The Day After Exhaustion
I have re-realized just how small my house is. Thank goodness for good weather, a spring birthday, and several missing people. The house was quite crowded enough for Elder's party, which went very well.
It had a nice, home-made feel. In theory, I'd really like to have a party at a "place" and not have to do all the work for a party at home. But I'd still feel obligated to have people back to the house, so it would become, in reality, a lot more work. I don't buy cakes, I make them (just box cakes, but I decorate them in the theme); our favor bags were off-brand princess items and dollar store Disney princess stuff; our games were made by me. Even the balloons were from the dollar store (luckily, real Disney princess brand.) Reused gift bags for the kid.
I'm proud of how I can pull it together. Maybe too much so, but I feel like I gave Elder a good memory.
And I have to brag at my last minute game ideas, even if some of the kids had left by the time we actually got to them. I printed out an 8 x 11 1/2 clip art princess portrait and outlined it in black Sharpie, and then pink clip art crowns blown up to match the size. It was "Pin A Tiara on the Princess." And I made up 3 x3 Disney princess bingo with pasted on-line pictures. Luckily, I had hidden a bag of small stocking gifts, Disney Princess themed, with some yoyo's and such, last Christmas and found them yesterday while pulling out Elder's present from the garage. My horrible memory was very helpful, for once.
Only bad note- one of the DVDs I got Elder was ET (one of my mom's favorite movies, so I wanted to watch it with the girls); it happened to be on TV yesterday and Elder informed me she hated it. She seemed to like the other ones, though, so we'll just take it back and exchange it for something else.
It had a nice, home-made feel. In theory, I'd really like to have a party at a "place" and not have to do all the work for a party at home. But I'd still feel obligated to have people back to the house, so it would become, in reality, a lot more work. I don't buy cakes, I make them (just box cakes, but I decorate them in the theme); our favor bags were off-brand princess items and dollar store Disney princess stuff; our games were made by me. Even the balloons were from the dollar store (luckily, real Disney princess brand.) Reused gift bags for the kid.
I'm proud of how I can pull it together. Maybe too much so, but I feel like I gave Elder a good memory.
And I have to brag at my last minute game ideas, even if some of the kids had left by the time we actually got to them. I printed out an 8 x 11 1/2 clip art princess portrait and outlined it in black Sharpie, and then pink clip art crowns blown up to match the size. It was "Pin A Tiara on the Princess." And I made up 3 x3 Disney princess bingo with pasted on-line pictures. Luckily, I had hidden a bag of small stocking gifts, Disney Princess themed, with some yoyo's and such, last Christmas and found them yesterday while pulling out Elder's present from the garage. My horrible memory was very helpful, for once.
Only bad note- one of the DVDs I got Elder was ET (one of my mom's favorite movies, so I wanted to watch it with the girls); it happened to be on TV yesterday and Elder informed me she hated it. She seemed to like the other ones, though, so we'll just take it back and exchange it for something else.