My daughter, Errin, called me a couple weeks ago and said she was planning a birthday party for, Brynn, her oldest daughter who is turning six. She told me it’s evidently “the thing now” to invite ALL the little girls in her kindergarten school class. With four additional friends, that’s 17 kids!!! What better way to teach kindness, and inclusion than to invite EVERYONE!!! I remember when I was little how sad I was when I wasn’t invited to birthday party’s girls in my class were having. It was hard hearing them talk about how excited they were to be going, and how left out I felt. Growing up, I was allowed to have one birthday party – the year I turned eight. I invited every girl in my school class. I don’t remember much about it other than, we played pin the tail on the donkey, and everyone felt happy to be included.

We hear so much today about mean-girls, self-esteem issues, alarming suicide numbers in our schools, racism and a host of many other things. Where does it all start? What can we do to make it better? I believe these are issues that can be taught early, and best from example. And yes, it’s ok to discipline our children when they make poor choices, especially when those choices are hurtful to others. We can teach our children from a very young age to make the choice to be “light givers” or “light suckers”. It takes effort either way, why not choose the things that bring others LIGHT?

Back to the party at hand. A few nights ago before Brynn went to bed, Errin asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday. Brynn said she’d think about it and let her know. Errin was always full of spit and vinegar growing up – actually she still is!!! She is the life of the party, and you always know when she enters a room! The nut didn’t fall far from the tree when Errin gave birth to this little miracle IVF kid!!! Brynn is the tiniest kid in her class, just like her mother was. She is six going on twenty four and is a mini-me of Errin – filled with more spunk and energy than kids twice her age and size!!!! The next morning Brynn came running down the stairs and said, “Mom!!! I figured out what I want to do for my birthday!!! I want to go to Hawaii with you, dad and Mason (her little brother)!!!!” Errin laughed and told her THAT would be SO much fun, but not possible at the moment.

This is where the idea of a Hawaiian themed party was born! Errin has other games planned as well as party favors, and so I grabbed some small white paper bags at Hobby Lobby with handles, and we incorporated Brynn’s Hawaii theme to the bags.

Errin asked if I would come and help her with some games for the party. We have a fun game called “Don’t Eat Pete”. I got this idea from my friend years ago. The kids had such a fun time playing it, I came home and made my own game.

You can make your own, all you need is a piece of poster board, a baggie for each child with their name on it, and some individually wrapped candies. We used to use a bag of Skittles for the candy, but with germs, we don’t do that anymore.

To make the game board, write the words “Don’t Eat Pete!” at the top of the poster board. Then divide the space below that into nine squares. Write numbers in each square starting with 1 and ending with 9. Because I wanted my game to last a long time, I did my usual over-the-top spin and cut out cute letters, numbers, crowns, pirate ships, and teapots on my Silhouette Cameo for my games. Once I got everything glued on, and an instruction sheet glued on the back side, I took it to the copy store and had it laminated. It’s ok to just make it simple too, just draw it all with a Sharpie marker. I actually have two of them now. One has a pirate/princess theme, and the other is a tea party theme. We play it every year at “Grandma Camp”, and even my 13-year-old loves to play it!!! It’s a game that’s never let me down! The directions for play are listed below.

Don’t Eat Pete!

· Sit on the floor in a circle with the game board in the middle.

· Put a piece of candy on each square.

· The oldest player in the circle leaves the room; this is where the circle begins.

· The player to the right of the oldest person picks the secret square. This becomes “Pete”.

· When the player comes back, they start picking up the candy one by one.

· When “Pete” is in their hand, then everyone says “Don’t Eat Pete!”

· This player’s turn is now over. They get to keep the candy they got, including “Pete”.

· As each person’s turn is over, the player to their left leaves the room, and the player that just finished their turn chooses the new secret square, or “Pete”.

· Continue playing until everyone has a turn.

With 17 girls invited to the birthday party, I will be bringing both of my game boards and enough candy to run two games at the same time. You’ll need an adult or an older child to help with each game.

Errin specifically asked me to bring “Don’t Eat Pete”. When I asked her for the names of the girls that were invited so that I could make personalized baggies, she asked if Brynn could come and help me make the bags. I LOVE crafting with my littles, and so the answer was a definite YES!!! I picked her up from school last Friday, we took a detour to “Wendy’s” on the way back to my house for cheeseburgers and Frosties, and then started our party bag project.

I had everything all cut out and ready to go, all Brynn had to do was glue things to the white handled bags, cut the ribbon streamers (it’s not a party without ribbon right?!!!), thread pearl beads onto string, and hand them to me in the correct order to tie onto the bags.

She learned how to measure and cut ribbon at an angle so it doesn’t fray with real fabric scissors for the first time, and she did a GREAT job!!!

I taped a ruler onto her little craft table, and sat with her as she used the sharp scissors. She learned how to cut baker’s twine, and tie each end with an overhand knot to keep it from raveling.

She counted out exactly how many we would need as she cut them. Then she arranged them into sets, and handed them to me to tie on each bag.

I had pre-cut and “curled” paper Plumeria flowers using my paper flower making tools made by “McGill” I bought a few years ago on Amazon.

These were ready for a pearl bead to be attached with string through a hole in the center of each flower.

Brynn threaded the pearl beads, folded the ends of the strings together, and threaded them through the hole in each flower. I tied the flowers onto the bags below each sprig of ribbons.

She also taped all the names to the baggies for the “Don’t Eat Pete” game all by herself!

I loved listening to her describe each girl as she assembled the individual party bags. I discovered Brynn has many BFF’s, one little girl “who is a little chubby, but in a REALLY cute way!”, and the little girl “who is bossy and thinks she’s the mom – she EVEN bosses the boys around!” She is learning to navigate her way in the world. She may be small, but I don’t see her being pushed around much! 

The girls will also be making their own puka shell bracelets at the party. I remember the puka shell craze when I was in Jr. High! I love how these things are coming back again!!!

We’ll just have the girls thread them onto clear “Beadalon beading elastic”, tie a square knot, and dab it with crystal glue. It dries quickly, and the girls will be able to wear them home.

Inviting more kids makes the logistics of an indoor winter-time party trickier to plan, but teaching the importance of including EVERYONE is so worth the extra effort!!! It’s more important now than ever to teach kindness, inclusion, embracing differences, and sharing LIGHT with everyone . . . even those we might not get along with as well as our besties. This is LIFE!!! As kids grow into teens and adults, we need to arm them with the skills necessary to deal with all different types of people. And some of those people aren’t necessarily easy to get along with! They also need to play games where sometimes you win and sometimes you lose – and that’s OK!!!! Helping our kids to learn how to help, especially for things that benefit them, is also important. Entitlement is a problem these days. Kids expect others to give them instant gratification with every whim and wish. Life isn’t going to be all fun and games, and it certainly isn’t always fair. If we teach these important principles when they are young, they will grow into adults who contribute positively in society.

I can’t wait to help at the party, and watch Brynn as she includes even “the girl who is bossy and thinks she’s the mom telling people what they need to do.” This little girl might not be Brynn’s BFF, but she will be included, and Brynn is learning necessary skills as she shares her own LIGHT!!!! We never know what others deal with on a daily basis, but we can ALWAYS be KIND and share our LIGHT!!!

Love Ya, Les :)