When mum of four Laura couldn’t find what she needed for her daughter’s birthday party, she started he own company to solve the problem
Wiltshire mum Laura Steptoe, isn’t someone who allows obstacles to get in her way. So when she couldn’t find what she needed to create the 11th birthday party her daughter wanted, she decided to start her own company, Dizzy Rhino, providing the sort of party box she really needed – and, she is sure – other parents want.
Her daughter, Bella, didn’t want the earth. She just wanted to invite a few friends over to make mocktails.
“I have a hairdressing business and it was my busiest time of year, so I asked Bella to go online and find a kit of some description, because I didn’t have the time to think about recipes, instructions and ingredients. I just wanted a kit to turn up to my door – a kind of Hello Fresh for kids’ parties,” she explained.
Laura and daughter Bella
“There were mixologists who would come to the house and run a party for six to ten children or you could take the children to a bar where they will learn to make mocktails in a two-hour session. I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to be at the forefront of my daughter’s party. I wanted to run the party and that just wasn’t available. I’m quite capable of running a party, it’s just that I didn’t have the time or the headspace to think of all the ingredients, the recipes and to go out and shop for things I might never need again.”
Laura was sure many other any parents in the same position would love something similar. The idea grew and the result is Dizzy Rhino, which can supply party boxes with a craft, baking, spa or science theme, including everything you need to run successful activities at your party. And, of course, there is a mocktail box.
Each box includes three activities, detailed method cards giving accurate timings for each activity, as well as thank you cards, bunting and party bags. All you have to add it party food and a birthday cake.
“Party bags can be the biggest nightmare when it comes to children’s parties, with the rubbish we have to put in them and the competition between parents,’ says Laura. Her solution is that the Dizzy Rhino party bags feature quality gifts that the children have made themselves as part of the party. “The competition is then between the children to see who makes the best gift. That’s how it should be.”
Quality ingredients, ethically sourced are key part of Laura’s ethos. As is her wish to get children away from their screens and back to some old-fashioned crafting, conversation and working together. She recognises that mums are not sitting at home surrounded by the wherewithal to whip up a bar of soap or a woven basket, but if a carefully boxed kit is available containing everything needed for the project, along with a detailed method card, then parents and children can create some wonderful things together.
Dizzy Rhino party boxes cost £135 each and come complete with three crafting kits aimed at a party of six children aged from 7-14 years. Dizzy Rhino also supplies a range of activity kits which Laura explains are ideal to keep children occupied at a sleepover, a family event or on a weekend away.