Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Pictures of Wonderland


If you followed my blog at all last week, you knew that our oldest daughter was planning her 16th birthday party this last Saturday. She had it a week early due to so many of her friends leaving for summer camp or just having things planned this weekend.

What were we thinking? We gave her all kinds of options for a party, but then came across an idea on the internet for an Alice in Wonderland themed party! She fell in love with it since it is her favorite Disney movie.

We changed the title to Caitlyn in Wonderland and designed two party rooms. One decorated all in playing cards, red, white and black streamers, and a huge 10 foot banner than we all painted for 5 hours one night for the game room. This is the room where we hosted all the games.

As you can tell, there I am in black with blond hair reading the instructions for the Amazing Race challenge game that all the teens loved. We divided them into two teams, team red and team black. We created 10 tasks for each team to complete. They were sealed in envelopes with clues to what task they might be faced with. We even had roadblocks and detours. Everyone on the team had to participate and they couldn't have the same person complete tasks until everyone else had gone.


The first task was that they were guess the flavored jelly belly's blind folded after you successfully found 2 green, 2 yellow, 2 white, 2 red and 2 speckled pink jelly beans with the help of one of your team mates. They got points for each correct color found and bonus points for the flavors. Not many got the flavors correct.

Then we had them designate two people from their team that had not participated in the jelly bean game and one was blind folded and the other stood at the top of the stairs and tossed filled balloons to the blind folded person below. I think we had more laughs from this one because the first team caught none and the other team caught 2.

Then we had them blind fold one of their team mates and scoop up cotton balls with a serving spoon and drop them into a bowl.



They actually did this one pretty good because we timed it. They got points for every cotton ball they received.

Then they had to paint white silk roses red with marker. We awarded the team who colored all their petals, points for each petal painted.



As you can tell, this one was almost completely red. I mean what would the queen say?


We also had them scrabble tiles over and spell "Caitlyn in Wonderland." Here my youngest, Kailee was even able to participate!






Then we also had them sort Roman Numeral Letters in order from the highest to the lowest. As you can see here. The only thing we would tell them is how many they had in the correct order, not which ones were correct.



There were more challenges and if you want you can email me and I can send you all 10 tasks and the clues we used if you want to do this for your party.



We completed her party with her cake, which we did at Costco because I didn't want to try and master a fondant Alice in Wonderland cake like the one pictured below. I know I could do it, but the costs to complete this would have been more than I wanted.


So I opted for a Costco cake with roses and we added the colored hearts to it. Caitlyn loved it and said it was her best birthday ever.



After the cake was finished the kids played Catch Phrase which they all loved. Great game that is passed around much like password. Definitely a teen game. Then because we had a 110 degree day, they all went outside at 8:30pm and played Hide and Seek until everyone had to go home.

Before our guest left, they all signed her banner with well wishes and comments. We also gave them a treat bag filled with "Eat Me" cookies and a tea bag wishing them all, " A Merry Unbirthday!" Thanks Samm for the bags and cookies.

One key detail I left out was when each of Cait's party guests arrived they had to pop a balloon with a task inside. For example, each time you hear the word "Caitlyn" you must yell, "Happy Birthday!" We had a grand total of 14 of these going on with phrases like "Off With Her Head!", "Long Live the Queen!", "Has Anyone Seen the White Rabbit?", "I'm Painting the Roses Red! and "It's My Unbirthday Too!"

When I asked Caitlyn what her favorite part was, she said either the Amazing Race Game or the Catch Phrase game. Go figure, teens love games!

17 comments:

RCUBEs said...

Great pics, full of fun! Happy Birthday to your daughter! You are a great mom...Usually, it's hard to think of things to make them busy and not be bored. But you aced it! God bless.

Kim @ Homesteader's Heart said...

Wow!! How fun!! And I never would have thought of that theme for a party! Great idea and Great job!
I may incorporate some of those party games. Too fun!
Hugs.
Kim

Anonymous said...

Such fun! You are way more creative than I am...I may have to write this down for when mine are older! :) Happy 16th Birthday Caitlyn!

Yolanda said...

And we love YOU

Warren Baldwin said...

She'll never forget this!! I'll show this to my wife for some ideas for a youth activity.

Heart2Heart said...

Rosel,

I have come to understand that teens want things to keep them busy, challenging and extremely competitive.

Kim,

You can always email me offline and I can send you the list if you want.

Yolanda and Migraine Mom:

Ah thanks for the personal compliments!

Warren:

We did this two years ago, with an amazing race challenge, but we could go outside then. With our heat warning, we had to keep all the teens indoors!

The detours were redoing a challenge of their choice they already completed, but could add extra points, and the roadblocks were stuffing 7 marshmallows into one players mouth to say "Chubby Bunny!"

No one managed to completed the roadblocks although one teen did manage to get them all in, he was only able to utter sounds!

Love and Hugs ~ Kat

Mari said...

What a fun party! I love all the games, especially the Amazing Race!

Andrea said...

WOW...Very creative!! Congratulations and Happy Birthday, Caitlyn!

Blessings and prayers, andrea

Amy said...

Oh, so creative and so cute. Thanks for sharing!
Amy

LisaShaw said...

WOW! I need you to plan my birthday Sweetie!

Looks like your precious daughter had a wonderful Birthday!

Awesome!

Love ya.

God a Have Faith said...

All in all it turned out very well! you and Ann Marie were so great with keeping the teens busy, I hoped I helped enough. I had fun watching everything take shape that day. I had alot of fun with you prepping and painting the poster Red! LOL.

Love you!

Loren said...

Kat,

How much fun, you did awesome!!! We had an amazing race as a family over spring break and it was sooooo much fun plus we ended up at a hotel (woohoo) but all of your decorations and games are awesome! What an awesome mom you are!!!
love to you and I am hoping to have some down time to start your book here very soon!!!

Laurie said...

Wow, what a beautiful tribute to your daughter. 16, wow! That looked like an amazing party. You are a fantastic mom. I appreciate your prayers for me. I have been struggling with whether I should keep on blogging. After praying, I don't sense really any answer, but I am going to keep on since I don't know. I feel overwhelmed with duty lately. I appreciate it! Love ya sis, Laurie

Crown of Beauty said...

What fun! Even if I wasn't there, I enjoyed reading what you wrote, and looking at the pictures.

It's something your daughter will remember for the rest of her life!

~*Michelle*~ said...

Oh WOW! what an amazing party!

I love how creative you were planning out everything from the decor to the games....your daughter is blessed to have you as her mom (as I am sure you are blessed to have her!)

Bravo!! Bravo!!!

Rebekah said...

Sounds like a fun party

christy rose said...

Oh wow! It looks like she had a great party! And yes teens love games!
She will remember this forever!