Conference moira::parenting

    Movies recommended by my 10-year-old girl :-) are:
    	Milo and Otis
    	Angels in the Outfield
    	Hocus-Pocus
    
    Games:
    	Musical Chairs
    	Charades
    	Old Clothes relay race: 2 teams, 2 sets of old clothes, each to
    		include a hat, a shirt that buttons, leggings (or pants),
    		and shoes that LACE UP.  First person races to their pile
    		of clothes, puts them on (doing up all buttons and laces), 
    		and races back to their team.  They take OFF all the old 
    		clothes (including undoing the laces on the shoes).  Second
    		person in line puts them on (right there), races to the 
    		place where the clothes originally were, takes them off and
    		leaves them there.  And so on, until everyone on one team
    		has done the change of clothes (that team wins).  The
    		winning team members pick from a grab bag of prizes.
    Prop improvisation - we haven't tried this but we've seen it on "Whose
    		Line is it Anyway" and we think it would work for a party.
    		Get a bunch of props with promise :-) like a tennis racket,
    		a shoehorn, a hair dryer, a big bowl... and give one prop
    		to each of two teams.  The teams take turns making up a
    		goofy new use for the prop (example: the hair dryer could
    		"be" a microphone).  Keep count of the number of uses, and
    		when you run out of props, the team with the most uses
    		wins.  (Alex predicts this game will be the most fun!)
    Higgledy-Piggledy - This is for lights-out, when they're in their
    		sleeping bags.  Whoever is "it" goes out of the room; the
    		remaining kids swap sleeping bags.  "It" comes in, picks a 
    		sleeping bag and says to its occupant, "Higgledy-Piggledy!"
    		The sleeping bag replies, "Oink oink!"  "It" tries to guess 
    		who the occupant is; if they guess correctly, the occupant
    		becomes "it" (and everyone swaps sleeping bags again); if 
    	 	the guess is not correct, "it" goes to another bag and
    		tries again.  (If you want to keep the lights on, the bag
    		occupants could just slide down far enough to cover their
    		heads.)
    
    Have fun!  And make sure the little angels don't have access to any
    videos you don't want them to see (at one party Alex went to, the
    birthday child had persuaded the mom to rent "Milk Money", and the kids
    stayed up watching it *three times*... I'm proud to say that Alex
    boycotted this and slept in another room).
    
    Leslie 

My daughter had a sleepover for her 8th birthday this year.  The girls
really enjoyed making their own sundaes and painting t-shirts.  I bought
a bunch of fluorescent colored fabric paints.   I provided each child
with paint clothes (or you could ask them to bring their own) and spread
an old vinyl tablecloth out on the kitchen floor for a work area.  The girls 
each painted their own designs on the t-shirt fronts.  On the back each girl 
wrote (painted) her name on each shirt so that they all ended up a shirt 
with everyone's name on it - sort of a party memento.  (We actually did the 
t-shirt backs the next morning so that the front could dry overnight).
Remember to put cardboard or a paper bag inside the shirt first so that 
the paint from one side doesn't leak seep onto the other.  

Robyn
    

    For my oldest daughters 8th birthday slumber party we made candy. I
    bought the molds (all different shapes - hearts, animals, flowers) from
    a craft store and they also had the white and dark chocolate in bags
    that you melt and pour in the molds.  They had fun decorating it with
    food coloring paints.  I think they sell them in kits as well.  I think
    the most fun was eating them.  
    
    The following year she went to a party where they made candles. The
    mother said she bought the kits also at a craft store. I still have
    the turtle candle that she made.
    
    I think I have more fun doing all these things than they do sometimes.
    
    Rose

    
    -.2
    
    Along the same lines... Instead of painting/decorating T Shirts, we
    painted Pillow Cases, and the girls autogtaphed one side, along
    with the date.  This was a nice remembrance of the sleep over, and
    sits in the closet with our linens for use each week.  Remember,
    though, this activity takes up a lot less time than you may have
    planned in your head.  After a half hour, the girls were done,
    and on to something else... 

    Instead of having party favor bags for each of the guests, we had a
    treasure hunt.  I blew up balloons and put clues inside the balloon. 
    The guest was handed their first clue, and then sent off to find the
    balloon.  When the balloon was found, it was broken to get the next
    clue.  This eventually led to their party favor bag.

    I made some mistakes, but all in all they seemed to enjoy it.  Some of
    the mistakes I made was not placing the balloons in the right order,
    having clues that led to someone else's balloon, and having clues that
    needed to be explained.

    I guess they weren't really clues so much as they were directions. 
    Things like "go to the TV in the den" would require that I step in and
    define which room we called the den.

    I'm debating on letting my daughter have a haloween party.  Some of
    these ideas are great (making pizza, shirts, etc..), but does anyone
    have any ideas on haloween specific activities?
    
    Has anyone ever made a haunted house?  How did you do it?
    
    She's 9 1/2, I'd probably have it from 4:00 - 9:00 on the Saturday
    night before haloween (so they could make a haloween decoration) and
    probably 4 or 5 friends.
    
    

    My son is postively obsessed with Halloween. Last year at age 6 we
    let him have a Halloween party on the Saturday before. He had 10
    friends (5 boys, 5 girls) from school. My husband created a haunted
    forest in the dining room using cardboard tubes for trees with actual
    branches hanging out with cobwebs hanging from the branches. And then
    we had the little lights hanging from the trees so there was a little
    glow. Also, he brought in leaves from the lawn for the floor. We gave
    each kid a little plastic glow light that you break in half. We told
    them a spooky story and had them walk thru the dining room and turn the
    corner where my friend was dressed as a very believable witch in a
    rocking chair.  They did bobbing for apples and eating donuts from a
    string. Whata mess.
    
    All the boys were dressed as power rangers and i found i had to put
    them on the back deck and closely supervise them so they wouldn't kill
    each other. Once they had those costumes are, these kids were in high
    gear. A little too much.
    
    Some real cute things that I made were ghosts out of white
    cheesecloth... dip the cheesecloth in liquid starch and drape it over
    a ball (a ball on a stick is best) or a baloon...it stiffens to form a 
    sheet-like ghost that you can hang so we had these hanging in the
    'forest'...
    
    Another thing we did ahead of time but you could do it at the party
    especially if is is before Halloween...is pumpkin carving. We had
    ours all done ahead so we had several unique faces as you came up the walk.
    We had taken class on how to make them with the transfer paper and the
    little pumpkin saws that you can carve out the eyes, mouth, etc.
    easily. If this is an activity you do at the party, I would scrape out
    the pumpkins ahead of time because that is the most work for kids.  
    
    
    So...I thought I fulfilled my obligation last year but he's already
    asking for another party....

    We had a halloween party last year for my daughter and her classmates
    (age 9).  This was a coed party.
    
    First we decorated the driveway with cardboard cutouts of tombstones
    with each kids name on it and a saying.  ex: Colby Brown, here lies the
    smartest boy in our class, may he rest in peace.  So when the parents
    drove in they got to see them (plus it was fun making) we stapled them
    to some wood and stuck them in the ground.
    
    Second my husband dressed up as a surgeon (outfit at buidling 19 for
    $1) he would answer the door with ketchup (blood) all over his outfit
    and butter knife saying Oh your just in time I just finished the last
    kid that showed up.  Got some great reactions out of the kids and
    parents!
    
    We had spooky music playing in the back ground.  As as each kid arrived
    the others that were there would hide and scare them coming in.
    
    Everything was in the basement.  We decoreated the wall, hung streamers
    and balloons and curtained (with sheet) off an area.  In this area we
    would blindfold one at a time and take them in there and have them put
    there hand into some buckets to see if they could figure out what was
    in there.  ex.  baby carrots (fingers/toes) jello/with olives
    (brains/eyes) cooked spaghetti floating in water (intestines) you get
    the idea.  Well being blindfolded and not knowing what to expect had
    the kids screaming and yelling gross everytime they had there hand in
    the bucket, which got the kids on the otherside of the curtain nervous
    and scared to go it!
    
    Lastly, kids this age are slobs!  No mater what you have for food it
    was everywhere even when we did activities outside.  
    
    The end of the party was watching the Adams Family tape and cooking
    popcorn.
    
    It was a fun evening!  Be creative you'll have a blast.
    
    Oh I was a cowboy and our 1 1/2 was a lion....
    
    Karen
    

    I love these ideas -- my almost 8 yr old has decided she wants an
    overnight this year -- but she also wants to have a regular party of 6
    or 7 with only 3 of the girls to sleep over...how can I manage that w/o 
    hurting feelings?  I've tried to explain to her that some of her friends 
    have never done overnights at friends' houses [she's one of the older ones
    in her class, and has been doing overnights since she was 3!]  She also
    doesn't want one her "best" friends to stay overnight -- this girl is a
    year older so I can sort of see why, but....
    
    Maybe the solution is to have a few overnight and the rest come for
    breakfast the next morning? That might be the solution!  Maybe my mind
    is starting to come back after vacation after all?!
    
    sandy
    
    

    Two other things that we did for haunted houses to add to .8's idea.

    Set up a free standing ladder (one that doesn't have to lean up against
    something) and hang something either gooey feeling or some type of
    spider webbing from it.  Have the children walk under the ladder and be
    sure that their face hits whatever is hanging there.  We got some
    plastic bats and dipped them in baby oil.
    
    Also, wherever you have the buckets for them to put their hands into,
    have one person under the table and every once in a while, they should
    grab the child's ankle.  Then explain that it's just your pet
    (whatever).
    
    Holly (who had LOADS of fun in Rainbow girls putting together a haunted
    house).
    
    

    Note 299 (entitled Halloween) has some replies concerning halloween
    parties - maybe the last few replies should be relocated there??
    
    Anyway, I just saw this in the latest Better Homes And Gardens
    magazine - looks kind of fun!
    
    
    What you'll need:  clear plastic or latex gloves, twist ties, scissors,
    		    	sugar-free flavored fruit drink mix, 
    			gummy worms (Optional)
    
    If the gloves have a powdery residue inside, turn them inside out and
    soak in warm water or wipe with soapy water and rinse.  Allow gloves to
    dry. Or, turn gloves inside out, leaving the powdery side to the
    outside.  Mix your favorite fruit drink (sugar-free liquid freezes
    better than liquids with sugar) and pour into the gloves.  Add enough
    drink to fill the gloves loosely but not so full that the fingers will
    not move.  Fasten the gloves tightly with a twist tie.  Place paper
    towels on a cookie sheet and lay the hands on the paper towels. 
    Freeze.  When hands are frozen solid, carefully cut off gloves with
    scissors.  Float hands in a bowl of punch for scary fun.  If you wish,
    you may add gummy worms to the juice before freezing.
    
    In the picture, they show red and green hands floating in a bowl of
    clear punch.  The red ones look like bloody hands!