Sunday, February 7, 2010

All About Ginger!

Yesterday we celebrated Ginger's birthday yet again, but this time it was with her friends. HOLY COW! I never would have guessed at the amount of giggling 6 pre-teen girls could produce. 


Mind-boggling. Seriously.


I just take it to mean the party was a grand success!


One of Ginger's friends arrived a few minutes early, so the two of them waited together impatiently for the other girls to arrive.




I took a few pictures of the decorations while they were waiting..




Once all of the girls had arrived (the giggling increasing ten-fold as each came in the door), we got the party started. 


The first activity was a huge hit! We printed out a bunch of black and white photos of Ginger from the series I took a while back. Each girl chose a photo and I dumped a pile of Sharpies in the middle of the table and told them to go to town, decorating and defacing the photos of Ginger in any way they'd like. 


At first the girls seemed a little hesitant, but once they got going there was no holding back! They all had a little wicked gleam in their eyes as they went at it. Let's hope I didn't just breed a whole new generation of yearbook-photo-defacers! 




Next, using a big poster-sized picture, we played "Pin the Mustache on Ginger". Judging by the giggling, I'd say the girls liked this activity as well. 


Call it a giggle-based-guess.




After a pause to open presents...




...it was on to another fun game! We played BINGO, only we used Ginger's nickname instead of the word bingo and characteristics and likes of Ginger's rather than numbers. It was a fun way to have the girls learn more about Ginger, and they got to win some prizes to boot!


This is what the card looked like..




These were the prizes..




The girls got to sit around munching on cake pops and m 'n m "beans", yelling out Ginger's nickname when they filled a row on their card. 




You may have noticed that even though this is Ginger's party, there aren't very many photos of her in this post. Um... yeah. That would be because the girl was so totally bouncing off the walls with excitement that pretty much every photo of her is so blurry as to bug the eyes. 


I should have used the sports setting on my camera.


To finish the party off, while awaiting the arrival of the parents, I let the girls decorate the big "Pin the Mustache on Ginger" poster with the Sharpies. Now Ginger will have a great memento of the party to hang on her wall. 


Ginger told me it was "the best party EVER!" Good. I'm glad. Happy Birthday, again, Ginger! We love you!

10 comments:

Tamsen said...

Fantastic ideas! Why not make the party girl BE the theme?! I love it. Wish we could have joined you for salmon and brownies.

The Laundry Queen said...

We wish you could have been here, too, Tams!

CarrieMarie said...

Terrific game ideas! And I love the balloon photo. : )

Happy belated birthday to Ginger!

Jennifer said...

I LOVE this party!!! I love all the great pictures you got, too! I am going to have to copy that Bingo idea, too. That would have been IDEAL at Belinda's last party since she was inviting brand-new friends. Fantastic! (And I am GOING TO DO cake pops at some point!!)

SassyMama said...

You are amazingly creative.
Good thing I know you IRL, you will be my go-to party resource when my kids are older...

The Laundry Queen said...

Jwise-- copy away. You really *do* need to make the cake pops-- they'll be a hit, I promise. My family feels they didn't get enough leftover cake pops this time, so it looks like another batch is in my near future... ; )

Sassy-- I'm flattered you called me creative. I still find myself turning around and saying, "Who? Me?" when people say that. We'll see if I'm creative enough to keep 5 year olds occupied when Bud has his birthday in a few months-- that will be the true test. You'll know I've failed if we just end up going to a bounce house place. ; )

Sue said...

That looked so fun, great job, you party-planner extraordinaire!

The Laundry Queen said...

Gee, thanks, Sue!

Laura said...

That is the COOLEST party!! WOW!! I'm going to have to borrow your amazing ideas for future parties!! Great job!!

The Laundry Queen said...

Go for it! Thanks!