Alannahs 7th Birthday Party

So I was a little nervous about this birthday party.  Don't get me wrong 7 year olds are lovely and extremely easy to entertain, but when those 7 year olds are Swiss and don't speak English and my Swiss German is terrible, entertaining 10 of them for 3hrs is a tad scary!  I decided I need props or a craft, something that would keep the kids entertained but not require an awful lot of communication or explanation.  I remembered a great birthday post from LiEr (Ikat bag) about an archery themed party and thought that would be great especially as Alannah is currently and has been for sometime obsessed with the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe book and the movie Brave.  Both of which feature strong girls with a passion for archery.  

PREPARATION

So with only 4 days (due to me being sick and very unmotivated) before the party we set to work making bows, arrows and quivers. When we started planning we had 15 kids coming to the party.  Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of our 15 bows, 36 arrows and 15 quivers.  But this is what we have left.

The bows were made almost exactly to the tutorial, using at close as we could find materials, conveniently our pipe came in 2m lengths so only one cut, and the chord was nice and silky but a large gauge so we only used one length not doubled.

The arrows were also made exactly to the tutorial, well at least half were.  But Scott insisted that with the paper towel they were not weatherproof enough so improved the design by using closed cell foam and contact adhesive to fill the insulation tube and fix it to the stick.

The quivers were a little patched together as I had trouble sourcing the bits I needed.  Ten had adjustable buckles the other 5 were fixed length straps.  The straps were of all varying widths as to fit the buckles and webbing I could find, but the all did the job.  I also had trouble finding vinyl, so had no choice but to go with hot pink, orange and black. The hot pink and orange all had black straps and the black quivers had blue green and hot pink straps.  I also attached the side strap in the seam rather than on the outside of the bag, this seemed to have no effect on the functionality of the bag but made them a little quicker to sew.

THE PARTY

Excited by the fact the kids finally understand and enjoy party games, we started the party with the chocolate game, a favourite from when I was a kid.   Large chocolate block, costume, knife,  fork and dice.  The kids sit around the chocolate block and roll the dice in turn.  When a 6 is rolled the child dresses up and cuts one piece of chocolate off the block with the knife and eats it with the fork.

Then we moved outside to the hands free doughnut eating race.  Doughnuts were hung from the clothesline the kids all lined up and and had to eat a doughnut as fast as possible without using their hands.

Next off to find their bows, arrows and quivers.  As hoped the kids were delighted and very excited that they got to keep them and take them home.  Some of the boys asked several times if they REALLY got to take the bow and arrows home.

Even though we were lucky enough to have the nicest day for weeks, it was still only 3 deg C so back inside we went to personalise their bows, arrows and quivers. Not knowing where to find fun things like washi tape and only deciding this theme 4 days before, they used electrical tapes (which come in great colours) and permanent markers.

After a very simple afternoon tea of potato chips, fruit kebabs, jelly and fairy bread it was off outside to try out the bows and play in the back garden.

Then the archery games began.

We finished the party with an "Aslan" birthday cake (decoration guide from an old Australian Womans Weekly Birthday Cake Cookbook) and opening the presents, as it was really a bit chilly to be out for to long.

Scott took the afternoon off work to help with the party (he can speak German and some Swiss) all the kids had a great time, and it wasn't so scary after all!