Thursday, May 9, 2013

DIY Dinosaur Birthday Party Invitations

It's birthday party season! We've got one dragon-themed ninth birthday party coming up in a do-able two months, and one dinosaur-themed seventh birthday party coming up in--gasp!--two days!!!

At this point, I should probably be concerned with cutesie games and activities and party favors, but what I'm REALLY concerned about is mowing the lawn, making a sign to warn people not to lean against the bathroom sink that is duct-taped to the wall, and...

Nope, that's about it. A lawn with grass that isn't a foot high and a sink that doesn't crash down on top of a kid. Those are my priorities.

Priorities or not, children do have to be informed that there is a party happening, to which their attendance is requested, so we did manage to get invitations made and distributed last week. The fact that this was accomplished by me unashamedly setting the task up as an assignment on a school day, well...

Eh, it is what it is. Sometimes you make birthday party invitations at school.

The invitations were postcards; Matt designed one half of one side to contain the party invitation--

--left the other half blank for the address, and on the flip side the girls each took half the postcards and drew a dinosaur scene on each one:


My Will is pretty studious these days, taking a lot of pleasure in intellect-driven pursuits. She's taken it upon herself to keep a daily journal of our chicks, for instance, and to weigh them every day, and when creating her postcard illustrations, she got out a dinosaur encyclopedia, because she knew exactly what dinosaurs she wanted to draw, and she wanted to get each one just right:

I've noticed that Will has lately become studious in other areas, too. She still throws the occasional fit about an assignment or chore and must be sent to bed for eight minutes, but she's taken complete charge of the daily welfare of our chicks, cleaning their water dish and freshening their bedding several times a day, unasked, sat through loads of sister dress rehearsals and recital business without fuss, and when I asked her this morning if she could be the one to help set up Sydney's birthday party with me this weekend (It's sort of a surprise party, so Matt's job is to keep Sydney out of the house that day), I had almost expected her to say no, or to ask if she could be out with Matt and Syd instead, but not only did she say yes right away, but she was excited at the prospect of helping with the food and decorations and set-up.

If this is what nine is going to be like, then I am all in!

2 comments:

Tina said...

Have lots of fun! Can't wait to see all the fun from the day.

We suck at throwing birthday parties, but we plan to make more of an effort this year (at the kiddo's request).

julie said...

I like that you're waiting until she wants to do one. I know that I do a semi-elaborate one for each kid every year, but that's just because *I* like them! It'll be bittersweet for me when they grow out of themey birthday parties--easier, probably, but less fun for the Momma!