First of all, always be sure of the entrance requirements of the country you are traveling to for instance, some countries require travel visas like Brazil and Australia.

Make sure you read about the laws in those countries because you want to find yourself getting in trouble for something in a foreign country.

It’s also a good idea to know about their currency rates and language as well. I’ve heard that in some places they might give you a discount if you speak their language. Also, it might be a good idea to travel in a group incase you don’t that the country too well.

It’s always a good idea to know the customs and culture of the country you’re visiting so you don’t unintentionally insult someone; for example it’s rude to cross your legs so that bottom of your shoes are showing in Spain because are bottom of shows are really nasty.

Another thing to consider is that in some country the beds are smaller than they are here for some reason so you might want to get a room with a larger bed also the electrical outlets may be different. Plus, don’t forgot that in some countries the steering wheel might be located on the right and they might drive on the left like in Australia and England.

It’s a god idea to buy a tourism book about that particular country because they tend to tell you important information plus, you might want to contact a tourism industry with in that country as well because they can give you good ideas about what to visit while in that country.

Some more obvious but important things to remember are that other countries have their own laws and government and that some countries are about the size of a state.
Well, I hope this article helps you with your travels.

I find the dating scene to be so complicated and scary. Most people in our society today are involved with online dating. But there are so many possibilities of becoming targets. And what I mean by targets is, victims of rapists, abusers, or thiefs! What should a person do if they find themselves in a position where they like someone, but they’ve met online, and are unsure of what percautions to take? Here are some safety tips for you to fall back on.

1. Always meet your interest in a public place. If they tell you they don’t like public places for
some reason or another. Leave them alone! They are probably up to no good.

2. Get as much information as you can about your interest before you meet. Address, Place
of employment, Bank, etc., and check up on this information before meeting them. You need to
know that they are being honest and up front with you from the start.

3. Bring a friend to watch over you. This friend should not be joining you, but be off to the side
close by, taking pictures. This friend should get a picture of their car, license plate number,
the interest themselves, etc. They won’t know who you know (unless you have their
face plastered on the website you met them on).

4. Don’t forget to bring your cell phone, which hopefully has voice activation. If at any point you
start feeling uncomfortable with his advances, you can just reach inside your purse and push
the side of your phone and start recording. I give this advice, because if you decide you want
to file charges against him for harassment, the police will need some kind of proof.

5. Never give them too much information. Don’t get into bank accounts, where your kids go to
school (it’s none of their business unless they want to start paying their child support), how
much income you make, where you keep your valuables in the home (they could follow you
home and break in while your gone, or worse, sleeping!)

It’s a very unsafe world these days, and people are becoming harder and harder to trust. I know…I’ve made this mistake. And it almost cost me my life! Worse yet, I didn’t have the smarts at the time to take these precautions, and the police had very little to go on. I never did catch my attacker.

Be safe…not sorry!

There aren’t too many reality shows that catch my interest.  There is something about a show where people do anything possible to get money.  Sure there are some good reality shows out there that change lives like the Biggest Loser and Extreme Home Makeover.  VH1 has jumped on the reality show ban-wagon and seem to have the most reality shows than any other network.  From shows like Flavor of Love and Rock of Love to Charm School and The Pick-up Artist.  I have to admit some of their shows has caught my attention and I don’t miss them for anything.  The two that I watch each week are Rock of Love Charm School and The Pick-up Artist.  Both are come on on Sunday nights Charm School at 9 o’clock eastern and Pick up Artist at 10 o’clock eastern.

The Rock of Love Charm School is hosted by Sharon Osborn, no one is better to whip rocker chicks into shape than her.  They take the girls who acted the worst and could use the most help from the show Rock of Love where girls compete to win the love of rock star Bret Michaels.  These girls get lessons each day from people from the business teaching them different things such as style and grace to how to manage a band which is what many of these girls want to do.  After the lessons, they have a task to complete and of course the winners get immunity while the losers are on the chopping block.  Each week as they learn new things someone goes home and less girls get to move on a learn how to become better women and how to act like women with class and grace while working in the rock and roll genre.

Rock Of Love Charm School is a great show to watch because you watch these girls grow from what some circles would call trash or other inappropriate words for an article.  Sharon takes them from dressing like strippers to dressing like fashionable women.  Sharon said it was a place where women could change themselves for the better and become the women they need to be.  There is everything that makes a great show great: drama.  There is honestly more drama than in a soap opera.  Girls are constantly fighting with each other, trying to manipulate each other without even trying to change their lives.  Some don’t even want to change and see this as an opportunity to either get on television or earn money at the end of the show.  Sharon makes the show one of the best shows on this season.  She sets the rules and doesn’t take crap from anyone.

The Charm School had another season, which was done with the Flavor of Love girls that really needed the work.  One girl didn’t even really make it to the show because she got into a fight with another girl.  The girls that come on the show surprise you and shock you at times because they do not act like women.  One even admits she wants to be a trophy wife and wear bikinis everywhere she goes while her friend wears lingerie wherever she goes.  Sharon does her best to whip these girls into shape.  If you like shows like Jerry Springer where there is a fight at every corner, then Rock of Love Charm School is a good show for you to check out.  There are one or two girls that may not need the charm school because they seem like they have grace and class already, but don’t let looks and sweetness deceive you.  It’s the quiet sweet ones  that need to be looked out for the most.

Another show that has caught my attention is The Pick-up Artist hosted by the pick up artist himself: Mystery.  The basis for the show is Mystery takes ten men who are relationship challenged, meaning they have a hard time getting close to women, getting them to talk to him let alone getting their number or even a date.  He gives them lessons of course to teach them different things about picking up women.  Mystery shows the guys how to gain the confidence they need to be able to walk up to a women they find attracted to even talk to her and open up the possibility to get a phone number and a date.  These guys are shy, awkward and so many other things.  Some would call them geeks or freaks but by the time Mystery is done with them they are master pick up artists.

The Pick Up Artist is probably my favorite reality show because it isn’t all about playing a game.  It has more to it.  You see the guys growing and becoming more confident and better men through the experience.  It is fun seeing how they react to different situations and some of the tasks that Mystery has them do throughout the weeks.  Some can be a little rough while others seem to the viewer something so simple.  I first caught The Pick Up Artist in a marathon of the first season.  They take the guys and give them makeovers to help them look their best and I have to say, they do a great job, some of the men I wouldn’t consider dating, then the makeover happens and many of them get cuter and don’t look as creepy as they did when they came into the show.

The end of each show is the final task, the task where if they win they get immunity.  They go into a club and try to pick up women.  The change the guys have from the first show to the fourth show is drastic.  They go from constantly being shut down to getting numbers and even a kiss from a girl or two.  When the guys talk in like a video you can see the change and sometimes the pain in their voices.  One of the guys even cry when he realizes he is failing a little or when he gets frustrated.  I honestly think he could go far as long as he is able to get past his own insecurities.  Another guy is too energetic that creeps women out and then they turn him down.  This is a great show because other guys who are in the same situation can learn from them and see what they can do to change things and become men that women would want to be with, and be interested in at least getting to know better.

Reality shows seem to be the big thing in television.  As they start to lose their cool and go to more change based shows like Biggest Loser, VH1 keeps the cut throat reality show alive with all of their shows.  If you like shows that women or men compete for the love of someone there are shows like that, if you like shows where people learn how to better themselves them Charm School and Pick Up Artist are for you.  Even if you like seeing celebrities doing something different and tough, Celebrity Fit Club is a good show to watch which is something like Biggest Loser, but for celebrities.  Vh1 has seemed to start stretching for shows to keep their audiences entertained and they are really keeping them entertained with shows like these.

What is poverty?

Many of us always ask why and what is poverty. When we say poverty, it is dealing of the condition of being poor. Being poor means a person is lacking of money or property or he is needy, penniless with little or no money or property. If you own nothing at all or having not enough necessities in your life then you will be consider poor or in the stage of poverty and it is the main problem of the whole world.

What causes Poverty?

Well first of all if you mismanage the money then it will be simply gonna be gone in months, days or seconds. If you abuse of oneself  like drugs, gambling, smoking, women, revelers or wild parties then you will be poor sooner or later if you cannot handle it.

Another thing is lack of knowledge. You need to have enough knowledge of all the things around you and what are the consequences in every thing that you made and you need to have a solution in every problem you take.

The worst one is laziness. If you practice this then don’t expect for any money that will come into your life. You need to think that if you will not work then you cannot eat and provide something for yourself and your family so bare in your mind that being lazy is one of the main reasons why poverty exist. If just people are hard worker except for people who are disable then you will not experience poverty.

In Thoreau’s third chapter he talks about reading and the importance of reading.  Too often now a days reading has become something that we see as boring and un-entertaining.  We don’t want to read a book when it rains and the sale of books seem to have gone down a little, especially if the book is a collection of poetry.  We don’t want to read anymore because it seems to take to long.  We want things now at this very moment and it is so hard for us to get entertain with a book.  Novels don’t seem to hold our attentions anymore which is why it is so hard to get teens to read a good book like Walden.  That is why too many people think Walden is boring that it is hard to understand.  Thoreau sys many different things about reading and what reading can do for us.  His ideas in this chapter are just as powerful and thought provoking as the past two chapters.

The very first line in the chapter is one that makes you really think about what it says.  With a little more deliberation in the choice of their pursuits, all men would perhaps become essentially students.  What Thoreau is saying is that we are all students no matter if we are in school or not.  Everyday we live we are actively learning new things.  Whenever we decide to do something we learn everything we can about that thing.  We become students to that specific thing.  For example I know someone who has been studying tuba playing for ten years or more and one who has been studying pipe organ performance for longer than ten years.  We chose or pursuits in things and we become students of those things.  We are always students no matter the age, gender, income level, or occupation.  We are students of the world.  Students of life and no matter what there is something more us to learn each day and there is a saying that follows that idea: you learn something new everyday.  Learning is something we constantly do.  Learning doesn’t end when we graduate from high school or college.

With more deliberation we can become better people based on the things we decide to do or not do.  We can decide to take time a hike through the woods and learn about the different trees and see how different animals act in the wild.  We need to take an active role in learning, but even if we don’t we still learn new things just by talking to the people around us.  We are deliberate in our choices of what we want to learn and pay attention to, even if we don’t think about it.  We still make choices about what we want to do and what we want to learn.  We need to be deliberate in our learnings and the things we allow to take up our times.  When we become students of the world we pay attention to different things and the dependence on the luxuries like computers and televisions wouldn’t matter and would become less important.  The quote continues to say and observers, for certainly their nature and destiny are interesting to all alike.  Is Thoreau saying when we make it a point to learn more we become more interesting?  I should say so, because we will be able to have more to talk about on many different subjects.  We become someone interesting to talk about because of our ideas and theories based on what we learned.

Another quote that can make a difference is A written word is the choicest of relics.  It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art.  It is the work of art nearest to life itself.  When he says the written word is choices of relics means that the written word will be around forever.  No one can stop the written word from being produced as long as we have writers and we always will.  The written word was seen as a way to preserve a person, making them almost immortal because they were written about.  Literature is more intimate with us because we need to think and form our own ideas with it.  It provokes our imagination and makes us imagine the setting, characters and time.  Nothing else can make us do that, sure art is thought provoking and makes us think about the work itself.  But it doesn’t make us think of other things the way literature does.  A written word is the choicest of relics.  The written word is something that people will keep going back to in order to learn about the past.  We read classic literature to help us understand things of the past.  Thoreau’s book, even if he didn’t realize it helps us understand the thinking of transcendentalists in his time because the movement was big then.

Literature, according to Thoreau is the only form of art that is closest to life because it is life itself.  People have written about life no matter if it is non-fiction or not.  Even if a story is fiction, there are still some non-fiction elements to it.  “The Awakening” for example is a great work of art that displays the norms and values place on women during the time that Kate Chopin wrote it.  While it is a fiction novel the expectation of women were still true.  When an author writes something they put a little bit of themselves into it, making it life itself.  No matter who you are, you will find something to relate to in almost any story that you read whether it is a mystery, romance or Christian fiction.  While artwork (paintings, sculptures) have reallife aspects, it doesn’t come to life the same way literature does.  He says that it is the work of art is the nearest to life is because it makes us think about life the most.  There are books and novels that provoke emotion in our hearts and makes us pay attention to what has happened in the past.  Books like Eli Weisel’s novel “Night” help us understand what it was like to survive the Holocaust, Malcolm X’s biography helps us understand why he did the things he did and why he believed what he did.  Langston Hughes’ poetry makes us think about the struggle African Americans had to endure to get the rights the so deserved.

This reading, in a high sense, not that which lulls us as a luxury and suffers the nobler facilities to sleep.  What Henry David Thoreau is saying in this part is that reading no longer is a luxury.  It puts people to sleep because they see it as boring and many do not give it half a chance.  It is already in the mind set that it boring and will put us to sleep so it does.  Reading was once such a luxury, something done as a past-time and it was seen as a high honor if someone read your work.  It was a desired quality in women to be readers and read to their husbands or children.  Now a days there aren’t too many men who would want a woman who reads a lot.  It is even rarer to find a man who reads for the fun of it.  Reading is no longer seen as a great quality; no longer a luxury for some, but a hinderance and burden for some.  Students in high school or college groan and complain when they need to read and then write about what they read.

As we see reading can have great advantages and helps us form ideas about things we wouldn’t normally think about.  Going back to the quote about the written word being the choicest of relics, it should be seen as a luxury and a accomplishment to be well read in many genres of literature.  Instead of reading a book we turn the television on.  Television and computer softwares have taken the place of luxury that books once had.  Reading was once considered something that you did to show you education, and standing but now a lot of people think reading is a sign of geekdom or being a shut in.  People relate reading to something that like their grandmother would do or something that “old people” do.  It is rare for someone in their teens to want to read and then really discuss what they read the way it was done in the time Thoreau wrote “Walden.”

When it comes to our level of reading, Henry David Thoreau is a little harsh.  He says yet we learn to read only as far as Easy reading, the primers and class-books, and when we leave school, the “Little Reading and story books, which are for boys and beginners; and our reading, our conversation and thinking, are all on a very low level.  He basically says that our reading level has become the equivalent to grade school.  He thinks that we learn to read only for the basics, only the minimum of what we would need to get a job or something.  He thinks we don’t increase our reading level to read more challenging books other than beginner books and story books that young children would be reading.  He says we learn easy reading and don’t really challenge ourselves with something harder than say Little Red Ridinghood.  And honestly how many of us can say we read and understand Shakespeare?

When our reading is on a low level, Thoreau says our thinking and our conversation levels become lower in level as well.  Which would make sense because the lower your reading ability is, the less you will be able to talk about.  It takes us back to the quote about being essential students.  When we read we learn and our reading level increases as well as our thinking and conversation levels.  So as students we learn to increase every level which helps us grow as people; but when we spend too much time focused and dependant on the so called luxuries of life like watching television all the time or spending the day on the computer instead of reading we don’t really grow higher.  We are stuck at a certain level and it is possible that the level can decrease as well.  I mean the more you read Shakespeare, Thoreau, Emerson, Euripides and others the easier it is to understand them.

Thoreau talks about so many different things in his novel.  He goes from luxuries hindering us, to us needing to cut back on things in our lives to the importance of reading.  And we are only in the third chapter! What else could this man talk about simply from spending two years in nature.  He thought about everything he dealt with on a daily basis and how the things in oure lives effect ourselves for good or for bad.  It is how we use the things we have in life that matters.  Sure computers are a luxury and they can help us keep in touch with friends and family, some use it to earn some money, others use it to shop, but it can also hinder  us because we can spend too much time on it and waste away the day doing frivolous things like watching videos on youtube.  It has become so difficult for us to sit down with a book on the porch to read.  We cannot spend two minutes away from the computer or television, so our cell phones have internet capabilities and video messaging so we can watch different things via our cell phones and other hand held things.  We need to get back to reading more.

One thing we can do to help inprove those levels, is we can <gasp> read more.  We can pick up different books and read them.  We can read a little Emerson, then a little McCourt.  If we really want a challenge try Dante’s Divine Comedy and something easier with John Grishom.  There are always things we can read to learn more and improve our reading levels and the more we read the better our levels in everything can become.  When we read the newspaper we can improve our knowledge in politics, economics and more.  We need to be more well rounded with the things we read and have for conversation purposes.  When we read more we can develop our ideas and theories more.  I have noticed the more I have read the more developed my theology has become.  Read more and become more well rounded.  I know we all have something we find interesting to read.  We can be deliberate as Thoreau said and become well versed in mystery novels.  Read.  Develop those conversation skills and thinking levels.  Thoreau was harsh, but for a reason.

One of the toughest courses the U.S. Army has to offer is Basic Airborne Training.  The course is designed to train soldiers and officers how to become Paratroopers.  The course is held at the Airborne School in Fort Benning, Georgia.  The course is only 3 weeks long, but will test your physical endurance and mental toughness far beyond the normal boundaries.

Becoming a Paratrooper is certainly not for everyone.  The training is long, hard, and physically demanding.  Most of the soldiers that are not in top physical condition will be eliminated by the end of the first week.  This is one course that will really separate the, “men from the boys.”

If you are interested in making the military a career, taking the Airborne course will definitely enhance your rank and credentials.  All of the military’s special forces and special operations units like, the Green Berets,  Navy Seals, and some specialized Ranger units, must be Airborne qualified before they can become a member of these elite units.

In the first week of training or “ground week,” the soldiers will be subjected to extreme physical conditioning, and basics like how to wear the parachute harness properly.  They will also be trained on how to exit the aircraft properly by training on the “mock” door.  They will also be taught the techniques of proper parachute landings, how to handle their parachute during the descent, and then they will actually jump from the 34 foot tower which actually simulates an actual jump.

During week two the tough physical conditioning continues along with training designed to teach a soldier how to control oscillation during their descent.  More training is employed to emphasize safe landing procedures, and then the latter part of week two is spent making jumps from the 250 foot tower.

In the third and final week of training, the soldiers will make five real jumps from either an C-130 Hercules or a C-141 Starlifter aircraft.  After the successful completion of five jumps they will earn their coveted silver ”Airborne Wings.”

The American Airborne Units have an incredibly rich and prestigious history.  They have played an important role in the Normandy Invasion of World War II and the Battle of the Bulge.  They have fought gallantly in the jungles of Vietnam, and have effectively engaged the enemy in Operation Desert Storm, Iraq, and Afghanistan.  A substantial number of Medal of Honor recipients have also been Airborne soldiers.

If you’re looking to enter the military and are seeking a real challenge that can help enhance your career,  consider enrolling in the Airborne training.   The training and camaraderie is second to none, and you will truly understand what Paratroopers mean when they utter their famous motto, “Airborne All The Way.”

Author: Bill Bryson

Atmosphere of the story: Extremely Dangerous

Central Characaters:

Deirde Macken- A journalist on the Sydney Morning Herald.

Glent Hunt- Young photographer.

Plot:

It so happens that Australia has more things that will kill you than anywhere else on earth. And oddly enough, these dangers seems to be sought after by its natives. On one trip, they had an interesting offer of guidance from a journalist on the Sydney morning  herald named Deirde Macken. An Alert and cheerful lady, Deirde met me at my hotel with a young photographer named Glent hunt, They  are the two Sydneysiders,as residents of the great city are quantity known. They showed all.

Australia really is extraordinary lethal. It is a tough place. Of course, if you can always do what I finally did, go off to a museum to look at the material and minerals. They aren’t so exciting but they that compensating virtue that almost never if they attack you.

The climax part is really cool because there was an attack of a wild shark and it is suspense. Most of the character believe that they can survive in the situation they encounter.

Symbol: Shark

Why to read it:

The story is really nice and very useful and suspense. Everyone will love reading it and it is cheap and not so think book.

If it’s time to put down new floor coverings in your home, take the time to do your homework before you go blindly replacing what you have with more of the same. Options in today’s flooring market include carpeting, vinyl, ceramic tile, hardwood and laminate.

Carpeting is nice to walk on, it gives your home a warm and friendly feeling, and looks good, at least in the beginning. However, it requires frequent cleanings which can be rather costly. Repeated cleanings may also eventually take the stiffness out of carpeting as well as the vibrant look that it initially had. Carpet may become rather downtrodden in certain high-traffic areas as well, and is especially prone to staining.

Vinyl can also show traffic pattern wear, and if you drop something sharp on it such as a knife or glass that breaks, an actual cut can occur in the vinyl. Also those that have decorative creases or indentations may look very nice, but it can become a nightmare to keep those little cracks and crevices clean.

The biggest complaints from people who have ceramic tile in their homes seem to be about the difficulty in keeping the grout between the tiles clean and also how uncomfortable they are to stand on for any amount of time, due to the hardness of the ceramic tile itself.

Hardwood floors are quite beautiful but need to be refinished at times, especially if you’re moving into an older home that hasn’t kept the floors up over the years. Refinishing hardwood can be quite a costly home repair  item.

This brings us then to the new laminate floor coverings available on the market today. There are the traditional styles that look like a hardwood floor but there are also ones that look like vinyl or ceramic tile. The laminate floor coverings are very durable. They are so resistant to scratches, in fact, that you can actually move your furniture across them without leaving a mark on the laminate.

Simple dusting or sweeping with a vacuum will take care of your day to day cleaning and occasional damp mopping will clean up everything else. Laminate won’t stain which is especially important if you have pets or small children. Spills can be cleaned up with a damp cloth and you’ll never know they even happened. Many of the newer laminate floor coverings are waterproof and can be used in kitchen and baths without worry.

Installation can be done professionally, but many do-it-yourselvers are able to install laminate floors themselves thus saving a considerable amount on the cost. Generally, unless it’s carpeting, the old flooring doesn’t even have to be removed. The new laminate can be put right over the top of it, thus eliminating the expense of doing the removal as well as the added expense of disposing of the old flooring. In comparison to the cost of most other types of floor coverings, laminate is very competitive and will probably outlast many of them as well, making it even more cost-effective.

So as you can see, laminate floor coverings have many wonderful attributes going for them. One of the best, however, is how beautiful they look in your home. By adding a few area rugs, you’ll have the warm feel of carpeting but still be able to enjoy freedom from worrying about keeping your floors clean. Bring on the dirty shoes, pets, cooking messes, or kids’ escapades. None of these will bother you if you have laminate flooring since most clean-ups can easily be handled with no lasting effects.

INTRODUCTION

Improving your writing skills can be easy if you always love to read books and research lots of things that you want to know then it will be one factor to improve your skills in writings. Learning to love the library will be a great solution for your problem. Going to the library can be as enriching as one maybe expect it to be. This place is full of countless words that is really informative and useful for your writing ability. If you always dream to be a good writer then the first thing you need to do is conduct lots of research and read and read.

OBSERVING THE RULES AND INSTRUCTIONS

By following the rules and instructions properly, it means that you are really paying some attention so you need to start by following any rules and instructions that you will encounter.

Reading and Note-taking

If you are conducting some research or if you are reading some textbook then you need to take some note for it to be more helpful and you can use it in the near future. You don’t need to copy the whole text as long that you understand what you are reading then you just need to copy the important details that you need.Researching will make solve the problem easily.

Keep reading and reading all the materials that you can see in the library so that you will gain more knowledge to all the things around you. History is very important then you better read some and then try to experiment something new.

Look for a topic that interest you and will not make you bored so that you will focus reading it. Don’t read fast because speed doesn’t matter. What you need is to understand every word and you will have many ideas on what you can write.

Based on your field of specialization, you can select what type of research topic you can use. If you are finish reading some of the topic you decided to read then its time for you to start making a summary of it using your own word then in this case, you will practices your writing skills. Keep writing and always carry your dictionary for helping words.

By writing, first you need to have your introduction and tell the people what it is all about and as questions and in the second paragraph, answer the questions you’ve tackled to the first paragraph for the climax level and then for the third paragraph, explain all about it.

Writing will be easier as what i’ve said if your passion is here and if your interest is here then everything will be easy for you on how to improve it.

If you’re looking for a fun and unique idea for your daughter’s next birthday party, why not try having a Photo Shoot party? Most girls enjoy posing for the camera, especially when they get to dress up or be made up pretty.

Start with invitations announcing your glamorous day. If you like, you can go with a theme suitable for your daughter’s age or interests, such as Princess or Fairies for younger girls or Hollywood or Top Model for older girls. Let them know that they will be dressing up and taking lots of pictures! You can also have just a general photo shoot with different kinds of props of your own choosing.

Begin to gather items for the girls to dress up in or use as props. Thrift stores are excellent for this, you can find old prom dresses, hats, jewelry, long gloves, sunglasses, etc. If it happens to be near Halloween, all the better. Wait until after Halloween when things are marked down and you can find princess tiaras, wands, boas, funky jewelry, makeup and all kinds of great stuff for really cheap.

Set up an area where you will take the pictures. Inside is best, where the lighting and weather can be controlled. You can use just a blank wall if you like, but props make the photos much more interesting. Even a simple chair or bench can be a lot of fun for silly or dramatic girls in front of a camera. Other items you can use could be colorful pillows, hanging strands of beads, stuffed animals, etc.

You can set up other “stations” also where the girls can get ready. One area for costumes, one for makeup, one for props, and so on. They can go one by one through each station as they get ready. The birthday girl gets to go first, of course! Be sure to have something else for the others to do while waiting their turn. Some may be entertained to just watch their friends, but a backup is always a good idea, especially for younger ones. Try a fun craft or simple game.

Enlist other moms to help. If you have friends that will be coming and don’t mind pitching in, use them to help coordinate outfits, apply makeup or just keep things in order. This can be a huge help in a situation that could get out of hand. Plus it will keep things moving faster.

Play some fun music to set the mood. Girls will feel even more like a ‘model’ if the atmosphere is there. Select age appropriate tunes to keep the energy up and the inspiration high.

A digital camera is highly recommended. This way, you can take lots of shots of each girl without worrying about wasting film. Another plus and really fun thing to do is to post the pictures online with www.snapfish.com or another photo website so they can go see all the pictures themselves and order some if they want. Place an inexpensive frame with a note in the goody bags letting the moms know where to go to see the pictures. Don’t forget to take a group shot as well!

If you have the opportunity, you can print out one picture for each girl before they leave as a souvenir or send one in a thank you note. Go with whatever works for you and whatever your birthday girl prefers. In any case, she and her friends will feel like beautiful stars for the day and your party will be remembered for a long time to come!