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Friday, May 28, 2010

70's Retro Birthday Party

I'm in the planning process for this party still. My daughter is turning 7, and trying to come up with a theme that we agreed on was not so easy. She's at the stage where she does not like princesses anymore, but she's still a bit too young for a party where we go someplace for the party. We compromised on a 1970's theme. She is really into tie dye, hearts and peace signs so it seemed like a good fit. For the invitations I got standard size white cards and envelopes, 8 1/2" x 11" tie dye paper that I cut into 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" pieces. I had a stamp that said, "It's party time!" that I stamped with a rainbow colored ink pad on white cardstock. I rubbed the edges of that paper with a red ink pad, then cut out ribbon, charms and assembled the card. This is what the card looks like on the outside. On the inside it says,
"Far out! It's a birthday party! We're boogieing on down for (name)'s birthday (date and time) at the (last name) crib. We're flashing back to the 70's to celebrate (name)'s special day. We're making groovy crafts like tie dye t-shirts. Your threads might get dirty so dress accordingly. RSVP right away so we can get the right size shirt. Call (name and number). Can you dig it? Be there or be square!"
As the girls (aged 6-9) arrived I gave each girl a blank page from a sketch pad and had markers in the center of the table. I let the girls draw pictures, and it kept them busy for at least 20 minutes as everyone streamed in. Then we had lunch. I served homemade sliders, chips and Capri Sun drinks. When we were done eating we divided the girls into two groups and had 2 stations. The first station was with me and my husband. We were in charge of the tie dye shirts. My good friend Jennifer came to the party and she was in charge of station 2. I bought white t-shirts in varying sizes from Joann and Michael's. I let the girls choose from 2 different designs that came with the tie dye kit. I gave each girl a gallon size baggie, had them write their name on it and also on the tag of the shirt. I washed the shirts in the sink, wrung them out and arranged them according to design instructions. I had my husband as the dye assistant.
The second station was really fun. I got small canvas bags, iron on appliques, a peace sign stencil (it came with 1 large and 1 small), fabric paint and felt peace sign buttons. Each girl wrote her name with a Sharpie marker on the inside of the bag, then chose one applique, one felt button and started painting the peace signs.
As everyone was finishing I got out the headbands that I had started the night before. I custom fit a retro style headband on each girl and sewed the elastic to the other end.
I made a tie dye cake and when we were done with the stations we had cake and ice cream. Every single kid had cake (which never happened at any of our previous parties). After everyone was done eating my daughter opened gifts. Everyone had a great time, and my daughter told me it was the best party she's ever had. Yay!

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