Bolling With 5

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Spring Party - Part 4 - "Dirty Bunny" Game

Ever heard of the game "Dirty Santa" or "White Elephant"? Well, I turned the kindergartener's LAST event, at their Spring party, into my own made up version called "Dirty Bunny". The idea arrived after I had searched for a game they could play and ended up being discontent with the game options I found. There's ONLY so much musical chairs, hot potato, and "pin the nose, the tail, the ears on the..." that you can take. In the past, in this class, history has proven that the biggest "rise" and/or thrill comes from PRIZES and GIFTS. So, at the last minute, I decided to go to several local stores and buy 22 of the nicest, but affordable Spring toys, candy, or crafts that I could find. I am thankful for "Class Dixon's" cash donations to make this game even possible.

Here are a few examples of the prizes that I purchased, but to see ALL 22, you will have to view the online photo album at the bottom of this post.

I bagged up each gift in either a white or brown lunch bag. How would I make the dispersement of gifts fair?

It quickly came to me. I found some colorful, Easter egg, clipart on google images. I needed at least 22 different patterned eggs because that's how many prizes/bags I had. I printed two copies. One copy for the bags AND...

ONE copy for each student!

I stapled a different patterned egg to each bag and the extra set of clipart eggs would be passed out to the students.

I randomly dispersed clipart eggs to each student. Then, one by one, I held up a prize bag. Remember, each prize bag had an egg stapled to it. Whoever's egg matched the prize bag, in my hand, WON that particular prize. Once each student had a bag, on the count of 3, everyone was allowed to open their prize/gift and THEN... the students could trade prizes/gifts if they so desired. I kept the rules up to the kids because I was concerned that if a child was actually content with their original gift and we stuck to the official rules of "dirty santa" or "white elephant", we'd have many upset 5/6 year olds. Many children traded, but many children were very happy with their original gift.

To see the prizes/gifts, double click on the Picasa Web photo album below!!! If you are viewing this post from your cell phone or tablet, you may NOT be able to view the album. You need a land line. The entire class LOVED this. They were all so excited and so happy to get a prize!! No one was left out. The only area I failed...was at taking pictures. There was a lot going on and the party was quickly coming to a close, so I just simply forgot. :(

Night Owl, Pre-Party Gift!

The day before Lilah's big "night owl" sleepover party, we hand delivered a "pre-party" gift to the birthday guests. Being the party was an over night, slumber party, I wanted the girls to have matching pjs. I thought it would make for some very cute photo opportunities. I found many different styles and themed pjs that matched the party's decor perfectly (owls, multi-colored cheetah, etc), but I decided to go with the Ice Cream Sleep Romper, from Children's Place.

After deciding on the perfect pajamas, my next step was to decide how I would present this gift. I decided to enclose a short, but sweet letter reminding the girls what to pack in their over night bags. I was certain to include some owl lingo. Hoo Hoo!

Then, I boxed up the pjs and the letter with some pretty tissue paper.

I was super excited when I found this multi-colored, cheetah, wrapping paper, at Target. It totally goes with the night owl invitation I created.

Finally, I added some beautiful blingy, silver bows, as well as, an oversized owl sticker.

And then I drove each box of "jammies" to each girl's home or parents' work.

Even though Lilah was the birthday girl, she was still a part of the party and was DEFINITELY going to be receiving a pair of ice cream pajamas too, so I thought it would be special to "hand deliver" her pjs as well. Her note wasn't from Lilah - duh - it was from Mommy.

Hand delivered to our home's front door.

I rang the doorbell and Lilah did what she always does when she hears a doorbell...ANSWERS it.

I mean, can her reactions be any better? MOUTH DROPPED OPEN!

Lilah came inside and opened her pre-party gift.

It was really sweet to hear from the girls, after they opened their pjs. I heard from each of them in different ways. They all got a chuckle out of the part of the letter that read, "The first one to fall asleep, gets their underwear frozen."

Friday, April 10, 2015

Spring Party - Part 3 - Snack Time!!!

I am so thankful for the kindergartner's parents this year. They have been very patient, willing, and accepting of the way I have been designing these parties. The planning requires the parents to go a little more above and beyond just buying juice boxes and a bag of chips. Only those parents who feel like being creative in the kitchen volunteer and the other parents have been very generous with donating either cash (for games/crafts) or their time. ALL of it is greatly appreciated. For each party we have had this year, I have tried desperately to keep the food fairly healthy and fun, as well as well balanced.

We always have a fruit, a veggie, a salty/crunchy (carb), a sweet, and a drink! Here's what the kids were able to enjoy!

Dairy - Hand drawn, bunny string cheese.

Way to go Mrs. Vivian De Los Santos. So precious.

Fruit "Cocktail" - From Ms. Katie Weeks.

Crunchy/Salty - Gold Fish and Cheese Balls in frosting bags. They look like carrots. :) Cute work Ms. Heather Wells.

Vegetable - EVERY BUNNY loves carrots with ranch! Right?!?! Thank you Ms. Amy Troiler.

Drinks!

Rabbit punch! Ms. Jenna Magruder turned her juice boxes into adorable bunnies.

She even added a cotton tail!

The Sweet - I signed up to bring a sweet. I made orange chocolate covered strawberries, to represent carrots. I also made chocolate pudding and inserted it into miniature flower pots and sprinkled oreo crumbs on top (to look like dirt). One child saw it and was petrified that I was making him eat dirt, so he said, "I don't want any thanks! I'm allergic." LOL! Hysterical.

I will be doing a separate blog post on these adorable carrot patch pudding cups! Be on the look out!

I think this party was the most colorful, festive, and FUN to eat, to date!

One last post, of this Spring party, to go! I hope you have enjoyed it so far!!!

Spring Party - Part 2 - Egg Hunt

While the kids worked on coloring their egg glasses, Mrs. Katie Weeks and I hid ALL of the eggs that the kids brought in. The kindergarteners were instructed to fill and bring in 6 eggs. So, you do the math, haha, Katie and I hide over 120 plastic filled eggs. The students made ~~"baskets"~~ bags to help store their eggs while hunting. And off they went....