Sock Hop Party Part 2

Part 2 of the Sock Hop coverage is all about the fun stuff! As I said in yesterday's post that covered all the food and decorations, this one is going to feature all the stuff we did. Be warned, there are a lot of pictures as this is documenting for my brain (and the grandparents and other extended family) more than anything!

I always like to have something to do while waiting for the other kids to arrive. I made a version of Don't Eat Pete in 1950's cartoon characters (not that the kids knew who they were, but for the sake of a theme...). Let the record show that Don't Eat Pete is lost of 3 year olds! I wasn't sure if they would understand it or not. Sometimes kids totally surprise you. Epic fail. They had fun eating the smarties instead.

Kate had her own version of the limbo

Of course you can't have a sock hop without dancing. This is Mady's favourite thing to do. I knew they would entertain themselves just with dancing, but I didn't want them to be too bored either. I started out with the limbo. I thought it would be a good starter. Uh, no. Again, 3 year olds don't get it. I didn't really expect them to, I just thought it would be funny. Maybe it was because I started with it, or maybe it was because they're 3 (and technically 2.5), but it didn't really work. Good thing they're forgiving!

But there's one activity that I knew would rescue us... BOWLING! The kids loved it. We let them play for a while....

I think we (uh, I mean Jeff) set up those pins about 20 times.

Then we ate some food and had floats. Is there anything better than Root beer and Cream Soda Floats? I love them!

Next we played pin the tail on the poodle. After a failed first attempt where we learned that the blindfold could be seen through, we doubled it up and tried again.

Someone still got it perfect. Hmmm... Good job Claire!

Everyone played except the birthday girl. She would have none of it. I even tried to demonstrate as a way to convince her. Nope.

(after everyone left, I managed to get her blindfolded and spun, but then once I instructed her on the "pinning" part she proclaimed that she "couldn't see!" So we took off the blindfold and she just placed her tail. Which, judging by the placement, tells me she didn't understand the game!

From left to right: the one I placed, Makenna, Madelyn and Claire. I made tags for the babies, but didn't really expect them to play.

We lined up the girls in front of the juke box. I had originally planned on getting each family in this style and then forgot until everyone left. So we just have the oldest girls representing each family. Claire was determined not to smile. Ha!

This picture totally looks like Mady and Makenna are sharing a secret and Claire feels left out. Aw!

And, except for Claire not smiling (which I'm convinced is only because I asked...) Is this not so cute?

(In case you're wondering, that's a 3 and a dog bone applique that I pinned to Mady's shirt (so I can reuse the bone on a bigger shirt since i know that will be grown out of before the skirt. The three was just for her birthday, but they got a little wonky in this picture)

Finally it was time for the real dance party. I taught the girls the hand jive:

We started at half speed and they kept up pretty good

Full speed was a little too much for one of our contestants!

(The Hand Jive is Mady's new favourite thing to do. I catch her sitting doing it all the time now. Hehe!)

And then we let them loose to DANCE!

Though it clearly looks like Mark is busting out the moves in this picture, I guarantee you that is not what was happening. He was simply standing up. And look! So is Kate! And then she fell over.

Cake was next. Happy Birthday to You...

She blew out one candle at a time. Ha!

Afterwards we went back for more dancing and the balloon release. Let's talk about this for a minute.

This is how I envisioned it:
Music playing, kids dancing and the balloons released, cascading on their heads, little girls giggling with glee.

This is more how it played out:
Music playing. Mady unsure what I was about to do when I said I was going to open up the balloon drop (I think she thought the whole thing would fall on her head) so she followed me up out of the living room to the kitchen where the pull cord was anchored. This caused Makenna to follow. Leaving Claire alone in the living room. The pull cord was not exactly easy-release, but the balloons did fall. And once they did THEN they were fun to go play in!

Here it is on video (which looks funny while I'm editing this post and it won't let me watch, let me know if it shows it okay):

Last we opened presents.

Reading the card that has her picture on the front. Photoshopped from pictures off my blog so she's actually in her poodle skirt and bow. Very clever, Katie!

A slinky!

A Princess Sticker book. She's in love!

Thank you hugs

And since one of the presents included that slinky, we had to all figure it out. Such fun!

A spring, a spring, a marvellous thing!

Don't worry Kate, your party is next!