Post Pals Party 2015 Fun
Jul 6, 2015
On the 27th of June, Post Pals families and volunteers travelled from all over the UK to the annual Post Pals party.
The party kicked off with kids running straight to our giant slide and bouncy castle, but kids weren’t the only people who enjoyed the inflatables though!
While some children had their face painted by the brilliant Jackie from About Faces, others were busy playing games and winning prizes with a children’s entertainer indoors. The highlight of this was when the children had the chance to be inside a giant bubble!
We had a lovely buffet with all your usual lunch time foods and then there was the candy buffet! Jaymee owns Candy Chaos which is a subscription box service that sends people the best of sweet treats from around the world. Jaymee often sends boxes to the children but donated over £750 worth of candy just for our event, as well as coming along to the party! The selection and quantities were mind blowing and everyone was allowed to help themselves. The biggest hit were special Lego bricks which you can build things from and then eat. We have never seen Tyanna P so still and quiet as she sat there making buildings with them and smearing marshmallow fluff as ‘cement’. She left with a massive box full so she could carry on building. We think Connor ate so many Cheetos they turned his hair orange! We didn’t get a good picture of the candy buffet as there was always a swarm of people around it.
As well as lots of big activities we also had lots of garden games, inflatable toys and air walkers. Not a single wheelchair went without a balloon attached and we saw Faith give a huge smile when her Minion balloon was blown over her. Most of these items were from our Amazon wish list that lots of volunteers kindly ordered items from. The CEO from Ben’s Cookies very kindly ordered lots and lots of items, including the roller which was constantly played with during the whole party and will be used again next year. Thank you to Ben’s Cookies and Carly from Naked Hearts.
We also had a tattoo table and a craft area at the bottom of the garden for those wanting a break from everything.
A selection of coloured hair sprays and glitters were a big hit with both the girls and the boys. While Jennifer was busy spraying hair and adding colourful clips, Katy who is a professional hair/makeup artist, curled and created some fantastic hair styles.
Of course our old friends Peppa and Minnie and Mickey Mouse returned and were just as loved as always. Mickey was very naughty, rolling a child in the roller and diving into the ball pool. I bet you have never seen Mickey, Minnie and Peppa on a giant slide before!
After being enjoyed so much last year, we asked Ben to return with his big selection of animals which everyone got to learn about, see and hold. There was a huge range of animals, from a tortoise to cockroaches, but the most popular were the owls and meerkats. The meerkats like to check in people’s ears for grubs and even checked in Vikki’s mouth!
We had a break from the animals to cut our fab cake. This year Post Pals turns 13 and our popular Dottie scheme turns 5 so we had a Dottie themed cake. It was made by Louisa and tasted as good as it looked.
Next was our crazy raffle, the prizes took up nearly a whole wall and unsurprisingly the children just kept winning things! We start off with one prize per a winning ticket, then two prizes per a ticket, before moving onto three.
The party always finishes with our forget-me-not balloon release, where a balloon containing the forget-me-not seeds are let go for every Pal who has passed away. As we read out the names we remember each child and think of their family.
Some families stay chatting after the party and we have our annual wheelchair race around the garden. All the children left with wonderful party bags, donated and put together by Bev, and an airwalker balloon, plus more sweets! Of course everyone left with lots of happy memories too.
A huge thank you to everyone who donated, sponsored items, ordered from our wish list or volunteered.