Eleanor celebrated her birthday last weekend. We had the party at the park, the same one we had her 3rd birthday party. We decided on the park because she wanted to invite her whole class, I didn't want to spend lots of money at at "venue" (which we have done many times before, but for smaller groups) and we didn't have room or activities for 22 kids plus parents plus siblings at our house.
They have a great playground at the park, so some of the time could be spent playing... but I knew from experience with Eleanor that a playground only keeps 7 year olds occupied for so long before they get bored. So, hearkening back to my childhood parties, we had bubbles and chalk (I was only missing the paper bags to put them in--we had purple plastic goody bags). We had big bubble makers, pipes, lots of little wands, and lots of bubble juice, most of which was used up. I think I'm going to have to learn how to make bubble juice.
The other activity we had was a picture scavenger hunt. I made a list of sights around the park (the cactus, the "no fishing sign", your group on rocking chairs) that the kids were supposed to take pictures of. The first snafu came when we tried to divide the kids into groups. Note to anyone else trying to do this: make sure that you divide the kids up yourself, since everyone wanted to be in Eleanor's group. So instead of 4 smaller groups, we had one medium group and one large group. It took about 45 minutes instead of half an hour, but that turned out fine too. We had a good time, I would definitely do that again.
We had cupcakes and red velvet cake, strawberries and whipped cream. I had some forks and napkins left over from Eleanor's last birthday party (that's the advantage of having parties with the same theme, "purple", year after year)---not quite enough for everyone, but it worked out. The cake wasn't as good as my mother's, but it brought back memories. I think the highlight for my kids was the capri suns---another treat I remember from my childhood.
The other main concession I elicited from Eleanor when she said she wanted to invite the whole class was that we wouldn't collect gifts for her. She had a couple of choices and we chose to collect food for the food bank, which seemed appropriate.
Planning this party with Eleanor turned out to be easy. I told her what was possible, and she chose from the options. When she had an impossible suggestion, I told her it was impossible and we either worked it out, or she gave it up without fuss. She says her next birthday party will be a sleepover. Should be interesting....
They have a great playground at the park, so some of the time could be spent playing... but I knew from experience with Eleanor that a playground only keeps 7 year olds occupied for so long before they get bored. So, hearkening back to my childhood parties, we had bubbles and chalk (I was only missing the paper bags to put them in--we had purple plastic goody bags). We had big bubble makers, pipes, lots of little wands, and lots of bubble juice, most of which was used up. I think I'm going to have to learn how to make bubble juice.
The other activity we had was a picture scavenger hunt. I made a list of sights around the park (the cactus, the "no fishing sign", your group on rocking chairs) that the kids were supposed to take pictures of. The first snafu came when we tried to divide the kids into groups. Note to anyone else trying to do this: make sure that you divide the kids up yourself, since everyone wanted to be in Eleanor's group. So instead of 4 smaller groups, we had one medium group and one large group. It took about 45 minutes instead of half an hour, but that turned out fine too. We had a good time, I would definitely do that again.
We had cupcakes and red velvet cake, strawberries and whipped cream. I had some forks and napkins left over from Eleanor's last birthday party (that's the advantage of having parties with the same theme, "purple", year after year)---not quite enough for everyone, but it worked out. The cake wasn't as good as my mother's, but it brought back memories. I think the highlight for my kids was the capri suns---another treat I remember from my childhood.
The other main concession I elicited from Eleanor when she said she wanted to invite the whole class was that we wouldn't collect gifts for her. She had a couple of choices and we chose to collect food for the food bank, which seemed appropriate.
Planning this party with Eleanor turned out to be easy. I told her what was possible, and she chose from the options. When she had an impossible suggestion, I told her it was impossible and we either worked it out, or she gave it up without fuss. She says her next birthday party will be a sleepover. Should be interesting....
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