Yesterday, my daughter had a Valentine's Day party with 10 friends. As usual, her toys proved to be a big hit among the kids with some selecting to just play with her toys instead of participating in the games.
I started the party by having each child decorate a bag with stickers, stamps, and markers. This gave them an activity to do as everyone arrived and also gave them a place to store any prizes they won in the games.
The first game we had was a treasure hunt. I hid a box of ring pops in the oven of my daughter's play kitchen. I had glued clues to red hearts that took them from one place to another across the basement. Sending them to generic items (table, pillow, oven, easel) worked much better than a specific toy (Handy Manny workbench or Tigger & Pooh Changing Tree) as not all kids were familiar with the characters. We played as a group with the kids all looking for the clue together. As they found each clue, I gave out a small prize to each child (eraser, pencil, bracelet, stickers, etc). They all received a ring pop when they found the "treasure".
Another successful game, was my Valentine's version of Hullabaloo. We had 26 pads with a mix of red, white, purple, and pink in circles, diamonds, and hearts with dessert, Valentine Pooh characters, and Princesses. There were 8-9 pads in each category to allow for many players. I wrote an AppleScript program to call the moves using a random number generator and the built-in text to speech converter. Unfortunately the volume on my laptop was not sufficient and I ended up having to re-announce the calls. For the pads, I printed the pictures on white paper and glued them to heavy paper for the red and purple. At the last minute, I realized I did not have pink paper, so we colored the white background pink. For the white and pink, we covered them front and back with contact paper to make them more durable. I will definitely keep this game in mind to adapt for future party themes.
The kids loved decorating their own cupcakes. I served each child a cupcake on a plate and then we gave them a blob of icing in their choice of color (red, white, or pink) and various toppings (marshmallows, Hershey Kiss, chocolate chips, sprinkles, etc) on their plates. Next time, I think I would make the plates ahead of time with a variety of toppings or at least the icing.
Pin the heart on the bear was successful as well with most children choosing to participate. I was afraid we were not going to be able to do this since I had forgotten to purchase poster board. But, I had 2 sheets of brown 12x20" construction paper that I was able to use to make a decent bear. I used red construction paper to make the hearts.
We had toss the bear into the bucket and drop the pencil into the popcorn box. A few children played these games, but most were too busy playing.
I also had necklaces for them to make. A few children made the necklaces - ranging from 3 beads to a fully beaded necklace. I had bought glittery plastic lacing so they still looked pretty even with only a few beads.
The kids also had a great time playing with balloons and bouncing them around. I found that the shower stall in my basement is a great place to stash the balloons until it is time to play with them.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Snowy Day Activities
The snow is coming down here today. My daughter and I are enjoying a rare day at home this afternoon. We are in the basement playroom: I am typing this on the laptop as she plays with her toys.
She has taken her My Little Ponies to Disney World. Her My Friends Tigger & Pooh Changing Tree was Epcot, Her Sweetie Belle Gumball House is Bay Lake Tower where she stayed on her most recent trip. The ponies then flew home in her Lego airplane and took a ride in the plastic heart (which had candy last year). When they got out their parents were happy to see them. I guess she is re-enacting her recent trip with her grandparents and aunt without us.
I was supposed to go to the gym while she was at school, so I guess I will just skip it today. Shoveling snow should be a good replacement right?
Now she is taking her hand sanitizers in the airplane to visit the My Little Ponies. Remind me to thank my mother-in-law for buying her 5 different scented hand sanitizers from Bath & Body Works. She loves these things. We have to smell them almost daily and she treats them like characters. I don't know if they will ever be used to clean hands.
For the rest of the day, we will probably watch a movie, play a few games, and I am still hopeful that she will take a nap (and maybe I can too). Plus, at some point we will head out to play/shovel.
By tomorrow, I will probably be going stir crazy, but for today, we are just enjoying a lazy day at home. We have been on the go so much lately that she has not had a lot of time to play with her toys.
So, what are you and your preschooler doing on this snowy day?
She has taken her My Little Ponies to Disney World. Her My Friends Tigger & Pooh Changing Tree was Epcot, Her Sweetie Belle Gumball House is Bay Lake Tower where she stayed on her most recent trip. The ponies then flew home in her Lego airplane and took a ride in the plastic heart (which had candy last year). When they got out their parents were happy to see them. I guess she is re-enacting her recent trip with her grandparents and aunt without us.
I was supposed to go to the gym while she was at school, so I guess I will just skip it today. Shoveling snow should be a good replacement right?
Now she is taking her hand sanitizers in the airplane to visit the My Little Ponies. Remind me to thank my mother-in-law for buying her 5 different scented hand sanitizers from Bath & Body Works. She loves these things. We have to smell them almost daily and she treats them like characters. I don't know if they will ever be used to clean hands.
For the rest of the day, we will probably watch a movie, play a few games, and I am still hopeful that she will take a nap (and maybe I can too). Plus, at some point we will head out to play/shovel.
By tomorrow, I will probably be going stir crazy, but for today, we are just enjoying a lazy day at home. We have been on the go so much lately that she has not had a lot of time to play with her toys.
So, what are you and your preschooler doing on this snowy day?
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Beginning Valentine's Day Party Planning
A few days ago my 4 year old daughter finally convinced me to let her have a Valentine's Day party. So we now have 1 week to plan the party - games, crafts, and food. To keep the party planning expenses down, I limited the guest list to 11 kids and opted for an afternoon party so we don't have to provide a meal.
Now we are in the midst of planning crafts and games. I have found that my four year old has a great imagination when it comes to games. For her winter themed birthday party, she came up with pin the nose on the snowman. Likewise she is planning games for this party.
Crafts:
Heart Necklaces: At JoAnn Fabric I found red heart beads (65 for $0.99). I bought those and a large bag of white beads (720 for 3.99) for the kids to make necklaces. I also bought 10 yards of plastic glitter Craft Lace ($0.79). I figure we will not use all of the white beads or the lacing and they can be saved for future crafts. Next time, I am going to plan the party in advance to wait for a sale.
Bag Decorating: We are going to decorate bags for goodies and Valentine's. I have foam stickers which I bought at Michael's for our play group party and should have some left. I bought a large box of 1000 stickers for $1.99 at Party City. My daughter also has heart and flower stamps, markers, and crayons. I am hoping to find white lunch bags to decorate or we will just decorate the brown ones. The only white ones I have found so far are the coated bags which will not be as easy to stamp or draw on.
Cookie or Cupcake Decorating: We are going to decorate either cookies or cupcakes which the kids can take home or eat at the party. I will dye icing in red and pink (and leave some white). I will probably dye coconut. We have flavored mini-marshmallows in various colors and chocolate chips. I would like to have M&Ms but may not because two children have peanut allergies.
Games:
With preschoolers, I prefer to have games where everyone is a winner or we just do it for fun. That way everyone gets a prize.
Pencil Drop: This was a staple in my house growing up. My parents had this plastic milk jug that they bought me for my 2nd Christmas when I was 13 mos old. It had the perfect size opening for dropping pencils in (about 2" in diameter) and the neck kept them from popping out. The kids then get to keep the pencil. I was probably 18 and it was still being used for my little sister's parties. The great thing is that as the kids get older (& taller) it gets harder because they are dropping it further. Unfortunately, the plastic jug is no longer around. For Halloween, I used a larger container that I had and made a pipe cleaner spiderweb to make it a little harder (and a washcloth to make the bottom less bouncy). Still thinking of a good way to do this for Valentine's Day.
Pin the Hearts on the Bear: My daughter has a pink stuffed bear with hearts on its tummy. She wants to do pin the hearts on the bear. I am thinking of making a pink bear out of poster board and cutting out hearts for the kids to pin on. Unfortunately, I am not super artistic, so hopefully I can make the bear look halfway decent.
Kissing Booth: (No, not that kind) My daughter has a market that we turned into a haunted house toss for Halloween and she wants to do something with it. I think we will cut out lip shaped disks and have the kids toss them through a decorated market. I bought a bag of Hershey Kisses to use as prizes.
Valentine's Hullabaloo: I need one active game for the kids. This is based on the Hullabaloo game from Cranium. The game has pads in different shapes and colors with pictures on them. Then it tells the kids to go to a different color, shape, or picture theme until finally declaring whoever is on a particular pad the winner. We are designing our own Valentine's themed game. We are going to use red, pink, white, and purple paper to make the pads and cover them in contact paper for durability. We will use a heart as one of the shapes. I have found Valentine's ClipArt that we are going to print on the different pads. I am using food (Hershey Kiss, Heart Lollipops, Box of Chocolates, etc), Characters, and one other still to be determined category. I am debating the calling mechanism. I think I'll just record myself saying different options and randomize it on my iPod. ("Hop to a Heart", "Twirl to a Red", "Grab some food") I will include some that say at the end "ie Hop to a Heart......Freeze. Whoever is on XXX is the winner" where XXX is one of the pictures on a heart. My other option is to make a deck of cards some of which list winners and others which don't. If I am really ambitious, maybe I'll polish up my old programming skills and write a program to do this. (You probably need to know how to play Hullabaloo for this to make sense).
Bucket Toss: I may have the kids toss a small stuffed heart into a bucket for a prize.
Well, I think that is plenty to have the kids entertained for two hours.
Now we are in the midst of planning crafts and games. I have found that my four year old has a great imagination when it comes to games. For her winter themed birthday party, she came up with pin the nose on the snowman. Likewise she is planning games for this party.
Crafts:
Heart Necklaces: At JoAnn Fabric I found red heart beads (65 for $0.99). I bought those and a large bag of white beads (720 for 3.99) for the kids to make necklaces. I also bought 10 yards of plastic glitter Craft Lace ($0.79). I figure we will not use all of the white beads or the lacing and they can be saved for future crafts. Next time, I am going to plan the party in advance to wait for a sale.
Bag Decorating: We are going to decorate bags for goodies and Valentine's. I have foam stickers which I bought at Michael's for our play group party and should have some left. I bought a large box of 1000 stickers for $1.99 at Party City. My daughter also has heart and flower stamps, markers, and crayons. I am hoping to find white lunch bags to decorate or we will just decorate the brown ones. The only white ones I have found so far are the coated bags which will not be as easy to stamp or draw on.
Cookie or Cupcake Decorating: We are going to decorate either cookies or cupcakes which the kids can take home or eat at the party. I will dye icing in red and pink (and leave some white). I will probably dye coconut. We have flavored mini-marshmallows in various colors and chocolate chips. I would like to have M&Ms but may not because two children have peanut allergies.
Games:
With preschoolers, I prefer to have games where everyone is a winner or we just do it for fun. That way everyone gets a prize.
Pencil Drop: This was a staple in my house growing up. My parents had this plastic milk jug that they bought me for my 2nd Christmas when I was 13 mos old. It had the perfect size opening for dropping pencils in (about 2" in diameter) and the neck kept them from popping out. The kids then get to keep the pencil. I was probably 18 and it was still being used for my little sister's parties. The great thing is that as the kids get older (& taller) it gets harder because they are dropping it further. Unfortunately, the plastic jug is no longer around. For Halloween, I used a larger container that I had and made a pipe cleaner spiderweb to make it a little harder (and a washcloth to make the bottom less bouncy). Still thinking of a good way to do this for Valentine's Day.
Pin the Hearts on the Bear: My daughter has a pink stuffed bear with hearts on its tummy. She wants to do pin the hearts on the bear. I am thinking of making a pink bear out of poster board and cutting out hearts for the kids to pin on. Unfortunately, I am not super artistic, so hopefully I can make the bear look halfway decent.
Kissing Booth: (No, not that kind) My daughter has a market that we turned into a haunted house toss for Halloween and she wants to do something with it. I think we will cut out lip shaped disks and have the kids toss them through a decorated market. I bought a bag of Hershey Kisses to use as prizes.
Valentine's Hullabaloo: I need one active game for the kids. This is based on the Hullabaloo game from Cranium. The game has pads in different shapes and colors with pictures on them. Then it tells the kids to go to a different color, shape, or picture theme until finally declaring whoever is on a particular pad the winner. We are designing our own Valentine's themed game. We are going to use red, pink, white, and purple paper to make the pads and cover them in contact paper for durability. We will use a heart as one of the shapes. I have found Valentine's ClipArt that we are going to print on the different pads. I am using food (Hershey Kiss, Heart Lollipops, Box of Chocolates, etc), Characters, and one other still to be determined category. I am debating the calling mechanism. I think I'll just record myself saying different options and randomize it on my iPod. ("Hop to a Heart", "Twirl to a Red", "Grab some food") I will include some that say at the end "ie Hop to a Heart......Freeze. Whoever is on XXX is the winner" where XXX is one of the pictures on a heart. My other option is to make a deck of cards some of which list winners and others which don't. If I am really ambitious, maybe I'll polish up my old programming skills and write a program to do this. (You probably need to know how to play Hullabaloo for this to make sense).
Bucket Toss: I may have the kids toss a small stuffed heart into a bucket for a prize.
Well, I think that is plenty to have the kids entertained for two hours.
Review of Disney on Ice: Disney Pixar's Finding Nemo
Tonight we went to see Disney on Ice: Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo show at Lucas County Arena in Toledo. I had been trying to convince my daughter to see Disney on Ice: Let's Celebrate which is going to be at The Palace at Auburn Hills. I showed her the clips of both, and she picked the Nemo show.
We purchased the least expensive tickets, $15. Plus, the $3.75 per ticket fee and a $4.50 per order fee. Fortunately, I found a code on retailmenot.com for $5 off per ticket. Judging by the crowd distribution in the arena, most people bought the less expensive seats.
We loved the show. During the 5 minute countdown to the show, there was vocal entertainment from Dory and Marlin which helped to pass the last few minutes. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy opened the show, so you still got to see them even though it was a Nemo show. The show re-tells the story of Finding Nemo starting from Nemo's first day of school. The costumes/props were great, especially the larger characters such as Mr. Ray, the science teacher and Crush the surfer turtle. There was a lot of choreographed skating by many skaters at a time, and lots of spins. There were not too many jumps, I am guessing that the costumes would make that difficult.
We had such a great time and she enjoyed it so much that we are planning to also attend the Let's Celebrate show at The Palace. Fortunately, we live within 45 minutes from Toledo, and about 75 from Auburn Hills so both locations are possible.
Upcoming shows for Disney on Ice: Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo are in Salisbury, MD at Wicomico Youth & Civic Center; Portland, ME at Cumberland County Civic Center; Springfield, MA at MassMutual Center; Grand, Rapids, MI at Van Andel Arena; Erie, PA at Tullio Arena; Pittsburgh, PA at Mellon Arena; Arecibo, PR at Coliseo Manuel "Petaca" Iguina; Bayamon, PR at Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez; Ponce, PR at Auditorio Pachin Vincens; San Juan, PR at Coliseo de Puerto Rico.
We purchased the least expensive tickets, $15. Plus, the $3.75 per ticket fee and a $4.50 per order fee. Fortunately, I found a code on retailmenot.com for $5 off per ticket. Judging by the crowd distribution in the arena, most people bought the less expensive seats.
We loved the show. During the 5 minute countdown to the show, there was vocal entertainment from Dory and Marlin which helped to pass the last few minutes. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy opened the show, so you still got to see them even though it was a Nemo show. The show re-tells the story of Finding Nemo starting from Nemo's first day of school. The costumes/props were great, especially the larger characters such as Mr. Ray, the science teacher and Crush the surfer turtle. There was a lot of choreographed skating by many skaters at a time, and lots of spins. There were not too many jumps, I am guessing that the costumes would make that difficult.
We had such a great time and she enjoyed it so much that we are planning to also attend the Let's Celebrate show at The Palace. Fortunately, we live within 45 minutes from Toledo, and about 75 from Auburn Hills so both locations are possible.
Upcoming shows for Disney on Ice: Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo are in Salisbury, MD at Wicomico Youth & Civic Center; Portland, ME at Cumberland County Civic Center; Springfield, MA at MassMutual Center; Grand, Rapids, MI at Van Andel Arena; Erie, PA at Tullio Arena; Pittsburgh, PA at Mellon Arena; Arecibo, PR at Coliseo Manuel "Petaca" Iguina; Bayamon, PR at Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez; Ponce, PR at Auditorio Pachin Vincens; San Juan, PR at Coliseo de Puerto Rico.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Party Monster
Yes, I've created a party monster. My daughter LOVES parties. She had a Halloween Festival and a Christmas themed birthday party. Now she is insisting on a Valentine's Day Party. Being the softie mom that I am (and a fan of parties), I have agreed. We are doing this party simpler than others in the past - no lunch, just dessert.
I truly have a party girl on my hands, hope she does not get too wild as she gets older. Not only does she want the Valentine's Day Party with her friends, she also wants to have one for her toys and hand sanitizers (My mother in law gave her 5 different Bath & Body Works sanitizers for Christmas and my daughter treats them as dolls).
I have enlisted my 4 year old to help me plan games. She is pretty good at coming up with games. I'll definitely blog more as we further refine them, hopefully with some pictures.
Game ideas:
+Pin the kiss on the teddy bear
+Throw an arrow through the heart.
+Pencil drop
Craft ideas:
+Cupcake decorating
+Decorating bags to hold Valentine's (stamps, crayons, markers, and foam heart stickers
I truly have a party girl on my hands, hope she does not get too wild as she gets older. Not only does she want the Valentine's Day Party with her friends, she also wants to have one for her toys and hand sanitizers (My mother in law gave her 5 different Bath & Body Works sanitizers for Christmas and my daughter treats them as dolls).
I have enlisted my 4 year old to help me plan games. She is pretty good at coming up with games. I'll definitely blog more as we further refine them, hopefully with some pictures.
Game ideas:
+Pin the kiss on the teddy bear
+Throw an arrow through the heart.
+Pencil drop
Craft ideas:
+Cupcake decorating
+Decorating bags to hold Valentine's (stamps, crayons, markers, and foam heart stickers
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