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Parisian Party -7yr- French Café Dining

June 2006

Carla in Dallas, TX  USA

Special Mention

Madigan's Parisian Birthday Soiree  I threw a Paris themed Party for my daugter's 7th birthday.  It was the funnest one so far.   

The Invitations were Post Cards from Paris with a printed invition that read; BonJour! Mademoiselle Madigan requests your presence on her Parisian Birthday Adventure. Then I used the french words for When (Quand?) Where (Ou?) and Respondez S'il Vous Plait with an Ooh-La-La at the end.  I am fortunate enough to have a friend who has family in France so they took the cards home with them and mailed them with french postage stamps and post marks (the mom's of the invitees were so suprised to get invited from France).  

On the day of the Party the girls arrived to find a French Customs booth with my sister waiting for them.  After the Bon Jour's and Welcoming them to Paris, they were given passports and berets.  She then asked them to raise their right hands and  swear to have a good time in Paris. On the back of their passports which we had on Lanyards were common french phrases with the pronunciation as well as the french spelling.  They were then given two things to do while waiting for all of the 10 girls to show up.  One was having their hair french braided and makeup (7 year old's love glitter) and the other was French lessons under the tree with my wonderful French Friend.  All of the girls loved both of these.  They were so attentive during their French lessons. 

Next we were off to the Louvre,  I had closed all of the doors on my long hallway and hung artwork all over.  I even used alot of my daughter's school art.  Which she loved.  Then we were off to the back yard where we had a private art session with none other than the Mona Lisa herself.  My sister was gracious enough to dress up with wig and all for her portrait.  I had taken 8 x 10 canvas' and traced the Mona Lisa coloring page on to each one.  The girl's were given paint palettes, brushes, and painting shirts.  They were so interested in the original painting and wanted to make sure they got it right.  In the end we had alot of Mona Lisa's with purple dresses and yellow skies.  They really got creative and wanted to make sure they finished them. 

Next we took them in to eat at the French Café. Everything was decorated in pink and black. I was able to find Eiffel Tower napkin rings, and their drinking cups were the Pink Eiffel Tower cups from Birthday Express. Pink plates, pink and black placemats, everything as fancy as I could make it. Very inexpensive, especially is you use black dots from the office supply store.  I had taken an old picture frame and put a chalkboard in it for the menu, and built a table scape for the food with the Eiffel tower as the center piece.

One of the mother's had prepared traditional French Clafoutis, which is a cherry cake, and had also made crepes.  We had Croissants and French cookies and candies and lots of fresh fruit. On the backs of each of their chairs were feather boas, they loved wrapping these around their necks and pretending to be Fancy French Ladies. Of Course I had French music playing while they dined.  The boas were a clue to where we were going next. 

The Moulin Rouge.  We are fortunate enough to have a large playroom which we decorated with lights and cutouts to resemble a dance club.  The french dance music was playing so they could dance while we dressed them up in fancy clothes for their French Fashion Debut.  They loved this, I had found 10 dresses at a church sale that were really nice so they each dressed up and prepared for their walk down the catwalk.  They loved this.  They all posed and the photos are fantastic. 

Next was the most suprising.  During their dancing my husband and sister, took all of the art work from "The Louvre" and hid it around the front yard.  Then they ran in with the note from "Vixen" the most famous art thief in all of Franch.  She said that she had stolen all of the artwork and hidden it all while they were dancing.   This was the best part for me, as to see their faces was priceless.  They were so surprised and nervous that someone had broken in they were holding hands and their eyes were so big.  They were then told that we had to go and find the art, there would be a prize if they found it all in order.  Each painting was numbered and each girl then took a number and they were off on the Great Parisian Art Hunt.  To make it last longer we would not take them out of order, that way they had to work together.  They helped each other and worked it out.  I had gift bags for them that I had gotten at Oriental Trading. 

They were a Pink Poodle Bag craft project but a lot for 7 year olds to handle so I had assembled them all.  In each one was a real map of Paris, Pink Poodle erasers (Oriental Trading), French Candy, and one Euro (to spend when they really go to Paris).  We then went inside and ate cupcakes that I had gotten with spring flowers on them.  We tried to sing Happy Birthday in French, but in the end we just all laughed at my daughter tried to blow out the re-lighting candles.  She loved this too!  The Thank you cards had the French Fashion Show group Photo, they will love seeing themselves all dressed up.  A Grand time was had by all! Am still getting thanked for inviting them to the party.  Now I had better get planning to be able to top this next year!

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