A Pink Party -8yr- Pink Flowered Maypole Dancing

A Pink Pary- 8 year old  My daughter turned 8 this year, so we threw her a very pink party.

She passed out the invitations- on pink paper  with little paper flowers in the corner (any scrapbooking place would have) and we worded it, "______ would be tickled pink if you would join us in celebrating her 8th Birthday, Please come dressed pretty in pink" We rolled them and tied them with a pretty pink ribbon.

Decorations: Think pink! We had the party outside and we scattered pink flamingo's in the yard, used pink pigs and pink jelly beans tied in tulle as balloon weights for pink balloons. Pink streamers of course. I like to take the kids pictures as they came in so I decorated a section of our fence as a background with pink flowers and bows. I made huge posters with pink paint exclaiming "Happy Birthday, ____" and "________ 8, Let's Celebrate!" and "A Pink Party" and placed them around the yard. And of course, pink plates, napkins, tableclothes. I had pots full of pink flowers scattered about.

Food: Pink Strawberry cake and cupcakes, strawberry ice cream in tiny cones, pink wafer cookies, pink cotton candy, and of course pink lemonade (made it fizzy by mixing with Carbonated water).

Activities: I like to have a craft to keep kids busy while everyone is arriving and I am taking their pictures with the birthday girl (I take pictures at the beginning while they are still fresh and then we use the pics as thank you postcards we laminate and send to the girls). The craft was beading necklaces. I had beads (pink, of course)in a baggy with the beading wire already half attached to the clasp for them to string.

While the girls were beading we took them one by one and put a pink fairy crown on their head (use 2 pink pipe cleaners made into a circle, then I placed 5 small tissue paper flowers around the front of the crown and a few small flowers between those, weaved some curling ribbon (already curled) around the flowers) I also made bigger tissue paper flowers to go around their wrists, and 2 feather boas- one light pink, one dark. They struck a pose in the picture area described above.

After the beading and pictures were completed we went on to our next activity the Maypole. Little girls love to dance and this was a great way to do it together. I constructed a maypole out of a six foot wooded pole (painted pink), drilled 2 holes in the top to hold the ring of flowers and ribbons. I made a metal ring with a wire coat hanger, tied 14 ribbons in varying shades of pink to the ring and then tied a flower garland to the ring using ribbon. I then cut another wire hanger to go through the drilled holes to anchor the flower ring at the top.

Played polka music, while the girls skipped around the pole, right, left, In to the pole, and back. We got more complicated and did some weaving. Count the girls off by ones and twos. Ones go down on one knee and twos weave around and then switch. The girls really got a kick out of this. Then we put the ribbons down and danced the chicken dance (a real crowd pleaser).

Our finally activity was a Fashion Emergency game. I divided the kids into 2 groups and gave them each a bag filled with pink fabric, tulle, feathers, foam shapes, ribbon, tape, scissors, stapler (an adult was in charge of this), pipe cleaners, bandanas, etc and each team had to design a dress out of the contents. Each team had a model and they really let the creative juices flow, The girls really enjoyed this!

Next was pink treats and gifts. Each girl left with a goody bag (oriental trading had pink poodle bookmarks, note pads and jelly pops, flamingo pens, pink bubble gum, pencils), their necklace they made, fairy crown and tissue flower bracelets, and a balloon with jelly beans wrapped in tulle.

My daughter said "It was the best party ever!"