Several years ago a friend gave me a book with tons of party ideas for kids. My older two children love to look through that and make plans for parties they want to have – not for birthday parties or holiday parties but “just because” parties. Yesterday I agreed to let them actually have one of these parties this week with a few friends. They looked through the book and chose an “Under the Sea” theme and started reading the ideas in the book. They jotted down a few notes and it quickly became obvious that the ideas that they were suggesting in the book weren’t a last-minute kinda of thing. And since the party is tomorrow, and we’re pretty limited to what we have around the house. So I suggested Pinterest. (Find theSIMPLEmoms on Pinterest here)! And holy cow, I think I’ve created a monster.
I started by showing them how it worked. Then I set up a secret board under my name that was just for their party. I sat with them and we scrolled through pages of fun ocean games and snacks and crafts. (You can click the image below to enlarge but the page itself is still private). We have everything we need to make the crab from apples and we have several bananas we can use to make octopi. We’ll print out the coloring sheets to keep the little kids busy while the big kids make fancy bead art. (My kids loveLOVElove perler beads). And then maybe we’ll do some seaweed limbo and old-fashioned crab races if it’s nice out. Oh! And they found a Pin the Fin on the Dolphin game but decided that they’d rather make it so that you pin on the top fin instead of the tail fin. We’ll see how great my dolphin-drawing skills are, I suppose.
They also found a make-your-own-board game option but I told them we might not have time to get that all together. And this really adorable sea star made from glue and sand but I talked them out of that for now. We’ll see if I give in or not. It is really cute! (But oh! the sand…I’m not a fan of sand!)
While I don’t intend to let them browse Pinterest without me for at least a few more years, it was fun to sit and dream with them. It was fun to see their faces light up and see those wheels start turning.
We’ll be having this little party on Tuesday, so be on the lookout for some party pictures on theSIMPLEmoms instagram feed!