I can't believe Alli is 3. It's just amazing how fast the time goes. She's growing like a weed - getting tall, staying thin, and developing the most amazing personality.
Her party was a lot of fun. She chose Dora invitations, so we just went with the theme. I planned a really cool explorer mission, which turned out really cool but not quite the way I envisioned it.
The plan was to have "Swiper" swipe the presents and hide them behind the saguaro tree. The older siblings had fun helping me accomplish this part of the party.
Then we told Alli and the kids that Swiper took her presents and we needed their help to follow the map and get them back. Alli started crying because Swiper took her presents. We showed her the map and told her that everyone was going to help get them back, but she was sad. Oh no!! (Worst trauma ever Mom!!!) We showed the kids the map (see attached) and had them memorize the adventure, just like on Dora. Well, that was the plan... but all the kids were so excited that they just ran to the first stop - the duck pond.
The duck pond was a big blow-up pool with plastic ducks in it. All the kids picked a duck and then it was just the luck of the draw - if your number was called, you were out. Last one got a prize. This game actually executed the way I thought it might. Alli wound up being the winner. She was still upset out her presents being missing, and now overwhelmed by all the commotion. (Nice job Mom!!)
The second stop was "puzzle bridge", which was really a hopscotch path across our grass area made from foam puzzle letter squares. (You know the ones.) Some of the letters were missing and the kids had to go find them before we could cross the bridge. I didn't even have time to explain - most of the kids (especially the older siblings) just went looking for letters and filling in the puzzle. The little ones again were overwhelmed (mostly Alli and Cali), the only 2 girls younger than 4. The bridge was complete when I barely got that and everyone was hop-scothing across. (This was overwhelming for Mommy!!)
After we crossed the brige, I made everyone stop because we needed supplies to go to the "wilds" of our backyard - back by the cactus. We had Alli take off her backpack and we had a game where the kids reached in and tried to guess what they were pulling out. There were prizes. Well, that didn't really work. We had kids reaching in and pulling things out so fact (I doubt any of them closed their eyes)... Hands all over - totally out of control. And poor Alli - completely overwhelmed again. After we got everything out, we put it all back in the backpack, put the backpack back on Alli, and went to the cactus to find her gifts.
One of the little girls found the gift she was giving to Alli and said "that's mine" and Alli started crying again. Oh my. A little too much stimulation for a 3 year old I guess. But we all carried the presents back and the kids decided Alli should open the gifts in the duck pond.
The duck pond went from having the kids nicely spread through it patiently holding their presents to all crowded in one end trying to get Alli to open their gift. No parental intervention (cause mom was trying to coordinate and write gifts down as they were flying out of bags). Again - overwhelming.
So, this whole part, which I thought would take an hour, lasted 20 minutes. Oops! haha I guess Mommy needs some help in the party planning department. But the goodie bags had toys for the kids to play with so we broke those out and everyone blew bubbles and then played with squirt guns, and most of the kids wound up in the pool.
It was fun to just have everyone run around and play.
And Alli still talks about Swiper taking her presents. I gave her the map (with another to put in her baby box.)
