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Archives for October 2021

October 7, 2021 by Sofia

Why the Best Birthday Parties for a 4-Year-Old Include Story Time

Children who are four years old are old enough to understand when their birthday is coming up and all the excitement that surrounds the big day. They are excited about a celebration that makes them feel special with gifts, cake, candy, and a party. It’s also a time when parents are expected to throw a party for friends and family that will be a magical time for the birthday child and for guests.

Monique Banks and Ariel Banks Baker, founders of BLUEPRINT party plans, have thrown over 3,000 birthday parties. They understand that every age group requires something different to keep children engaged, happy, and feeling included. One of the most important tips that they share is including a story time for birthday parties for three and four-year-old children. By taking a quick quiz, BLUEPRINT is able to create a plan that gives parents the exact tools they need to host a magical kid’s birthday party. There are 27 themes to choose from and each theme for this age group will include a story time. Below are the top reasons why the best birthday parties for four-year-olds include a special book.

Finding a Balance Between High Energy and Relaxation

Whether you’re the parent or guest, birthday parties for a 4-year-old can easily be somewhat hectic. Monique and Ariel create an atmosphere of “controlled chaos” with high energy games, favorite music playlists and constant activities. Jumping from activity to activity during a birthday party makes the experience extremely fun, but at a certain point, everyone needs a break. It’s a break that cannot be boring! With the addition of a story time, there is a shift in the energy and a time when children can participate in something fun and relax at the same time. It’s the perfect chance for everyone to calm down a little bit before the high energy fun starts again.

Read all about it!

Reading is an activity that kids should be taught to love at a young age. Instead of having kids only associate the action with going to bed or school, story time in a fun atmosphere, like a child’s birthday party, can make books and learning more enjoyable. The team at BLUEPRINT do not recommend a book that your child has read many times. Instead, recommended books are within one of the 27 BLUEPRINT themes, are colorful and interesting, and allow kids to participate in the story time with various prompts. It’s a new experience so the kids pay better attention, and no one is calling out the next parts of the story!

A Good Way to Teach an Important Lesson

As we all know, books are one of the greatest ways to learn something new. Including such an important skill into a fun celebration is the best way to teach your kids something they can take with them into their interactions with others. A BLUEPRINT plan will recommend a story with a theme that reveals a deeper message. For example: kindness, inclusivity, curiosity, and creativity. By including these values into fun environments, kids are much more likely to adapt and absorb what they are being taught.

Involve Everyone

As our kids grow up, we should always teach the importance of inclusivity and sharing. When books and reading are included in birthday parties, these significant values can be utilized. Reading and storytelling can become something that is interactive. Party guests can read along, add to the storylines, and make inferences about characters. Story books can also show different types of characters that many can relate to. Especially now, it should be our goal to teach our children that everyone is unique and different; everyone has special qualities that make them, them! By adding books that share these values, every child can be taught these important messages in a setting they associate with a fun time.

So, the next time you plan a birthday party for your four-year-old, be sure to take the advice of the BLUEPRINT team! Include a story time that provides a few moments of relaxation. Hopefully, the activity will also be remembered for being extremely fun and reinforcing positive messages.

 

October 7, 2021 by Sofia

How Much Money Does The Melbourne Cup Winner Get?

The Melbourne Cup is the most prestigious horse race in Australia and one of the biggest in the world, and the 24 horses which compete in it annually are among the best stayers on the planet. With all the acclaim which surrounds it, the millions of eyes which watch it and the subsequent broadcast and sponsorship revenue which it yields, it’s little surprise that the winners earn a fairly handsome cheque after passing the post. But exactly how much money is up for grabs from The Race That Stops a Nation?

What is the prize money for the Melbourne Cup?

In total, the current prize pool for the Melbourne Cup sits at a whopping $8 million, a number bettered by only four other races in the world. Of course, that doesn’t all go to the winner, and the total is spread among the top 12 horses in the race. The money is shared like this: 6th-12th earn a very tidy $160,000, 5th wins $230,000, 4thsnares $350,000, 3rd gets $550,000, 2nd wins $1.1 million, and the winner takes home an enormous $4.4 million.

But while the Melbourne Cup has for a long time had a significant prize pool, it hasn’t always been as large as it is today. In fact, back in 1861 when it was first run, the winner is believed to have earned £710 for their troubles – clearly that was worth more than it would be today, but it falls a fair way short of the $4.4 million the winner will get in 2021. It was in 1985 that the total prize pool first surpassed the $1 million mark, while just 20 years later it had increased up to $5 million. The $8 million that it sits at today was reached in 2019 – just two years prior to that it had been at $6.2 million, so it’s safe to say the number is rising fairly quickly.

Who actually takes home the winnings?

Of course, while it’s the horse who does all the running, they don’t have much need for $4.4 million, so the winnings are spread among various connections. The jockey earns 5% of the winnings, or around $220,000, and they also get a much smaller but still useful riding fee. The trainer gets double that at 10% of the winnings, which in 2021 will amount to $440,000. That then leaves a huge $3.74 million to be shared among owners and other connections.

How does the Melbourne Cup prize pool compare to other major races?

As mentioned, the total Melbourne Cup prize money is bettered by only a handful of races in the world, and within Australia it is significantly more than many other major Group 1 races. To put it into perspective, the winner of the Melbourne Cup earns more than the total prize pool for both the Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Golden Slipper, and only slightly less than the total purse of each of the Cox Plate and the Caulfield Cup.

With these sums of money being thrown around, it’s easy to see why the Melbourne Cup is able to attract such high-quality stayers from around the world. And while the chance to etch one’s name in history and achieve one of the most significant accomplishments in world racing is a significant reason why the race is such a sought-after prize for trainers, jockeys and owners alike, the $4.4 million which is up for grabs certainly helps to add to the prestige.

October 4, 2021 by Sofia

4 Tips For a No-Stress Wedding

Although getting married is supposed to be one of the most exciting things that can happen in life, for many people it’s also one of the most stressful. It can be a complicated and overwhelming experience if you don’t hire a professional wedding planner. Heck, even brides and grooms without wedding planners can find themselves morphing into bridezillas and groomzillas.

The great news is that it doesn’t have to be a stressful experience. It’s all about finding the right mindset before the big day, to ensure that you have a smooth wedding. Take a look at some of the best tips for ensuring a stress-free wedding day.

Choose Your Venue First

There’s plenty that goes into planning a wedding. But one of the first things you should do is to choose your venue. That way, you know where it will be, and everything else can follow. Planning a wedding when you’re not sure where it will be, makes it impossible to truly plan. So if there’s one thing you should prioritize getting out of the way before anything, it should be locking down where it will take place.

Plan Ahead

One of the biggest reasons for wedding day stress is feeling like you’re racing the clock. There’s so much to get done in time for the big day, that it’s important that you give yourself as much time as possible. The less you have to rush, the less you’ll stress. It’s really that simple.

So, set a schedule with checkpoints. For example, set a date that you hope to have hired the wedding photographer by, and another date you hope to have chosen your guest list, and so on. By having a strategic schedule set in place, you’ll make sure that you stay on top of your goals rather than struggling to keep up. Lastly, make sure that you always add a time cushion to whatever goals you set. A little extra time is always better for your sanity.

Set a Budget

Another major stress factor for planning a wedding is finances. Weddings are expensive— and that’s no secret. However, if you set a budget for yourself then you’ll be less likely to surpass what you can afford. Rather than stressing yourself out about what your final expenses will be, carefully measure them out as you go and don’t stretch your budget past what you can realistically afford.

Even though you might want your day to be perfect, sometimes you have to make small sacrifices to stay within how much you can actually pay.

Enjoy Yourself!!

At the end of the day, your wedding is supposed to be a joyous celebration. Don’t forget to enjoy yourself throughout the process. After all, it’s supposed to be fun, not stressful. take deep breaths now and then and remind yourself but the point is to celebrate your love with someone, not add extra stress to your life

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About Me and My Family

Hey! I'm Sofia, mother or two and happily married to my husband, Lorenzo. We believe family is the most important thing in life today. People can get easily distracted by all the business life brings. This blog is dedicated to helping you navigate life and spend more time with your family!

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