15764

Twisted Party 7&9yr

May 2007

Heidi in Markham, Ontario, Canada

Honorable Mention

Two of my daughters have birthdays close together, so for their 7th and 9th birthdays, we held a Twisted Birthday party.  Invitations were printed over a watermark resembling a Twister game board which we found as a picture on the internet.  Guests were invited to come dressed for a twisted theme or sporting their best twisty hairdo.  Another twist was that the girls were donating their gifts to the local hospital.  Decorations for the party were simple with colourful twisted streamers everywhere.  On the day of the party, guests arrived to the sounds of Let's Twist Again" which really set the tone for the party.  Once everyone had arrived the group of almost twenty children were split up into four groups to begin a rotation through the four stations which were the main activities for the party.  Kids spent about twenty minutes at each station before moving on to the next.  At station 1 a friend of mine who knows how to make balloon animals taught the kids how to make their own balloon hats.  She did a great job of teaching the kids how to handle the balloons and not be afraid of them and each child was quite proud of their balloon creation when they were done.  Station 2 involved dipping pretzels and licorice in chocolate.  We used white and dark chocolate wafers which we melted in the microwave and the kids dipped the pretzels and licorice in one colour of chocolate and then drizzled on the other colour once the first layer had hardened.  We laid their creations out on waxed paper labeled with their names and then I put the hardened treats into little plastic bags and added them to their loot bags.  At station 3 my sister taught the kids how to make a simple hemp bracelet using braiding or knotting techniques.  This could also have been done with plastic lacing or floss.  Some children were able to complete their bracelets and wore them home.  For the rest I put their partially completed bracelets in their loot bag so they could finish them later.  Finally station 4 was a Twister twist off which my parents ran.  We had two Twister games laid out and two children played against each other at each of the games.  My parents had a list of the children at the party and kept a tally of wins and losses.  They then pulled out the two top scores from the 7 year olds and the two top scores from the 9 year olds in order to play the final twist off and declare our two Twister champions.  The kids had a lot of fun with this one and it was surprising to see the number of children who had never played Twister before.  After the groups had rotated through their stations we sat down for a spaghetti supper complete with twisted garlic breadsticks made using the Pillsbury garlic breadstick kit.  I spread the garlic butter on the breadsticks when they were still stuck together.  I then separated them into individual pieces cut each piece in half lengthwise and braided the two pieces  together.  I then baked them according to the instructions shortly before the party and wrapped the finished breadsticks in foil and kept them in a warm oven until we were ready to eat them.  The rest of the supper had also been prepared ahead of time and kept warm in the oven so I wasn't cooking during the party.  While the guests were being served their dinner they were kept amused by trying out the tongue twisters we had written for each of them based on their names.  For example Hannah's hippo has hiccups.  After dinner we awarded prizes in each age category for the best tongue twister reciter the best twisty hairdo and the Twister twist off champion.  When it was all over guests left with their loot bag containing a top a "Wiz-a-Whirl" propeller toy a skipping rope and a twisted looking bouncy ball (all very inexpensive).  In addition they had their balloon hats their chocolate dipped pretzels and licorice their bracelets and a copy of their tongue twister which was used to label the loot bags.  The party took some space(we have a good sized open concept house) lots of helpers and some preparation but everyone had such a good time and it's amazing just how many twisted things you can find to incorporate into a Twisted Birthday."

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