Vicky's party

[estepheia]

Le sigh. It's that time of the year again, where we stressed out parents have to organize a smashing themed birthday party for Viktoria. Unfortunately we raised the bar quite high during the last few parties: we had a pirate-party (where the kids had to pass a pirate exam to get a treasure map), an American Natives party (where they ate roast chicken in their wigwams after collecting all kinds of objects for their medicine pouches) and a Magic party (where we transformed broomsticks into marvellous magic staffs with beads, ribbons and fake plants).

This year's theme: Underwater. Vicky wants to dress up as sea-pixies and mermaids. I have blue blankets and curtains and table cloths to make the living room blue, twenty IKEA soft toy fishies/turtles and a big cuddly octopus, I also have fish-shaped bowls and other items for decorations, but I have no clue what kind of games to play. The weather doesn't look terribly promising. No outdoors activities, I'm afraid. There will be 9 children in all - most of them 7 years old. All in our living room. *shudder*

If you have any suggestions how to amuse the kids (a mermaid diploma, maybe?), please let me know. I have links to party planning sites, but to be honest, the pop-ups and the often crappy navigation annoy me, and besides, I'm not looking for recipes or for anything that involves glue or sharp scissors. Trolling these sites takes forever. But if you have first hand experience to share...

Anyway, the party is on Friday. I just hope I'll be fit and about on that day: Tomorrow I have an appointment with my dental surgeon; keep your fingers crossed that he'll be able to cut of the inflamed roots in my tooth without having to yank the whole tooth out. *shudder* He did a great job on the other tooth. I just hope that when the second infection is taken care of, that my ankles and feet will begin to feel better.

Right, no more whining. *tries to look determined*

Comments

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Go here . Actually, keeping www.familyfun.go.com might be a good idea, its the website for Family Fun Magazine which is put out by Disney and always is filled with ideas for kids.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

*Hugs and snuggles*

Maybe cut fish and other sea creature shapes from colored paper, slip paper clips where their mouths would be, then make fishing poles from sticks, string, and tie a magnet onto the end of the string? They could pretend to be fishing. What about undersea pictures made with crayons, then an adult washes a pale blue watercolor paint over the page (the wax of the crayons repels the paint?) Or hot glue plain shells from the craft store to magnets in advance, then let them paint and add glitter?

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

Games: Two classics at our house are variations on "Duck, Duck, Goose" and "Pin the Tail on the Donkey." (Do you know these games?? Let me know if you don't and I'll try to describe them!) For an Underwater party, I'd play "Fish, Fish, Shark" or "Mermaid, Mermaid, Sea Witch" and "Pin the Tail on the Fish/Mermaid/Sea-Pixie." For the "pin the tail" game, you can draw your own poster on big paper (I did my own Beast when my daughter had her Maggie and the Ferocious Beast party, and I'm no artist) or buy an inexpensive poster--fish shouldn't be hard to find. http://www.art.com used to have a lot of very nice, pretty cheap posters. Cut your own tails (or bubbles, or whatever you like) out of construction paper, and have the children stick them on with loops of sticky tape.

If you have or can make small beanbags, you can also create a "feed the shark" game by sticking a picture of a shark to posterboard, cutting out the mouth (big if you want the game to be easy, small if you want it to be hard) and propping it up for the kids to throw beanbags into.

That's all I've got right now, but I'll comment again if I think of anything else. Good luck!

[bhadrasvapna.livejournal.com]

One image that sticks with me, thanks to Ringo Starr, is creating an Octopus's garden. You can even play the Beatles song while allowing the girls to design their own by glueing "gems" and other shiny things to something. Treasure chests are another thing often found at the bottom of the sea in ship wrecks. They can all try to find Davy Jones' locker.

Hubby makes his living at sea, so let me know if you need any more ideas.