7905

Around the World -9yr- Passport Lady

Jan. 2004

Gayle in Durban, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa

Special Mention

Around the World in 180 minutes (9 Year Old Party) 

For the invitations I made up old fashioned train tickets on my computer and printed them on cardboard that looked exactly like the mottled paper the old tickets were printed on - on the front of the ticket it said "ADMIT ONE" and the serial numbers etc were the date of the party. On the back it had the address and times and that my daughter would love them to join her in her trip around the world.   The girls had to all pick countries or cultures from different parts of the world and come dressed accordingly.  I sealed the tickets in envelopes with their names in calligraphy and sealed with red wax.  

Before the party I made each child a passport out of paper and coloured card and I made the front of the passport look authentic.  I then printed a whole lot of little stickers (on the p.c) with each countries name that we would visit and a corresponding picture about the country i.e. : France with a picture of the Eiffel Tower. I enlisted the help of my bossy smaller daughter to be in charge of the "Department of Foreign Affairs and Passport Control" and she definitely found her niche in life !!!  On the day of the party she waited at our gate armed with her box of passports and stamps and handed them to each child as they arrived and directed them to the "waiting room" (our lounge).  

When all the girls had arrived we started our journey (the moms really went to town on the costumes - no costumes were hired and they were all made up out of things they had around the house - we had 16 girls and only two came as Chinese all the others were from different countries)  They loved to go up to the "Passport control" and get a stamp so they could enter the country we were going to.

First we visited : Mexico : I had made a pi±ata (as we do not get them in our country) and the girls had great fun trying to hit it open - it was the first time any child had done something like that and it got them really worked up and excited for what was next. Then it was time, during the activity we quizzed them about Mexico and told them a little about each country Then we visited : Ireland - I divided the girls up into two teams and we had potato races (like egg and spoon races but with BIG potatoes) there was so much screaming and balancing acts with a big potato and a little spoon the girls were really hyped after this game .... Then they had to look for Leprechaun gold (small stones sprayed gold) - the girl who collects the most received a small prize - We then played Irish music and the girls tried their hand at Irish dancing.   Then we were off to London - the girls played musical statues and had a "tell the time" game on a Big Ben cut-out  - then they pretended to be English ladies and had tea and cucumber sandwiches

We then crossed the channel to France - the girls divided into two teams again and picked one person for their "Model" - as France is the fashion capital of the world - I gave each team a pile of newspaper, glue, staples and sticky tape and they had to design clothes, shoes and accessories for their model - and WOW what these little girls came out with was amazing - they then had a fashion show and they had to present their designs to the other teams and we had to pick a winner - they really loved doing this and considering the small amount of time they had for the project, the detail on the outfits were incredible. We then visited Italy and I supplied a whole lot of pizza toppings and the girls each designed their own mini pizza's - they had so much fun doing this and during this time we quizzed them about Italy and its sights. They devoured the pizza's in a flash - as they had all their personal favourites on them. 

We then visited China - we first played a chopstick game - I had a huge bowl of cooked rice in the centre of the table and they had to pick up grains of rice with chopsticks and put it on the plates in front of them - we played Chinese music during this race - and boy the "concentration looks on their faces" were really hilarious.  Earlier in the week my daughter Melanie and I made fortune cookies (recipe on the internet) and she included little messages about all the boys in her school class like "Ross is your secret love" and "Mathew loves your hair"  - the unsuspecting girls each took a fortune cookie and opened them. - The giggles and laughing was precious - I had a room full of blushing 9-year old's. We then moved onto India - the girls tried their hand an Indian dancing and then we made samoosa's - a filled triangle of phyllo pastry that is folded in the Indian traditional way.  The girls made stacks of these small triangle pastries as soon as they had mastered the art of folding them and as soon as they came out of the fryer they were eaten - I did not even get to taste one ..... They loved doing this.

Then we had to brave our mean control-freak Passport lady again as we entered Egypt,  here the girls learnt all about the pyramids and then they divided back into their teams and had to pick a person to be mummified - I supplied a heap of bandages (From friends and family) and old cream calico material cut into strips to the two teams and the race was on  The first team with a correctly wrapped mummy was the winner - man this was fun to video - half the team was tied up in bandages going every which way and around. - They had great fun doing this and our "mummies" were giggling a lot too "hey that's ticklish and ooooh it all fell down" were common saying in this exercise. 

We then visited North America (at the time of the red Indians) - We made a tepee and a fire with sticks,  the girls painted their faces and stuck sausages on sticks to cook them - then they did Indian dancing around the fire before they were all eager to move onto the next country,    the U.S.A.  - Here the girls made popcorn and hot dogs (mini ones) and tried their hand at Square dancing (with hilarious results !!!) - We then reluctantly had to go through Passport control again !!!! To get to our next destination - Antarctica  - (this was the birthday cake) - about a week before I made an igloo shape out of Ice-cream and while they were square dancing - I turned it into a baked Alaska with Meringue and it looked exactly like an igloo - the girls loved it (This went down VERY well) and it was the easiest cake I have made.  We then bribed the passport lady (with extra "cake") to stamp our passports so we could enter Greece.   

Here I made small plates out of plaster of Paris and gave one to each girl - they were totally confused - I put the song "Zorba the Greek" on loud and we started dancing in two circles - the girls just thought the plates were for dancing - UNTIL at the right moment in the song I threw my plate down - well ….. All hell broke loose,  dancing and throwing and picking up pieces and more dancing on the pieces  - they loved it they wanted more and more and more (It was easy to clean up - we have tiled floors) Then we braved our passport lady for the last time as we made our way back to Africa - in Africa we opened presents and calmed the girls down in time for their mom's to fetch them.

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