Six years ago today my beautiful daughter was born. She was seven weeks premature, born via emergency c-section. We were terrified that we might lose her, or that she'd survive but have terrible problems. None of that happened.... she surprised even the doctors with how well she did in the NICU, and she was home just a few weeks later. Today, she's celebrating her 6th birthday. We're baking cookies to take to her kindergarten class this afternoon, and then on Saturday she's having her first-ever kid party. It's a Princess themed event, and we've planned three craft projects for the girls. We've invited 15 girls (the school rule is if you hand out invitations at school you have to invite ALL the girls in your class, not just a few) ... but so far only five have RSVP'd. So really, I have no idea how many girls and how many pounds of glitter will be flying around here on Saturday.
Sooo..... my WFMW Backwards Edition question for you: Do you have any tried and true birthday party tricks I need to know? As I said, this is our first kid party, so I'll take any tips you'd like to share! :)
Ask your own question at the backwards edition of WFMW!
Ask your own question at the backwards edition of WFMW!
I wish I had something to offer, but I have no experience with this yet. :)
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday to your precious little one!
Girls like dress up and can spend HOURS dressing up - so, I'd round up a box of hats, necklaces, bracelets, scarves, shoes, small mirrors, etc and just let em go at it!
ReplyDeletePrincess parties are great. I don't know if you have decorations yet, but we started decorating outside. I used sidewalk chalk to draw flowers and a welcome message leading up to the house. The girls loved it. I usually decorate with balloons,too.
ReplyDeleteKeep your food simple. Cake and chips or cupcakes, lemonade. It is hard when you don't know how many are coming. Ask them to come as their favorite princess or let them play dress up at the party.
As a special favor, give them each a silk rose with curly ribbon tied on it. You can buy a bunch at Wal-mart and cut them apart.
Hi Amy - thanks for stopping by my blog! My daughter was also born 7 weeks early via emergency C-section. Another miracle baby!
ReplyDeleteAs for your dilemma, I have only done one bday party for my daughter so far and it was only family. So I don't have a tip for you, unfortunately. I hope your party goes well, though! Good luck and happy birthday to your daughter!
My favorite tip concerns my least favorite time at a birthday party: opening gifts time. It can be seriously crazy. How we've dealt with this is by setting two chairs OR if you have fireplace seating OR a big oversized chair... depends on the size of the kids.
ReplyDeleteBirthday girl sits in that and all other guests sit on the floor. When it's time for the birthday kid to open a gift, the person who gave it to her gets to come sit by her to watch her open it.
This helps a ton.
Each kid knows they are going to get a turn.
Have more games or activities than you think you need, so you have a backup if they are bored or finish too fast (even if it's just a list of parlor games).
ReplyDeleteAlso, have some games that can be done as people come and leave - not crafts that might be left half undone, or games that MUST have 4 people and get all messed up if people leave early.
Belated happy birthday to your girl. My only tip is schedule every single minute of that party. One minute of free time=chaos. Then again, kids love chaos :)
ReplyDeleteMy twins were 7 weeks early, too. Small, but healthy. Not in the NICU very long. It's amazing, isn't it? They'll be 13 (gasp) in less than 3 months.
ReplyDeleteI'll echo most everyone and say SCHEDULE. Supervision, organized activities, and more planning than you think is necessary. Some activities will take longer than you thought, and others will be over before you know it. I hope they don't all show up. That's a lot of girls! I don't know why people don't RSVP anymore. Can't wait to hear how it all went.
Hope everything went well with the birthday party! For a princess themed event, you can buy some princess crowns and hand them out to your guests. Or, print a standard outline of princess tiara and then as an art project have them design their own using glitters, plastic jewels, paint and other materials.
ReplyDelete