehow 5 years have almost past by! It was time to start looking at a way to celebrate my daughters Birthday. We have hosted Birthdays at home and had lots of fun but oh my - what an aftermath to deal with afterwards. I will never forget her first birthday. I was super keen on having something for all children no matter what their age. I made sensory bags, playdough and I somehow thought it would be a fabulous idea to bring the sand pit into the mix along with a HUGE tray of cereal for the babies - all inside my house! The children loved it. I loved it too. Seeing everyone getting stuck in and enjoying everything I had carefully planned - was my heaven. However, the party came to an end and as people started to leave - MESS! Oh wow - A week later I was still finding cornflakes and rice crispies! 

Birthday 2 - I hosted another one at home! Lots of fun again. More mess. Not as much as last time, as I had learnt my lesson.

Birthday 3 we went with a play centre aimed at young children only.

Birthday 4 was a swimming party! This year - oh my, I need to share this years experience with you! 

This year we went with a Wacky Warehouse. It has been a while since I had attended one, yet I felt it had everything I wanted for the children to have a great time. 

I called up and booked the party and was offered an earlier slot from the usual 12-2pm. The morning slot was 9am-11am and once I was informed that we would have the venue exclusively if we went for the earlier slot, it was a given that I wanted to go for that time. It seemed like a fabulous idea, then my 5.45am wake up call sounded and I woke thinking 'oh my Amy what on earth were you thinking'. BUT - booking the early slot was actually very worth it!  

Invites and thank you notes were given to me as part of the package and took me a few minutes to fill in. Slips were included at the bottom which gave parents the opportunity to not only reply but to select whether they were happy for their children to have their faces painted at the party.

We arrived, to a clean, empty play centre. My daughters eyes lit up. I was relieved that we hadn't got to share with anyone other than the people we were inviting. Her friends quickly arrived and once the music kicked in we were well away! 9am and already the children were knee deep in ball pit balls, and whizzing down the slides.

It was lovely knowing that all the children in the play centre were part of the party and we could let them go off and play happily together. Adults were able to go and play alongside their children as there was plenty of room. 

Lots of places to sit and plenty of choice for drinks and snacks at the bar for the adults. We pretty much had full view of the play centre too from the seating area which gave parents chance to grab a drink and supervise from a few metres away.

The staff felt more like family members as they worked so hard to make sure everyone had a fabulous time. Its rare these days that people go so above and beyond but Val and Rachel at The Old House at Home in Harborne were absolutely wonderful! They spoke to the children with such care and understanding and that meant a lot to me as the party planner and parent.

The children could choose how they wanted their faces painted and Rachel did a fantastic job at delivering! We had Spiderman, Tigers, Butterflies, Cats, Minnie Mouse!

The Old House at Home have a room upstairs to have the party food. I was expecting the usual chicken nuggets, sausages, carrot sticks etc but no! 

Children were given sausage sandwiches, toast, hash browns, tea cakes! There was even enough for the adults to have some! Plenty of juice and music played in the background as children tucked in to their breakfast buffet! 

Children were all given chocolate chip muffins to finish of.

Then it was time for party games! 10.20am and Val made my heart smile. She got all the children up - all 20 of them ranging from 18 months to 7 years and every single one was fully engaged and co-operated beautifully. From my background of working with children for over 10 years, I can appreciate that that does take some going!! She really did have a great presence and such an upbeat, child friendly personality. They loved her and so did the adults!

As soon as it was suggested the children played musical statues I braced myself for the strops when children didn't quite manage to stop in time. I needn't have worried. Val turned it into a positive and chose the children to be her special helpers. No one found this hard. I was taken back how they had really gone out of their way to respect children's feelings. Accepting you are 'out' at this young age can be pretty difficult to accept. Everyone was quite happy to be either dancing or on Vals team of helpers!

Once the party games were over there was another 35 minutes of play time left and the children happily went off once again to enjoy the remainder of the party.

A cake was also included in this package. The staff prepared the party bags (again included) and cut up the cake for me and made sure there was a piece for everyone inside their bags.

I left the party today and was quite touched at how thoughtful the staff had been. I loved seeing how much fun the children had playing in the soft play and with the party games. The food was delicious and the whole facility was spotlessly clean. I came home and couldn't believe how 'easy' for me the celebration had been made. The package included everything. I literally just needed to spend a few minutes filling in some invites and the only other thing I needed to do was turn up. Everything was done, sorted. 

I wasn't used to this. Even the swimming party I was busy cooking batches and batches of food before hand. I arrived stressed and didn't relax the whole party. This party I felt I was able to enjoy. I was able to go and join in with the children playing. I was able to enjoy a hot cup of tea and I was even offered a sausage sandwich and hash brown. 

I would like to say a great big thank you to the Wacky Warehouse for a fabulous party today, it has been such fun collaborating with you!
I would like to say a very special thank you to Val and Rachel who did not only us proud but the Wacky Warehouse chain also. 

We are already thinking about booking this venue again next year.