An "Animal Crafting" party for our 8 year old!

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Well, not quite eight, not just yet-- three more days of seven for this beautiful little party planner.  But Saturday was the much anticipated "friend party" portion of her birthday celebration, and it went off without a hitch.  We were blessed with ideal weather (75 and partly cloudy) and had a lovely group of 7 sweet second graders in attendance.  Quite possibly the smoothest party we've ever had, and I have to give a lot of credit to Ivy, who planned out every detail of the day and was actually very helpful with preparations these past few days.  I miss my snuggly baby girl sometimes... but I am pretty fond of the competent young woman she's growing into!

The party set up:

 A green-and-brown color theme to provide a backdrop for animal fun.

 Per Ivy's instructions, we had a guided crafting table (canvas painting)...

 ...and a "free crafting" table for coloring.  The girls each colored their own paintbrush for this year's version of "Pin the tail..."

 ... or rather, "Pin the paintbrush on the bird beak."  The name has a nice, simple ring to it, no?  While our dinosaur did not make an appearance, we did keep with our tradition of re-using large-scale-art-on-a-board, with last year's robin fitting right in to our theme after the addition of a paint pallette.

The bedecked pergola, containing our "adopt an animal" station, a playmobil zoo set, and the present table.  Not as much time was spent playing there as I'd expected, as the girls were much more interested in the treehouse and the chickens...

One benefit of the late spring we've had this year:  daffodils in full bloom for Ivy's party!

 Ivy and I had so much fun crafting those tiny hats.  And Ivy did all the placement of animals and toppers.  As my little ones grow up, I learn more and more about how to relinquish control...

Can't really see the food labels in this shot but they were really cute and thematically appropriate.  My favorite was "Lions eat everything!" to go with the animal crackers.

And now, for some action shots!

The girls were sweet as pie at the crafting tables, and really seemed to enjoy themselves.  How terribly easy it is to work with a small group of typical children!  I am used to the Herculean task of working with my 8-10 very NONtypical students at school, and doing this craft project would have been exhausting.  But with these delightful girls- it was nothing!  They listened, followed instructions, waited patiently, took feedback, didn't attempt to throw, eat or grab a thing, and were kind and pleasant to each other the whole time.  I didn't know that could happen.  It was amazing.

 I had some pretty great help, too, which was certainly part of it.

 We moved from crafting over to "pin the paintbrush" which went smoothly.  Eight year olds are pretty smart, though, and I had to work hard to keep them from cheating and feeling their way to the bird beak...

 Not pictured:  Animal freeze dance.  Hard to get good shots of children dancing like animals, at close range, while controlling the music for said dancing....

Then, off to Animal Hunt.  Naomi dominated the field with something like 15 finds...

... but with Jack (newly returned from soccer) helping, we made sure everyone found some success.

Of course, the unplanned fun always seems to be the most memorable!

 Winter's first birthday party and she was a dream.  She was a big fan of cleaning up under the picnic table.  And a big fan of Ophelia.

The hit of the whole day had to be the chickens, who produced no less than FOUR eggs during the duration of the party, much to the delight of our little guests.  They carefully monitored the nest box, learned to recognize tell-tale squawks, found and rescued an egg in the run, and took turns excitedly carrying eggs in and washing them-- usually a group affair..

Another surprise hit: our toddler size rocking horse, which we were just talking about sending on to a younger family...  you can't even see the horse here, because the poor thing is being forcefully rocked under the weight of two second graders.  It didn't bat an eye.  That thing is tough.

Snack time! 

 And... cake!

 The "adopt an animal" activity was such fun.   We let the "winners" of each game have first pick from the stuffies, then a "free for all" with the rest.  Once more this group of kiddos were a delight.  No complaining or arguing whatsoever.   These girls seem to genuinely care about one another-- a few trades took place, initiated by girls who saw that their friend wanted the animal they themselves had chosen.  What treasures these children are!  Everyone was absolutely thrilled with their new little friend and much naming and snuggling commenced....

 Present time!  As the kids get older, I love to be an onlooker at the group dynamics.  Who has to help with gathering and opening packages?  Who is right up in there, checking out and exclaiming over everything?  Who could care less, and goes off to play?  Their sweet smiles of pride and gratification when Ivy opens their gift!  I know our children don't need any more stuff, and we really out to move away from all this rampant consumerism, towards a "no-gift-make-a-donation-instead" philosophy at our parties.  And yet.  I think present time is a little bit magical, not to mention a great chance for children to directly experience generosity from both sides...  And I also seem to believe in spoiling my children rotten. :)

Happy Almost-Eight, sweet Ivy girl!  I'm glad you are finding such sweet friends, and I am gratified that you are learning to plan a sweet party, too!  You are my heart!