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Bookworm Party -10yr- Canvas Bookbag Favor

March 2011

Suzanne in Albany, NY USA

Special Mention

For my daughter's 10th birthday, she decided she absolutely had to have a Bookworm Birthday Party. This the perfect theme for her as she does consider herself to be a true bookworm! So we set out to find a creative way to incorporate her love of books into a fun and unique birthday party for her and her friends.   The first thing we did was make invitations.

The invitations I handmade myself. The were postcard style. On the cardstock postcard I glued a pocket for a library card covered with a due date sheet. Then I used a rubber stamp to stamp on a blank sign-out card the for: what: when: where: and rsvp labels". On the top of the card there were lines for author and title. I listed the author as my daughter and the title as "A Bookworm's Birthday Party". Then on the front of the pocket I stamped "You're Invited". Above that I glued cardstock leaves and a bookworm I made from cardstock. They were so cute. 

For the party When the girls arrived we had lots of fun games and crafts for them to do to help celebrate the "joy of books and reading". I tried to keep it fun for all girls even for those who maybe did not share the same passion for books as my daughter. First we stamped canvas book bags. I cut foam pieces to resemble different size book bindings. They stamped these with paints to look like a shelf of books lined up on a shelf or some did a stack of books. Then I made one stamp to look like a book worm that they could add somewhere on the bag. (Later when the bags dried the girls used sharpie markers to write the names of their favorite books on the bindings of the books in their picture.) They were so cute! 

Then we played "pin the bookworm on the book". I made a huge cut-out that looked like a book. I made it from a colorful posterboard. I took the posterboard and folded it to create a fold. Then I glued computer printed pages to either side. The page on one side was made with an empty box embedded in the text. It was made to look like the graphic was missing. Each girl had to try and get the bookworm back into his book. The girl who got the bookworm closest to the box won! 

Next we made bookmarks.  Each girl was given a laminated bookmark with her name on one side and the meaning of her name printed on the other. I made them on the computer so easy! I left lots of room on both sides so that they could decorate them with glitter stickers etc. They came out really cute. 

After that the girls had a scavenger hunt with books. I took about 35 favorite children's books picture books and chapter books and put them in a pile in the middle of the dinning room table. I divided them up into teams of two. Each team was given a scavenger hunt list. They were given 20 minutes to try and finds as many of the "clues" as they could (find a book with a detective one with no pictures one with fifteen chapters one with no real people in it etc. The teams who found the most was declared the winner. 

We played two other games: storybook charades where they had to act out scenes from favorite books and a version of musical chairs without the music. Instead we read from a favorite book of my daughter's. When the reading stopped you had to find a chair. This was really funny. 

For lunch we served Alphabet Soup and Bookworms (crescent rolls twisted to look like bookworms. These were a big hit! We also had Cheese-It crackers that come with the letters stamped on them.

For the cake I made a cake to look like a messy stack of books. I baked several rectangular cakes then cut each in half. I decorated each to look like one of my daughter's favorite books. I stack them messily almost like dominoes that had already fallen. I put a pair of wire rimmed glasses I found at the craft store on top of the stack. I made a small bookworm from rice cereal treats and put hime coming out of the pile of books. I molded him to look like a little bookworm. I wrapped him in fruit roll-ups to give him color and added chocolate chip eyes. Around the base of the cake I sprinkled Alphabets cereal. It was adorable. Everyone thought I had bought the cake! My daughter was so exicted. 

For their favors they each had their canvas bookbags and the book marks they made. We gave each girl an inexpensive book that we found at Target in their dollar bins. We also added "Bookworm Breakfast Kits"  (a cellophane bag filled with Alphabets cereal)We attached a punched tag with the name of the kits and the directions just add milk for a bookworm of a good breakfast! There was also a bookworm rice cereal treat in each girls bag. We wrapped them in cellophane and tacked then to green cardstock leaves that I pre-printed with text before I cut them to look like leaves. We also gave each girl a memo pad with the first initial that we found at the craft store. 

Even though my daughter is a true bookworm I'm sure some of the other girls may not be. That did not matter all had a wonderful time. They laughed and played all afternoon. This was great party one I am sure she will remember for years to come!"

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