May 31, 2010

Moon and Stars Birthday

A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked me for some ideas for a birthday party she was planning for her daughter. I was so excited, I wish I lived closer so I could have helped more! So, this is my first guest post!

Her daughter loves stars and the moon so...The party guests were greeted with drawings on the sidewalk leading up to the door...A birthday sign on the door...Blue and white lights...And moon and star decorations hung from the ceiling with fishing line!Guests were also encouraged to wear shirts that had any kind of star or moon on it and had their faces painted when they walked in the door with what? You guessed it, stars and moons!The first game the kids played is the only idea that I can take credit for, everything else was Lindsay! It was a Moon Rock Hunt. The moon rocks are space-themed candy (Starbursts, mini-Milky Way bars, mini-Mars bars, etc.) wrapped up in tinfoil and hidden/scattered all over the room. Before unleashing the kids to find the moon rocks, they each decorated their own little paper bag to put the moon rocks into.
The next game was the Blackhole Game. It sounds like so much fun and I can't wait to use it! Place the hula hoops in a circle and turn on some music. When the music stops the kids have to find a hula hoop to stand in (more than one person can be in a hula hoop). Before starting the music back up again, take one hula hoop away. When the game ends, everyone has to try to fit in one hula hoop! Some ideas for songs to go with the theme are:

How High The Moon
It's Only A Paper Moon
A Star Is Born
All Star
You're A Shining Star
When You Wish Upon A Star
Swinging On A Star
Satellite
Starry Eyed Surprise
Fly Me To The Moon
The party ended with a star cookie and star bracelet as the party favors. Sounds like such a fun party, and thanks Lindsay for letting me post all of your great ideas!

White "Board"

A few months ago I decided I needed a white board, but didn't have anywhere to put it. So...I made one! I took a 12x12 piece of scrapping paper, trimmed down a 12x12 piece of white paper to 10 1/2 in tall and wide and glued onto the first piece of paper. After that I picked out what I wanted to use to decorate it, laminated it and voila! Homemade white board that I taped right to my fridge!

May 15, 2010

"The Office" Beach Day Party

We hosted the Annual Scranton Beach Day this week! I made sure to watch the episode and take notes so I could follow it as closely as possible. It was supposed to be a completely outdoor party but the weather didn't cooperate, so I had to improvise inside a little!Every party that the Party Planning Committee throws has a printed banner hanging on the wall, so I had to make one, too!
When the guests first walked in the door they were greeted with the Coal Walk! (I didn't think it would be that safe to have an actual coal walk, but this did the job.)
I just glued red and yellow crinkly paper to a red poster board. If you actually wanted to do a "coal" walk some other ideas would be a "Crunch Berry" walk or "Tin Foil" walk.I decided on a blue and white color scheme since those are the Dunder Mifflin logo colors. And it what Office party would be complete without an office supply encased in Jello??
We started the night off with a blindfolded egg-on-a-spoon relay race! Each team had an egg, a spoon, a blindfold, and a tiki torch that each member of the team had to walk down, around, and come back from. The other members of the team could verbally guide the blindfolded person so they knew where they were supposed to go.
The second "funtivity" we had was Sumo Wrestling! Since it would've cost several hundred dollars to actually rent the sumo suits, we decided to skip that and make our own. The pillows in the front of the picture are for the arms. I just folded them in half and wrapped duct tape around the middle. Then, we used a rope to tie another pillow around the chest. I used more of the rope to make a wrestling ring and the object of the game was to push your opponent out of the ring! SO much fun!
After the Sumo Wrestling we headed inside for the hot dog eating contest! It was low-key, I wasn't sure how many people would actually want to have a full-out contest!
Then, after everything was over, we tallied up the scores! (The team names are from the show, too.) One point for each member of the team who didn't drop their egg during the relay race, one point for winning your sumo wrestling match, and one point for each hot dog every team member ate. The prize for the winning team was a Schrute Buck for each person and an "Assistant to the Regional Manager" pin for the team captain.
Right before I handed out the prizes to the winning team, we received a "memo" from corporate telling everyone from the Scranton Branch that a new Regional Manager had been chosen to replace Michael Scott.

The party was a total hit and was actually pretty easy to put together!