Scrapbook Going Away -7yr- I Remember Game

For my daughters 7th birthday we had a "Scrapbooking Party".    Her birthday was in June and we were moving in July.  It was very upsetting to her that we were moving and she knew she would miss her friends terribly. 

She invited 7 of her friends and a neighbor lady which she was very close too.  The neighbor was very honored to be asked and fit right in with the other "guests".  We sent out invitations to the girls and told them to bring 1-5 pictures of themselves that they didn't mind giving to the birthday girl. (we did scan some of the photos that the girls didn't want to cut up) 

During the party we played a game called "I Remember".  The girls went around the room and said "I remember when Jennie…" and finished the sentence.  Some were very funny and some stories I never even knew about!. 

I then explained to the girls that they were each going to make a scrapbook page for Jennie to take with her to her new town. ( I gave some scrapbooking tips as I am an avid scrapbooker!)  I had a variety of fun scissors, markers, gel pens, acid free glue and paper available for the girls to use.  I was amazed at the girls creativity.  Many of the girls brought pictures that had both themselves and the birthday girl in it.  They wrote sentiments, stories and one even made up a poem for my daughter.  The girls had about 2 hours to work. 

After the pages were done we placed them in a scrapbook and passed the book around for all to see.  The book was then given to my daughter as a "Going away present".  We then opened the birthday gifts.  These too were meaningful as she got a diary from one girl and a new address book from another. (A GREAT idea!) 

Before the guests' left each of them wrote down their address in the new book.  She is now 11 and still keeps in touch with some of those girls. The guests' each received a fun new pair of decorative scissors, a gel pen, our new address on tag board, candies and fun trinkets. 

During the party we took a picture of each of the girls with my daughter and a big group picture.  We sent these photos in the thank you cards.

The party was memorable and a fun way for my daughter to say good-bye to her friends.  Four years later she will still take out her scrapbook and reminisce about the fun we had in our old town and about each of the friends she invited including the neighbor lady who had a grand time being invited to a 7 year olds birthday party!