party planner

How many of you like to plan birthday parties for your child? Hands up? I must admit, though I feel a little stressed about it at times, I love to plan my children's parties!

The most recent party was for my daughter who turned 9 on New Year's Eve. We decided upon an American Girl themed party because several of Avery's friends received American Girl dolls for Christmas! Where to look for ideas....American Girl website. I found two items on sale and they were perfect loot bag items: small doll bag with stickers and charms, and American Girl trading cards! In one fairly inexpensive order, the loot bags were almost done.

Next, to plan activities. What can you have 13 girls do? I bought memory wire and beads for the girls to make a bracelet for themselves and a matching necklace for their doll! I found the wire and beads on sale and know that all leftover craft items will be used by my two daughters after the party. I still wanted another craft item: foam craft, picture frames, ceramics, painting, hmm. There is a star on the American Girl logo and in the craft store I found paper mache star shaped boxes! You can buy acrylic paint at the Dollar store if it's not on sale at your local craft store. My daughter picked out the colours: pink, purple, gold, red and yellow.

I had the craft items planned, but needed an activity for the girls to do while they waited for the other party guests to arrive. My daughters have two beautiful holiday dresses with matching dresses for their dolls. We decided to let the girls choose a dress, change and pose for a photo dressed like their doll in front of the Christmas tree! The girls, even those who seemed hesitant at first, were quite happy once changed into the dress and to be dressed like their doll.

We had two games planned, but only time to play one. The girls were broken into two teams and they raced to see which team could dress their doll in pj's and tuck them to bed the quickest. The girls cheered each other on as they took turns undressing, then dressing their doll in pj's, tucking them into the American Girl beds (which my daughters had received from Santa), and then undressing the doll so the next person on their team could do the same. As my son did not want to join the race, my husband dressed Caden's boy AG doll for bed. The girls all thought it was hilarious to watch Trevor dressing the doll. He's all about getting a laugh so he was great at playing it up once the girls started to laugh. :-)

While some were done beading and others still carefully creating, we played the American Girl hair DVD showing 50 ways to style your dolls hair. We weren't sure how the girls would feel about this activity, but they were all excited to watch the DVD, then put their doll in the American Girl Salon chair (my daughter had received from Santa) to style her hair.

The cake was star shaped to match the AG logo. My daughter wanted carrot cake and I simply rented the cake pan, $1.99 per day at Bulk Barn, and it turned out great!!

We found gold starry loot bags at the Party Giant and added a fruit leather and two mini chocolate bars to the AG products before tying them closed.

The party was awesome! It was probably the most relaxing birthday party we've held in our home. The girls loved every activity right down to posing with their dolls for a group photo!

nothing like a great new book

For Christmas this year I received three new books all from my favourite authors. I couldn't wait to dive in and my first choice was "Knit the Season" by Kate Jacobs. I read her first two books, "Friday Night Knitting Club" and "Knit 2" and fell in love with the group of women characters in the novels.

The books pull the reader in to feel like one of the club, learning about the women's' lives, their personal secrets, hopes and dreams as well as their deepest fears. When I opened the newest novel on Christmas morning I screamed with delight! I wasn't disappointed when I read the first few pages and when I finished the book I was ready to find out when to expect another in the series.

This is the type of book I can easily see being made into a movie! Of course it would be a chick flick, and one that would appeal to all ages as the character's span from teens to the golden years. Lots of laughs and tears.

If you are looking for a good book and haven't read the first two, you can pick up the newest, but I recommend reading them in order to understand the characters and how the group was formed.

What a great way to start 2010 by already finishing a great read! My next book is "Traveling with Pomegranates" by Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter!

Stay tuned.....