Nineteen girls descended on our house at 1 pm, and thanks to a lot of planning beforehand, they all had a great time!
I read an article in a parenting magazine during the year with ideas for a spa party. I had kept the article and used some ideas from it, along with a few others from various sources.
To start, Ellie has needed her hair trimmed for a few weeks and has been asking to get it cut (not because she really wants it cut, but because at the kid haircut place, she gets to pick a toy from the treasure chest - and what kid doesn't love that?). I realized a few weeks ago that if we put her off until today, we'd get 2 things done; she'd get the trim that she actually needs, and they would make her hair look cute for her party. If we're paying for a haircut already, may as well make the most of it. It was a great idea, if I do say so myself. The heart braid in her hair is way beyond what I could have done.
I mean, how cool is that?
So she started the day feeling good and excited about her party!
The robe was my idea. Last year, I wore jeans (gasp!) to her Hawaiian luau party we hosted and I heard about it from her all year. My mom also heard about it "Do you believe mommy wore jeans to my party? My birthday party?" If you know Ellie, she is not a super-fancy kind of a kid, but she is not a fan of jeans, and apparently has a sense that people should dress up for a party. Determined not to offend her this year, I was going to wear a nice sundress. When I woke up, it was cool and rainy out, so my sundress just didn't feel right. Then I thought, why don't I wear a robe? We're running a spa today, so it would be totally appropriate! Ellie loved the idea, and started the party with hers on also.
So, about the party. We had 19 kids including Ellie. I split them into 2 groups of 6 and 1 with 7 girls. I greeted each at the door (in my robe) and told them I was checking them into the spa. I then had each girl pick a pair of flip-flops from a box. I bought 20 pairs of them at the dollar store for, you guessed it, a dollar! So it was part of the goody bag, and a cute way to start the party. I bought various colors and sizes and had 2 boxes; one for kids with little feet and one for the bigger ones. Somehow, everyone got a pair that fit them adequately, and there were no issues over colors.
We had 3 stations. Ellie's group started at the "Foot and Hand Scrub" station.
At this area, they kids were making a hand and foot scrub (to be used at home, and part of the goody bag) and decorating the lid. I pre-filled the jars with vegetable oil and a few drops of vitamin E oil, and then gave each girl a paper cup full of sugar. They dumped the sugar into the oil, stirred and then picked which scent they wanted to add. I offered bubble gum or coconut. I would say they were equally popular. One they finished "making" the scrub, they decorated the lids using colorful permanent markers. I had also printed labels with each girl's name. The label read, for example, "Ellie's Hand and Foot Scrub. Mix before use. Ingredients: vegetable oil, sugar, vitamin E and fragrance." That way, I figured when they get home, their parents will know it is real and not full of a bunch of junk; just a few real ingredients.
The next station was musical manicures; or it was supposed to be musical manicures. This was an idea I borrowed from a magazine. The idea was to have each girl pick her favorite color of nail polish, paint one finger with it, and then turn music on and have the girls pass their colors around. When the music stopped, they were to paint another nail with whichever color they were left holding; this would continue until all nails were painted.
I say it was supposed to be musical manicures, because I think in the end, the girls really just picked which colors they wanted on which nails, and they were painted as such. We had a small ipod a the table which was a little too soft to hear, and turns out, 8-year-old girls are not so good at painting their left hands (if they're righties) or vice versa. My mom was helping out at this table, so when the girls all painted their "good" hands, she had to run around to everyone to paint their other hands' nails. So they improvised. Everyone ended up with lots of colorful nails! We used only quick-dry nail polish in various colors I had collected throughout the year.
The third area was foot soaking and pedicures. This was the most difficult area for a few reasons, but I think turned out ok. I bought big bowls from the dollar store (2 leaked right away), so some girls were soaking their feet in pots. Yes, kitchen pots. Then my sister and a friend (who thankfully were helping!) put a scoop of my fizzy foot stuff in, so their feet bubbled. The concoction was simple to make and included baking powder, citric acid and cornstarch. I also added some of the bubble gum fragrance just to make it a little fun. After a few minutes, they took their feet out and my sister and friend polished their nails.
After the 3 areas, the weather thankfully cleared up enough for us to go outside! The next activity, with included all 19 girls together, was for them to paint each others' faces with a face mask, then relax with cucumbers on their eyes. They had a blast doing this! And I was so grateful that we were able to be outside for this part.
We finished this part with about a half hour to go. We sang happy birthday, at cookie cake and still had a good 20 minutes still left. The kids then just played in the backyard, and I remembered we also had a lip gloss project. I brought out the tray and several girls at a time made their lip gloss. I had pre-filled small jars with un-petroleum jelly, and then had fruity drink packets for the girls to mix into that with a toothpick. Apparently after about an hour, the granules dissolve and you're left with a fruity lip gloss. I offered cherry or grape, thinking that purple gloss may be fun for them.
They each also decorated those small caps quickly so we'd know whose was whose.
Then they went to play in the backyard.
I love that the spa party girls got right back out there, playing in the trees and getting dirty! All in all, a successful party! Poor Ian and Alex napped during the party (poor for them, well-planned for me!), so they woke up asking when the party was going to be, when were the friends coming, etc. Tonight before bed, they asked when we were going to eat cake and sing to Ellie. Lucky for them, her real birthday is in a few days, so they'll be around for the singing and cake at home.
And now back to actual crib conversations...thanks for joining me on this brief break.
No comments:
Post a Comment