More Parties

The same week as Emma's program and Emma's birthday, I had also volunteered to be in charge of the 1st grade Dr Seuss party. Originally, I thought it would be fun to do it the same week as Emma's birthday, but later realized that wasn't such a great idea. Plus, she wanted to have a friend party so we planned that for the same night!  Nick was going crazy trying to keep all the parties straight! Luckily, 6 other moms had signed up to help with the Dr Seuss party so we got together to decide what activity each classroom would have and then all of the moms prepared their activities. In one room, the kids watched a short Dr Seuss movie with popcorn and goldfish snacks. Then, they made the classic red/white striped hat. The next room had "Pin the Green Eggs on the Ham platter" and rhyming Bingo.  The next room had the story "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" read to them and then they got to play with and take home "oobleck" (it is like a green slime--very cool).  The last room had two relay races: one where they pretended to be the Cat in the Hat that carries everything on his head and the other relay race was similar to the book "I wish I had Duck Feet" where the kids pretended to have duck feet, a lion's tail, a water spout, antlers, and an elephants trunk. The kids had a great time. We had a bunch of people volunteer so that helped, too. I'm so grateful that my schedule allows me to volunteer in Emma's class and help with parties--it is so fun to meet the kids in the first grade.

So, once the school party was over, we rushed home to get set-up for Emma's friend party. It was her first friend party and we let her invite 7 other friends (all girls). It was a horse-themed party (surprise). My friend helped me make some adorable invitations with horses on it. We ate chicken nuggets and fruit for dinner. Then, we had them paint some popsicle sticks for this horse craft I got out of a magazine. While the paint was drying, they played "Pin the pickax on the Gold Mine", busted open a pinata, and opened presents. Then, we went back to our crafts to glue everything together. I didn't take into consideration how much paint the girls would put on their horses so it was trickier to get everything to stick! They turned out cute though. While the girls were finishing, we cut the horse cake and served up some ice cream.  For party favors, we had a wood horseshoe to paint, horse Silly Bandz, Baked Beans candy and mint tied up in a bandana for all of the girls. There was a lot of girly screams during the party and it was fun to listen to them tell jokes during dinner. Emma really has some cute, fun friends and we had an exhuasting but fabulous party day!