Eleanor turned 6 last week, so today she had her 6th birthday party. I was up worrying about it for an absurd number of nights, but it ended up being a lot of fun. I think this mostly has to do with the fact that although we invited 10 people, only 4 were able to come =) I'll skip telling you about my myriad lists (3 shopping lists, schedule, to do lists for days before the party... I only do this because I am so disorganized that if I didn't, nothing would get done...) and go straight to the party.
We started out decorating kitty masks (made out of foam---my sister's idea) and crowns (Eleanor's idea, she saw them when we were at the craft store). 5 and 6 year old girls can be very creative, and they take much more care in their work than, say, 3 year old girls who mostly want to squirt glitter glue everywhere. The masks worked just like I hoped, which is pretty good considering that I couldn't find a pattern online so I just made it up. (For those of you who are wondering, they are just ovals to cover the top half of the face, with triangles on top for ears. The only caveat is to make sure the eyes are centered, otherwise it looks pretty strange.)
We then moved on to the main event: water balloons. This was actually the main reason we had to have the party at home instead of somewhere else. Eleanor really wanted water balloons. Michael filled them up this morning and we had two big buckets full (he filled about 100 balloons). The biggest problem was that the weight of the water balloons in the buckets was crushing the balloons at the bottom. We had a relay, and we tried to have a water balloon toss (2 people toss the balloon back and forth to each other while getting gradually further apart), but the girls are not that good at throwing. Finally we had the thing that Eleanor wanted in the first place: water balloon attack! This was so funny that I was rolling on the ground laughing. These girls are great, but they do not have the best aim. The parents were pretty safe, as long as they stood still and let the kids try to throw the balloons directly at them. The kids mostly got each other by being right next to each other or by being lucky. In addition, the kids didn't throw the balloons hard enough to break on the target, so the balloons would bounce to the ground and break on the ground.
All this missing made it even funnier, and especially funny whenever anyone did hit the mark. The girls had a great time, got pretty wet (except for one girl who somehow managed to stay dry despite being in the thick of things). One of the reasons I am not a great writer is that I can't manage to convey exactly how amusing this whole scene was. You'll have to use your imagination.
After getting into new clothes, we had "Pin the tail on the kitty", a game of Eleanor's own invention. We did manage to convince Eleanor that she needed to put tape on the tails instead of on the picture of the kitty in the right spot. After one girl managed to get the tail in exactly the right spot, the others started feeling around for the edges of the board and the correct tail, and they just piled them on. I mentioned prizes and then said that we didn't have any, but Eleanor ran off and came back with some "Magic Treehouse" books she had been given by her grandparents (we already had that set) and gave one to each of the girls, letting the winners choose first. I thought the grandparents would approve.
We then had cake. I'll try to post a picture of the cake. I made 2 round cakes and cut them up to make a kitty. Then I frosted it with white frosting colored purple---it was lovely. The best purchase I made for the entire party was a small tub of purple food coloring. Usually when I make purple it comes out grayish, but this was pure purple. The adults liked the cookies, including the vegan chocolate chip cookies which I made for Amanda.
We had a piñata, which was the other reason we had the party at home instead of away. Eleanor has been insisting for about 3 years that she wants a piñata: I'm not sure where she got the idea (probably from one of her kids magazines) but we finally had a disney princess castle piñata absolutely stuffed with candy and toys. Michael improvised a beautiful way to hang it up. It wasn't a "beat it with a stick" piñata , it was a kinder, gentler, "pull a ribbon one at a time until the candy falls out" piñata. I think it was Eleanor's favorite part, because of the candy...
After this we went up for pictures and then it was time to go home. We didn't manage to do the "grape and spoon race" (Eleanor's idea) or the terra cotta pot painting (Target $1 specials). No one was bored, and I think even the adults enjoyed themselves. Eleanor proved quite adept at planning games, making sure people had a good time, generally organizing people. Amanda's birthday will not be at home until she gets old enough to help plan it!
We started out decorating kitty masks (made out of foam---my sister's idea) and crowns (Eleanor's idea, she saw them when we were at the craft store). 5 and 6 year old girls can be very creative, and they take much more care in their work than, say, 3 year old girls who mostly want to squirt glitter glue everywhere. The masks worked just like I hoped, which is pretty good considering that I couldn't find a pattern online so I just made it up. (For those of you who are wondering, they are just ovals to cover the top half of the face, with triangles on top for ears. The only caveat is to make sure the eyes are centered, otherwise it looks pretty strange.)
We then moved on to the main event: water balloons. This was actually the main reason we had to have the party at home instead of somewhere else. Eleanor really wanted water balloons. Michael filled them up this morning and we had two big buckets full (he filled about 100 balloons). The biggest problem was that the weight of the water balloons in the buckets was crushing the balloons at the bottom. We had a relay, and we tried to have a water balloon toss (2 people toss the balloon back and forth to each other while getting gradually further apart), but the girls are not that good at throwing. Finally we had the thing that Eleanor wanted in the first place: water balloon attack! This was so funny that I was rolling on the ground laughing. These girls are great, but they do not have the best aim. The parents were pretty safe, as long as they stood still and let the kids try to throw the balloons directly at them. The kids mostly got each other by being right next to each other or by being lucky. In addition, the kids didn't throw the balloons hard enough to break on the target, so the balloons would bounce to the ground and break on the ground.
All this missing made it even funnier, and especially funny whenever anyone did hit the mark. The girls had a great time, got pretty wet (except for one girl who somehow managed to stay dry despite being in the thick of things). One of the reasons I am not a great writer is that I can't manage to convey exactly how amusing this whole scene was. You'll have to use your imagination.
After getting into new clothes, we had "Pin the tail on the kitty", a game of Eleanor's own invention. We did manage to convince Eleanor that she needed to put tape on the tails instead of on the picture of the kitty in the right spot. After one girl managed to get the tail in exactly the right spot, the others started feeling around for the edges of the board and the correct tail, and they just piled them on. I mentioned prizes and then said that we didn't have any, but Eleanor ran off and came back with some "Magic Treehouse" books she had been given by her grandparents (we already had that set) and gave one to each of the girls, letting the winners choose first. I thought the grandparents would approve.
We then had cake. I'll try to post a picture of the cake. I made 2 round cakes and cut them up to make a kitty. Then I frosted it with white frosting colored purple---it was lovely. The best purchase I made for the entire party was a small tub of purple food coloring. Usually when I make purple it comes out grayish, but this was pure purple. The adults liked the cookies, including the vegan chocolate chip cookies which I made for Amanda.
We had a piñata, which was the other reason we had the party at home instead of away. Eleanor has been insisting for about 3 years that she wants a piñata: I'm not sure where she got the idea (probably from one of her kids magazines) but we finally had a disney princess castle piñata absolutely stuffed with candy and toys. Michael improvised a beautiful way to hang it up. It wasn't a "beat it with a stick" piñata , it was a kinder, gentler, "pull a ribbon one at a time until the candy falls out" piñata. I think it was Eleanor's favorite part, because of the candy...
After this we went up for pictures and then it was time to go home. We didn't manage to do the "grape and spoon race" (Eleanor's idea) or the terra cotta pot painting (Target $1 specials). No one was bored, and I think even the adults enjoyed themselves. Eleanor proved quite adept at planning games, making sure people had a good time, generally organizing people. Amanda's birthday will not be at home until she gets old enough to help plan it!
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