Butterfly Party

We did a butterfly themed party for my 5 year old. We were able to be outside and the party easily accommodated a lot of kids; however, many of these ideas could be used indoors as well.

OPENING ACTIVITY: I had an oblong portable table set up on the back patio and some fun music playing as kids arrived. The girls ran around the backyard until we had enough to start. I had made copies on pink card stock of a butterfly I had drawn with a sharpe marker. I cut the butterflies out before the girls arrived. I also had 2" thick strips of card stock on hand to tape to the back of the butterfly and circle around the girls' heads when they were finished decorating. Staples work too but they tend to irritate the skin or get caught in hair - I like to use masking tape or packing tape. On the table were bowls of crayons, jewel stickers, and butterfly stickers. The girls colored and giggled and pressed stickers all over their butterflies. Because there was no glue involved the girls could wear them right away. Be sure to attach the 2" inch strips nearer to the bottom of the back of the butterfly so the girls can still see when they wear their Butterfly Crown!

GAMES:

1 - What Time is it Mrs. Butterfly: Kids LOVE this game (usually called What Time is it Mr. Fox?). Once person is Mrs. Butterfly and stand at one end of the yard or room. Everyone else lines up on the other end. The players yell, "What time is it, Mrs. Butterfly?" Mrs. Butterfly then gives a time between 1 o'clock and 11 o'clock (use only on the hour times). If Mrs. Butterfly says, "2 o'clock" the players take 2 steps towards Mrs. Butterfly. If she says "8 o'clock" the players take eight steps. At anytime she wishes, Mrs. Butterfly can yell, "Midnight" and chase the players in an effort to catch one or more. You play rounds until there is one player left and she becomes Mrs. Butterfly. Caught players can either sit out or become butterfly helpers/chases with Mrs. Butterfly.

2- Butterfly Freeze Tag: This is the classic freeze tag game where one child is it and the others run like mad avoiding being tagged by 'it'. If tagged the child freezes until another child (not 'it') unfreezes them by tagging them or crawling under their legs. In our butterfly version my husband was 'it' and the butterflies 'flew' around, waving their arms like wings, avoiding 'it'. If tagged the butterflies wrapped their arms tight around themselves, like a cocoon, and waited to be tagged and turned back into a butterfly by a fellow player. This game makes for one pooped dad at the end of the game!

3-Pin the Spot on the Butterfly: My daughter helped me draw a big butterfly on a piece of poster board which we then attached to our back fence. She also helped me cut out colorful spots. Each girl had two chances to be blindfolded, spun around once, then pointed in the direction of the butterfly. There was a loop of masking tape on the back of their spot so it would stick to the butterfly when they pressed the spot against the poster board. You could also use spot stickers if you wanted. The butterfly (and part of our fence) were beautifully spotted when the girls were done with this game!

DESSERT: My daughter wanted ice cream cones but there are a bunch of fun butterfly themed ideas as well. I thought this Butterfly Bounty idea from Family Fun magazine was especially cute and the girls would LOVE decorating their own clothespins and choosing from a bunch of fun goodies to fill their wings! Here's the link http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/butterfly-bounty-841052/

Piggy and Gerald Party

We are BIG fans of the Piggy and Gerald books by Mo Willems. For my sisters birthday we had a Piggy and Gerald Party using themes from some of the books.

COSTUME RELAY: In I've Been Invited to a Party! Gerald helps Piggy know how to best dress for the party. Will it be a costume party? A swim party? A fancy party? In the end it ends up being a mix of all the kids of parties and the guests are dressed accordingly. For our relay I had a cowboy vest, an inner tube, a cowboy hat, a swim mask/goggles, and silly shoes. We had two teams. On 'go' the first person on each team ran to their pile of clothes, put them on, yelled, "I know parties!" (a line from the book), took off the costume pieces, ran back to their team, and tagged the next person.

ELEPHANT TRUNKS: This was the favorite at the party! Family Fun magazine shared this idea and it really works! WAY love it! *We did it on the lawn and it did turn some of the grass yellow a day or two later - you may want to do it on gravel or cement. Family Fun calls it the 'Foamerator' - Here's the link: http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/the-foamerator-785017/ There's a great video demo as well.

PIGGY NOSE PENNY DROP: Happy Pig Day! helps party goers be excited about being a pig. Here's a game that's super easy and done relay style. I took two egg cartons and glued round pieces of pink paper I had cut out on the bottom of each egg space. I then took a black sharpe marker and drew piggy eyes, noses, and mouths on each one. The object of the game is to have the egg carton with the most amount of piggy faces holding a penny. On 'go' the first person on each team (penny in hand) runs to the egg carton (on the ground) - the player must press the penny against his/her nose and drop the penny towards the egg carton (no bending knees or waist). They can straddle the egg carton of they wish. If the penny falls on the ground they can pick it up and try again. If it lands on a piggy that already has a penny, leave it and run back to tag the next person. If it lands on a piggy that didn't have a penny before - GREAT - that's a point for your team. You can time this game and see which team has the most pigs with pennies or wait until a team fills every piggy face.

FOOD IDEAS: In the Piggy and Gerald book There is a Bird on Your Head two birds build a nest on Gerald's head - a fun dessert would be a birds nest made using the Chocolate Haystacks recipe my sister-in-law shared with me:

Chocolate Haystacks
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 bag chocolate chips
Melt chips together then add
2 cups chow mien noodles
1 cup peanuts
1 cup marshmallows
Mix together and drop onto wax paper in small mounds. Using the back of a spoon press down in the middle to make it look like a nest. Let cool. Use jellybeans, marshmallows, or peanuts for eggs. *Make sure you check kids for peanut allergies before serving to friends!

Ice Cream Cones: In the Piggy and Gerald book Should I Share My Ice Cream? We have the perfect reason to serve ice cream to our guests. Be sure to use sugar cones!

OTHER PIGGY AND GERALD BOOKS TO GET YOUR CREATIVE JUICES FLOWING:
Elephants Cannot Dance - Dance Activity?
I Broke My Trunk - Toilet Paper wrapping activity or game?
We are in a Book! - Have kids write a book starring themselves.
Are You Ready to Play Outside? - Sprinkler games?
Pig's Make me Sneeze
Can I Play Too?
I Will Surprise My Friend
I am Going

Indoor Camp Out!

Indoor camp outs are fun when the weather outside is nasty. You can do this as a family or invite friends over to join in the fun.

SNACK: Bag-o-Smores! My three year old helped with this - it would even be a good idea to let each child make his/her own bag of smores by giving them each a bag and a spoon to fill their bags. Each bag has mini marshmallows, chocolate cocoa puff, and teddy grahams. WE tied the bags with hemp twine.

SET UP A TENT! We have a 10 man tent that we set up in our family room after moving the couches out of the way. You could also use your garage. I throw a bunch of blanket and pillows in there and the kids can enjoy quite of free play. We usually have friends go home around 8:00 p.m. and our kids pull out their sleeping bags and sleep in the tent.

SPOOKY STORY: What Was I Scared Of? by Dr. Seuss is the BEST! The newest edition even features the 'pale green pants with nobody inside them' with glow in the dark effects! This book is fun because your three year old and your ten year old will sit through it and be engaged.

GAMES:
1-Flashlight Face: sit in a circle (we sat in the tent) and turn off the lights. Holding a flashlight under your chin say an emotion that the kids can make with their faces (mad, scared, dead, happy, crazy, etc.) Demonstrate then pass the flashlight around the circle. Each kid takes a turn putting the flashlight under his/her chin and making a face reflecting the emotion first mentioned.

2-Going on a Tiger/Bear Hunt: This one is especially appropriate for younger children. Everyone starts out sitting and you announce everyone will be going on a tiger hunt together. The is done entirely in pantomime and can be as detailed or as simple as you want. You and the kids can go over/under fences, swim a river, squish through mud, etc. Here is a link to the tiger hunt story I grew up with featuring Sesame Street's Ernie http://www.metrolyrics.com/tiger-hunt-lyrics-sesame-street.html. A bear hunt story I like and super easy to imitate is in a book called Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen.

3-Spoons: Especially appropriate for older kids this one gets crazy and fun. You just need a deck of cards (we use UNO cards) and a spoon for each player. Here's a link to the rules: http://boardgames.about.com/od/cardgames/a/spoons.htm

CRAFTS: There are truckload of fun camp crafts. When thinking indoor camp out you want to keep the mess factor at a minimum. One of my favorites was providing colored paper, yarn, and scissors to the kids and letting them cut the paper and yarn into long strips. They then crammed these strips into a small empty clementine bag (plastic netted bag - onions and potatoes come in them too sometimes). We hung the stuffed bag from a tree. The strips of yarn and paper peek out of the netting allowing the birds to grab what they want for nest making.