OUR STORY

Welcome to the party! With two parents, eight adult children (emphasis on children), spouses of said children and 29 grandkids, we are quite the group. It’s messy and chaotic, but it’s our happy place. We are a family business (it's a business up front but a party in the back...) and it all starts at the top with Grandma/Mom/Master-Creator-of-all-Wonder. The rest of us are her minions who contribute all of our different gifts to make this place happen. Without Mama, none of this would ever be possible. Parties and Playtime was born out of tradition, creativity and love.

Growing up, holidays, birthdays and everyday-days were a reason to celebrate. There were treats on our pillows, gross pickle sandwiches for April Fool’s Day (that I pretended to eat because I didn’t know it was a joke and didn’t want to get in trouble), stringed candy countdowns to holidays, homemade toys and quilts, themed dinners, big parties, and endless memories that still bring us joy and laughter.

Let’s be real though...in a family that big, it wasn’t all joy and laughter. There was a lot of screaming over clothes, fighting over seats around the dinner table, bickering about chores (remember ~~that time~~ those times mom threatened to run away?), someone eating all the Easter candy before Easter (we know who you are!), and tears -- lots and lots of tears. Through all of that, it was the family traditions and the carefully plotted time spent together as kids that has us all flying in from around the world to still spend holidays and summers together.

The traditions that were created when we were kids grew and grew and grew as the family grew and grew and grew. Now, we have become an even larger family, and we delight to bring our ideas, creations and love of tradition to all of you. Our family was knit together with moments, sometimes very small moments, but all of it amounted into something great. What we bring to you with our Party-in-a-Book Series and interactive projects are those same moments. Fill every moment with love and tradition and your kids will keep coming back!

xoxo,

The Erickson Party

OUR TEAM

Elaine Erickson Megan Jesclard Ana Bennett Nathan Erickson Amy Hanson

Founder Marketing Creative Assistant Business Dev Photographer

Meet Elaine: She is insanely creative and pours her heart and all of her time into creating. She sews and quilts but also, she's the illustrator for all of our books. She's always thinking a birthday, a baptism or a holiday ahead and there's no grandma like this grandma.

Meet Megan: In charge of book publishing and emails, you hear from her weekly. If you don't subscribe to our emails, start now! She is usually pretty generous with sending out freebies. She also does anything else we ask her to. We call her the mule. She likes it. We think.

Meet Ana: Whether you want to work for the company or not, if you have a talent, we are going to use it. Ana writes all of our fun and amazing books. She's witty and funny and we can't get enough of what she creates. I mean, who can write books this well? Oh, that's right, Ana can!

Meet Nathan: He runs the website and everything behind the scenes. He keeps us organized, on track, on target and entirely entertained. And my mom wants me to say that he's the handsome one. Also, he got a book of letters from her for Christmas that she had written him throughout his life (SEE, I told you she's amazing!) and the title was "Letters to my Favorite Child". WHAT?!?! I'm going to fire him.

Meet Amy: We have roped her into countless photoshoots with kids and her skills are unmatched. We also use her for her amazing consulting skills and her incredible company. "Company" as in companionship. Everyone wants to be around Amy. But she also happens to run her own incredible company - www.hellodancerphotography.com