Saturday, January 5, 2013

Party Time!


I must say ... 
Of all the parties I have thrown and hosted (which is a LOT lately ha!) ...
this goes down as one of my very favorites!

Ella and Ava didn't have a blow out birthday party this year :(
I got mixed up and thought they were having one at their mom's house ... then we got so so busy with work and then before I knew it, it was Halloween, then November, and well, sadly, it just didn't happen.
So I told them we would think about having a Christmas Party for their friends, and of course they didn't forget me saying that haha ... are you kidding?
They have the most amazing memories conveniently on these things ;)

I started with ordering these adorable invitations ... 


Precious!
These were purchased from Michelle at The Party Chick's Etsy Store and she was so great to work with.
She changed the format to add another little elf, put glasses on Ella, and names on the hats! Love it!
She emailed me the pdf super fast and then I printed at Kinkos myself which was cheaper.

We decided we would have snacks, Minute to Win It Games, a Reindeer Food Bar, and do a Cookie Swap! 



 I had some Grinch Punch in little ornaments for them to sip on ...
Then made some AMAZING hot chocolate in the crock pot from this recipe below ...


We did a fun cookie exchange!
I got little $1.50 Christmas tins from Walmart for everyone to put their sweet treats in ... then we spread them all out around the table, walked around and collected one off of each tray, until they were allll gone!! 





They LOVED the cookie exchange! 
Everyone left with a tin full of sweets and cookies!

Then we were off to play some Minute to Win It Games ... 

Game #1 ... Red Solo Cup Stack 

Rules: Stack all of the cups into a pyramid with only one hand, in a minute. If they fall, start over, you get one point for each cup stacked at the end of the minute! 



This was a great game, the kids loved it!

Game #2 The Candy Cane Nutcracker

Rules: Stack as many nuts as you can with only using a candy cane, no hands! Get one point for each nut stacked at the end of the minute. **This was a hard one lol **

Game #3 Can you get an Oreo Cookie from your forehead to your mouth with NO HANDS?
**Warning: Have your camera ready if you ever do this, it was HYSTERICAL!!**





And the ONLY person who got this one ... 
Drumroll ...
Jake!! 

Hahahaha
He was SO proud of himself! Everyone else tried and tried and no one achieved it but him!
Go Jake! :)
This was my favorite game ... even though it was the hardest, it was the funniest to watch!

Game #4 How good is your Aim?

Rules: How many marshmallows can you throw thru a wreath in a minute? One point for each marshmallow that makes it through! 

This was a good game too ... it took a while for each kid to go and then pick up the marshmallows for the next person, but they all enjoyed it and really tried! 

I made a point chart for them to see who the winner was ... 

It was a lot of fun! 
They all really had a good time! 

At the end, we let them go through the 
Reindeer Food Bar ;) 
I saw this on Enjoying the Small Things Blog and knew that I had to do it for our party. 

 ALL the supplies either came from the Dollar Store or Meijer... Including the Mason Jars. 
The only thing that did not were the labels on the mason jars and those are my favorite line of supplies, The Martha Stewart Office Supplies from Staples!! 







This was awesome ... I LOVED this idea! 
Each child left with a jar to sprinkle on their lawn on Christmas Eve for the reindeer to munch on! 

The tags were labels that I printed from HERE
We had SO SO much fun, and I think the kids enjoyed it a lot!
Their friends were so excited also!
Hopefully this will be a memory they will always remember ;)
That is what Christmas is all about to me, making memories that last a lifetime!

Any questions on the party? 
Shoot me an email or comment, I am happy to help! Feel free to Pin these pics, I am going to do that hopefully this week sometime!

XO, 
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