Abby's 7th Birthday Party {Craft Station Party}

We went down to Columbia about a month ago for our niece Abby's Craft Station 7th Birthday Party. She just loves crafting, a girl after my own heart! There were about 14 kids that attended mostly from her class and two of which were boys (guess they were two special boys to be invited to a mostly all girls party)

This is Abby and I while I was setting up my craft station... more on that in a minute.

I remembered to bring the birthday banner I made for Abby's 5th birthday and it made a perfect background for the cake.

While everyone was arriving, the kids played with solo cups. I'm thinking we could have had them do this for pretty much the entire time and it might have kept their attention.

I like Keith's photo-bombing that didn't even phase Abby.

Eric's mom then split up the kids into 3 groups. They were to spend about 20 minutes rotating through the 3 stations.

I led a bracelet station but since boys don't really like to wear a bracelet, another option was to make a pom pom shooter. I'll probably do an individual post on how to make a pom pom or marshmallow shooter. The pom pom shooter actually ended up being a big hit and most girls wanted to make both crafts at my station so I'd say it is a perfect kid craft for ages 5-10. The kids played with them a lot of the rest of the time at the party.

Megan led a face painting station, which is pretty self explanatory. I was hoping someone would want their entire face painted like some animal but that didn't happen.

Eric's mom led the origami station where the kids made two things and I believe a few paper airplanes were also made.

I'll be honest, a lot of the time it was pretty chaotic. Eric took all of the photos during crafting time as I had my hands really full. I didn't anticipate how many people would need help at once, or want to try to squeeze in two crafts in 20 minutes or that the kids would try to "play" with the materials or run around the room prior to focusing on the craft. Should have thought about that! I thought they would be able to put their own balloons on the pom pom shooter and tie a knot for the bracelet but I needed to do those things. If I were to relive that day (not saying I'm prepared to do that yet haha), I would have just done the pom pom shooters and not the bracelets to keep it easier.

Also just keeping it real here but some of these girls were not nice (not naming any names). Like seriously future Mean Girls. When did age 7 turn into age 13? Did I miss something? Megan and I swapped experiences after and don't remember kids being like that at that age. Don't get me wrong, most of the kids were really sweet (just a) a little overly excited but I guess the few rude ones seemed to overpower the nice ones. I hope Abby doesn't get influenced by any of the ones that need an attitude adjustment. I hope their 1st grade teacher is truly enjoying each and every day of her summer vacation.

Anyway... after the crafting, the kids had pizza and cake and ice-cream.

Abby's "purse" cake from Publix that she picked out was super cute and girly. Publix DOES make delicious cake. And other baked goods. And subs. Love me some Publix. I digress.

The blowing out of candles happened almost without announcement so I rushed over to snap this.

You might think before I took this photo below I said okay kids go crazy. But I didn't. Kodak moment.

Then she opened her gifts. Apparently the game was trying to sit as close to Abby and the gift being opened as possible. I only wish I had taken some videos. Abby got a lot of great gifts. One was called a boogie board. As far as I knew a boogie board is that foam board thing you use at the beach and try to paddle with and stand on (kinda like a surf board) right? But this was some sort of tablet thing with the exact same name and spelling. Whoever made the foam boogie board never thought to trademark the name I guess. These kids are going to be so confused when someone says "go get your boogie board".

The kids played outside with chalk while the parents arrived to pick up their children

Afterwards, we all breathed a sigh of relief (just kidding but seriously) and had a family lunch. We played with Abby and her new gifts for awhile, Megan and I had an entertaining "adventure" changing out Abby's newly pierced ears (you would have thought we were cutting her), and Eric and I went back to Keith and Megan's to get ready for a delicious Italian dinner.

I just cannot believe how grown up Abby is getting. Who knows what her 8th birthday will bring! Whatever it is we may need to have some adult beverages before hand :)