Longest Standing Partytrap Animator - Steph A!

'Amazing', 'sweet' & "calm" are among the words our animators use to describe Steph (or as we call her Steph A). She has been in the team ever since Partytrap was conceived and this of course makes her the most experienced of us all.  Steph stands at a different level when it comes to transferring skills onto the rest of the team, in fact she is a role model to many of us.  This, together with her great patience and care, make her an exceptional leader.

As an animator Steph is one of the most versatile and gentle.  She can calmly handle any situation and age group with her poised and friendly character and this is why children feel at ease around her.

She has given a lot to Partytrap and we are all very grateful to be still enjoying her work, knowledge and friendship. We dedicate this blog post to her to share some captured memories of her within the team! Enjoy!

Children and Physical Play

Physical play includes activities that use physical movements to allow children to use their energy, giving children the chance to develop gross and fine motor skills, learn new things and socialize. Physical play also benefits a child’s health and understanding the importance of physical play is vital to your child’s development.

Ideal physical play incorporates play with social interactions and problem solving. Physical play provides various health benefits. It promotes early brain development and learning in infants and young children and decreases the risk of developing health conditions like coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, obesity and many other chronic health conditions.

Most children naturally develop the ability to run and walk. However, they require practice and instruction to develop hopping, galloping, sliding, catching, jumping, throwing, kicking, bouncing and striking skills. Children incorporate these skills into sports, games and dance. 

Playgrounds are perfect places for a child to develop mental connections, socialize and develop fine and gross motor skills mentioned before.

Although those who are parents now may have spent spent most of their childhood riding their bikes and playing games like baseball or football on side streets, many children today spend much of their time indoors, playing games on their tablets or watching television. Research has found that unstructured outdoor play is critical to the health of children. However, many have experienced a marked decline in the time they spend in free play.

Parytrap's Summer Club holds strong to the importance of physical play. It not only offers structured outdoor games but also opportunities for the children to explore and have fun in the sunshine of the great outdoors.


Written by Margaret Said, Partytrap Summer Club Coordinator

We're getting older, but we're not teenagers yet!

Last Saturday I popped by at a party to check if everything was going according to plan! Just a few minutes after I arrived, I bumped into another well known client of ours. The conversation that followed made me realise how fast time flies by!

This client's daughter is now 12 years old, and yet I remember clearly her party when she turned 5! At that instant I felt a mixture of feelings... 'older' was one description that fitted quite well, although I prefer picturing myself as 'more mature'. 'Satisfied' and 'fulfilled' were some other words which sprang to mind. 

themed party at Palazzo Parisio, Naxxar

However, it mostly made me feel proud of our team's efforts. It's great to look back and remember the hundreds upon hundreds of children and the way we helped put a smile on their faces, on their special day. My appreciation goes to each and every animator and service provider who has pitched in throughout the years, and to our loyal clients, who push us to deliver even better services over the years.

We are now very much looking forward to November 2015 where we shall celebrate our own 10th birthday party!! 

...let's partytrap!!  

The joys of Partytrapping

Lately I came across a quote from Pearl S. Buck, a renowned Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes winner, which caught my attention, it said: "to find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth". I would take that a step further and say that "one needs to do his or her best to find joy in... anything!". But of course a large chunk of our life revolves around work, so that is surely a great starting point to pursue happiness.

The past five years at Partytrap have been full of different experiences, but what (in my opinion) kept us going is the fact that we were lucky enough to find something which we really like doing, and turning it into a job. For some of us it's a full-time commitment, for others it's a pretty demanding part-time work, but although all of us have our weak moments, I'm quite sure that we rarely 'dread' going to work.

A couple of weeks ago we organised a summer get-together - a BBQ at the beach to kind of put us all in the mood for this 'holiday season'. It was purely a social event, but what did we end up doing? Yes... 'work'! We went through the songs and dances we perform with children, we staged (for the thousandth time) Turu's scripted sketch, and most of all we enjoyed ourselves. 

It's things like these which remind me of the importance of putting enjoyment at the forefront of anything we do. Who said work should be boring? Who said 'play' is a thing we should do only in our 'free time'? (click here for a really inspiring clip on the evolution of play). At Partytrap we have all of these things in common, and especially: we love to have fun, and we derive enjoyment from entertaining others. Keep it up Partytrappers ;)

Partytrappers and friends (some of us couldn't make it on this occasion)