Amanda's 6th birthday party was a week ago. She wanted a mermaid party, so we decided to invite a few girls (on the theory that the boys might not be really interested) from her class to our house for a mermaid event. There are only 10 girls in her class, so I decided to invite all of them over on the theory that most of them had soccer or other activities and wouldn't be able to come. All but 2 came, and a few brought siblings, so we were pretty full up. Fortunately it was an absolutely beautiful warm fall day, so we were able to take much of the stuff outside.
The first thing we did was the most fun birthday activity I've ever done. We got a long roll of butcher paper and I painted a few pieces of seaweed on it. Then we got out ALL our brushes and a box of Crayola poster paints. I told the girls to paint undersea things---octopi, sea horses, mermaids, fish... Some painted jellyfish, or clams, and Ella added a ship. It came out so beautiful! Everyone had fun.
Then we went to play "cross the ocean." In this game, there are two sharks and the rest of the girls are mermaids. If a shark touches you, you become seaweed and have to be still, although you can reach out and grab the other girls. If seaweed touches you, you become seaweed. Unfortunately, the game didn't work out very well since the girls didn't want to become seaweed, the boundary lines weren't well set out, and the girls really wanted to play on the play structure. I was interested to see that 12 girls really aren't too much for our play structure, although we needed a timer so everyone got a chance to swing.
Then we had the treasure hunt. We had 3 teams, and they went from clue to clue all around the house. "You can find this by yourself, look upon a library shelf!" I know, it's not Dr. Seuss, but everyone had a good time. The girls got treasure chests (.60 each at A.C.Moore's) and glitter and foam stickers and jewels and they decorated away. I used to have a "no glitter in the house" rule---I'm thinking I should have kept the rule, based on the amount of glitter still in our house.
Finally we had cake. I had wanted to make cupcakes from the "vegan cupcakes take over the world" recipe, but Amanda requested that we have cookies and decorate them. There were no mermaid cookie cutters at the store so we had fish and butterflies (must be the rare aquatic butterfly) I made some rice krispy bars too (good dairy-egg-nut-free standby) and everyone decorated away. They had a good time, but now I have a lot of frosting to use... Maybe we'll make Christmas cookies too.
The girls in Amanda's class are easygoing, friendly, not cliquish, and just fun to be around. We'll definitely follow this up with a playdate or two. Next year, though, I think we'll just have 2 girls for a movie night =)
The first thing we did was the most fun birthday activity I've ever done. We got a long roll of butcher paper and I painted a few pieces of seaweed on it. Then we got out ALL our brushes and a box of Crayola poster paints. I told the girls to paint undersea things---octopi, sea horses, mermaids, fish... Some painted jellyfish, or clams, and Ella added a ship. It came out so beautiful! Everyone had fun.
Then we went to play "cross the ocean." In this game, there are two sharks and the rest of the girls are mermaids. If a shark touches you, you become seaweed and have to be still, although you can reach out and grab the other girls. If seaweed touches you, you become seaweed. Unfortunately, the game didn't work out very well since the girls didn't want to become seaweed, the boundary lines weren't well set out, and the girls really wanted to play on the play structure. I was interested to see that 12 girls really aren't too much for our play structure, although we needed a timer so everyone got a chance to swing.
Then we had the treasure hunt. We had 3 teams, and they went from clue to clue all around the house. "You can find this by yourself, look upon a library shelf!" I know, it's not Dr. Seuss, but everyone had a good time. The girls got treasure chests (.60 each at A.C.Moore's) and glitter and foam stickers and jewels and they decorated away. I used to have a "no glitter in the house" rule---I'm thinking I should have kept the rule, based on the amount of glitter still in our house.
Finally we had cake. I had wanted to make cupcakes from the "vegan cupcakes take over the world" recipe, but Amanda requested that we have cookies and decorate them. There were no mermaid cookie cutters at the store so we had fish and butterflies (must be the rare aquatic butterfly) I made some rice krispy bars too (good dairy-egg-nut-free standby) and everyone decorated away. They had a good time, but now I have a lot of frosting to use... Maybe we'll make Christmas cookies too.
The girls in Amanda's class are easygoing, friendly, not cliquish, and just fun to be around. We'll definitely follow this up with a playdate or two. Next year, though, I think we'll just have 2 girls for a movie night =)
Comments
Personally, I haven't graduated to the "invite all (or half) the class" stage yet. I'm still at the "pick a couple of kids whose moms I know" level. ;)
I wanted to invite 6 kids (6 years old, one kid per year) but with such a small number of girls it didn't seem right to pick who to leave out. Some parents stayed, and the nanny of one of the girls, so we had help =)