Soooooo … a few more details on Miss T’s party.
In addition to the food stuffs and favors, we prepped some photo frames (really photo mats) for the kids to decorate.
It was a bit tedious doing all the stamping, but it turned out really well and I think the end-product justified it.
The kids had fun decorating the “frames” with some top secret stickers, washi tape and their own finger prints. The variety we got was pretty amazing.
After frame decoration, we sent them into the photo booth to take some photos to fill the frame.
That was a hit!
The other big activity we ended up doing was a scavenger hunt. I went around our space a few days before the party and made a list of 20 hiding places. Then I made clues for each of the spots and divided them up so there were 5 clues for each of 4 teams. I have worked with all the kids at school and/or know them pretty well outside of school and so I just made sure there were a few good readers on each team and assigned an adult for a little extra help as well. They got an initial clue and that led them through 4 others to a final piece of blank paper. Then the teams brought the blank pages together … and we fluoresced it under a UV light to show some hidden words which came together to form a message – Look out! The cake is a bomb!
And then it was time to bring out the cake. Is it a good sign or a bad sign that when we brought this out, one of our good friends thought it might actually explode? Hmmm. Anyhow, it’s topped with indoor-safe sparklers like restaurants use on their desserts. Love that
Most of the kids ate the cupcakes, which was probably for the best since the pound cake I tasted was a little dry. Meh. We also had these great single serving cups of ice cream. Another mom had done that at another party and I loved the idea of not hanging around scooping out ice cream. Hand ’em out, and done.
Some other smart ideas that I stole from other people: I had parents fill out mailing labels for thank you notes, a sign-out sheet for people dropping off kids (they could leave their mobile phone numbers), and a bunch of nametags for everyone who stayed.
More than anything, we were so so so so so lucky to have such great help. Mom and Dad had the kids a ton while we prepped and helped last night and lots today with hands-on stuff. My sister came over and totally pitched in and led a team of scavenger hunters. A couple of my girlfriends were there and just jumped in and did anything we needed – trash pickup, hand wiping, team leading, present wrangling, and on and on. And moms that I’ve met just here and there jumped in and were awesome. Our neighbor even helped Matt move the photobooth there and back. We seriously couldn’t have done it without everyone.
It was so so much fun. And so so much work. And very very worth it!
It takes a village as who was it Hillary Clinton said? It looked like a great time. Loved the cake especially.