Flashback

Recently I've been doing a lot of scrapbooking. This is a good thing.

I've been working on The Princess' Lion Party from last year. During the party, I had all the kids sign a scrapbook page for her, with a 5x7 'reserved' spot in the middle of the page for the picture with everybody in it.

Well, the picture with everybody in it never happened. Well, ok, it happened, but it was when all the kids were diving for the pinata candy so I have backs, feet, butts, arms, legs... and not many faces. At any rate, it wasn't quite what I was looking for.

Today I decided to make my own 5x7 picture. It looks good on screen, I'm hoping it will print just as good.

For your enjoyment:

MIA

Yep, I know. I've been MIA, and worse, I've left you without the rest of our vacation pictures, nevermind pictures of The Purple Dragon's room (which have never been posted since last June), pictures of Halloween, not to mention pictures of Christmas. No one knows better than me (I?) about how I've left you in a lurch.

Should I explain why I've left you in such a horrid state? There's not really a good reason, other than I've just been busy with about 100 other things. I'm not sure that they are even more important... I've just been, well... busy.

So busy, in fact, that I neglected to realize that my last post was number 200!

And no, although I hate to disappoint, I'm not going to post the rest of the pictures right now. I will try my best, however, to finish them tonight. I promise! But I've got to watch '24' first.

So guess what's happening on March 30? The Pink Princess is turning SEVEN. We all know what this means, right? King Isepik does. It's time for a BIRTHDAY PARTY! Go ahead and cringe. I know what you're all thinking... "OH NO! Pooooor King Isepik!" I am the self-declared QUEEN of the BIRTHDAY PARTIES... and even when I say "Oh, don't worry... this one will be simple!" it never is. Though, the King would have to admit that some are certainly easier than others. :)

The Princess has requested a Mermaid/Under The Sea party, or perhaps a Garden/Ladybug/Butterfly party, and could be interested in a Luau party, which could be linked to an Under The Sea party. I am really struggling with ideas. The best idea I have so far is the Garden party with a variety of garden crafts (like planting a few seeds, making some kind of garden themed sun catcher, making a stepping stone, etc). But it seems really overwhelming at the moment. She has decided that inviting just girls is OK - which means I'll only have 17-20 kids, unlike The Mane Event which had 30.

So, oh creative ones... what's your take on the situation? I'm not loving any of the ideas I've found online so far, so why don't you help me out?

P.S. I just noticed that some of my posts are currently in a state of 'draft' and are therefore missing from this blog. I will work on fixing them over the coming days. Thanks for your patience. :)

The Mane Event - "We're Going On A Lion Hunt!"

By 1:15, all but 5 kids had arrived. No time to lose, hopefully they'll arrive in the next 5 minutes.

The next event was "We're Going On A Lion Hunt." You're probably familiar with the "Bear Hunt" chant, and this was very similar, but with a lion twist. I was very worried that the kids wouldn't get into it and I'd be stuck standing there all by my lonesome chanting "We're Going On A Lion Hunt! We're not scared!", etc, but the kids liked it, and it was a lot of fun. This was probably one of my favorite activities at the party.

Thankfully, by the time we had finished, the missing 5 kids had arrived, so we split into teams.

As I had mentioned before, each child had a name tag with a different colored lion on it. I told them to go stand by the lion on the wall that matched their name tag. Voila! Teams! Thankfully, none of the kids complained, although I am sure that one or two of them were disappointed. I was really surprised, but since it was the name tags that told them where to go, instead of a person, the kids acted like they couldn't argue with it) . I worked hard on the teams because while I wanted to ensure that every child knew at least one other child on the team, I also wanted to split certain people up -- even best friends. It seems that certain children get a really nasty streak if someone comes between them and their best friend, and they also are not as willing to include other people if their best friend is around. So I split them up, and it worked REALLY well. No one squabbled, no one cried, and no feelings were hurt. It was amazing!

Since everyone was divided into teams, it was time to start the group rotation.

"We're Going On A Lion Hunt!"

"AAAAAAH! It's a Lion! RUN!!!"

Some of the Orange Team

The Green Team

The Mane Event - "Lion, Lion, Hyena!"

The children started arriving shortly before 1:00. One mother asked me if there was anything that she could help with, but there really wasn't -- it was simply faster for me to 'keep on keeping on' then to stop and explain to someone what the last few details were that I was trying to finish.

Thankfully, I had a stroke of genius, and had planned for the first activity to be "Lion, Lion, Hyena!" (think "Duck, Duck, Goose!"), and the kids were really excited to start playing (and thankfully, KEEP playing) this game. It was also a good choice because it's really easy for more kids to join in. I was thankful that most of the kids were watching to see who hadn't had a turn yet, and tried to pick them whenever possible. Of course, there were a few kids who didn't want to play, or wanted to take a break from playing, but they were very content to watch.

Also, as each child arrived they received a name tag to wear around their neck. It had their name (of course!), a picture of a lion colored in mostly un-liony colors (red, orange, green & blue), and 6 empty squares. The lion determined which team they were on, and the squares were for the stickers that they collected as they moved from one activity to another.

Nicole M. takes a turn being the 'Lion' as we wait for more kids to arrive.

Marissa is the Lion, and Sara takes a break to watch rather than play.

Approximately 20 kids had arrived by this point.

The Mane Event - A Summary

So! You want to know what happened at the party? Well, you should have been there! Since you weren't though, I'll do my best to share what I can actually remember.

The party was scheduled from 1:00 until 3:30 pm on Saturday, March 25 at our ward.

At 1:00 the children began to arrive and they were invited to play "Lion, Lion, Hyena!" while we waited for everyone else. They also received a name tag that had their name (doh!), a lion (colored in one of four colors), and 6 empty squares on it.

At 1:15 we went on a "Lion Hunt"

At 1:20 we divided up into teams, and started group rotations. Every 15-20 minutes we rotated groups, and I think that we might have been able to pull it off better if we had rotated every 10-15 minutes instead. But we survived. It's hard to plan these things. Each group visisted the "Big Game Room" twice, the "Small Game Room" once, and the "Craft Room" once.

At 2:40, the rotations were over, so we lined up for the pinata and marched our way up the stairs to the 'Cultural Hall' where the lion bashing and smashing began.

By 3:00 we were back downstairs, sang "Happy Birthday" to The Pink Princess, and started opening presents while the cake was being sliced and served.

By 3:20 everyone was eating cake and ice cream, and I was frantically stuffing goodie bags.

Parents started arriving shortly before and after 3:30, and everyone thanked us profusely, adults and kids alike. It seemed like everyone had a great time. All that was left was clean-up, and a couple of Moms even stayed and helped us with that. We were on our way home by 4:15.

So, that's all you need to know, right?

What? You want more details? And pictures? Oh, OK! Keep reading, and I'll keep typing!