Faith's birthday party

Faith's birthday was November 1st, but we planned a party with friends for November 13th. Faith decided that she wanted a hamster birthday party this year after going to her friend Brooklyn's and becoming obsessed with the cute little pets. I nearly went crazy trying to find hamster themed trinkets for the gift bags and finally decided to make my own after seeing a Sculpy clay hamster model on the internet. Faith was inviting eleven (!) girls to the party, so I had a tall order. Also, I'm no artist and I've never worked with Sculpy clay before. As I worked on them, the kids had to get in on the act and make their own. Faith let Christian paint some of her creations,

and she helped paint some of mine.

In the meantime, we had fun at the park one afternoon.

Faith created each envelope individually, but I thought this one was especially cute!

Here is the army of hamster sculpture pendants just before I sprayed a clear coat on them.

I thought they didn't turn out half bad! We put them on some sheer white ribbon and made them into necklaces.

Instead of a cake, Faith decided on cupcakes for the party. It just about killed Christian to wait until it was time to dig in. (Love the expression in this pic!)

I made toppers with the cartoon pictures of the Zhu Zhu Pet hamster toys from thier website.

Faith drew this great game all by herself!

And that is what we played first, "Pin the hamster on the wheel".

Next we raced to see who was the fastest climbing through the "hamster tubes".

And played "hamster toss" (except the hamster was really a Webkinz guinea pig).

Present time! Faith received absolutely wonderful gifts from all her friends.

Next, we did our craft. We made these cute pompom hamsters in plastic ornament "hamster balls". We even made removable Santa hats for them so they could double as Christmas tree ornaments!

I worked one of three hot glue stations to help put them together, but many of the girls assembled the craft theirselves. I heard some of them remark that they had never used a glue gun before, but nobody got burnt--not even me and I usually burn myself every time I use one! It was even Friday the 13th! I joked with my friends Ann & Natalie when they came to pick up their girls that had I known that we'd be so lucky I would have had them do a chainsaw craft instead of a hot glue craft. Ann teased back, "Or a toothpick craft!" but I told her that I wouldn't push my luck that far! (Just a few weeks before, my neice impaled her foot on a toothpick she had brought home as part of a gumdrop geometric craft from my preshcool. One week after that, one of Ann's children did the same from a toothpick we were eating Little Smokies with, minutes after sharing my neices grim tale. We all have toothpic phobia now!)

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They turned out absolutely darling, but I didn't get pictures of any because of being so busy helping glue, and then getting the next thing started. Some turned out like the internet photo above, but many had creative twists like white pompoms for cheeks, pompom ears, felt tails, etc. These girls were definitely creative and talented!

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Our final activity was making hamster treats with Twinkies, melted white & brown chocolate, coconut (in white, yellow & brown), chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, and pink Jelly Bellies. I sent the girls' awesome creations home with them in little cello bags.

This picture is blurry, but I had to document the rousing impromptu game of "chuck the stuffed animal" up and down from the balcony!

The gift bags were brightly colored paper sacks with the hamster necklace, a baggy of granola labeled "hamster food" and their Twinkie hamsters. Faith loved her party and several of her friends were kind enough to tell me that it was the best party they'd been to!