Jessica's birthday party with her friends is tomorrow afternoon! Here is a blog post about all the planning that went into it.
The birthday girl wanted an animal-themed party this year, which was a very easy theme to work with. My bunting has animal prints on it (check!), we already have some cute animal masks (check!), there are plenty of animal songs on YouTube (check!), and tons of animal merchandise to choose from, including invitations and cupcake toppers (check, check!).
Jessi's "welcome" sign at the front -- animals!
Then it was just a matter of planning some crafts and activities for the kids. The basement will be the main play space: the climber, a fort, board games, magna-tiles, animal masks, and an animal-themed bows and arrows game. And of course any toys they can find down there. Hopefully that keeps the kids entertained for a while!
"Hunting" for animals with bows and arrows
After snacks and cake, the kids will work on a craft that I spent
way too much time preparing! When I started thinking of animal-themed crafts, I thought it would be fun to put my sewing skills to use. I thought of the simplest animal I could sew: a snake! I quickly got excited about the idea, especially when I came up with all the accessories that could go with it: mice, frogs, flutes, and baskets. The idea turned into the kids' craft and loot bags all in one.
The "Snake Shop" -- where you find all your pet-snake needs!
My problem is that I don't half-ass my projects. So when I got down to really planning the snake, I wasn't happy with plain straight edges. I came up with a pattern for the snake's head (top and bottom), tail, and tongue. I sewed a few prototypes until I got it just right. But even then my 'tester' completed snake had a few issues: the googly eyes wouldn't stay on and the stitching came apart, releasing all the tiny pasta innards (yikes!).
Tail, head (bottom), head (top), tongue
Filling -- teeny tiny pasta
I fixed my problems by buying better (fabric) glue, replacing my single straight stitch with a double zigzag stitch, and adding a liner inside for extra strength.
While the snakes didn't cost a lot of money to make, I did spend a lot of
time on them! When you factor in the planning, the attempts, the cutting, the sewing, the gluing, and even the job of turning all these long, skinny snakes inside out, the hours just pile up! But what matters is that I enjoyed it, right?? Because I did! And they're so cute!
Bottom, top, liner
Cutting out snake hearts ♥
Gluing googly eyes
Late-night sewing session
Snake head with filling inside
(the funky pattern creates a nice head shape)
Me and my 10 snakes!
So the actual craft is that the kids will be 'building' the snakes, much like
Build-A-Bear; they'll be putting in the filling, including a little heart, choosing a name, and selecting the accessories. In the end they get a handmade pet snake to play with!
Build-A-Snake station
Pictures from the party coming up next!
