Write an article based on this "Make your own food. Provide your own entertainment. Plan games. Use DIY projects for the kids. Choose inexpensive party favors."
article: Instead of paying for the party to be catered, try making your own food (if you feel up to the challenge). Baking your own cake will save quite a bit of money right off the bat, and you can offer simple party snacks like chips and dip, pretzels, homemade jellos and small sandwiches or deli plates. If you don't feel up to doing all the food on your own, consider asking your close friends or family members if they'd be willing to help make a dish or two for the party. It may be best to avoid asking the parents of your guests, however, as you don't want them to feel they must bring something in order to attend. You can also opt for something relatively low-cost, like a sheet pizza and wings. For soda and juice, go with off-brand or generic beverages. Kids won't taste the difference between brand-name soda and off-brand soda, and it will save you quite a bit on supply costs. Rather than hiring a party entertainer by the hour, you can teach yourself some magic tricks or balloon shapes and provide your own entertainment. If you want to encourage an outdoor outing (weather permitting), you may want to look into having the birthday party at a nearby park, or organizing a nature walk after everyone's had cake. Look for parks and guided nature walks online to find a wilderness area near you. You can organize a board game tournament, or have the kids play traditional party games that are easy to organize on a budget. Some classic examples include pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and musical chairs. You can also organize a bean bag toss or a game of Simon Says. Another cheap and easy game is building an obstacle course in the backyard. You can use materials you already have, or opt for low-cost obstacles like hula-hoops and jump ropes. Just be sure that everything you use in the obstacle course is safe and will not cause any potential injuries. You can also organize easy-to-play games like kickball or capture the flag. These games are fun and will cost virtually nothing to buy supplies for. If your budget doesn't have much room for entertainment, consider choosing a variety of DIY projects or crafts for the kids to participate in at the party. That will keep them busy and engaged, and it will allow them to work together on a common project. One fun example of a DIY project involves using crayons or non-permanent markers to draw on cardboard to make a play castle or doll house. All you'll need is some cardboard (from moving boxes or a large refrigerator box, for example) and drawing materials. You can also use more traditional projects, like finger painting. Or look online for cheap and easy children's craft projects. Look into children's craft classes at a local or chain craft store, like Michaels. They often have free or low-cost (approximately $5 per child) craft classes, which could be a fun birthday outing, if your party list is small enough. Instead of buying expensive party favors, fill a paper or plastic bag with candy and stickers to give out as party favors. If your budget allows it, you may want to get one or two more expensive toys and hold a raffle to see which kid gets the big gift. If you want to get toys for the party favors, look around online to find toys you can buy in bulk. Some large-quantity toy orders, like plastic figurines, can be bought by the pound at certain outlets.

Write an article based on this "Make a list of all the particularities of your celebrity. Emulate unique traits the celebrity has. Quote the celebrity's lines. Pay attention to the sound of the voice. Consider the speed of speech. Practice your accents. Work on one physical and one vocal characteristic at a time."
article: As you watch and listen to the person you're impersonating, keep a running list of quotes, mannerisms, gestures, and facial expressions that they make. Use lots of adjectives in your list. Here, you're already creating the impression, describing them in words and translating their presence into your own voice. Use this list to start slowly working through your impression. For example, note that Brad Pitt is always eating and drinking in his movies, Nene Leakes is constantly patting her weave, and Elvis Presley curls his upper lip. George W. Bush's squint and mispronunciations are essential to an impression of him, just as a Shatner impression must involve strange pauses. A good impression is made up of both physical and vocal components that combine to give us the impression of that celebrity. Start by perfecting those unique traits and developing your impression from there. Often, a celebrity will have a particular catch phrase or quote from a movie from which to start with. A good Al Pacino accent would be incomplete without the phrase "say hello to my little friend" from Scarface. Even if you can't do a physical version of Pacino, yet, working out that single sentence is a good start. Voices can be nasal, meaning that they are high pitched and whiny, or they can come from the gut, meaning that they're deeper and more mellow. Watching the way the person talks can help you locate their voice. Practice speaking from different "places" (such as head voice, which is higher, or chest voice, which is lower) to get a feel for your own voice's range. The Rock's voice comes from the throat and has a bit of a growl. Fran Drescher's voice is high and nasally. Some people speak very quickly, while others seem to draw out their words a bit more. Pay attention to whether your chosen celebrity's speech seems rushed, relaxed, or somewhere in between. For instance, Robert Downey Jr. often speaks super fast. If you want to do a Christopher Walken impression, it helps to be able to do a solid New York accent before attempting it. If you want to do a Julia Child accent, practice your British inflections. When you become familiar with the general accents, work on specifying them. Within the world of British-English accents, South African, Australian, Welsh, and Scottish accents are all wildly different and unique. Studying accents will help you narrow in on the specific speech patterns of the celebrity you hope to impersonate. It can be overwhelming to try to capture all of the quirks that make up a particular celebrity all at once. But since it's a combination of physical and vocal tics, you'll want to try to do them in union. Start with, say, Pacino's shout and the exasperated glare that he does. Alternatively, adopt the lopsided smile that Drew Barrymore has and work on recreating the way she speaks out of the side of her mouth.

Write an article based on this "Recite your speech to yourself. Keep the speech brief. Speak with confidence."
article:
Writing a speech is only one aspect of the entire presentation. You also need to practice the speech out loud. That's because often, the way that you write things might not actually roll off the tongue easily. Go over any parts that seem confusing or that don't flow easily. Make any notes or changes that will be helpful when delivering the speech. Time the speech when you recite it. Give the speech to a mirror so that you can see how often you're able to look up from your paper without stumbling. You can also practice the speech in front of a close friend and ask for feedback. You might have a lot to say, depending on your tenure at this place and how much it has meant to you. However, this speech is not the time to go into minute detail about it. Remember that people likely need to get back to work, or have other things they'd like to be doing with their time. If you do it right, you can make a powerful speech in a short period of time. A farewell speech should usually be about five minutes long. Ten minutes is acceptable in certain circumstances. More than that should be reserved for extremely special circumstances, such as when a head of state resigns. Many people get nervous when speaking in front of a crowd. There are plenty of tricks to help yourself battle nerves if you need to. Make sure to practice your speech many times; then, prepare yourself for standing in front of a group. Know that you may make a mistake. Be prepared for this. Don't beat yourself up if it happens. Acknowledge it and move on. You can even laugh at yourself to help put the audience at ease. Focus on people who seem to connect to your speech. If they're nodding, smiling, or have their eyes glued to you, focus on them. Their energy will help give you confidence.