Ava's Birthday - 7 Years!

This past Wednesday was Ava's 7th birthday, and as always, school day b-days mean Saturday parties. This year we opted to hold the party @ the church building due to the fact that small spaces & large party games don't really go together well! This mom is the "invite whoever you want & try not to leave anyone out" type. That makes for many attendees @ our parties so the church gym was ideal! (In retrospect, it was ideal for the party space, however not for the running & screaming space!)

Ava asked to have a "Hello Kitty" party this year. Here's what I know about Hello Kitty... what she looks like & that she's a cat! Character themed party supplies are way too expensive for this mom's party budget, so we got a few things HK & then filled in the rest with colors & "kitty" themed events.

When the girls arrived they could transform themselves into kitties, complete with ears, a kitty collar & a kitty name. (It all happened to fast that I didn't manage a pic of the "kitty" table for my records! - Oh well!) We set up our own version of HK Twister using colored paper plates taped to the gym floor. This was a brilliant idea other than my poor spacing judgement! After only 2 or 3 minutes we had all the girls doing the splits in their efforts to reach a color! We moved on to "Kitty, May I," Ava's "purr"fect game idea for the party, and then it was on to the food! HK cupcakes, ice cream, chocolate dipped strawberries and strawberry marshmallows, homemade rocky candy & pink Italian sodas! The kids all loved the treats, but after several parties I've learned this: When 1 friend is done... they are ALL done! We finished up with a little Red Rover, (or "Kitty Rover" if you want to get the theme right) and some present opening! Presents were scheduled to be opened using the present passing game (like musical chairs, only w/ presents), but the iPod that had been working earlier that day was suddenly not working & I wasn't about to sing! We improvised with Emma running around the circle in Duck, Duck, Goose fashion while the girls chanted "Run, Emma, Run!" Wherever she stopped was the present that was opened! It worked for 2 things: Keeping Emma entertained & wearing her out!

 

 

We made our own rock candy as an experiment before the party. Here are the pics on how it turned out.