Birthday Party Review: Class Act Lives Up To Its Name

By Amy L. Hatch

Throwing a birthday party for a 5-year-old generally comes with the kind of sensory overload used to elicit confessions out of hardened criminals. Blinking lights? Check! Loud noises? Check! Terrible food? Check!

Fortunately, Chambana has a plethora of great venues that can help celebrate those annual milestones that get moms all tied up in knots. Our daughter, Emmeline, was lucky enough to take advantage of one of those great party options this past weekend when we celebrated her fifth birthday at Class Act Interactive Education and Events in downtown Champaign.

Founder and creative director Natalie Ellis is a Chambana native, and she came back home from New York City to offer citizens of her hometown big-city acting classes for kids and adults. As well as offering a bevy of classes, Ellis will also host a creative birthday party for your special boy or girl.

We booked Emmie’s party about two weeks in advance, and went with a standard package birthday package with some add-ons. The standard package is $150, and includes having the run of the great space there for 90 minutes, as well as a craft and a photo for each guest to take home. We also added face painting and an interactive acting class, which were huge hits with the seven kids who attended our party.

Ellis lets the guest of honor and their family in an hour early to decorate, but we were delighted when we showed up to find paper plates, cutlery and balloons already there waiting for us.

We added our own personal touches, including snacks, beverages and a cake (Ellis allows food to be brought in for your event) and then sat back and watched our girl and her friends have an absolute blast. Ellis deftly handled the entire party on her own, and also kept all seven children fully engaged and participating in the activities.

It was, in short, a dream. I cannot recommend Class Act enough. Hats off to Ellis for offering such a fantastic service for parents.

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Full disclosure: Class Act is a chamabanmoms.com advertiser. However, the author paid for her party in full and was in no way influenced by the relationship between chambanamoms.com and Class Act when writing this review.

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