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| ICE CREAM |
It was inevitable that for one party we would have to make the theme Dress In Pink. That idea didn't lead me anywhere but to chaos. Therefore, as usual, I over-estimated the time a nine year old would spend gluing cheap toys on a straw hat. I also wasn't perturbed that they were using hot glue guns, and didn't reflect on the consequences of lighting the candles on a rustic 18th century candelabra after I festooned it with Mexican paper garlands ( I LOVE paper party products from Mexico and China ).
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| MORE ICE CREAM TREATS |
I had another pink wedding cake made because it's so surprising, especially for the bakers still scratching their heads. I had also found a small artisan ice cream company http://www.stclairicecream.com who made pretty pastel fruits out of delicious sorbets. It was a very attractive table presentation with baskets of mini roses, the inevitable pink lemonade, and pink champagne for the grown ups who lingered. I put the party favors into a cheerful Easter basket at each place setting and I think Easter is how I justified the hat making.*
Pinky was extremely happy because she got to wear her American Doll Colonial Williamsburg dress and apron, and I think the mothers were relieved that they didn't have to find an exotic costume; I made up for that the next year.
We started the party with painter's tables laid with the glue guns, a treasure chest of super cheap objects from Oriental Trading, and a stack of multicolored Hawaiian style straw hats. In my mind's eye that should have taken at least half an hour (I'd wised up some) but it was more like fifteen minutes. There had to be a parade that lasted ten extra minutes and culminated with the winner getting a fabulous prize, probably a Barbie. The winner was chosen by Pinky's ever game grandmother who, to honor the theme came dressed in her pink robe and nightgown, and fluffy pink slippers.
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| SHARKS CIRCLE |
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| PARADE STARTS |
I took pictures of each child in her hat to be used for the thank you postcard, then we played a game that I had learned about from one of Pinky's cousins but never actually seen. Right there was the danger zone of chaos.
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| DERANGED PARTY GAME LASTS INFINITY |
Here's the game: there are two teams, the team that finishes eating a giant chocolate bar first, in relay fashion, wins. The catch is that for each turn the party player must first dress in a man's suit, shirt, tie and overcoat, then put on a pair of oven mitts and cut a single piece off the large chocolate bar with a fork and knife. Insanity. If I had known how long it would take the paraders to dress, cut chocolate, undress, I could have skipped the ominously endless parade around Pinky's grandparents (like circling sharks with no destination).
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| NOT ANOTHER GAME IDEA BUT TRYING TO STAND UP WITHOUT USING ARMS AND HANDS - YOU TRY IT |
After the 10,000 hour long party game, I skipped the other idea (lost in the mists of time) and marched everyone upstairs for cake in the dining room. It was very pretty; pink cake, polka dot napkins, golden afternoon light overlooking the waterfall, and zany paper garlands on the, as yet, unlit candelabra. Once all were seated I brought the matches to the candles and the entire candle stand went up in flames; it might have actually made the sound whoosh. This is a moment when it's not good to be an artistic personality. I paused to watch how unusually pretty it was before I shot into emergency mode.
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| NELL TAYLOR, HERO |
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| Thanks To Nell, This Did Not Happen |
What had started as a bit of a weak theme had burst into an unforgettable party for everyone attending, there is nothing like flare to liven things up.
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| JESS |
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| AMANDA |
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| ADELAIDE |
GAME EXPLANATION COURTESY OF ACTIVITY VILLAGE, an excellent site
Age: 6+
You will need:
A wrapped bar of chocolate A plate A knife and fork Some dressing-up items (at least a hat, scarf and gloves) Two dice
How to play:
Put the bar of chocolate on the plate with the knives and forks nearby and sit the children around it in a circle. Throw the pile of dressing up clothes into the circle. Give one child the dice.
Children take it in turns to roll the dice on the floor in front of them, passing them around the circle to their left. If a child rolls a double, they leap into the center of the circle, put on the dressing up clothes, and start to unwrap, then eat, the bar of chocolate - but only using the knife and fork. That child keeps going until another child rolls a double, at which point they much co-operate in handing over the dressing up clothes so that the next child gets a turn.
Hints:
This game can get very rowdy as doubles sometimes come thick and fast! Be prepared the change the rules if nobody is getting a chance to eat any chocolate, perhaps using only double 3, double 4, and double 5.
If you have a particularly large group of children, you might be better off having two sets of dice going round the circle (starting opposite each other) at the same time. If you do, you might want to limit "winning" doubles to double 5 and double 6.
Have a spare bar of chocolate or two on hand in case you have some proficient party-goers! You might also want to swap forks every so often for hygiene reasons.
When I was young we played a variation of this game. Instead of eating chocolate with a knife and fork, we ate peanuts with chopsticks! Perhaps my mother invented this variation when she felt we were too young to handle the knife and fork safely. These days you might be better off using Smartees or M&Ms given that some children suffer from severe nut allergies.
*when I was still single and living in NYC I went to the Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue with my friends Jim and Mary. Jim's attention was held by the sight of a crazy woman wearing a decorated paper bag as her Easter bonnet. This lead to an excellent song, the beginning of which is all I remember, but it started out "In your Easter bonnet, with Safeway written on it,....".
