When I was a freshman in high school, Norman citizens came together and helped build Kidspace, a large castle play structure at Reaves Park. Fast forward 24 years, and that wooden castle played host for Mo’s 6th princess birthday party! Well, we actually set up camp at the pavilion near the castle, but the kids spent most of the party jousting, jumping moats and chasing each other around the castle.
This particular Satuday in April was also the spring scrimmage game, so the park itself was lively, as it’s located on campus. In addition, it was also extremely windy which meant most of our decorations were a tangled mess or were too delicate to stand up to the Oklahoma wind sweeping down the plains.
All that said, this little princess was thrilled to pieces with all of her friends and family, a stack of pizzas, cute cupcakes and a fun playground.
When it comes to party favors, I pride myself on not giving out the bag of teeny toys that end up embedded in between the car seats or found in the hallway at home literally under foot. I usually try to pick one larger favor or a few small but usable items and bonus if it goes with the theme. Now this time I didn’t follow the princess theme as Mo’ invited several students from my class to her party, and I didn’t think my fourths would be super into princess sparkles and tiaras.
Instead, we offered a build your own swag bag station. Each guest received a drawstring backpack and could pick and choose favors including bubble wands, packs of sidewalk chalk and sunglasses. The bags also served double duty, as Mo’ picked out a piñata that we filled with candy and jars of slime (sorry for that one, parents).
Because the wind and the crowds were starting to take a bit of a toll, we opted to take the gifts (and the cousins) home. They had a great time opening the gifts and playing with almost everything immediately. 😉
