Special Gift For Kids

Sunday was not only Father's Day, but also my hubby's birthday. He specifically told me not to go all out... and he really meant it! I decided to keep it low key and we played this awesome game I found on the FamilyFun website.

I tweaked it a little to make it World Cup themed, but other than that, I just followed the instructions on their website. Here's what I did (and here are a few things that were left out of their instructions): First, get a hold of 9 wire hangers (I got mine from my mom because I don't have any- maybe I need to dry clean a little more). Untwist and bend each hanger like so: Clip the curved part off the end leaving the curly bits- they will help the wicket stay in the ground). To make it all World Cuppy, I printed 2 copies each of 9 countries' flags that my hubby either loves or hates. Then cut them out, glue each pair back to back and laminate with clear packing tape.

Turn your attention to the wickets next and using colored plastic tape, wrap the wire in which ever color and design that tickles your fancy- we just stuck to the flag colors. Attach your flags to the top of the wicket with clear tape and you're ready to play. This game is just like croquet only instead of wooden balls and mallets, you use your foot and a soccer/playground ball. Make a course pressing the wickets into the ground. How large/small/difficult/easy you make the course is up to you.

Taking turns, each player gets one kick a turn to get their own ball through the wicket course. The first one to make it through all nine wickets wins. Simple and pretty easy to adapt to most ages and abilities. We played this quite a few times and because everything is still in great shape, I'm sure this will become a summer staple. Wouldn't this be fun at a soccer practice or birthday party?

Creative idea for Kids Gift Party

A few weeks ago my 7 year old wanted to have a Lego Party with some of his friends. Here is what we did (just cutting and pasting the rest of this post from my own blog):

The Lego Party was a huge hit. Mark had a great time and all his friends seemed to also. I had tons of fun putting it together and was really happy with how it all turned out. And let's be honest, I'd much rather plan a party than clean house, pay bills, etc. So, it really was a great week. Although my bathrooms, floor and laundry may complain of neglect.

Here was the invitation Mark and I put together and delivered:

And here are some pics from the party:

(click to enlarge)

Each picture above is numbered and a coordinating number is below with a description/explaination:

1. We decorated in traditional Lego colors with balloons streamers, and different colored plates, cups, forks, etc.

2. One of the games we played I printed off of Lego.com, it had two similar pictures and the kids had to find and circle the 15 differences between the two pics. The winner got to pic a lego person keychain/bag charm as their prize.

3. For another contest we had everyone build anything they wanted to out of legos. We had spaceships, Star Wars ships, a house, and other things that I had no idea what they were, but everyone loved what they made and loved playing with all their creations together after this game. For this game everyone got a bag of Lego Brick candy that I got at the bulk candy store in the mall for a prize.

4. Here are the Lego Brick Candy prizes. We had one for the most colorful creation, one for the fastest looking one, one for the person that used the most people, etc.

5. These were the prizes for the other games. They are Lego figure keychains that the boys like to hook on their backpack zippers. I took Mark to the Lego store at the mall and he picked them out so of course they are all Star Wars.

6. These are the gift bags I put together for the boys. I found the idea online and just bought bags and coordinating cardstock and then used a craft punch to punch the circles out of the cardstock and then attached them with pop dots to the bags. Inside the bag was a lego poster again a download from Lego.com that I had printed on 8x10 photo paper at Fred Meyer, and a set of lego stickers (from Lego.com) that I printed on sticker paper from the office supply store.

7. The first game we did as the boys arrived was to have them guess how many Legos were in this jar. They all guessed super low, and I would have too if I didn't know how many were in there. Can you believe there are 300?

8. We had a tallest tower contest to see who could build the tallest tower in 2 minutes and it couldn't fall over.

9. I used the bags as place cards at the table so that boys who knew each other would have a friend to sit by (some of the kids were from church and some from school so they didn't all know each other before hand)

10. I found the basic idea for these Lego cakes online from Betty Crocker and thought they turned out great. I'm not a cake decorator by any means so they definitely aren't perfect, but the boys thought they were great!

The time actually flew by and the boys were totally content to just build and play with their Lego creations. I had to pry them away to eat the cake before their parents came to pick them up.