Birthday parties

I just ordered the party supplies for Olivia's and Sarah's birthday party. It is a few months early. This may seem really weird to many people, but I am really excited about what we have planned for our girls' birthday party this year.

How many moms and dads honestly look at their kid's playrooms, or toy closets and say, "Wow, my little angel(s) could use a few more toys, so let's throw a birthday party"? Not me. So what do you do about birthday parties where kids feel it necessary to bring gifts, you know ten or more new toys to add to the mess lying around the house!

My solution this year is to make the party fun, yet about something more important. I am planning an OCC shoebox packing birthday party (joint because both girls' birthdays are so close together). I have really cool ideas about making it fun. Samaritan's Purse provides a whole party pack for just such packing parties (I linked to the order form in case this inspires anyone else to do the same thing). They include stickers, bookmarks, coloring sheets for the kids to color and fill out a short note to put in their boxes... Soooo, instead of the kids bringing gifts for the birthday girls they will bring shoe box items for a child specified on their invitation. We will have a wrapping station where the boxes will get decorated by the kids, a packing station, a letter writing station where they can do their coloring sheets and write their letters, a photo booth where the kids can have their picture taken to put in the box, and a video station where they can see the video of kids receiving boxes. We will wrap the evening up with prayer over the boxes and some fun and games-- a pinata maybe with additional items they can collect to put in their boxes, a scavenger hunt where they can hunt for items to put in their boxes, other prize winning games where the prizes are added to the kids box.

Wouldn't it be awesome if the kids got letters back from the child they gave the box to!!

Now for anyone worried about the girls not getting birthday present-- DON"T! I can guarantee family members will not let them go without... like it would hurt, but I know Nanny and Poppy, and Grandma and all the aunts and uncles will make sure the girls are spoiled rotten on their big days, but I really want their parties to be fun and meaningful. Not a waste, or a big gorge fest of candy and prizes. I know my girls come home sick from eating so much candy from pinatas at parties. I think they will have fun.

Now to be thinking of a really cool cake for this party-- maybe a shoebox with the lid sitting off the side and it filled with small toys and such!!! Hmmmm....

A word about Operation Christmas Child-- it is not only done at Christmas. This is a year round mission. The gifts are not given out only at Christmas. They are given out all the time. Christmas is just the time of year most people tend to start feeling generous, so it is a very big collecting time for them. Here is the link to several videos. If you want to know more about Franklin Graham and his ministry that has touched the souls of so many children all around the world, check out the website! Please check it out and consider a packing party of your own!

I am going to make very unique and informative invitations, and if anyone decides to throw a packing party, I will get you copies of the invites.