Ask Rosemary

Rosemary is our resident expert on party planning, party favors, fun recipes and great gift prize ideas.

If you would like to Ask Rosemary for ideas to help plan your next party please fill out our Inquiry Form detailing your information. Your question and Rosemary's response will be listed below within one week.

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Hi Rosemary, I was wondering if you had any ideas or suggestions for my son's first birthday party. The theme we chose is a fire engine/fire fighter birthday party. The same theme as his nursery. The ages of the kids attending will range from 1-10 years old. Any ideas would gladly be appreciated. Thanks, Kenya
	A little imagination goes a long way.... I would suggest a train ride. You take cardboard boxes in various sizes and paint them with markings of a train. Hook them together with rope and have your son be the engineer. You can be real creative and put a cardboard piece in the engine box for your son to sit on. Take some foam board and draw the outline of an engineer. Cut a circle for positioning a face with an engineer cap on top. Have each guest stand in behind the cut out and take a picture. Send the picture with the thank you card. You can easily find engineer clipart on the net. If the guest list is not too large, you could purchase the wooden engineer whistles for favors and use a permanent writing pen to write your son's name and birthday on each. Some fun games could be pass the train (you could purchase a little toy engine) give it to the child and play music. The person who is left holding the engine when the music stops is out. The main thing is to have fun!
Hi, can you give me a sample on how to say Thank you for a monetary baptism gift. Thank you!
	You could write something like... Thank you for being a part of our daughter's baptism. Your thoughtfulness is appreciated.
A customer has recently suffered the loss of an unborn grandchild and her daughter is still in the hospital, not doing well. I would like to send her a card, but don't want it to sound as though she has lost her daughter. How do I incorporate both into the same sympathy note?
	In this particular situation, I would send a card for wishes of her daughter's speedy recovery and return to good health. I would send a second card for the loss of her grandchild. You could include that the Lord has hand-picked another spotless angel for His heavenly palace.
I just under went Brain Surgery after a very difficult pregnancy (Baby is 5 months old) I had thank you cards specially made to send to family and freinds as we were overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support over the last 6 months or so (once we announce that surgery was inevitable) I am recouperating well) The wording on the card (with a slight mistake is: Words cannot express how far your Prayers have carried US!! Thank you for your support and kind wishes. With Love, My Name and My husb. name and family.
	So glad to hear you are on the road to a speedy recovery. If I understand your question, the word "and" is written twice on the last line? While it is not in your quote of the words, if the word is repeated one right after the other you can send them (although I would have them reprinted. You paid for them and they are incorrect). Nevertheless, you can still use them and you may want to draw a little heart over the second "and" or place a heart sticker there.
My best friend is having his son's baptism at the end of the month, but is financially unable to have a small get together after the service. He has asked the Godparents to attend the service and he says he will have a party in 2 months from now I feel that this is improper, should he not at least have a small brunch for the Godparents?
	It is not a question of what is proper. If he has no money there is nothing formal he can do. However, I do think he could have a cake and coffee for the Godparents. There is not need for him to spend a great deal of money but anyone can bake a cake and make some coffee.
My son & daughter-in-law are baptizing their new son in a couple of wks. I have 2 questions: a) is it proper to e-mail guests in this day & age; b) and if not, who should do the telephoning of guests when time is of the essence? The mother is a stay at home mom & the dad is working outside the home. Thank you.
	Invitations may be mailed. The mother should be inviting the guests. If she is too overwhelmed with the new baby it is perfectly ok for you to assist her.
Rosemary - Our Son and Daughter-in-law went into labor midnight we got a call around 8:30 in the morning and our son never said before or after the birth to come down, so we didn't want to intrude, but it gets better. After we were told nothing, I was never asked to call the rest of the family and I didn't want to take it upon myself to make all the phone calls without being asked because this was their big day, so I didn't call anyone else. Well several months later family members are upset because they are just finding our i.e. my mother, my sister and my son and daughter-in-law are saying it is my fault because I didn't call anyone, I thought I was being respectful since I wasn't asked to step in. Am I wrong for not taking it upon myself to call everyone? Please help, I can't take anymore verbal beatings for not taking over. Sue
	You were not responsible for notifying anyone. You did not have the baby. They should have asked you to notify the family. If the people who were not called are still annoyed have them take it up with your son. What a horrible experience for you. You become a grandmother and now have to take the blame. Cheer up! There is nothing wrong with your actions.
I just recently attended a baby shower where they passed out envelopes for the thank you notes...we were asked to address the envelope to our self in order to "help" the mother-to-be. I thought this was just plain "tacky"!
	It is a "tacky" way of doing things. However, nowadays they appear to be reinventing the wheel for convenience. Pity that the "mother-to-be" couldn't take the time to address her thank you notes.
Hi Rosemary, how do I thank teachers for all the good work they do with my kids. Thanks
	You could write a nice note and leave it at that. If you want to give a gift you could give them a gift certificate from Thank You Ink so they could purchase materials they need. Some verbiage for the note could be: Thank you for sharing your talents with my (son or daughter). Your teaching skills have brought them through another year of school and they have learned so much.

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