Jade loves animals of all shapes and sizes. We decided it was time for her to have a pet of her own since she had resolved herself to the fact that we'd never let her have one. Birthdays are all about surprises afterall! Narrowing the options was easy. She needed a pet she could play with and snuggle, thus fish and birds were out. I needed a pet that we could keep in a cage, thus we eliminated dogs and cats and horses and pigs. Larger animals make large poops and their cages take up too much space, so we eliminated guinea pigs, ferrets, and rabbits. I didn't want to constantly shop for live insects to feed to it, so we weren't going to buy a snake or a lizard. That left us with hamsters, rats, & gerbils. The pet store employee I talked to tried really hard to talk me out of a hamster. She couldn't say enough wonderful things about rats as pets. But REALLY??? I couldn't do it. Nope. I didn't see any gerbils at the pet store, but the hamsters were so soft and cute, all snuggled together in their little hideouts.
We wrapped up the cage and its accessories for Jade to open the morning of her birthday and told her we'd take her out in the evening to pick out the little critter. I think she told every person that day about the hamster she was going to get for her birthday. She was extremely excited.
She chose a cute little white & grey hamster that she quickly named Snowball.
Jade invited some friends over for a party on Friday night. As they arrived I had them take a little slip of paper and write down 3 clues about the appearance of the package they'd brought for Jade. We put these into a bowl for later.
We had homemade calzones, veggies & dip, and fruit for dinner. They all cleaned their plates and most of them had seconds or even thirds!
After dinner I gave Jade two choices, dress-up or dice. She chose dress-up, so we played a dress-up game. Before the party I had collected various funny items from closets and drawers and had them all in a bag that I put in the center of the circle. The girls passed a ball around while a CD played. When I paused the music whoever had the ball had to run to the bag and grab something to put on. The only rule was that they put it on, it didn't matter where. So we had shoes on hands, pajama pants on heads, etc. They all had a good laugh at themselves.
The next choice was balloons or dice. Jade chose balloons. I divided the girls into groups of three and handed them a pile of balloons. I told them the contest was to see which team could blow up the most balloons (with a tied end) in 1 minute. The winning team blew up 6 balloons. Then we used the balloons to play the balloon pop game. They each tied a balloon to their ankle and tried to be the last one with an upopped balloon. This was the loudest game of the night and I ended it with about 8 girls still in. I couldn't stand the jumping and screaming any longer!
At the end of each of these games I let the winners choose from my very fabulous prizes. Yes. I called them that over and over and the girls totally ate that up! At the end of the party they all wanted to choose some fabulous prizes and of course I let them!
Jade's next choice was bags or dice. I guess dice just didn't sound like any fun, so she went with bags. I gave each girl a bag and they used magazine cut-outs of eyes, noses and mouths to make a face that they glued onto their bag.
The next choice was nails or dice. Most of them figured it was nail polish, so they talked Jade into that one. I pulled out several bottles of nail polish in various colors. They each chose one bottle. I divided them into two teams. We went out to the deck and I gave them each a napkin to keep under their hand. We then had a nail polishing relay race! The girl at the front of the line used her nail polish to paint one nail of each girl and then sat at the end of the line. The next girl took her turn and so on until they all had all ten fingernails painted beautifully in a variety of colors.
After that we were running out of time, and I had their curiosity about the dice game, so it was next. I pulled out a giant bowl of candy bars and a pair of dice. Imagine the laughter that they'd been passing up this game all night! They took turns rolling the dice. If they landed a double or an odd number they chose a candy bar from the bowl or steal from another player. If someone stole their candy they chose a new one from the bowl. (I'd planned on only letting them choose a treat for doubles, but we were short on time.) We kept going around until everyone had a candy bar. If they already had a candy bar they didn't roll the dice.
Next we lit the candles, sang "Happy Birthday" and ate cake. I made pink & white paw print cakes, as per Jade's request.
Last we opened presents. Jade chose a slip of paper and read aloud the clues. Then she picked out which present fit the clues and the girl who brought the gift sat next to her while she opened it and posed for a picture with Jade.
Amazingly, we finished opening the present at exactly the 2 1/2 hour mark.
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Back Yard Oct. 2010.JPG)
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