January 24th, 2017

Giggle handover… A giggle baby is on the way

(Written 20^th January 2017)

With our baby due any day now, I have finally taken a few days off! :)

I thought this might be a good opportunity to write my first blog to let you know my plans for Giggle with a new baby on the horizon.

I can hardly believe Giggle (previously called Funky Monkey Parties) is 10 years old! It was and will always be more than a business for me as it was ‘born’ out of my passion for children. I really have loved nurturing it and helping it stand on its own two feet while seeing so many children and their families enjoy happy times. Also LOVED the added bonus of watching those children returning yearly, grow up! Wow, what a privilege! So a big thank you to all who have supported me/us so far!

As Giggle expanded, it became my life with almost no time for anything else. It grew faster than I expected. Five years ago we were running up to twenty parties a weekend and baby & toddler classes all over West London throughout the week. With more opportunities coming our way, I was buzzing with ideas and excitement for where Giggle could go with dreams of Television. At the same time, my very wise mother asked me to step back and ask myself if I wanted to be a mother or a career-driven woman. I pondered and thought, ‘well both!’But essentially the penny dropped and I realised that I could easily leave having a baby too late and never realise my greatest dream!

So - three years ago, I sold the baby & toddler classes and scaled parties down to twelve every weekend. A year later (June 2015) - I met a wonderful man at the gym and knew he was the man I was to marry.  Three weeks later, and both sure of where this was heading, he moved to Kenya for 9 months. Four weeks apart - then I joined him in Kenya for two weeks. He proposed. I said yes. That December, when he came home briefly, we got married (legally) ready for our 'real' wedding in Thailand in April 2016. He finished his job in Kenya and met me in Thailand for the wedding. It was a whirlwind of magic. May 2016 we arrived back from honeymoon to find out that we were pregnant. The rest of 2016 was spent cooking a baby - and working out how to deal with these crazy changes! A HUGE thank you to my incredible sister for keeping Giggle running smoothly throughout this time!

I continued partying until my bump no longer fitted/suited the princess dresses! With weekends off for the first time in 9/10years, I took the opportunity to spot check our team. As many of you know, we have a very small family of entertainers and I am VERY particular about who I take on. First and foremost, they must ADORE children (genuinely) as you can see straight through an ‘act’, second, they need to be incredibly talented and of course, also experienced! I couldn’t have been happier and I felt like a proud mother watching each party I went along to. Though there are always things to learn from and improve on, I came away with the overriding feeling of amazement and thankfulness for having  such a wonderful and talented team. 

Now onto the office part of Giggle... this is where I introduce an absolute diamond to you all: Tania. Tania came on board two years ago and became my office assistant/PA. I could not think of anyone better to take on my role of 'Giggle boss' whilst I take maternity leave.

She has been my ‘right hand woman’ for long enough to know the voice of Giggle and as it’s a lot of work we have also taken on a new office assistant for Tania: Georgia - another gem!

When faced with the prospect of taking an extended leave, I recognised that to keep Giggle running smoothly I needed to simplify things! My web guy kept encouraging me to  ‘hand over to the robots’ but I was afraid of losing how personable Giggle has been. So the challenge was to combine the robots with a personable touch to ensure that we could still run the business efficiently without me working every waking hour! At the end of 2016, we launched the new online system! After some pretty major teething issues, we are there!!

I feel very excited for the next chapter of my personal life but also for Giggle’s! We are always developing themes, props and costumes and once I have got the hang of looking after another little human, I will be approaching it with fresh eyes and being a mother will only enhance what we do and offer!   

Rest assured, you are in the safest of hands with my incredible team. I am still constantly memo’ing the girls to keep in the loop (which I love) and am pretty sure I will be in the office quite soon after his arrival :) Tania and Georgia may well help watch little one whilst I get my work fix :) - we shall see!!

I miss entertaining at parties and cannot wait to start partying again so as soon as I feel ready for this and have found my feet with being a mummy, (not sure when this will be), I will happily leave baby with his adoring daddy so I can be a princess again :)

See you the other side!!

Tara x

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